The end of the escape compartment's path deposited Luna, Quark, and Alice in another part of the city's underbelly amongst another tangle of pipes and cables and infrastructure. Luna, still in a daze, let Alice and Quark lead her up and out, back onto the streets of what was still the 'bad' part of the Rhizome Nine city. The crowd passing by paid them no mind, heads bowed over their trudging footsteps. Alice hurriedly drew Luna and Quark aside to a shady alcove.

"The cops who stormed the base won't be the only ones out here," she said, voice hushed, her eyes making quick, practised sweeps across the area as she looked for trouble. "Others will be looking for us. We need to get out of the area, fast. We can work out how to regroup afterwards."

"Is it okay for us to be out here?" Quark asked, wringing his hands together. "Won't people notice us?"

Alice shook her head. "It's fine for now. Father's goons are looking for us, but ordinary citizens…"

At that moment Luna's attention was drawn to the holographic advertisements that covered the wall opposite their little huddle. A shimmering, glitch-like blemish had suddenly ran down the projected images, distorting the text and images and logos as it spread through them. A glance around the street showed that it had happened to all the holograms projected – advertisements, shop signs, a makeshift television a small gaggle of children had set up in one corner – all at the exact same time. Then, a moment later, all those images winked out of existence at once and were replaced by something new.

A portrait of Alice: one as she was now, older, sterner, war-bitten. Next to it, a photograph of Quark. Bold text spun above the two pictures in a circle, and when it came back around to face Luna she saw that it read 'Wanted'.

An announcement played out, loud enough to saturate the entire street. The voice was that which had welcomed the train to Rhizome Nine in that first plaza, but now there was an icy malice to the woman's voice. "Attention, citizens. These individuals are wanted for a number of crimes against the peace and prosperity of Rhizome Nine. These include destruction of property, usage of unlicensed augments, disrespect of the tenets of the Father, hacking into critical infrastructure, murder of law enforcement officers and kidnapping. Information leading to their capture will receive a reward of total, unconditional enhancement." The reactions of the crowd around them – heads rising with sudden alertness, faces looking around with expressions of confusion and alarm, even some hints of desire – proved that this was hardly a usual occurrence for the citizens of Rhizome Nine.

Luna hurried to get away, only to find Alice's remaining good hand clamped on her shoulder. "Don't run. You'll only draw attention if you do," she whispered. Only once she'd had time to satisfy herself that Luna understood did Alice let go. She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, muttering, "I swear, this is going to put another dozen wrinkles on my face."

"So what do we do now?" Quark asked. Luna thought she could hear the hint of a tremor in Quark's voice, and decided not to bring it up.

Alice spent a moment in silence, her brow furrowed. "We'll keep moving," she said with a resolute nod. "Keep together. Keep your eyes out. If we keep off the main routes and don't do anything to stand out we should be okay."

Following Alice's lead the three of them set off. They took the first left off the wider street they'd emerged onto to take a smaller alleyway instead. There were still people milling about but the crowd was more diffuse; Luna hoped that meant less chance that someone would recognise them. For the moment, they were safe, even when Luna had to gingerly step over the legs of someone slumped, unconscious, against the right-hand wall. It took every bit of willpower she had not to double-back and tend to him, and only the knowledge that it would risk even more harm to Alice and Quark let that willpower succeed.

When they reached the end of the alley, faced with a haphazard crossroad of similar dingy streets, Alice halted. She looked one way then the other, sighed, then headed towards the path at eleven o'clock. Luna thought she heard her mutter, "Might need to take that route," under her breath.

The passage through the next alley also proceeded safely. After the first few metres the path began to dip down, and the air grew strangely chilly. Luna was fairly sure which of the craters that surrounded the moonbase of her world this part of the city was built into. She adjusted the way her hoodie settled on her head, still not comfortable with this atypical piece of clothing and not getting any more comfortable with each step they took.

When they reached the end of the alley, what would have been the very bottom plain of the crater, the three of them emerged onto what could only be described as a cross between a dilapidated city courtyard and… and just a pit. Even at the height of the day this place wouldn't have been particularly well illuminated; as it was the crater's lip and the buildings that towered there cut off almost all the sun's light. And there was only one of the advertisement displays that had festooned the earlier streets – this one also playing the alarming wanted poster – and its meagre glow left Luna relying on the rest of her vision into the electromagnetic spectrum to make sense of what was in front of her.

And what was in front of her was a mass of people. A moment's glance showed exactly the state they were all in and how they'd ended up there. Prosthetic arms hung limply from shoulders, the dead weight of the metal impeding the users more than no arm at all would. What had once been an artificial eye sat motionless and lifeless in its socket leaving its owner, a young girl with matted brown hair, half-blind. And in one distant corner, one poor soul knelt behind another, applying lotion to the back of a mottled, flaking neck. On either side of the nape round sockets had been drilled in, and as the metal rims rusted they poisoned the flesh around. Luna's experience as a nurse told her that everything the carer was doing was only delaying the inevitable.

Alice turned to face Luna, a fiercely serious look in her eyes. "This is the result of Father's social experiment. Adults. Children. Everyone. That bastard Father would do this to everyone if he had the chance." She then sighed, as pointed an exhalation as Luna had ever heard. "Think on this, next time you're feeling squeamish about what we have to do."

Luna bowed her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't… I've never dealt with anything like that before."

"Lucky you," Alice said with a nod. "As long as you don't –"

Alice had cut off into utter silence, the only signs of what had grabbed her attention being her narrowed eyes and the slight lift of her chin towards the dark sky above the pit. Quark hurried to her side, his mouth pursed with concern.

"Miss Alice? What's going on?" he asked.

Alice didn't answer the question. Instead she grabbed Quark's hand, sternly beckoned Luna with a flick of her neck, and marched off towards one of the half-built structures at the edge of the pit. Luna had to race to keep up, the movement was so sudden. Halfway to their target Luna heard the first clues of what had spooked Alice: the faint thrum of rotating wings in the air.

They'd never have made it in time, if they'd only started moving at the moment when Luna noticed that sound. As it was, the three of them made it to the scaffolding and mesh of pipes to take shelter in the shadows within. Just as Quark had ducked his helmet past the twisting pipes and made it into the cubby-hole Alice had found for them, their stalker loomed into view. A drone, three feet across and high enough up that the beats of its never-stopping turbines didn't reach the ground, hovered over the pit. From all sides spotlights bristled, beaming down pinpoints of light so intense they could only hurt the inhabitants of the pit, never illuminate for them.

And the drone would probably have other sensors as well. Just as Luna realised that and was about to point it out, Alice threw a cloth made of some strange translucent fabric around the three of them. They huddled there, hoping that they were hidden and that the drone would move on soon.

But before that could happen there came the sound of more movement, approaching the pit. Two police officers, similar to the team that had stormed the hideout, strolled into the yard. As the civilians dispersed warily away from them the two cops came to a standstill right in front of Luna's hiding place. For a moment she thought they'd been caught. But the two cops had turned away from them, surveying the area from its edge.

Alice clamped her hand over Luna's mouth and Luna remembered to breathe, as Alice's palm would expect to feel.

This close, Luna could see all the details of the officers' body armour. Their heads were covered by gleaming chrome helmets, the visors as opaque and foreboding as those she'd been forced to interact with before. Pulsing strands of blue lights ran down the limbs, connecting all the various modules, implants and augmentations to the bulky spacesuit-like compartment on their backs. And, hanging at each of the cops' hips, the muzzle of a gun-like object glowed with a barely-restrained menace.

As the two officers scanned the crowd in front of them they chatted, and the sound of their low mutters carried through the air. Clearly, they hadn't realised anyone was close enough to overhear. "About time we got something on those damn terrorists," the one on the left said. "Might finally get rid of them for good."

The one on the right nodded eagerly. "Good chance we'll get Father's personal attention, if we're the ones who nab 'em. I'll get something nice for the ol' lady when we're living the high life. Thank goodness we're the ones who got that tip first."

"Yeah. Those bastards gotta be around here somewhere." That cop tapped the holster of his gun brashly. "Any news on the high-value target? Was she spotted coming this way too?"

"Not a clue," the other replied, the shrug of his shoulders magnified to a mountainous heave by the armour. "I said we'd be rich if we caught those terrorists. But if we managed to bring her in…" His voice trailed off into a desirous whistle.

"Hold on." The cop who'd said that checked something attached to his forearm. "The drone's picking up something." Another few taps and swipes of the device, then he nodded. "That way," he said with an outstretched pointing finger. "Some sort of disturbance. It's gotta be related."

"On it," the other one replied.

After that, it wasn't long until the two police officers had left the courtyard of the pit, their drone leading the way. Alice waited half a minute more, then dropped the anti-sensor cloth from around them. "I hadn't wanted to play that card so soon," she said with a bitter grimace. "Some good men are gonna get themselves in trouble for that." She fiddled with her right ear, where Luna noticed a small scar where something had been implanted into the lobe. "Roger that," Alice muttered, then took her hand away. She then looked down to meet Quark's hopeful gaze. "We've got a clear route through to the next safehouse. Better use it before they wise up."

With one last glance back at the unfortunates of this part of the city, Luna followed Quark and Alice and began to ascend.

o-0-o

After a dozen minutes of walking, punctuated by the occasional quick and well-practised scouting ahead by Alice, their little group began to emerge from the worse parts of the city. The buildings gradually became better-kept and less run down with every metre they got further away, as though each step was taking them back through the buildings' lifetime. The people they passed by grew more self-confident, less bowed and furtive. And, at the end of the route Alice had taken them, the path widened out onto an actual road, the surface paved for cars just like the taxi that Luna had taken earlier. Only a couple were passing by at each moment for now – plus another car idling on the other side of the road, with a few rich-looking youths leaning against it and chatting – but this road had every sign of being a major throughway.

Luna directed a question Alice's way. "We're leaving the…" It would be rude to call it a 'slum'. She settled for a gesture back the way they'd come. "… behind?"

"Yes," came Alice's blunt answer. "If we're going to take action against what you brought us then we need to base ourselves closer."

"Miss Alice has safehouses all over!" Quark piped up with. "She's been prepared for everything."

"Thanks, kid," Alice replied. She then turned her attention on Luna. "That's the plan. Once we get there we can discuss everything in more detail. Save your questions until then."

That last statement had been said with a tone of someone used to having her orders obeyed. Luna nodded, then fell silent. They continued walking on.

After another short while, with Alice having begun another of her forays ahead leaving the others to trail behind, Quark sidled up beside Luna. He took in a deep breath, then said, "Miss Luna… There's a little thing I've been wondering about…"

"Please, feel free to ask me," Luna replied. "It's not a problem."

The boy twirled his fingers for a few moments. "You know, you don't see many folks around who've gotten themselves no upgrades at all." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. "Even back there."

'No upgrades at all'? "I'm not really sure what you mean by that, Quark. Is it strange for someone not to get any augmentations?"

"Well, yeah!" Quark exclaimed. "Of course it is. Everyone upgrades their body, somehow. You kinda have to, to get around up here."

Luna looked down at him, askance. Quark looked every bit as he had during the Nonary Game, an ordinary young boy. That didn't line up at all with what he was saying.

Quark studied Luna's confused expression. Then he gasped in realisation. "Oh! You thought I didn't have any either." He rapped one fist against his helmet, the knuckles hitting the hard surface with a self-satisfied thunk. "It's this. You wanna have a look? It's really cool!"

Luna nodded politely. "Please, show me."

Quark reached up to the white box on the right side of the helmet and opened up a hatch on the front. Luna peered in. Inside the box a mass of thin wires tangled around each other in a complicated, meaningful pattern. It should have been impossible for Luna to see much further through the meagre opening but several small lights, blinking in different colours with different timings, illuminated the deeper interior quite well. As such the very centre of Quark's helmet compartment, a thick block of computer chips and a crystalline memory storage, was fully on display.

Quark grinned proudly, then closed his helmet back up again. "It's a brain-computer interface," Quark explained. "I help Miss Alice out with any hacking she needs to do."

So Quark – this Quark – had been enhanced. His confusion about people who hadn't upgraded themselves hadn't been misplaced.

Quark peered inquisitively up at Luna once more. "But Miss? You haven't had any upgrades at all, have you? Right?"

Luna flinched back in confusion at that. What was Quark saying? "What makes you say that, Quark?" she asked gently.

Quark shrugged. "Isn't it obvious? I mean, you can just tell you've never had your body changed since the day you." He paused gazing up towards the sky as he stroked his chin. "I'm really surprised you were able to make your way over to meet us, at all. Didn't you have a load of trouble with people being mean to you and getting in your way?"

Luna furrowed her brow. She didn't understand how to incorporate what Quark had said. He was entirely correct about what she'd encountered on the way over to the Green Sun bar. And yet…

Luna's train of thought was interrupted by the pressure of sudden attention coming from all the way over on the other side of the road. She glanced over; her intuition was more than just a stab of worry, for someone was actually watching her. He was a tall man, his suit finely tailored for his build and the now-unmistakeable shape of augmentations bulging beneath, the array of machines and sensors fitting together sleekly around his head like they'd always been meant to be part of it. He gazed Luna's and Quark's way for several moments, his eyes narrowing. He whispered something to himself through pursed lips. It was too far to hear what he'd said, but Luna could read his lips and guess.

'That's her…'

Then the man's finger snapped up to press against his ear.

Within seconds Alice was rushing back to the two of them: eyes wide, expression frantic. Luna didn't ask how she'd become aware. "I told you to keep a low profile!" Alice snapped, a hoarse whisper. "What did you do?"

"I don't know," Luna replied, her hands clasped together contritely. "That man just recognised me."

"He looked like one of those bigwigs," Quark interjected. "What's a guy like that doing, recognising Miss Luna?"

Luna shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't know how."

Alice sighed. "Anyway, we have to move. They'll be coming. Our only chance is to get away from here, with as much speed as we can manage and more luck than Rhizome Nine has offered me so far. Let's! go!"

At Alice's command they began to move, brisk and purposeful strides that would have risked exposing them if they'd tried to go this fast before that'd stopped mattering. Luna had worried this speed would over-tax Alice's older body and prepared herself to offer support; instead Alice set the pace. They reached the next intersection along the road and – ignoring the alarmed looks of more passing civilians – turned back towards the shadier part of the city.

The whirs and beats of rotors filled the sky, helicopters and drones converging on the point where they'd been discovered. As the sounds came closer behind them Alice took them on another turn, making a point of going through a damp and dingy tunnel through the bottom of a high-rise building. They made a sharp turn almost back on themselves as they emerged on the other side; Luna could only hope Alice judged rightly that this would confound their pursuers, could only rely on Alice's expertise.

Further along, just as they were about to pass into a shady alley that would mark their return to the bad part of the Rhizome Nine city, Alice raised her arm. Her hand was held flat and rigid, an unmistakable order to halt. Luna did so. She could only silently wonder why Alice had stopped them. After a quick glance to make sure Luna and Quark had obeyed Alice widened her legs to a lower, stronger, more stable stance. She stalked forward, accelerating in an instant.

Luna hadn't even noticed the two police officers stationed among the clutter up ahead, at least until Alice came upon them. Luckily, they were facing the other way. As her first move Alice grabbed the one from behind, twisted him backwards with the leverage, and then drove a knife into the gap under his helmet. It took longer to bring down the other, even after Alice had kicked out his feet from beneath him. But when Alice ripped out a bundle of wires from the back of the power suit the cop screamed in agony and went still.

After running over each police officer's armour with a tool that seemed to be a sparking metal wand Alice returned to the group, daintily flicking away drips of blood from her fingers. "They're getting closer. That disruption will divert them for a while but – get down!"

As Alice shoved Luna towards the wall and covered Quark with her own body a ripple almost like an over-sized sonic wave raced across the windows of the surrounding buildings. Shards of glass and sparks and chunks of rubble rained down on them. And then the rumble of many dozens of boots drew closer.

"They've found us!" Quark wailed. "Miss Alice, what do we do?"

Alice clenched her fist; Luna could see the calculations in the controlled darts of her eyes. She nodded to herself, then met Luna's gaze. "Take Quark, and run. That way. I'll hold them off."

Quark shook his head frantically. "No! I can't just leave you here. They'll kill you!"

"This is an order, Quark," Alice interrupted, her voice haughty and unyielding. Then her tone softened, as she crouched down before the boy and looked at him on his level. "You promised, when you signed up, that you'd obey my orders. Now's the time. Please, do what I say."

Holding back a tear, Quark nodded.

"Then go." Alice stood up and turned away, facing the sound of the approaching police head-on.

As Luna led Quark away by the hand Alice launched two more of those mechanised smoke bombs, bathing the path behind them in an opaque cloud. All that followed the two of them in their flight were sounds: the scuffle of fighting and the repeating zaps of the guns.

o-0-o

After those few minutes of running Luna had to admit that she was lost. She did not know this city. She didn't know what the various street signs indicated or how to use them to find her way around. And she had no idea where Alice had expected them to go, to find shelter. If she could just rest for a moment…

"Do you think we got away?" she asked, whispering her question to the empty air.

"No…" Quark muttered his sad reply. "Look up there, Miss."

He pointed into the sky. Up there a pair of sleek black helicopters streaked through the air towards them, almost silently despite their speed. Looking at the path they'd taken to arrive…

"They weren't just out here searching for us. They came… straight from that palace?" Luna asked.

Quark gasped. "From the palace? That means… Miss Luna, run!"

It was too late. The helicopters swooped onto them, hovering menacingly above either end of the road. Panels on the sides opened up; another of those sonic explosions ripped down towards them, causing Quark to scream and cover his ears. Then the helicopters disgorged squads of men, rappelling out all at once. These weren't the cops they'd seen before, with their bulky armour and plodding steps. They came down the sides of the skyscrapers with jerky inhuman movements, and though Luna could tell they were human at the core it was buried beneath layers of metal and wires. With them touching ground at both ends of the street there was no way out.

No: there might be a way. The wall of the building opposite looked weakened, cracks in the brickwork fraying across it in all directions. Had it been damaged by one of those explosions? Whatever the cause, it was their only chance. Luna grabbed Quark by the hand and ran towards the wall, launching herself towards it shoulder-first.

She impacted the wall… and it gave way.

They burst through to the other side, a run-down decrepit open space that had once been an office. Luna couldn't consider it in any more detail than that. The newest pursuers were still coming behind them. Luna and Quark had to keep running.

They were only half-way across the office when the pursuers reached the entrance. Even though Luna wasn't looking back to see, their arrival was heralded by the storm of laser bolts that shot towards them, flying over Luna's shoulder and striking the walls all around. The decaying rubble and obstacles bought Luna a few moments as she led Quark weaving between them.

But then one of the shooters found their mark. The first bolt hit the pillar just in front of Luna, spraying dust and sparks and making her flinch back. The second shot caught Quark on the upper arm; he screamed, falling away from Luna's grasp with blood spurting from the wound. Then the third shot hit Luna's back, dead-on, shoving her forward and…

And nothing more. Luna felt fine.

She didn't have time to be grateful for that reprieve. She scooped up Quark to cradle him in her arms and, ignoring the stern shouts to 'halt!' from behind her, carried on running. After bursting through the glass doors out the other side of the building, not caring as the falling shards sliced her ABT, Luna surveyed the street she'd come onto. She couldn't risk staying in the open for long, not with those two sleek transport helicopters still prowling up above.

There: a path forward. An alleyway opposite was covered by a chain-link fence and piled-up cardboard boxes. Something in the computer that was Luna's mind calculated the optimal route over. Her body automatically followed it, one arm supporting Quark against her chest as she clambered over.

The boy stirred as they landed on the other side. "Miss…?" he asked, gritting his teeth against the pain. "Are we… getting away?"

"I don't know," Luna replied. No, she had to give him more hope than that. "I'll do my best."

The path before them was cluttered, full of trash and equipment and even crisscrossed by solid pipes. This was not a route people were supposed to go down. But it was the only route Luna had. She sprinted along as fast as she could, and found herself dodging the obstacles and vaulting past the pipes with perfect timing. Had her body always been able to do this? She'd never had a chance to know, in the moonbase Rhizome Nine. In any case, she was grateful. The pursuing agents had entered the alleyway and were skittering past the obstructions just as efficiently as Luna had managed.

At the end of the alley was a metal chute heading down below the city. Luna wasn't able to keep her feet; she slipped into it, cradling Quark as they slid down. The space they tumbled into was a dingy walkway filled with sewerage pipes and electric cables, just like the space Alice had turned into her organisation's safehouse. But it had never had any actual people tending to it: the cloud of dust kicked up when the two of them went sprawling across the floor showed that.

The pursuing agents were gaining. Luna could hear them conversing – quick, efficient phrases to inform and co-ordinate – as they got closer. There was only one snippet she could actually discern the words of: "High Value Target, 'Princess', sighted." The emphasis clunked into place around that one word, whatever it was a codename for.

Luna scrambled awkwardly to her feet. She had to scoop Quark back up again. They had to keep moving before…

Then the pursuers were on them. One of the pursuing agents came skittering down the top-side of the chute they'd fallen down, claw-like attachments on his hands anchoring into the concrete of the ceiling so perfectly that he could crawl as though the Moon's reduced gravity didn't pull on him at all. Moments later two more pursuers came sliding down; they exited the chute into perfect forward rolls that took them either side of Luna and Quark, surrounding them and, ready to intercept their way forward.

Luna flinched back; fear hamstrung her steps and she tripped. She could only watch as the rest of the pursuing squad stalked down into the underground space. They fanned out, brandishing their laser guns, walking towards where Luna lay in an imposing, professional line. And then they walked right past Luna, passing her on either side without threatening her at all.

What? What were they doing? Luna turned over to see the squad forming an arc around Quark, guns trained on him only. They almost acted as a cordon, separating Luna from the young boy.

One more member of the squad strolled down after the others. The alterations to his body left him with the same expressionless mask-like mien as the others; Luna could only guess that he was the leader from his movements and demeanour, and a golden mark painted onto the metal of his shoulder. He raised one finger to the side of his smooth chrome head and spoke into the empty air. "Target 'Princess', safe and secure. I repeat, 'Princess' secure."

What did that mean? Luna didn't even consider asking him. In any case, she didn't have a chance to; after only a moment the leader came up beside Luna, knelt down next to her, and gently cradled her shoulder.

"Miss?" the squad leader asked, his smooth, melodiously electronic, dispassionate voice coming from where a normal human or Gaulem would keep their mouth. "Are you well, Miss?"

Luna didn't understand what he was saying. Why he was asking her that.

He spoke again, squeezing her shoulder with what had to be far less than his full augmented grip-strength, a gentle but firm prompting. "Have they harmed you?"

Overwhelmed by confusion, Luna shook her head.

"Very well, Miss. It'll be over soon. Then we'll be able to get you home." The squad leader stood up straight in one fluid motion. He paced through the cordon of men and, with a sharp gesture, directed his men forward.

The agents on either end of the line stepped toward Quark at that command, approaching him from both sides. He made an abortive attempt to back away; the two agents grabbed his arms and restrained him. From each of the agents' index fingers a glistening silver needle emerged, and as one they drove the points into the compartments of Quark's helmet. Quark howled in agony. As the boy writhed, the leader drew out a gun from a compartment in his body and fiddled with a dial on the side.

Luna knew exactly where her burst of strength and speed came from. It was hard-coded in her soul. She scrambled forward, grabbing onto an agent's leg as she passed to clumsily throw herself towards Quark. Her momentum drove the boy out of the hands of the agents who held him, and as they tumbled to the ground Luna put her body between the agents and Quark.

She'd been just in time. As Luna turned to face to leader the beam from his gun slammed against her chest. It winded her, but didn't do what it would have done to Quark.

It was somehow heartening, the bewilderment of the agents who'd pursued them so mercilessly. It took more than a few moments for the squad leader to bring his subordinates back under control, their flustered glances at each other in response to Luna's actions clearly not what he wanted. When he was done he raised a finger to the point on his mask-like face where his ear ought to have been.

Another gesture, this one directed at the agent right next to him. "Do it."

"Do it? But she's…"

"Father's orders. And take the others alive."

o-0-o

Whatever device the agents used on Luna to restrain her, it paralysed her Gaulem body in moments, and gradually suppressed the rest of her thought processes one by one. She kept her eyes open for as long as she could, as she and Quark were loaded onto the transport helicopters. The last thing she saw, as they were flown back towards the palace at the heart of Rhizome Nine, was the statue that overlooked the rest of the city. The holographic banner that surrounded it like a halo had changed its text. Now it displayed that slogan Alice had mentioned with scorn, the false hope Father promised to the citizens that the cybernetics he offered would elevate them as they had elevated him. Luna strained to read it just as her eyes went dark.

'I Was You; You Will Be Me.'