The First Nomads

The Traveler, carrying colonists to Alpha Centauri, was thrown off course by a trepidation vortex. Unable to find Sol after a twenty year search, the colonists settled on an Earth-like planet where they were able to adopt a mechanized peasant life-style. However, some of those who grew up in the Traveler remained restless and eventually took the ship out again on an endless voyage, becoming the first Nomads. The founding captain envisages a mobile culture spreading the best from all races throughout the gestating interstellar civilization.

So what would you have done? Remained on Harbor or gone with the Traveler? I would have preferred an intermediate position: interstellar exploration while maintaining a base on Harbor. The Thorkilds leave behind them a farm that they had built.

The Peregrine tells us that, when the Nomads meet on Rendezvous beyond known space, the hereditary presidency of the Council remains with the Captain of the Traveler, currently the third of that name in three hundred years. The Chronology tells us that the endless voyage began in 2815 and that the events of The Peregrine occur in 3120 so three hundred is a round number. But the Nomads sure live a long time.