Far Horizon (Juggernaut #4)

Interstitial 1

If the map of the Commonwealth were laid out in two dimensions, the Peleg system would occupy the lower-left corner of the image. It was once the foothold from Earth to the local star-cluster that would eventually become the Commonwealth systems.

It had no industry to speak of. Agriculture was light. Commerce had relocated following the civil war. There was no tourism and little trade. Even crime had moved on, seeking greater prizes elsewhere.

When it had been the system anchoring the local colonies to earth it had been important, the only way back to earth. Each new trader, or colonist, or prospector looking to make their fortune had travelled via Peleg. They never stayed, because what was there to stay for here? An unimpressive F-type star orbited by eight barren planets in a distant orbit and two more that existed in the narrow habitable zone. They could support life, just about, but they would never thrive. But they were never meant to.

If you could make it to Peleg it meant you were within jump range of Itzo, and from Itzo you could jump to Colden and Mure. Each of those systems was in jump range of Selah, and from there the cluster that became the Commonwealth opened up.

Three simple jumps from Peleg and the entire Commonwealth was within reach, ready to welcome you. Whole worlds ready to exploit.

Another word would be vulnerable.

But Verloren, the star that Peleg could once reach, the stepping stone back to earth, had exploded. The supernova had killed all life in the system and destroyed the two navigation beacons that bridged earth and Peleg. The stellar debris from the explosion spread through and beyond the local system. High-energy particles and gravimetric distortions warped space, unsettled the cosmos, and assuming you were willing to wait forty years for a reply, even made communication with earth impossible.

It took the best part of a decade for the light of that explosion to reach Peleg. Decades more for Verloren's dying light to shine upon the rest of the Commonwealth systems. By then they already knew something terrible must have happened. No new ships arrived. The ships that departed Peleg for Verloren, plotting their jumps on outdated navigation data, never returned.

By then the colonies were already at war.

But that was decades ago. War was a distant memory, and as far as the rest of the Commonwealth was concerned Peleg had gone from foothold to footnote.

It's time was over.