Standing beneath the cloudless night sky, I closed my eyes and let all my thoughts drain out of my head. The cold didn’t matter. My hands didn’t hurt anymore. I didn’t worry that tomorrow we were expecting a visit from the GQO, the Government Quota Office, to assess next year’s harvest. And I didn’t care that I was late for dinner again, which Mom always borrowed Dad’s Look to scold me for.

I just stood there in the cold and breathed. To have a few moments alone felt indescribably good. I opened my eyes to look at my palms, and I smiled at all the cracks in my skin. I saw the moonlight rising behind one of the mountaintops, and I dreamed of what it might be like to watch the moon from one of the orbital stations a hundred-thousand kilometers above the Earth.

–Darkness Between the Stars (Eaters of the Light Book 1) by J Edward Neill