Jack of Harts

The Branan spent centuries fully colonizing all six star systems of the greater Betelgeuse system, but they were looking further out all that time. They sent probes on the long treks to stars five, ten, fifteen, or twenty lightyears away in search of worlds that could sustain them. They found worlds ready for them under many of those stars, but the ones they found most useful to their purposes were those with multiple stars orbiting each other. Those with multiple gas giants and planetary populations orbiting them went to the top of their list for future colonization. And by the time they were ready to send their first colony ships beyond the influence of Betelgeuse, they knew where every rock lay within twenty lightyears of their home. They picked a trinary star system six lightyears away and, five hundred years after the Albion left, the Branan followed them to the stars on a plume of rockets’ red glare.