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CHAPTER 02:

"Mom, our house. It's gone. We're never going back, are we?" Lyra whispers up at me.

I hold her hand and shake my head, eyes only on her, "No, we'll be living on Graviton now," I murmur down to her as shuddering echoes against the attachments holding our shuttle in place. I saw other families staying in there shuttle, many were communicating with central command to hear the news, instructions on how to move forward.

"Will we find a new apartment, Mom?" She asks me, sniffling.

I turn her to face me, "We always have a back-up plan, sweetheart. And another after that. We won't be living in an apartment anymore, but a house. Big enough for a dog, hmm?" I say, smiling wide when her eyes widen.

"A puppy? A house? But, Mom, you didn't tell me about you already having a house on Graviton. What about work? You've barely been going to work lately." She murmurs, looking up at me.

I raise an eyebrow down to her, "You noticed." I say, slowly.

She looks up at me, "I notice a lot." I pull her in and close her around me, we watch the shuttles that landed on other continents on earth to pick up the remaining passengers. They looked like battleships in space, the latest technology has certainly advanced since I'd last seen the globe created a century ago.

Lyra squeezes her arms around me, "How long will it take to get to...to Graviton?" She breathes out, surprised at the sight of it all. I lower my cheek against her head and snuggle into her. Closing my eyes, I wait until the fleet soldiers enter the room and instruct us all to step out. I have both mine and Lyra's IDs on hand.

The second we step in line, I pick Lyra up and hold her close on my hip as we move in line. I watch them scan both IDs to reveal the agency I'm inserted into. Federal government on the ground, both American and British.

The soldier nods to me and allows us through. Lyra huddles closer at the cold air that breezes past, "Whose shuttle is this?" Lyra whispers against my ear, "KG-General 14...who is that, Mom?" She read the numbers engraved in the industrial walls of the inner shuttle.

"General Kerrigan Grayson, my sweet." I murmur, knowing exactly who was commanding this ship. Kerrigan was in my year, in fact he was a competitor, being the leader of another group and in computer engineering. Which is what I majored in. But it was Charleston Caesar, Head of the Ultimate Graviton Team who hated him the most.

We walk slowly into one of the hangers that is levelled into sections inside the ship. Many passengers were listening to the television stations that had drones recording what was happening on earth. I walk Lyra towards the cafeteria and grab us two sandwich subs as well as two water bottles before leading her to a free space in one of the corners, with a round couch seat and an open glass view of the other ships in outer space.

I sit down, she unwraps her sandwich, sniffing the bacon in delight with a range of salad ingredients and ranch. Mine had lamb inside, mixed in before my eyes slowly turn to the screen. Lyra hitches her breath.

"Attention all personnel at the Level One Front Hangers. My name is General Charleston Caesar. I am the head of the original Ultimate Graviton Team, and I want to personally apologise to those of you who have lost loved ones on the route to safety here on Graviton. We are working hard to accommodate all of you to eating and sleeping arrangements, as well as medical attention on the north side of this globe. Any who need assistance and have not yet received any, please call upon any team member close to you, it is our duty, our responsibility and our sole purpose to ensure you are all safe and sound while you are checked in. You will spend two days here while we check everyone, before my teams will dispatch you to safety apartments at Graviton central. If you have families already situated on the planet, this will be vital information to give head staff members, as you may choose to stay with your existing families. Welcome to Graviton, ladies and Gentlemen. Stay safe and stay tuned in for more information soon. Thank you."

It was a recording, or so I could tell as we all watch the screen that had opened to reveal Charleston.

This wasn't the first time I saw him on screen. It wouldn't be the last either.

Lyra stared up at him too, meeting my eyes for a moment.

I never kept any secrets from Lyra.

Not even about her Father.

She snuggles into me, "He's at the entrance?" She whispers.

I rub her back, "He might be, I don't know who else is there, my darling. Remember, we have to be careful. I still don't know who I can trust when we get there. We'll focus on finding Kline and his family, hmm." I suggest down to her, my eyes back on the screen as a new message relays and shows detailed images of the shuttles who have already made it to Graviton. The place already looks like a chaotic mess.

I pull out the iPad from my side bag, and tap the screen.

Using Kerrigan's operating systems, I access his browsers as Lyra stares up at the screen. His broad frame and tense form—very military-like and strict. It wasn't often that he'd smile on television, or whenever a documentary of theirs was recorded. I rarely saw him do more than map out everything.

Lyra glances over to me, "What if he's there, Mom? What if he's at the hanger we go to?" She asks me softly, eyes uncertain.

I run my fingers over her little hand, "We will handle it when the time comes, baby." I whisper against the soft surface of her hairline, in truth—I was scared shitless. I had no idea in any mind how to approach this. Because I have enemies, and most of them were on Graviton.

It took forty-eight minutes. To get to Hanger thirteen. They had expanded considering over a billion passengers. Earth was a condensed piece of destroyed land now. The atmosphere had flattened out based on the imaging Kerrigan clearly had even after we warped light years into time to get to Graviton. I hold Lyra's hand, her fingers curl through mine when an announcement goes out of our arrival and for those with their own shuttles to board them in order to carefully direct everyone out. Our IDs are once again scanned before I help Lyra onto our shuttle, a message pops up on screen to allow controls to take over the shuttle.

The ride is easier compared to people who had to step out of the larger shuttle, crowds of hundreds of thousands made it look all the more crazy down there. Ours is directed into a tunnel, in formation with the hundred others inside Kerrigan's ship.

Lyra hitches a breath at a glass globe of multiple cities in spherical structures, flat with the bend and inner simulators to resemble the different seasons. And mimic the countries and cultures on Earth.

"It really is triple the size of Earth." She whispers, breathless.

"With much more possibility. We'll have to check in to see if Lilly and her family made it out too. I'm sure they did." I rub Lyra's shoulders, sitting her on my lap to look at the view after the bay of this shuttle is cleared before main control is surprisingly directing those with their own licensed shuttles to a private hotel. The shuttle even aligned us to our specific room and floor, given the way the place was designed, this sort of thing wasn't possible on Earth.

I put a mask on Lyra, the oxygen here may be more potent and less polluted compared to the oxygenated molecules at home. Well—not 'home' anymore. The hotel room consisted of electronic furniture. The bed was gravitationally suitable to move around and a kitchen that could be extended for bigger families. Lyra reads the scanner for oxygen availability in the room and takes a deep breath through the mask, before pulling it off slowly.

I had been here and had no problems with it, it just tasted sweeter, with a hint of pine and greenery in the view. A water park between two shopping malls that looked inviting, with other skyscrapers around the larger city compared to others near Graviton. Which was on the opposite side of the globe.

Service is provided in the hotel. Lyra kept her eyes on the virtual television screen, "In keeping the globe and our new civilization in the loop on everything that has happened since we extracted as many citizens as possible across e world, we can thank the Ultimate Graviton Team for their newest ethnology. The ship they had held over three billion people, Graviton is now fully stocked and banked out. There have been reports of multiple incidences and casualties due to the severity and damage that enforced quick evacuation from Earth.

"However, despite the levels of new society and changes in our most vital systems, Head General Charleston Caesar has confirmed the safety and security of these systems here on Graviton. We will take you now to the families and soldiers who had been on Earth when the attack happened. From Washington DC footage, here is how the structure changed on ground...the President and his wife are more than thankful for Head General Charleston's heroics..." The reporter continues, sounding awestruck.

Lyra watches the news on the television while I sit in the L-shaped black couch behind her. I run my eyes from the screen, back to her, my stomach clenching tight. I still couldn't get a hold of Lilly, but I did hack into cameras of each hanger and ran prints under their names. I should have the information in an hour.

The last time I was here, I had been thrown through the cracks like a rat on the street, ordered and forced back onto Earth with an ultimatum that would've ruined me if I followed the order. The order that no woman should ever be given. Vulcan Caesar was a man of no morals, whatever benefitted and prioritized his family over everything else was the only sense of direction he obtained.

I close my eyes, moving the laptop aside, I grab the other industrial one from my bag and begin removing faces and prints of Lyra and me from all online systems. It would merely just be another number and a glitch in the system. I'd done it all before to protect Lyra, and I was going to do it again.

The names Alexandrine and Lyra Duo wouldn't be flagged and if they were ever looked up, whether by a school record or a past job, it wouldn't flag me as someone who was on the Ultimate Graviton team. But, it wouldn't report me as dead, not anymore.

Opening the programs that I knew central command would run regarding each civilian, I remove any and all pop ups on my name, but Lyra's wouldn't be in the system, it would only determine the year she was in at school. It would detail her grades and profile that I designed, that I formatted to keep her safe.

My phone vibrates next to me, I flip over the transparent screen and open an email notification. I study the words on screen. Well—they weren't words, they were in fact a range of letters. I opened a grid from my apps and ran the encryption within.

'Welcome home. We need to talk. —Rocco'

I purse my lips. The sneaky bastard immediately latches onto me the second I'm back on the grid in the Northern gang's territory.

Rocco Vincenzo was a second-in-command to the district leader in Falcon associations, one I knew from a past I wished I could forget. However, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have been able to make the money I do, on the side.

Not exactly something I mentioned to my six and a half year old daughter who didn't need to know every partially illegal thing I did.

I sent my own encrypted sequence and told him I wasn't on the grid.

It's barely seconds before I get his email back.

And its coordinates, along with a date and time. In one week.

I raise a brow and run an outer diagnostics before pausing at an outdoor signature that the frequency was picking up.

I frown and typing like I was racing for something, I open the access systems before unlocking the firewalls on the other side. I tense and still when I find a Falcon algorithm on there.

Rocco was being followed and his accounts were clearly under suspicion. I narrow my eyes and type in recent gang activity and freeze.

If fate wasn't twisted enough.

Charleston's mother owned Falcon, I knew that much, but what I didn't know is that she had her son who used to work as a double agent, before Falcon was re-entered and welcome to head central. Both for Graviton under his father's supervision and their council, and for Falcon.

My eyes widen when I open a set of restricted files on Falcon securities, run by Cairo. I raise a comical eyebrow when I'm sent a firewall trigger warning next just for touching the name 'Cairo'. Clearly the hacker or hackers on Falcon's side were working overtime.

I counteract and formulate barriers to my IP address, creating a mountain of viruses that would temporarily shut down Falcon systems and in huge amusement. The point of barriers is simply to act as a security system to restrict internet traffic. I watch the side news talk about a malfunction in Falcon Network that causes the Head General himself to strut into the Falcon building.

The press gets it all on camera.

I stare at his image, pausing the screen in a sharp blur of the man I once knew like the back of my hand. Time changed him just as it did to me, it toned me to be far sharper now than how I had been. It's what made me stop to think before simply calling the father of my daughter, the daughter he still doesn't know about.

The news flickers above me, on a different channel. Lyra was snuggling into her soft toys, half asleep before her cute little head drops right on one of the fluffy pillows, "—Falcon networks just had a major crash down, you see here, Head General was in fact called in, even with the newest developments of society on Graviton, this malfunction was triggered by the latest developments on the Rocco Vincenzo case." She says on screen.

I sigh in defeat, inwardly sending 'sorry' to Charleston for causing the fuss he is now sorting out, before I message Rocco with a clear frequency of no hackers capable of getting in.

Once he decrypts it, he'll see it as 'Send the attachment in email now. You're welcome, btw. #falconmalfunction'

He sends back an attachment that I copy. I delete the original file he'd sent after the copy was complete before anyone else on any frequency could get it. I run diagnostics on the file. Before reading the timeline on it and I raise both eyebrows this time when it says a week. He wants me to get this done in a week? What the gigantic—