The sun looked different from how I used to see it every day. In my dreams, the sun was not an immense sphere of hydrogen and helium suspended in infinite space, but the light that illuminated and gave warmth and life to my surroundings. I took a breath and smiled because I was back in that beautiful place: Earth. That place I would never know.

It was getting dark and the golden rays of the sun were illuminating a grove of trees. I took a closer look and it was full of butterflies. There were millions of them. There were so many that the branches of the trees were drooping under the weight. Some of them were still flying from one side to the other, looking for a millimeter among the laden branches, where to perch. Why did they come there? What force urged them to move en masse to the same place? Their instinct. It was in their nature. They knew where they had to go without ever having been there. None of those who embarked on the journey reached their destination, since it took them four generations to get there, but each generation contributed its part so that the last of all would reach its destination. Why did they go there?

I smiled and without hesitation, I ran towards the trees. A flock of butterflies took flight, startled by my sudden appearance. There were so many that it was like a wall of butterflies had risen up in front of me. It looked like a colorful hurricane fluttering around me.

I extended my arms and felt some of them landing on me. I could feel the tickle of their tiny legs, and the breeze that rose from the beating of thousands of delicate wings. For a few moments, I felt renewed, as if I were as free as they were.

This dream was repeated over and over again and the same thing always happened: the sun, the butterflies, and him. The Naewat. My eyes searched for him where I knew I would find him and, indeed, there he was. Standing next to a tree and giving me a smile. He was similar to the rest of his species: tall, strong, handsome... but there was something different about him. He was simply not like the others and I knew it, although in the dream it was not clear to me why. He looked at me with a half-complicit smile and approached me, took my hand and said something... I never managed to understand what he was saying, and every time I saw him I paid special attention to that moment, but, as always, I didn't understand him. We walked together towards the butterflies that had landed again and took flight. Among the flurry of butterflies, his hand slipped from mine and I lost him. The feeling of anguish that it caused me to be separated from him was overwhelming, to the point that I woke up with my heart pounding like crazy. My dream always ended like that.

I had been having the same dream for months and it was starting to get irritating. I couldn't relate it to anything that was happening around me. It didn't make sense. I didn't know this Naewat, nor was there any chance of setting foot on Earth. What did all that mean? I looked at the alarm clock and there were two minutes left until it went off, as always. I had a life without any surprises. Everything was calm. Everything was normal... except for that stupid dream.

Was I really going to go to Earth? Or was it a figurative dream that wanted to warn me of something?

I sat up and let out a loud sigh. It was time to start the routine that made me feel safe, away from oddities, surprises, and anomalies. A life programmed from dawn until I closed my eyes again. Everything was in order. And when you don't know anything else, you even come to believe that this is how you are happy. After all, was it possible that there was another kind of life?

Before class time, I used to meet with Esau, one of my teachers. He dedicated himself to studying each of my dreams in depth in the hope of finding meaning before they came true. However, so far he had only managed to predict one of them, and this caused more problems than help. I dreamed of a series of events from the past and after some research, we discovered that they were the questions from one of the Earth History exams. The teacher who taught that subject was furious and changed all the questions, sure that someone had leaked the information. The exam was much harder and thanks to my "contribution" many failed. No one spoke to me all day.

Apart from that occasion, no. We never managed to understand their meaning until it was too late. Could that be called dreaming of the future? It was obvious that not. My dreams were useless. They were like a clock that tells the wrong time. What good is it to know the future if you can't do anything about it?

Although it was true that this dream was special. It was not like the others. It was a dream that was repeated over and over again without happening. In fact, it was impossible for it to happen. Earth had been uninhabitable for over a century and as for the Naewat... for some reason, I was almost sure that someone like him couldn't exist. It was as if he were a mixture of Naewat and human... something too bizarre to even think about. A... hybrid. Genetically they said it was impossible, but there he was. Smiling, taking my hand. I wasn't even sure he was real, but he felt like he was.

I shook my head trying to get his face out of my mind for the moment and stood up, ready to start another day of school. Without realizing it, I had rushed the time to leave while I was pondering the dream and barely had time to prepare properly. I stuffed myself into my academy uniform, grabbed my tablet, and left the apartment still somewhat distracted.

I walked through the corridors of the space academy with my eyes fixed on the ground. Beside me, my classmates greeted each other, talked, and joked among themselves. Everyone had a life that was normal for them. Every day they went to class, socialized, ate, exercised, and went back to their apartments. The same routine every day. That's what we were used to: that's what was expected. But without realizing it, that dream had awakened in me feelings that no one else had. I wanted more. Much more. I wanted to live on Earth again and leave that insipid space station that simulated Earth life with mediocrity. I wanted to be free and decide for myself. Was that the purpose of my dream? To show me what it was like to be free like those butterflies on Earth? And how could that possibly happen? Earth had been uninhabitable for a long time. After the last world war, the few survivors had to flee and settle on space stations in orbit around Earth. It was a cruel irony. Every day we could see Earth from the windows of our apartments and it reminded us of how close we were to our planet and, at the same time, how unattainable it was. So beautiful and yet so deadly for us...

"Ada! Good morning," I heard my friend June's cheerful voice.

"Good morning," I replied without paying much attention.

"You don't look like you slept very well," she observed astutely. "Any revealing dreams?" she laughed.

"No... well... I had the same dream again."

"The same one?" she was surprised. "You know? I'm starting to think you have some kind of obsession. Was the Naewat there too? Did you manage to understand what he said today?"

"I'm afraid not. Everything is still as cryptic as ever," I replied dispiritedly.

"There's something that intrigues me about your dream," she said thoughtfully. "How can it be a prediction if Earth is uninhabitable? What if the only thing that's happening is that you're a bit obsessed with it and it's nothing more than a normal, everyday dream? Could it be?"

"Could be..." I muttered.

"And what's it like?"

"What?"

"Being on Earth! I know it's only a dream, but it must be something wonderful," she said with a sigh.

Someone cleared their throat behind us and we both jumped when we saw the quantum physics teacher looking at us with a frown.

"Good morning, ladies," he said, trying to suppress a smile to appear more authoritative.

"Good morning, Professor Esau," we replied in unison.

"Would you mind taking a seat? It's time to start class." He gestured with his head towards the classroom. Then he looked at me with a frown. "I was waiting for you today to talk about your dream."

"I know. I got distracted," I replied, looking down. "Although there's nothing new to tell."

"I see." He thought for a moment and then nodded. "Let's talk after class."

With a slight bow of my head, I entered the classroom and took a seat. We had been instilled with the idea that we should have deep respect for the instructors. They were all elders who had lived on Earth before it was destroyed. They were eminences who passed on their knowledge from generation to generation. Their long lives were due to the fact that in ancient times they had received a dose of Engel, which made their bodies deteriorate more slowly. Before the wars, the average lifespan of a human being was around eighty years, now there were people who almost reached two hundred.

Esaú, on the other hand, was the only teacher who didn't look like a human fossil. He was young and his blue eyes and interesting smile had managed to elicit some sighs from the female students.

"Good morning, girls," whispered Styan, who was sitting behind me. I waved back at him.

He, along with June, was my best friend, although not when it came to sharing confidences. He hated everything about Earth. He was a bit of a rebel, so to speak, and he was also different from everyone else. He didn't have a talent like everyone else, at least not in an obvious way, but he suddenly appeared at the space station. With no past, no family, and no memory. Who was he? Nobody knew. When a Naewat teacher found him, he was given a name in their own language. Styan means "the one who travels". Later he was adopted by Esau, who was like a father to him.

"I see that Miss Dada isn't going to give me a good morning. Did you have a bad night?" he asked mockingly.

"It was just as normal a night as any other. Let's talk later," I whispered annoyed, looking back discreetly. I couldn't believe he was making me talk when the teacher had already entered the class.

"Are you on that 'women's stuff'? Because if so, I'd rather not talk. You get unbearable."

"Styan!" June exclaimed, embarrassed, earning a disapproving look from the teacher.

He and I had been friends since before June came into our lives. In fact, we may have been friends since he arrived at the space station. We were about the same age, so he stuck to me and somehow a semblance of friendship emerged. We always ended up fighting, but as quickly as we argued, we made up again. He was the spark of grace in my miserable and monotonous life. He was the only one who didn't look like a robot just doing what was expected of him. No, he didn't. He was rebellious, irresponsible, funny, and crazy. He was everything that the rest of us weren't. And when I was with him, I felt like I was on Earth, with any friend, and not in that academy, surrounded by people with no spirit. Maybe if I hadn't met him, I would be like the others too.

The teacher started class. I found it hard to focus on his subject. I much preferred those related to art and linguistics, but in order to graduate I needed to develop knowledge in all the known human sciences, and quantum mechanics was one of them.

At one point in the class, Professor Esau asked us to read aloud a paragraph that talked about the theories of quantum entanglement. I had already finished reading it and didn't understand anything at all, so I decided to distract myself a bit by looking around. The teacher was looking at me and when he noticed that I had noticed, he smiled. The rest of the class started to finish reading and that strange eye contact was interrupted, giving continuity to the class.

When it was over, I waited for everyone to leave to talk to the teacher, as he had indicated at the beginning. June looked at me from the door and gestured to me that she was leaving without me so as not to be late for the next class.

Esaú sat down in his chair and invited me to do the same at one of the desks.

"Ada, is everything okay?" he asked worriedly. He always supported his chin on his fingers when he was concerned, lost in thought. "You're usually a bit of a scatterbrain, but you've never missed one of our meetings before."

"Everything's fine, Professor. It's just that I can't rest. I'm racking my brain trying to find an explanation for this dream..."

"The same one as always?"

I cleared my throat nervously and nodded.

"Has there been any change? Anything worth mentioning?"

"No. Everything's the same as always," I replied, avoiding his gaze.

"You know I'm here to help. I know it's the same dream, but maybe talking to me will help you remember something different that you've overlooked, and that will give us a clue."

I had already told him about the dream, but my subconscious insistence on showing me the same cheesy scene over and over again was starting to be embarrassing.

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied, staring at the floor.

"I see. Why don't you tell me about this Naewat? Have you recognized him yet in this space station?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I don't know, should I?"

I frowned, puzzled. He knew perfectly well that the few Naewat who lived on the station were secluded in another place, far from the academy where we were taught. Social interaction between species was forbidden, although there was one day every six months that we were allowed to interact, during the war memorial. They wanted us to have fresh in our memories all the misfortunes that had occurred after the Naewat invasion, including having lost our own planet.

"Tell me. Maybe finding him will be an answer to everything else. Are you afraid to tell me about him?"

"I'm not afraid," I confessed without showing any emotion. "I haven't interacted with any Naewat."

"No?" He observed me thoughtfully for a few seconds. He almost seemed disappointed by my answer and that left me somewhat disconcerted.

Even if I had seen him, I had doubts about whether to tell the teacher about him. That we had met meant that one of us had broken the law. Neither I could leave the academy in the preparation period, nor should he leave the area delimited for them. It would constitute a serious crime and possible expulsion from school. Was he trying to test me?

"Alright. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you recognize him anywhere. I'm sure it will be the key to helping us decipher this very particular dream."

I nodded and stood up to leave quickly. Then he signaled for me to stop.

"By the way. I hope you apply yourself a little more. Lately, your grades in my subject have left much to be desired."

I nodded again, somewhat embarrassed, and ran out of the classroom. Although my grades had never been particularly good, I couldn't stand being called out. That dream had me very distracted and I couldn't concentrate properly on anything. I had to find a solution as soon as possible, but I felt like I was at a dead end. What was the next step? I had no idea. Maybe I should let time give me the answers.