Escaping an abusive partner is as tough in 2060 as it was in 2020. You just have further to run. Running as far away as possible was top of Melissa’s list especially as her husband was President of an authoritarian regime the British Democratic Republic. Finding a neutral haven close enough to reach quickly key to her escape plan. Hence she chose Space Village One a neutral colony of settlers orbiting two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth. These days the only safe haven for anyone not wanting to be included in a future war was to leave the planet. Space Village One offered much for those able to reach it including fortifications made from minerals found on Mars and Venus that made it stronger than anything built on Earth. Not that the villagers were warriors, most were engineers and scientists led by Mayor Cannon. Numbering just one hundred a fifty villagers they represented a society of equality that shamed surface societies. For that reason none had been allowed to return to the surface for two decades the authorities fearing what their populations might do after learning that equality in a population was possible.