Five more years have passed. Everything is spiraling out of control and that is the good news. With each new shipload of colonists, the focus shifts and clarity diminishes. What was once a tight-knit community is gradually becoming something else, something more diffuse, something harder to pin down and categorize easily. Fifty thousand more inhabitants mean fifty thousand more variables in the overall equation that constitutes Junction, and almost everyone sees that as a good thing. The colony is blossoming and spreading outward.

Five more years also means another full cycle of...