"I knew that kid was up to something!" said Nathan furiously.

"Stop it!" said Christopher. "There has got to be a logical explanation!"

The crew, all together, was watching the recording of the security camera.

"Who is the girl?" asked Hajo as confused as the others.

"How hasn't he been found?" Christopher turned his back to the screen in worry for his son. "I want him found! This city is not safe!"

In a growing argument from the team, Day was the only one who said nothing. A call from Westlake arrived and Andy answered it with her attention split into two halves. Andy was the only one to carry UNA on her arm at all times since she was the spacecraft communicator.

"Andy," said someone from Westlake City, "we need you guys to take Fortem out of Pluviam's atmosphere; a storm is approaching you with a speed of seventy-five miles per hour. It seems to be carrying some kind of raw material, possibly sandstones. You need to get the ship into orbit and do not continue your work until the storm has calmed."

Christopher's fingers clawed into his hair and scalp.

"Westlake," said Andy, studying Christopher with an empathetic look, "we have a prob—"

Nathan pushed her away from the microphone. "Roger that," said Nathan to Westlake without delay.

"No, not roger that! Are you insane?" Christopher threw his hands against Nathan's chest and shoved him against the wall. "You insensitive moron! I've had enough of you!"

Hajo and Day pulled Christopher away from his friend.

"What did you just say to me?"

"Guys! Stop it!" cried Kendra, "Look!"

Everyone's eyes followed where she pointed at: A massive black cloud approaching quickly.

"If Westlake says we have to go, then we have to go!" said Hajo.

"You're all out of your minds!" Christopher separated himself from the group by one great step backward. "I am not abandoning my son!"

"Christopher," said Hajo profoundly, "we must always follow commands. You are the engineer, you know very well that the rocket won't survive a storm as such. We have to go, now."

"I am not abandoning my son!" repeated Christopher, with his head having turned red.

"We will return as soon as the storm passes," assured Hajo, while the rest walked to the rocket. Only Nathan stayed behind with Christopher and the speaking commander. 

"We will stay in orbit the whole time, meanwhile, the troops will continue the search. We will probably return to the ground within a day or two. Right now there is nothing we can do about Finn, but if we stay, we might not leave this place for months. We would risk the life of the entire crew. Pull yourself together, Chris."

Christopher walked up to the commander, not fearing his power. "I am not leaving."

"Me neither," said Nathan. "I'll stay, too. For Finn."

"The hell you are," said Christopher.

"You are my best friend. If you're staying, then so am I. I know I can be hard on the kid, but only because I don't want to see him get hurt."

Hajo shook his head in disappointment, he grabbed his jacket and left the area.

On the other side of the city, Lena and Finn were in hiding. They were on top of a tall construction, which they had accessed through a trapdoor in the square floor. Surrounded by compressed wood panels as a half-walls, and a roof carried by four poles in each corner, they had successfully fled from the killer, for now. 

Their lungs rested from the spurt, Lena was leaning against the half wall, keeping her head out of sight for others, and Finn laid flat on his back.

"I have to ask," Lena broke the silence, "did you know about the cameras?"

Finn closed his eyes. "I expected them to be there, I just didn't know they'd be working." He paused for a moment and then looked at her. "I'm so sorry."

Lena peaked over the counter of the fence to see the men searching the city. No citizens were outside, just soldiers in black, with guns in their hands.

"You can go back." Lena did not bother to look at Finn. "They won't shoot you. They know who you are. Anyone who shoots at you is a dead man themself."

"Really?" said Finn, doubtful, "Because the other guy didn't seem to care who stood in his target."

Finn joined her. His arms folded on the ledge, and his chin rested upon them.

"Were you born on Pluviam?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Where is your family?" asked Finn, knowing the answer might haunt him.

"I'm not sure I even have a family. I haven't seen them for years." She put her head down. "Maybe they're long dead."

"When was the last time you saw your father?"

"I never met him."

"And your mother?"

Lena exhaled slowly. "I was six," she answered. Her eyes looked at a piece of sky that showed through the roof. 

"I remember the day I last saw her, but her face is fading in my memory. I can't recall what she looks like, but the day I remember quite vividly. It was damp, but the rain had stopped when we were on the ground. We were stealing food from a trader and got caught by a guard. My mother told me to hide in a barrel, while she'd run for her life. She looked at me with tears rolling down her face. She said she'd come back to get me." Lena turned her head away from Finn. "She never came."

Finn didn't have any words. He just looked at her and noticed how different she was to the day before. Not as clingy and animated, but instead, she kept her distance, and her voice was carried by sadness and fear.

"This is all my fault," thought Finn to himself, too timid to say it out loud.

"The people here are monsters," said Lena, and Finn nodded in agreement.

"I've got to find my father. He can defend my innocence."

"Are you?—Innocent?"

"Well——it was my goal to collect the missing information that would prove that a spaceship, which KSP claimed as gone, is still out there. If I'm right, that would mean that one hundred nine passengers, declared dead, are actually still alive."

"I don't understand. What does KSP think happened to the spaceship?"

"They told the press that the spaceship was eaten by a black hole, but it doesn't add up. I found the published article of an elderly man, whose wife was a passenger of the lost ship. It showed a photo of a foreman at KSP, who wore the old man's watch, which he had gifted to his wife before departure."

Lena looked confused.

Finn tried to be clear. 

"The foreman didn't attend the journey. So in order to get his hands on that watch, he must have been on the ship later on, but how can that be if the ship was gone forever? It doesn't add up. The ship must still be somewhere, or else he wouldn't have the watch of a passenger."

"I'm not following. Couldn't it just be a coincidence? Like an identical watch?"

"No, the watch was handmade by the husband. He made it himself and gave it to his wife when she left, which means that only one exists. When he saw the watch on the press photo he knew that the man who was wearing it had encountered his wife, long after KSP had claimed the ship was gone."

"I see. So why are you still looking for proof, if you have it right there?"

 "Because no one believes that old man. No one but me. And now that I failed the mission no one ever will. I really thought I was onto something. I had come this far, and I messed up. Now I'll never find her—I mean it—the ship."

"Actually—" Lena disclosed a black object, "you might."

"You stole the hard drive?"

Finn took it into his possession and threw a good look at it. Indeed, it had A154 printed on it. He couldn't believe it; in his hands, he held what he had thought had been neglected.

Raindrops hit the metal roof above their heads, lightly and occasional at first, but then it changed to heavy rainfall, so loud, it sounded like nails falling from the sky.

Finn noticed the goosebumps on Lena's skin and hesitated not to hand her his sweatshirt. He wore a navy blue t-shirt underneath it with the circular KSP logo on the chest. Lena accepted his sweatshirt with gratitude and crawled into its warm, heavy cloth.

"We have to make it back to the rocket," said Finn in distress, "my crew will protect us both."

"I don't think we'll make it in time."

"What do you mean?"

She identified the rocket on the other side of the city, where the storm had begun to attack the houses. Its engines lit up, fire burst out of its bottom.

"What are they doing?" wondered Finn with his eyes sharpened.

The rocket lifted off and disappeared between clouds. Only the light of the flames could be followed through the layers of gray until even those disappeared within the unknown.

The ship and the crew were gone into space, Finn left behind on a planet with deadly rain, criminals, and armed men hunting the girl he was with.

"Did they—did they just leave?" his jaw dropped, "Without me?"