Downbelow Station Author:C.J. Cherryh The pioneering new colonies of deep space, calling themselves the Union, have rebelled against the repressive old order of the Earth Company.In a war of attrition, the Union's vast resources from the beyond have whittled Earth Company's once great fleet down to a handful of carrier jumpships. Now fighting a rear-guard action, as successive star-... more »stations fall to the Union, the depleted but still powerful fleet regroups about Pell, the last neutral star-station, with its native population of furry, gentle Hisa.
But Pell is far from neutral. Secret envoys from Earth Company have arrived to sue for peace with the Union, even to sell out the fleet if necessary. Pell itself is on the edge of exploding as the Konstantin family, which controls the star-station, is threatened by Jon Lukas, a greedy and ambitious politician. And the station's very existence is endangered by a flood of starving, maddened refugees from the fallen star-stations, who will kill for their own survival.« less