| abstract
| - Bryant's Star Station orbits 61 Cygni, a K5/K7 distant binary system 11.4 light years from Sol. The stars orbit each other in an eccentric orbit between 44 AU and 124 AU with a period of 659 years. Bryant's orbits 61 Cygni B. 61 Cygni is also known as GJ 820. In the author's original timeline, after being scouted by the Sol Corporation's second star probe in 2029, ECS2 Valiant departed for 61 Cygni in 2030, the same year a twin mission set out to found Alpha Station (Barnard's Star) and Glory Station (Ross 154). Valiant arrived and set up Bryant's Star Station in 2042, making it the third star station founded by the Earth Company. Bryant's is on a different vector from Sol than Alpha/Glory Stations and Beta Station. It lies 9.3 light years from Barnard's Star (Alpha), 12.2 light years from Ross 154 (Glory), and 14.4 light years from Alpha Centauri (Beta). But, it is only 5.2 light years from Kruger 60, site of Venture Station (which it founded), and only 5.6 light years from Ross 248, site of Thule Station (founded from Venture). It is 6.9 light years from Galileo Station (EV Lacertae, which it also founded) and 7.1 light years from Olympus Station (Groombridge 34). Nevertheless, Bryant's is as far from Sol as Pell (Tau Ceti, 11.9 light years) is, with no equivalent resources. To make matters worse, Bryant's is 15.6 light years from Pell, founded in 2093. The nearness of four other stations is relevant in the sublight era, but these stations have nothing to offer even close to the resources of Pell. Worse still, the closest sublight connection from this local trading group to the Eldorado/Pell chain is 10.6 light years (from Thule to Eldorado). The abandonment of Glory Station in 2183 and Alpha Station in 2195 brought hundreds of colonists from those stations through Bryant's, generating serious stress, even though most colonists continued on to stations closer to Pell. Although the four-station trading group has worked for a hundred years, all expansion has been beyond Pell, with the founding of Viking and Mariner. Glory and Alpha are the first to recognize and accept the inevitable, but the exposure to their evacuating inhabitants clearly affects Bryant's thinking Following the unrest at Thule in 2230, Bryant's is the next station to begin a major exodus. In 2240, ECS8 Gloriana, after arriving from Venture, departs back to that station with the first of three (possibly four) loads of passengers from Bryant's. Gloriana shuttles between Venture and Bryant's repeatedly, taking passengers one-way in 2240, 2250, and 2260. ECS6 Polaris also makes a run in support of the exodus, departing Bryant's in 2241 in a round trip from Venture. FTLECS2 Valiant visits Bryant's in 2262 on its initial tour out of Sol, undoubtedly cementing Bryant's fate in the minds of its residents. ECS6 Polaris arrives from Venture in 2268. Having seen FTL, the panicked citizens commandeer Polaris to push them in a module to Venture. They mothball Bryant's and leave that year, arriving back at Venture in 2273. The author's original timeline contains an error in the Bryant's departures, placing Gloriana at both Venture and Bryant's in 2265. Had Gloriana returned to Bryant's, it would have arrived in 2270, after the abandonment. Gloriana's final departure from Bryant's takes few passengers, as Bryant's erupts in riots. Gloriana never returns, instead continuing on to Olympus, the long journey to Eldorado, and finally Pell. ECS4 Golden Hind visits Bryant's in 2268, shortly after Polaris's departure, discovering the station mothballed. Bryant's was claimed and reactivated by the Alliance following the Company Wars. After reactivation following the Company Wars, the discovery of a point mass off Bryant's, named Gaia Point, provided a route to Earth from the Beyond that made four of the Hinder Stars stations, Thule, Venture, Glory, and Beta, obsolete once again. Bryant's is 13.1 light years from Mariner (Van Maanen's Star) and 15.3 light years from Cyteen. In the years after the company wars, an intermediate jump point could make the route from Mariner feasible for the super freighters being constructed by both Union and Alliance. The novel Finity's End makes clear such a route, bypassing Pell, is not in the Alliance's interest.
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