Un-Para-Llel — E. Robert Dunn

For millions of years, Earth was fertile and rich. Then pollution and waste began to take their toll. Civilization fled to the stars for sanctuary. First, as prospectors seeking riches, then as explorers, and finally as settlers. Planets in the Glaser 667 were among many colonized and used to re-build what had been destroyed. On the planet Un, a widowed matriarch and her sons are stranded with strangers out, of all places, in the desert. Making it difficult to survive the heat, no water, and hard to put up with each other. A birthday celebration on Para at a waterfront saloon is interrupted when the partiers are drugged and shanghaied for sea duty. An old acquaintance is suspected to be behind the disappearances- the help of one of the planet's indigenous Mer are asked to investigate this hunch. Lell is a planet steeped in tradition. An arranged mating goes awry when one refuses to consummate the arrangement in lieu of being with their true love.Far out in space is a place for the uber rich and elusive. Living aboard a luxurious space station apart from the hardscrabble; denying their cyber-servant class equality.