"For the first time in her life, she was truly and utterly alone..." Below the rock of Centuesse 16, in an asteroid cluster on the distant fringes of space, Phebs builds colonies for future human colony, a job she loves because it took her far, far away from humans in general. When tragedy strikes, the young builder is forced to take control of her life and confront her true place in the universe as her life of happy isolation begins to dissolve.