Terraformers

Destry is an engineer employed by Verdance, a mega-corporation that makes distant worlds habitable for the descendants of Earth. While working, she comes across a place that should not exist: Spider, a hidden city of refugees living beneath the surface.

The people of Spider are a mixed community. Some are H. diversus, the original terraformers. Others are robots that have developed consciousness and a culture of their own, and animals engineered to survive in an oxygenated atmosphere.

Once Verdance learns the city is there, it declares war on its inhabitants. Destry's team then uncovers a secret that might force the corporation to change course.

The story then jumps forward by centuries. A new team of unlikely allies has to work through a political minefield, with corporate interests on one side and the rights of those history left behind on the other.

The setting is a far future, and the book is science fiction told in two eras with different casts. Its conflict is political, with a mix of species at the center of the stakes.