Tripoint is a science fiction novel by the United States science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh, first published by Warner Books in September 1994. It is one of Cherryh's Merchanter novels and is set in the author's Alliance-Union universe. Background In the Alliance-Union universe, Tripoint is a system of three "dark" masses orbiting each other. They are not composed of dark matter; rather, they are much less luminous than a star. Two of the points are brown dwarfs, and the third may have been captured later. It was first charted and navigated in 2266, and serves as a staging jump-point on some of the commercial station-to-station hops, for example, Pell–Viking and Pell–Mariner. Tripoint's orbital behavior is troublesome to predict due to gravitational interactions of three massive bodies; thus, navigation is challenging in the vicinity. Plot summary Twenty years in the past, merchanter ships Sprite and Corinthian were docked at Mariner Station. What started out as a friendly sleepover between the inexperienced Marie Hawkins of Sprite and Austin Bowe of Corinthian turned into rape, with Marie becoming pregnant. She elected to raise the child, Thomas Bowe-Hawkins, on Sprite, but was consumed with rage. Her brother becomes captain of the Sprite. Tom grew up with an ambivalent mother and was never fully accepted by his family. When Austin later became senior captain of Corinthian, Marie started tracking Corinthian's movements in order to expose what she suspected was smuggling. When the two ships cross paths again, this time at Viking, Marie is ready for her revenge. She and Tom scour the docks for information about Corinthian's cargo, but Tom is caught snooping and is imprisoned aboard Corinthian, forcing the ship to depart prematurely for Pell Station via Tripoint. At Marie's insistence, Sprite pursues Corinthian. On Corinthian, Tom meets Austin, his domineering father, and Capella, second chief navigator and night-walker. When Corinthian docks at Pell Station, Tom's younger half-brother, Christian Bowe-Perrault tries to solve the problem by shipping him off to Sol Station, but Tom escapes and hides on the docks. Christian and Capella search frantically for him, unaware that Sabrina Perrault-Cadiz, Christian's cousin, has already found and befriended him. When Capella contacts old acquaintances for assistance, it attracts the unwanted attention of a dissident faction within the outlawed Mazianni Fleet. Capella is an ex-Fleet navigator with knowledge of Fleet routes and drop-points, which the dissidents want. When Corinthian prepares to depart