Discovery and Escape

Although it was originally an insult, the Epiphytes had embraced the term. They were each part of a hundred different ecosystems spread throughout the asteroid belt. Resources were running low and the many rocks had been claimed by miners and colonies, but it was their home.Dara was only sixteen, but she'd wanted to escape Garonic as long as she could remember. People both Above and Below were merely counting time, and she didn't want to scrape in the dirt like a miner, grow fresh like a farmer, or watch the distant stars like her astronomer mother.Clinging like a limpet onto one of the asteroids, the dome colony was claustrophobic. Her mother hovered over her until she could barely breathe, and now she'd picked up some creep who claimed to be her father. Her friend Jurri—if she could be torn from the boy who'd captured her gaze—would join her. She was going to be a pioneer, like those ones on the vids about old Earth.As soon as she heard about the new planet, Dara knew she had to get there first. She was going to lay claim to untold wealth, garner prestige throughout the belt, but most importantly, she would find a place she could dig into the rock and call her own.