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Usually there are two "reasons" why something is performed; the key reason why it needs to be done, and, quite independent, the reason why people wish to accomplish it. The foul-up begins when the reason-for-wanting is satisfied ... and the necessity remains. . . !
The fleet numbered fifteen, more than half the interstellar ships humankind possessed. But Earth's overlords had been as anxious to remove the Constitutionalists (the most stubborn ones, at least; the stay-at-homes were ipso facto less likely to be frustrating) as that science-minded, liberty-minded group of archaists were to flee being forcibly ingested by modern society. Rustum, e Eridani II, was six parsecs away, forty-one years of travel, and barely habitable: however the only possible world yet learned. A successful colony would be esteemed, and could do no injury; its failure would dispose of a thorn in the official ribs. Tying up fifteen ships for eight generations was fine too. Exploration was a dwindling activity, which interested fewer men each generation.
