When the notification pinged, Gabe was alone on the Light Catcher bridge, plotting a course toward the next nearest energy source.

At first, Gabe ignored it, but when it became insistent, he glanced at what the machine wanted.

A message was in.

From Hope.

Weeks of no contact, and now they were sending something? Gabe opened it up to find a tightly wound data packet that claimed it would unfold into what looked like courses worth of material on engineering, physics, medicine, elder care, and greenhouses. Some of the engineering titles looked like the graduate work one of his cousins was doing. The packet also claimed to contain a Chinese translation app, a “short” history of the last Earth conflict, and a treatise on the psychology of long trips in small ships....

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