Belter Homes

Most Belters live in small apartments they call holes, often enough literal holes bored into the rock of asteroids. The nicer areas are lit by recessed lights, with green floors and blue ceilings to try and trick the body into thinking of Earth. The trickery is aided by pseudo scents to drown out the antiseptic smell of sealant and recycled air and water. Vast neighborhoods are separated by corridors, linked by air filtration systems and massive metal ducts that collect fungi and detritus unless they’re constantly scrubbed clean. This deep sense of community lends itself to an odd combination of civic pride and self-reliance, reinforced by the close quarters. Belters walk from corridor to corridor, take public transport tubes, and live their lives within close reach of their neighbors.
No asteroid in the Belt is naturally fit for human life or habitation, nor can they be terraformed like Mars. Nothing will ever grow in solid rock and no air will cling to a dwarf planet. Every breath a Belter takes comes through an air filter, and every breath is shared with a thousand others in tight quarters. Keeping filters clean, gray-water purifiers humming, and the fungus tanks properly shielded is a task for the entire community. When the authorities are shipped in from corporations on Luna or Earth, they can’t be trusted. Belters look out for one another as a matter of habit and course, and when a Belter fails in their duties or screws over another, it’s dealt with as a community matter. When something breaks, it gets fixed—if not by a Belter, then by someone they tell immediately, since nobody else can be expected to fix it. Belters are just as likely to fix malfunctioning equipment themselves without bothering a landlord as they are to summarily murder administrators who won’t keep the air filters clean. Justice can’t be relied on to be doled out by anyone else, either. Consequently, Belters tend to see the Inner residents of the solar system, as interminably lazy. Even the Martian work ethic gets corrupted by their need for someone to oversee their work.

A Belter Apartment