Earth Beneath My Feet — Robert J. Trout

In the year 2093, rogue asteroids bombarded the Earth, throwing massive amounts of dust into the atmosphere, disrupting the planet's delicate biosphere, and rendering it incapable of supporting life. Fortunately, space travel had greatly advanced with colonies on both the Earth's moon and Mars. In this time of crisis, the world's governments set aside their differences and combined their resources to save as many people as possible. Despite their efforts, one third of the world's population was left on the Earth. As predicted, the asteroids struck and plunged it into one-hundred-fifty years of darkness. Gradually, the planet healed itself and there came the day that The Earth Tribunal, the government established on the moon to govern all of humankind, placed space stations above Earth to monitor its progress; and set a date for the return of humanity to its home. Gordon Dash Rogers, a space cadet in training to be a spaceship pilot, stumbles onto a closely guarded secret that plunges him into a nightmare adventure that changes his life - and the future of humanity forever.