The Epiphytes Trilogy by Barry Pomeroy

The Epiphytes Trilogy

The Epiphytes Trilogy is a hard science fiction series set in the asteroid belt.

Although it was originally an insult, the Epiphytes had embraced the term. They were each part of a hundred different ecosystems spread throughout the asteroid belt. Resources were running low and the many rocks had been claimed by miners and colonies, but it was their home.

Dara was only sixteen, but she'd wanted to escape Garonic as long as she could remember. People both Above and Below were merely counting time, and she didn't want to scrape in the dirt like a miner, grow fresh like a farmer, or watch the distant stars like her astronomer mother.

Clinging like a limpet onto one of the asteroids, the dome colony was claustrophobic. Her mother hovered over her until she could barely breathe, and now she'd picked up some creep who claimed to be her father. Her friend Jurri--if she could be torn from the boy who'd captured her gaze--would join her. She was going to be a pioneer, like those ones on the vids about old Earth.

As soon as she heard about the new planet, Dara knew she had to get there first. She was going to lay claim to untold wealth, garner prestige throughout the belt, but most importantly, she would find a place she could dig into the rock and call her own.

Epiphytes 2: Settlement and Building

Once they arrived at the rogue planetoid they'd been hard at work. Uta had called the field of asteroidal debris Marée, since it was subject to tides, but its dispersed nature made building a colony both easier and more difficult.

Their ship Marita drifted amongst the planetary fragments, and far away, a streamer of drives showed that ships were coming as quickly as possible. Some of them were old friends come to help with the project, while others were new business partners drawn by the untold wealth in metals and volatiles. Still others were a danger, for Marée was a flag in the sky which called to every Corps probe and ship, as well as the fleets from the inner planets. There was money to be made in the belt, and like dogs to torn flesh, the pack would soon be growling at the gate.

In the meantime they had to build habitats for the arriving colonists from Below, match military might with an unscrupulous Earth and Corps, gather what scientific data they could from the rapidly changing field, and dream of a long term goal.

The weeks before they burst through the plane of the solar system and went above it were going to be busy. They would need all their skills to weather the coming storm.

Epiphytes 3: Fighting for Home

They'd never anticipated a battle, and still less that someone would attack them from within, but the colonists of Marée had learned to be resilient. They counted their losses and began to rebuild. The widespread field that remained from the long-ago exploded planet was rich in resources and they were far enough from the inner planets that they felt they could afford to experiment with engineering and biology.

The success of the habitats began to be duplicated and even the enclosure-the most massive engineering project in the solar system-was drawing onlookers from all over the system. Despite the attacks, the petty rivalries, and corporate espionage, they were starting to feel invulnerable, and that was a mistake.

The Corps was becoming a genocidal force in the solar system, and they had yet to plumb the depths of their secrets and depravity. It was the battle of their era, that with the Corps, but they were concerned that if the rest of the system turned against them, they'd be on their own again.

This time they would be more careful, they would be more selective, and with a secret weapon on their side, they would strike against the Corps before it struck them.