Summary

Holsten Mason wakes up in his cryopod which quickly opens despite him believing it is too early. The Key Crew engineer Isa Lain tells him to follow her and says their ship, the Gilgamesh, has been travelling for 1,837 years. In the nine days she has been awake, she has found that 4% of their cryo-sleeping cargo has died, calling it a success. She then says there is a signal that the commander, Vrie Guyen, wants Holsten to investigate. Holsten is excited to learn that the signal is coming from a place that they found on Old Empire space maps they recovered from the frozen wasteland of earth, meaning their information was partially accurate.

In the communications room, Guyen and Lain debate if the signal is a warning of a cosmic event the ship has not picked up...