Mining the Oort

Mars was harsh and unforgiving, but for Dekker DeWoe and thousands of others, it was home. And the future of the colony was as bright as the giant comet that hung in the Martian sky, a symbol of the red planet’s coming rebirth. For out beyond the orbit of Pluto, in the swarm of comets called the Oort Cloud, miners were harnessing the vast potential locked in those icy bodies—and setting them on a long journey to Mars, where they would be used to bring water, air, and life to the barren colony.Dekker longed to become an Oort miner like his father before him. And so he worked for years to earn the expensive passage to Earth, the only place where comet miners were trained. But Dekker finally arrived at the Mars Project’s Colorado center, he discovered that he might be too late: The growing anxiety of the Project’s backers and competition from orbital farm habitats were threatening to shut down the Oort miners.Dekker was not prepared for the dual pressures of culture shock and the looming loss of his dream. Only the docility and nonviolence of his Martian upbringing helped him to control his growing frustration. Then he began to hear rumors of a plan to force restoration of the Mars Project, and when a suddenly accelerated training schedule promised to get Dekker back to space, his hopes for the future rose. What he could not know was that the rumored plan would place him in an impossible dilemma—for its success meant the deaths of millions, and failure meant the death of his beloved Mars... From the back cover Del Ray paperback July 1993: LOYALTY DIVIDED Mars was harsh, arid, and unforgiving, but for the colonists who called it home, its future was as bright as the comets that hung in the night sky. The comets were the hope of Mars's rebirth, corralled by the miners of the Mars Project from the vast Oort Cloud beyond Pluto -- for locked in those icy bodies were the water and gases that would make Mars green. Young Dekker DeWoe yearned to become an Oort miner. But when he finally arrived on Earth to begin training, he was suddenly confronted with the looming death of his dream. The backers of the Mars Project were threatening to shut down Oort mining in favor of the money to be made in Earth's new orbital farm habitats, and only the nonviolence of his Martian upbringing helped Dekker to control his frustration over the fate of his homeworld. Then he began to hear rumors of a secret plan to force the restoration of the Mars Project. But the rumored plan would soon place Dekker in an impossible dilemma -- for its success meant the deaths of millions, and failure meant the death of his beloved Mars... Mars was harsh and unforgiving, but for the colonists who called it home, its future was as bright as the comets that hung in the night sky, for locked in those icy bodies were the water and gases that would make Mars live again, mined from the vast Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. Young Dekker DeWoe yearned to become an Oort miner. But when he finally arrived on Earth to begin training, he learned that the price that Mars might have to pay for EarthвЂTMs financial help would be decades of near-slavery. He had barely begun training when the mining project was abruptly canceled. Then he began to hear rumors of a plan to force the restoration of the mining—a plan that would result in the deaths of millions . . . “Pohl is a master at the intricacies of space adventure, and his realistic detail and likable, if ingenuous protagonist make this a good choice . . .” — Library Journal Mars was harsh, arid, and unforgiving, but for Dekker DeWoe and thousands of others, it was home. And the future of the colony was as bright as the giant comet that hung in the Martian sky, a symbol of the red planet's coming rebirth. For out beyond the orbit of Pluto, in the swarm of comets called the Oort Cloud, miners were harnessing the vast potential locked in those icy bodies - and setting them on a long journey to Mars, where they would be used to bring water