The Last Exodus

After long years of war, the people of the Sol system were tired of fighting. Sublight had been achieved, as so much tech is, as part of the one-upmanship that occurs when war breaks out. Now, in an effort to keep the pressure cooker known as the human race from blowing up for the umpteenth time, the governments of the various nations and planets inhabited in the system got together and decided to take advantage of the newfound peace to spread the risk, as it were. Scientists were pressed into service. Scouts scrounged from the remnants of all armies concerned, and ships were sent off. One by one, they dropped of the interstellar map, their reports falling victim to distance and physics. Years and wars passed. Scientists kept working on the solution of moving armies at speed from one part of the solar system to another. Finally, someone failed in nearly the most spectacular fashion possible. The fact that Pluto had been shattered overshadowed the actual accomplishment for a good while, and it was only after the initial work of salvage had been accomplished that the first gate was discovered among the floating remains of the clandestine lab. It would have sparked another war, if the collective scientific community in the system hadn't risen up in revolt. War was averted, barely. On further study, it was discovered that the Gate had anchored itself in a distant part of the galaxy. An uninhabitable that none-the-less had a signal coming from it. A beacon. An expedition was sent, amidst high exaltation at finding intelligent life outside the Sol system. Hopes were dashed and millions of dreams crushed when the expedition returned. With the solar powered emergency beacon from one of the long lost, nearly forgotten, exploration vessels. Old hopes replaced those that had vanished at the realization that aliens had not yet been discovered. Somehow, someway, the now dead scientists working on Pluto had found a way to bridge the gaps between solar systems. Disagreements and wars were set aside in truth. The people of Sol pooled time, money, and scientific resources to recreate the accident that resulted in the Gate. Unmanned drone haulers were commissioned to haul the first Gate out past the edge of the system, and a base built around it of salvaged spaceships. Eventually, the science team managed to duplicate the feat, in a more controlled manner (and having decamped to the opposite side of the solar system for the second test). And the Sol Colonial Movement was born. A second of the original scout ships was found, and then the third. At last, all six had been found, their solar systems scouted, and more scouts commissioned, with more sophisticated and purposeful beacons. As the first colonial ships were readied, the second wave went out. Hopes ran high. At last, after uncounted years of petty wars and bickering over the last metaphorical drop of water, humanity could quit eating its own and finally start to grow again. To build.