Departure preparations are underway in Colonia. The cargo decks are clear, Tritium reserves are being checked against the return plan and the bridge has begun final review of the first sequence of jumps back toward the Bubble.
Our final destination is HIP 117029, the origin system of the Stella Nebula Project faction. After a year spent ranging far beyond familiar space, there is a quiet gravity in setting a course not merely toward inhabited systems, but toward the point from which this work first took shape.
Colonia has served us well as a harbor at the far end of the expedition. Soon enough, though, the carrier will turn its bow homeward. The long road back begins with one clean departure.