Where Is Home?

"Gypsy."

A few years after the invention of the hyperdrive, the Traveler was carrying colonists to Alpha Centauri when a then unexplained explosion in her engines threw the ship thousands of light-years off course. The ship was repaired and more than twenty years were spent searching for Earth before Harbor was settled. Thorkild Erling, born during the search, was among the minority who voted to continue searching because:

"'...it wasn't Earth but the search itself that I wanted. I liked to find new planets.'" (p. 19)

Might the Nomad life-style be sustained not because it is economically necessary but only because enough people want it? In Britain, a small number of people want to maintain the Traveler life-style and, like Anderson's Nomads, are regarded as disruptive nuisances by the powers that be:

"'Why do you Cordys have it in for the poor Nomads so much?'

".They're the worst disruptive factor our civilization has,' he said grimly. 'They go everywhere and do anything, with no thought of the consequences. To Earth, the Nomads are romantic wanderers; to me, they're a pain.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), CHAPTER IV, p. 30.

 

Meanwhile, before the Traveler becomes the first Nomad ship, the question, "Where is home?" is raised in an acute form. Erling tells one of his sons:

 

"'But we've got a good home now, Einar, here on Harbor.'" ("Gypsy," p. 19)

 

But then he says:

 

"'...after repairing the ship, we spent more than twenty years looking. We never found home.' I added quickly, 'Until we decided to settle on Harbor. That was our home.'" (p. 20)

 

But Erling was born in the Traveler.