MAIYAN NATION     by Will David Mitchell and Carol L. Mitchell

Three world-famous astronauts, Preston and Elizabeth covertly married a week before, depart from Earth to seek, well gold too, but war-critical iridium in the Asteroid Belt.  The third pilot is Maiya, who must leave her beau behind.

There is no Iridium left on Earth, nor Luna, nor Mars.  If found, it will allow construction of Plutoniun-Hydrogen-OXygen (PHOX) space drives that can refuel from icy asteroids, and run far faster than conventional rockets.  It could allow any nation having Iridium to utterly dominate space flight, and potentially the entire planet.  (This is good science, by the way.  NASA is developing such, now.)

Deep in the Asteroid Belt, their ship is slammed by a rare, unseen, cannonball sized rock at Mach-20.  That's relatively slow, but it craters 8 engines of 9, their nav gear, their comm gear, and folds her seat around Elizabeth.  The crew barely stabilize Elizabeth from death, and their ship, and continue deceleration on one engine, finally finding a large porous asteroid.  They name it Maiya; she sportted first.  They stop for repairs. 

It's hopeless.  Even if they could limp home in 20+ years, they could not land, but they only have food for three years anyhow.  And nobody has a clue about  where they are.

They have electricity, heat, food, and water for three years, but that's it.

Still, they are bright, industrious, and clever, NASA's top three out of a thousand space pilots.  They are a mining ship, so they bore into a small cavity as proof against deadly solar flares even that far out.  They seal their cavity with native sulfur and lead, and bore deeper. There, they plant any seeds they can find in the mineral-rich soil they create by drilling.

 And then they discover Elizabeh is with child.  But so is Maiya.  And Preston is the only man out there.  There are no words to explain ....

Their situation gets better and much worse as they survive disasters.  And much better, to the point that they finally attract rescuers, who choose to stay in their utopia!  They find iridium and abundant fibrous gold, which they use for wires and pipes, for there is no copper, nor aluminum on Maiya.

They even butterfly arounnd in their thick atmosphere and negligible gravity.

 First in the Maiyans Series, followed by:
Maiyan Wars, Maiyan Lion, Maiyan Empire, Maiyan Deliverance, and others to come.