Erika walked with Klyker in one of the parks set up on the Concordia. Large pillars were erected around the park to hold up the rest of the building above them. Weak gravity fields kept in the oxygen density as well as preventing wind shear while heaters kept the park warm. Above them, a similar recreation of the night sky was done with the entire ceiling several hundred feet above. It was perfectly molded to the normal sky over Ghenus.

Around them were various forms of exotic vegetation. Some were suspended in hovering boxes or pots, while others were planted near a river that ran through the center of the park. They walked on a concrete trail which ran through the entire area.

The dinner had gone on delightfully, although Samir chose to retire a few hours into the meal. Erika and Klyker had stayed up longer, deciding to go over checklists before going to bed themselves.

“Did you know the Captain is religious?” Erika scrolled over a series of equipment inspections signed off by the chief engineer. The hologram illuminated her face in a soft orange light. “Converted to the Catholic-Orthodox faith shortly after the fall of the Danubik Houses.”

“You disagree with religion?” Klyker looked up from his own skimming.

“It’s an interesting topic in my field. I have great respect for what religion has done for mankind up until now.”

“But you don’t think it’s valuable anymore?”

“None of them illuminate a way forward. All I can say is that I hope his beliefs don’t interfere with his duties.”

They stopped on a wooden bridge crossing a small brook of water. The bubbling current chortled softly under them as artificial insect noises rang from the trees. Klyker rested on the wooden railing and flicked away his screen.

Erika glanced up towards him, and seeing he shifted his attention, flicked away from hers. “What is it?”

“That comment could be regarded as derogatory by some.”

She blinked. “I merely stated a fact.”

Klyker nodded his head in assent. “True, but I’m not one for the benefit of the doubt. You see, I don’t have an issue with Singh. He’s an honorable man. But you… you’re standing in my spot.”

Erika tilted her head, eyeing Klyker, surprised by the sudden switch of tone. More ambition than I realized. Tannis really wants me on a short leash. She mildly thought as Klyker confronted her.

“I’ll step down for Singh gladly. But to be put in third by a scientist? An economist who has only done three tours, not one of them seeing any battle? You’ll be giving commands on the bridge. Someone who has no practical experience—and don’t lie to me. I don’t care what it says on your bio, you’re greener than a recruit. How does that make any sense?”

Her face turned to stone at the accusation. She settled her gaze on Klyker, who waited with an inquisitive expression. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to know why the Free Exchange decided to put you so high in the chain of command.”

“Someone needs to evaluate the Andromedans and advise the Captain. It seems the Free Exchange thinks a scientist would be best apt for the position.”

“True, but we both know scientists don’t need to give orders.”

Erika looked away frustrated before resettling her gaze on Klyker again. “Why do you think I’m here? If you’re so unwilling to listen to the truth?”

“I think there’s more to you than meets the eye. I think you are important to someone very high up.”

Well, he’s certainly right about that. Erika thought. Maybe Klyker was far more devious of an opponent than she realized. It didn’t matter. It just presented more problems for her to deal with. Which is most likely as Tannis intended. She thought sourly.

“And if you’re right?” Erika changed tactics. “If the Free Exchange put me here, that means someone high up thinks I should be First Officer. And you should consider what happens if you cross that person. I’m staying in my position regardless of your feelings.”

Klyker laughed. “We can go that way. I’m sure it would be quite a spectacle. But that would delay the launch. Precious time slipping away as that beacon blinks away. No need to worry. I’ll step aside, but I want the truth from you. Why are you here? Don’t tell me you’re an economist.”

Erika took a moment to think out her answer. Klyker was just smart enough to catch an outright lie. She decided then on a partial truth. Tannis wouldn’t mind spilling some of the secret. It was not as if some in the Free Exchange entertained their own ideas of the truth. All of it could and would be contained.

“Do you remember what I talked about earlier?” Erika asked. “About the divide?”

Klyker nodded.

“I’m the person to make sure we cross it safely.” She couldn’t help but feel a certain sadness. “My science doesn’t have a name. It’s classified by the Exchange. We’re dangerous because we can upset the course of history.”

She looked up at the starry sky. It was replicated and formulated by the holographic technology, but it appeared no less real to her. Klyker followed her gaze, seeing the stars flickering alive.

“The Neurospont Republic, it’s a civilization based upon what would be called liberalist principles. Five branches of government, determined by an electoral vote. The Directorate currently holds the most power.”

“So?”

“Ghenus will fall within five hundred years. The government will consolidate into an oligarchy of corrupt elites siphoning off corporate interests. Eventually, the incentives will be off balance. The elites will become too arrogant in their power and be subsumed by surrounding powers. It will be slow at first, but then territory will begin to be chipped away. A good thing too, if it continued to expand, it might pose a threat to the Exchange by becoming its own hegemony.”

Klyker gave her a suspicious look. “And you know this how?”

“At the end of Earth, humanity had discovered how to reduce politics to an exact science. Believe me, all of it has been calculated—a civilization’s technological progress, its culture and history, even its foundational ideology all impact the equations. Every society recognized under the Exchange has been foreseen and measured. It’s all been controlled from the beginning. Even the wars over trans-humanism were merely an apt lesson to keep the rest in line.”

“No one could ever possibly calculate that,” Klyker snorted, though she could tell her words had an impact.

“Do you really think so?” Erika squinted at him. “We can control the laws of gravity. Do you really think it would be so much harder to control the human mind? It’s all a matter of incentives. People will take the option that most benefits them. It was the sciences’ task to figure out how to make it happen. The human mind will do the rest of the calculation. A clean-cut process, if you think about it.”

For the first time, Erika saw Klyker look uncomfortable. He shifted away from her. “If this is all so classified. Why are you telling me this?”

Erika continued. “Because these are unusual circumstances, and we can’t afford delay. Because, for the first time in history, we will now have to deal with a truly alien threat. I’ve been given authority to report back the truth of the Andromedans. Take a measure of their society and see if we can adapt our own.”

Klyker paused for a moment, rubbing in his chin. He cast his eyes down in thought, trying to process this new information.

“You’re taking it much better than most people do.” She noted carefully as the man was silent.

“It doesn’t change much.” Klyker smiled a little. “It doesn’t matter whether the Free Exchange controls the galaxy. What matters is where I stand at the end of it.”

Inordinately ambitious. Far more than previously expected. She couldn’t help but be impressed by it. “Make no mistake, I am the most important person on this ship. The one who will be truly calling the shots, not the figurehead. It’ll be up to you to decide whose side you are on.”

“Only the proper chain of command.” Klyker responded, his mocking tone returned as if it had never left.

And a touch of pride. Erika suppressed rolling her eyes. He clearly carried more than his fair share of resentment for her. Enough to override the rational choice of just falling in line. It was almost like Tannis had designed him to be utterly infuriating for her.

“So you will,” Erika conceded, “but what will you do with this information? Tell Captain Singh, I suppose?”

Klyker waved his hand nonchalantly. “It depends on how much the Exchange is willing to benefit a man like myself.”

“Greatly. Should this mission go well.”

“Then I hope it goes splendidly,” Klyker put his hands in pockets and began to walk away, clearly getting the information he wanted.

He would probably use what he knew as leverage against her later on. It didn’t matter. Tannis may have presented her with a puzzle, but not one that she couldn’t solve. It would be a delicate balance, sure, but one she could overcome with time.

The man paused for a moment before turning back. She could see his shoulders slump a little. “Do you really think the Andromedans have the answer? To move the Free Exchange to the next step? To your utopia?”

The question took her off guard with its sincerity. The man honestly wanted to know. That was a rare touch of humanity in her line of work. Something genuine which reached out to her, and she found herself wanting to answer sincerely as well.

“They better,” she spoke, this time out of a sense of deep remorse. “The Free Exchange hasn’t found an answer to that question in the past five thousand years. If not the Andromedans, then no one will.”

Erika reclined in her own hotel room. After the walk with Klyker, she chose to unwind for the rest of the night. A hot shower and another cup of coffee brought her spirits up. Now she was sitting in the living room looking over the city from her holographic wall. It was a horizon of grey spires and bright lights shining on as far as the eye could see. The lower levels contained a maze of walkways and passages interconnecting the vast architecture. It was truly a shame the planet Ghenus would see orbital bombardment so soon. It was a beautiful city.

She sighed and took another sip from her coffee mug. “Computer, please bring up my charts.”

A previously glass window blurred and turned white. The clean surface filled with equations and the profile pictures of the crew. The graph soon took on a three-dimensional shape as the final data loaded in. It looked as though a rough inverted pyramid with bulges on two of its sides.

She had given Samir and Klyker only a taste of matrioshka theory. Yes, it was true that it was a model for mapping out the progression of civilizations. By factoring in political systems, technological advancement, and a myriad of other factors, one could reliably plot out the future of a society. It wasn’t predicting the future; it was seeing how the relationships between the nodes of being acted interconnected with one another.

A monarchy tended to centralize more power until it became an empire. At which point, too much management was placed upon fewer and fewer people until they couldn’t keep up. A sufficiently advanced AI could mitigate this issue by processing this information into its most relevant factors and extending the lifespan of the society by an order of magnitude. Politics and technology interacting and changing each other.

That was the brilliance of the Free Exchange. It was a closed system of interconnected nodes. All of them acting between and on each other. When looked at, the apparent disorder of a thousand different variables became a harmony of stabilized order. No society could reach a political hegemony and break away from the Exchange. Too many other factions would band together and eliminate it. No culture could reach a technological break from the system, they were kept in vicious cycles of decline and war to never allow sufficient advancement. No nation could escape the system; the galaxy was the gate and walls keeping everything locked in.

Perfect. Until that beacon had been set off. Now a new variable had entered the galaxy. Something unforeseen and uncalculated. The only possible outcome was chaos, and there was no telling what would happen. She could only imagine the desperation and fear that provoked the Free Exchange to turn to her for help.

Fear. Erika thought. That’s what binds a culture to stagnation. Even now, the Free Exchange could only take baby steps towards a better future. They had locked the galaxy in a prison designed to keep humanity captive. A galaxy where nothing really changed and nothing ever moved forward. Fear. That was now her liberation. To others who saw only destruction, she saw opportunity. Erika reveled in the uncertainty after a lifetime of imprisonment. Let the galaxy fall where it may. It’s finally time to move forward.

She turned towards the chart. Matrioshka theory had another element. In order to map a vision of the macrocosm, one must be able to map the micro. To look at a society, one must be able to first understand a group. Erika held out her hand, and the chart widened before her.

The graph depicted the structure of the crew. The incentives of the closed system balanced against personality, intellect, and order of status. Whereas in larger models, these details could be taken in aggregate, the design of the crew had to be far more intricate. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to predict the future. Random chance always threw things into disorder; the models could never be completely accurate.

But given the proper variables, she had a fair chance of telling who would hold power. Who would be running the crew—and by her own words—who would be the figurehead. What decisions would be most likely made, and what weren’t even considered.

The inverted pyramid shrunk down and spun in her hand. The design was almost beautiful with its intricacy. A web of patterns designed perfectly to carry out this unprecedented expedition. The Free Exchange had truly mastered its craft. But the last variable still needed to be inputted. The last fragment of information needed to be accounted.

Her eyes became alight with the possibilities. The future was unknown to even the Exchange. Now they would all delve into a universe where absolutely anything could happen. Erika could barely contain her own excitement.

Andromeda. Just wait for me a little while longer.