First Mover

Young Halcyon’s serene world has come undone. The boy’s body lying in her woodland sanctuary is the catalyst. A bribed Healer, a key witness at the hearing that will clear her, casts a shadow over her innocence. Gone is her Calling to become an apprentice Healer. Her plans to find work in Space are stymied by her house arrest. Her future hangs in stasis while her village’s leaders debate her fate.
Brant is completing the last days of his contract with the Gyp families that populate the space station, Gyp’s Wheel VII. Smart, creative, financially secure he plans dropping Earthside for a year’s rest. He needs it. Professionally the best Tinker in the Solar System, yet scarred by numerous losses, his personal life is in shambles.
Cela, the dead boy’s sister, wants revenge. That Ron-Ed’s death was accidental, and self-induced is unimportant. The village girl, Halcyon, is somehow responsible. Bribing Adam, the Healer witness, is just a first step toward making Halcyon pay.
Star-travel still eludes the Solar System. Near-Earth space is crowded. Mars, and its Lagrange points are suburbia, Io is making miners rich, but no one inhabits beyond. It’s the twenty-fourth century, but technology still lags, and faster-than-light travel remains only a Spacers’ dream.
These four collide. The results are upheaval, violence, deceit, and love. With the help of Crisp, Gyp’s Wheel VII’s commander, Brant finds purpose, Cela finds closure, and Halcyon finds refuge, peace and a Calling.