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Four generations of settler women on a distant world have different perspectives on the return to a natural life after decades in sealed domes. With a final image inspired by the author’s real-life (on Earth!) family history, this short, multi-generational tale explores the tension between the ties to the past and the promises of adventure inherited by each new generation.

Martin L. Shoemaker has dual careers as a software programmer and as an acclaimed, award-winning short story writer. He’s also the author of two novels, The Last Dance and The Last Campaign, installments in the Near Earth Mysteries science fiction series.