Remnant Population

Remnant Population is a science fiction novel by the American writer Elizabeth Moon, published in 1996. Its protagonist, Ofelia, is an old woman who decides to remain on a colony world after the company that sent her there pulls out.

Ofelia has lived for forty years on the planet colonised by the Sims Bancorp company. When the shifting fortunes of the company lead it to disband Colony 3245.12 and move its residents elsewhere in cryogenic sleep, she chooses to stay, both because she doubts she would survive the freezing and because she is unwilling to leave the place where her family is buried. She hides in the woods until the last of the others have gone; the company makes no effort to look for her, since she is of no value to it. She stays alone in the abandoned village until a group of the planet's natural inhabitants approach her, and she ends up teaching them her language and something of her technology while they come to regard her as a Nest Guardian, a revered caretaker. When other humans discover that the species exists, scientists and soldiers arrive on the planet, and their view of how to treat the inhabitants conflicts with hers.

Moon's science fiction tends to be interested in people whose work and obligations are unglamorous, and this book gives its central place to a woman the company has already written off.