Niya

Hi! I’m Niya. My life isn’t exactly what you’d call “normal.” I mean, sure, I like chocolate ice cream and silly jokes just like other kids, but let’s just say I’ve spent a lot more time learning to throw a punch than learning to play hopscotch.

Let me start from the beginning. My mom and dad—they’re kind of a big deal. Both of them are scientists, but not just any scientists. They’re like super-famous genius scientists who people say can “change the world.” They do all kinds of experiments that most people can’t even imagine. My dad is the lead scientist, with my mom as his right-hand assistant. Together, they’ve discovered things people only read about in science fiction.

Because they’re so famous, there are people out there—bad people—who want to control them or even hurt them. When I was really young, my dad said to me, “You’re smarter than you know, Niya. We need you to be strong.” And so, when I was just four years old, my dad sent me to live on a military base for training. It was hard at first, really hard, and I missed my parents. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just live at home like other kids. But my dad told me it was to keep me safe. He said, “If you’re strong, you can protect yourself and stay out of harm’s way.”

So, I listened. I trained every day, learning how to fight, how to think quickly, and how to stay safe. My best friend and teacher at the base was Commander Uncle. That’s not his real name, but I call him that because he’s like family. He taught me everything I know about defending myself. Some kids learn the alphabet or counting games; I was learning self-defense and survival techniques. And guess what? I was actually pretty good at it.

Even though I was training all the time, my dad didn’t forget that I loved science, too. He would send me chemistry problems and little science puzzles to keep my brain sharp, and I’d figure them out. Sometimes, he’d even call me to teach me something new—maybe a trick with chemicals or an experiment I could try. My parents couldn’t visit me as much as I wanted, but I could feel their love every day through those lessons.

When I turned thirteen, everything changed. My parents had to move to another research site, somewhere top-secret for a project that was “different from anything they’d done before.” I was still living at the army base with Commander Uncle, but every day, my parents would send me messages, updates on their work, and some clues about their “new discovery.” They would say things like, “This might change what we know about the universe” or “We’re so close to something incredible.” Their words always sounded a bit excited but also… a little worried.

Then one day, the messages stopped. I didn’t hear from them for days, then weeks. I waited, feeling a knot of fear growing in my stomach. And then Commander Uncle gave me the news I had been dreading: my parents were gone.

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