[ WP ] All of Earth 's cities have been converted into spaceships and are about to take off and head in different directions . A close knit family living in different cities have to decide what to do .

Rohit Prasad was born into the Kshatriya, one of India's upper castes and would have ruled over a province or city in ancient times. But he was born in 2209, and instead of pursuing political ambitions at home he went to American schools to chase his boyhood dream of building the robots he saw in comic books. While in school, Rohit fell in love with Alison, a pretty French Biology student. A few years after graduation, they got married and ( after Rohit ’ s parents recovered from the shock of their youngest son marrying an American ) ended up in California working for Acceltromix, an ambitious nano-tech/biotech startup company that became wildly successful after inventing a series of plants and machines that could effectively turn seeds, sunlight, and water into fuel for faster than light engines. 
 
 Like all successful Silicon Valley startups, Acceltromix owed most of its success to some innovation and a great amount of luck. The company managed file their patents without attracting much attention outside the small world of space tourism, which was enough to pay the bills and a small dividend to investors. But it was the announcement of the Exodus project that catapulted Rohit, Alison, and everyone else who held shares of Acceltromix into the ever growing club of young Californian billionaires. Exodus would pack Earth ’ s major cities into space colonies, and send them to the far reaches of the galaxy in search of more hospitable environments for humanity ’ s ceaseless growth. The colonies of Palo Alto and San Francisco would all make planet-fall in the southern hemisphere of Tau Ceti e, the closest habitable planet, with the idea that they could support the other colonies with any inventions and innovations necessary to complete their longer journeys. 
 
 Acceltromix was very interested in keeping their headline winning team of roboticists and botanists intact. For that reason, Alison, Rohit, and their colleagues were given some time off to engage in several rounds of familial negotiations. The couple was currently sitting in their massive one-thousand square foot apartment in Palo Alto, wearing virtual reality headsets for a Skype VR session with Alison ’ s parents. 
 
 “ Hi, Mom! ” began Alison. 
 
 “ Hello Alison, ” responded Mrs. Fournier, Alison ’ s mother. “ The lilacs are lovely this time of year. Do you think you ’ ll have time to visit before you leave? ” Mrs. Fournier asked, as if Alison was about to leave home again for another degree. Mrs. Fournier remained heroically in denial that her daughter would soon live on another planet, never to see her again. 
 
 “ That ’ s why we called mom, we wanted to talk to you again about the trip…about Exodus. We ’ ve given it a lot of thought and we wanted to know if you would come live with us, ” said Alison. 
 
 “ And come with you to Tau City? ” said Mrs. Fournier. 
 
 “ It ’ s Tau Ceti e, Mom, ” Alison corrected. 
 
 Mrs. Fournier sighed before continuing, “ I don ’ t know dear, we have the bakery and Paris is such a beautiful city. We like it here. I can ’ t imagine leaving. ” 
 
 “ Yeah, it ’ s nice, ” chimed in Mr. Fournier, never one to miss a chance to complain, “ But the bakery is getting tiresome. I ’ ve baked baguettes every day for long time. I could do with a change of pace. ” 
 
 “ Oh, Cecil you always say that, but you ’ ll be back in front of the ovens tomorrow morning whistling to yourself before you know it, ” chided Mrs. Fournier to her husband before continuing, “ Look honey we ’ re happy here now, we ’ ll be happy when the ships take off and we finally have Earth to ourselves, don ’ t worry about us. You just go on and have a great time inventing new flowers and robots on your new planet. ” 
 
 Between the catacombs under the city and the venerated stone architecture above, Paris was poorly adapted for conversion into a space colony. As such it was one of the few cities that had elected to stay behind. The French who wanted to leave were welcome to join other cities in the European Union or other cities in which they had family, of course, but a surprisingly large majority of Parisians didn ’ t want to leave Earth or their beloved city. 
 
 “ Alison is pregnant, ” said Rohit in a familiar monotone voice. All three Fourniers, known for their talkative nature, were silent for a long moment before Rohit continued, “ We told my parents last night and we are telling you now. My family already decided to move in with my brother and his husband in Beijing. If you come live with us then you will have the grandchild all to yourself while Alison and I invent ‘ flowers and robots. ’ ” 
 
 “ We ’ ll think about it, Rohit, ” said Mr. Fournier, surprising everyone by both speaking before his wife and correctly pronouncing Rohit ’ s name. The conversation shifted to other, lighter topics before Mr. and Mrs. Fournier gave their farewells and went to bed. Alison and Rohit continued their day, pointedly ignoring the conversation with Alison ’ s parents until she couldn ’ t stand it any longer and finally blurted out, “ Way to drop the bomb on them, champ. ” 
 
 “ Sure, ” came Rohit ’ s terse reply. She smiled at him and kissed him before they too went to bed. Tomorrow morning they would have one final chance to convince Alison ’ s parents to board a shuttle to America, and hopefully, a colony bound to Tau Ceti e.
