Dr. Emilio is abroad the Seed, a city ship en route to Proxima b. The city ship is drenched in darkness. The Dr. misses his son Tomas, who remains on earth. Angie, an engineer abroad the Seed is also stricken with guilt about the tragedy of her child and husband. Dr. Emilio, a psychiatrist, has been woken up by the robot intelligence LEE3 to counsel Angie.

This city ship is made out of alien technology. Humanity's fate has shifted since the discovery of an alien "Library" hidden in the ripples of a gravity wave, an entire database transmitted through microscopic rips in the fabric of spacetime.

Ancient alien cataloguers had added everything to this library, entries spanning science, history, mythology and belief systems. Although it is hard to categorically distinguish between these entires for human technicians, the knowledge of the library had been of great use on earth.

Aboard the Seed, the engineer Angie is haunted an ominous shadow, a monster with her own face. Upon further investigation, Dr. Emilio discover that there is an entire mythology around these apparitions, how they feed on human guilt.

After Angie dies on ship, Dr. Emilio himself has a terrible encounter with the shadows in the dark woods aboard the Seed. He realizes that shadows will only grow stronger the more he tries to run from his feeling of guiltiness. When he stops to confront the apparition, the shadow grows smaller and he survives.

The city ship makes a stop near Pluto, where new passengers come on board. A library technician relays the news that the apparitions are pulled over from alternate universes. They find sustenance in the guilt of the prey.

The Dr. decides to disembark here, and to catch a trip from Pluto to Earth to see his son. As he leaves, he realizes that the sleepers are twitching in their REMpods and that this menace will continue to haunt the ship and might compromise the entire journey. Unfortunately Dr. Emilio has made his choice. He disembarks, realizing that he'll have to live with this added guilt of letting the compromised ship continue on its journey.