Erika stood in an empty hall. Five empty chairs on a raised platform stared back at her—back at her equations. She glanced back and stared wistfully at her model, a holographic composite of her research. It was a hypothetical image of what should have been her first experiment. Humanity’s first step forward out of the Exchange. Instead, it became evidence for her prison sentence.

Footsteps echoed across the tile floor. A man approached with golden blond hair and a full beard. He wore of a pair of blocky glasses which set crooked on a long face. His white lab coat was stained from last night’s meal. The man gave a teasing smile as he followed her gaze to the equations floating above.

“You asked for me?” Dr. Johan’s voice echoed.

Erika watched him out of the corner of her vision. The stasis pod was simulating her memory of Dr. Johan. Allowing the subconscious portion of her mind to feed the illusion and then processing it back into her mind. Essentially, it was a lucid dream to keep herself busy during the eight-year journey. It was slowed down remarkably, of course. To her, the dream would pass as a normal night’s sleep.

“I doubt the pod computer is even capable of analyzing my formulas.” She sighed, never looking at the illusory man. “You aren’t Dr. Johan. You are a poor approximation of him. A ghost of a memory at best.”

Dr. Johan peered closer and adjusted his glasses, studying the image above. “Maybe, but I can tell you what you need to hear. The mathematics are sound. The equations are correct. You’ve definitively proven your thesis.”

“Did you know they laughed at me?” Erika turned away towards the seats. “When I told them what I had discovered. They already knew the truth before I even came here.”

Her old mentor shook his head. “You’ve always been a scientist first, Erika. Not a politician. Don’t blame yourself for what happened.”

“I don’t,” she snapped at the memory, “I blame them.”

She collapsed on one of the chairs and draped her arm over her eyes. The Utopia Equation was the central problem of Matrioshka Theory. It was the ultimate problem for humanity. The correct cultural, technological, and political mixture to finally create the perfect society. An existence where humanity might finally find itself content among the stars. It was the end point of the divide, the long sought prize of existence.

The problem ultimately came down to the notion of progress. The same thing which allowed humanity to grow exponentially in prosperity and wealth was the same thing which prevented an idyllic state from existing. One could provide for virtually every material want, and that still wouldn’t satisfy. Progress, the idea that the future would get better, that was what drove people. They weren’t content to feast on the rewards of their labor. No, they always wanted something better than what they already had.

“I remember my own lessons when I studied the equation.” Dr. Johan sat down next to her. “I asked why not provide every material comfort. Fix poverty and disease and war.”

“First generation may accept it,” Erika groaned, “but the second and the third—the ones that grow up in paradise don’t. That drive leads them on. They want something more, and there’s nothing else. So they tear it down just to save themselves from insanity.”

She understood it quite well. Suppose someone created utopia, what then? What is there left to do but eat and propagate? Art and culture couldn’t survive, as there would be no meaning to it. They were meaningless expressions of a society without anything to aspire to. Science, politics, even basic reason slowly yielded. There was nothing in utopia except an endless feast, which man never seemed content to have.

“And you did it.” Dr. Johan comforted her. “You proved it was impossible.”

She opened her eyes to the numbers floating above. Erika grimaced as she watched her life’s work float silently in the air. She had proven it mathematically. Humanity was incapable of utopia. The matrioshka divide had finally come to its end. And what did they do? They laughed her out of the room for it because they had already found their solution. The Free Exchange preserved a hierarchy with a select few on top, and that was all that mattered to them. Not the benefit of mankind or the salvation of the species. They only cared for power—whatever that meant in this day and age.

“And was my conclusion sound?” she asked the ghost. “Can you tell that to me? My beloved memory of Dr. Johan?”

“The equation is fundamentally imbalanced,” Dr. Johan answered her. “One of the variables needs to change, and you did the legwork. The problem isn’t technology or politics or culture. It’s with man.”

The memory pierced her with a pain she hadn’t felt in a long time. Erika had said as much to the representatives of the Free Exchange. That was her dream, something post-human. Transhumanism was an idea as old as time, but she never liked the terminology. Transhuman implied something fundamental of man remained in the product. She wasn’t interested in humanity, but what would come next. And that would be something completely inhuman in nature.

Matrioshka Theory backed her. The next revolution wasn’t a change in the surrounding environment, but something different in man. The divide was to finally challenge the notion of mankind. Humanity would transcend itself to a new existence completely separate from what came before.

She stood from her chair and took the center of the hall. Concentrating just a little, she summoned the memories of the men and women who denounced. They sat in those chairs, gloating and smug at her dream. Erika even summoned Glen Tannis behind them. The stifling bureaucrat who only capitulated because he was forced to.

“I was right!” she screamed at them. “I was right from the beginning! And you didn’t listen! You never listened!”

She breathed heavily, although it was unnecessary in her current state. The ghosts of the men and women remained in their chairs, silently taking her rage. She couldn’t imagine their reactions otherwise. Tannis remained smug, but a touch of uncertainty had entered his eyes.

Perhaps the Andromedans had found a way to go on to the next step. Hopefully they did, as Erika could use them as a model for her own experiments. She would see humanity saved from itself, even with the whole galaxy dragging its feet. The universe must go on, and nothing could stop it.

Erika suddenly felt the stifling nature of the dream close in on her. It was just another prison containing her from her goal. The memory of the time she had spent at Blacksite Seven swiftly came back to her. She needed out and back into the real world. The dream blurred as Erika began to lose control.

“Wake me up,” she suddenly ordered Dr. Johan, beginning to feel panic.

Her mentor smiled sadly at her. “You always were so focused on the future. Never had any time for anything else.”

She desperately clawed at the space. Erika tried to force her body to wake up from this extended nightmare. She felt as though she was drowning. This reality was just another prison—and one she might never wake up from. She needed out.

“Dr. Johan is dead.” Erika waved away the illusion and looking up towards the ceiling. “Computer, wake me up now!”

“There was a faint beeping noise as a screen popped up before her, alerting the time before they would arrive at her destination.”

“I don’t care,” she screamed at the cold device. “wake me up, now!”

Erika felt the cold chill of sedatives enter through her brain. The computer was ending the simulation to keep her body in stasis for the rest of the trip. It would just put her back into the reality she had experienced for five hundred years—the void. She screamed as the pod put her under.

Erika gasped for air as she burst out of the pod. She yelled and quickly scrambled out of the contraption. Firm hands grabbed her and held her still in the hallway. The world was spinning, and it took her a second to regain her bearings. Several crew members had rushed over to see the commotion, and now a small group gathered around the First Officer.

“I’ve never seen someone have such a bad reaction to the stasis pods,” a face Erika recognized as Ensign Jakobs noted.

She sighed and pulled herself free from the lower officer’s grip. “Apologies. I’ve had a bad history with stasis pods.”

Erika might have felt embarrassed at the scene, but she honestly didn’t care at the moment. The stasis revival team slowly dispersed back to their work, one-by-one bringing the rest of the crew back to consciousness. Ensign Jakobs remained, helping her keep steady on her feet.

“Give me a status report,” Erika ordered as she sucked in deep breaths of air.

“We’re currently just outside the star system. The ship is currently parked a day’s journey away while we bring the rest of the crew out of the pods.”

“Any change in the signal?”

Ensign Jackobs shook his head.

“I’m heading to the bridge.” Erika shakily began walking towards the exit, although her legs felt weak under her.

“Sir, maybe you should rest before—“

“I’ve waited for this my entire life, Ensign. I’m not going to any longer.”

She patted herself down. Technically, she had worn the uniform for eight years now, but it looked as fresh as the day she put it on. That was at least a welcome perk of the stasis pods. Her body felt the residual effects of a chill in her bones, but it was nothing compared to the five hundred years in stasis she had spent prior.

Erika might have been weakened, but she wasn’t about to let that stand in her way. She stepped away from the Ensign and headed directly for the bridge. Passing through empty corridors, she took an elevator to the deck and then stepped off. Admittedly, she felt downright awful, but that didn’t matter at the moment. The future of humanity was waiting ahead.

The bridge was relatively empty, as most of the crew were still coming out of stasis. Only a few crew members manned their posts, and most of the screens were dark. The holographic wall had been changed to show a view of the solar system the beacon was coming from. From the image, Erika saw a single gas giant similar to Jupiter. Ruddy clouds boiled and thundered in a storm that swirled around the entire planet.

“Commander Terese.” Captain Singh stood up from his chair as he noticed her enter. “I didn’t expect you on the bridge so early. How are you recovering from stasis?”

“Well enough,” she quickly answered him. “What’s the situation?”

Singh glanced over to the viewscreen. “There’s no activity surrounding the solar system that our sensors can detect. Nothing in the way of ships or anything else remarkable. We’re in the wilds of space with absolutely nothing between us and that signal.”

“Nothing?” Erika asked in surprise.

“Whoever is sending that signal, they obviously want us to come closer,” Singh said. “I don’t know why, but apparently a day’s journey is not close enough.”

“It may do us well to assume they can’t make contact by themselves. There’s no reason for them to wait. They should’ve seen our ship coming months ago.”

“Agreed,” Singh nodded.

“Any information from our sensors?” Erika tiredly asked.

“Obviously we can’t penetrate far into the gas giant.” Singh went over to his chair and tapped a few buttons on a screen.

The image on the holographic wall turned towards an enhanced view of the gas giant. Through the rust-colored clouds, Erika could see the vague shape of a spaceship hiding underneath. It wasn’t distinct enough for her to get an accurate view of the shape, but whatever it was, the ship was just as massive as the Hyperion.

“How long has it been waiting for?” she whispered under her breath.

“I’ve actually had a few people working the numbers.” Singh turned towards her again. “We’ve been able to collect some preliminary readings. Don’t ask me the math, but some of the astrophysicists have been able to calculate the age from the currents of gases surrounding the ship. Eighty-three years is our best estimate.”

Erika kept her eyes glued to the screen. “That means the ship entered the atmosphere of the gas giant before it actually sent out the signal.”

“Much before,” Singh corrected. “Whatever is waiting for us, that ship has been lying silent for nearly a century.”

“Not accounting for the time it took to cross galaxies,” Erika noted. The mystery was growing more and more. I’ve waited at least nearly half a millennia for this moment. How long have the Andromedans been waiting?

“We’ll find out tomorrow.” Singh reluctantly shut off the holographic wall. “I suggest we rest up for the big day. I have set in a course for the system. Soon all our questions will be answered.”

Erika kept her eyes focused forward even after the holographic wall turned off. The future was so close that she could nearly taste it. Soon her dream would be realized, one way or another.