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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 togetherness and separation for Charley and Clarity of Purpose. Five more years means another couple of layers of hope and despair added to the strata of Charleys struggles. On the plus side, he now also has a daughter. On the negative, Clarity has returned to Arden with both her and her older brother to, pointedly, more fully inculcate them into Quanck society. Charleys son now has a name, he has reached the naming age of six (Earth years.) That is the earliest that Quanck society deigns to notice the existence of another human soul in their midst. He and his mother have compromised on the name of Bridge Spanner but Charley, most often, still calls him Junior. The story has progressed in other areas as well but the war seems to be in something of a lull. The Han have not put in a single appearance in all that time but their threat flavors everyones lives. They will have to be dealt with, another duty Charley reluctantly assumes. His success or failure will determine the ultimate fate of the colony, and Earth as well. How hard can saving the human race be?

Five years have passed and the colony on the planet of Junction in the Iota Horologii System - commonly called Iron Horse - is thriving. Charley and Clarity of Purpose rule through a combination of indulgent compassion and benign neglect. The original ten thousand colonists are well ensconced but no more have, as yet, been brought from Earth. A Constitutional Congress is held. A second shipload of colonists is to be transported so matters must be settled and whatever form of government decided upon codified. George Esterman and Catharine Virginia Petersen express their expected opinions, as do many others. This middle volume of the Forbearance Trilogy documents the state of the colony and follows its progress for the next several years, describing the settlements flowering diversity as well as its continuing struggles. Rules are almost nonexistent and individualism is openly encouraged. However, the Han are still around and the paternal but autocratic Quanck present challenges of their own. Earth also has demands. Whatever anyones interpretation of an ideal society, that vision can be accommodated on Junction but every form of sanctuary has its price. Freedom is never free and liberty requires constant attention and continual involvement. Anarchy can lead to its own dissolution and, at the very least, paradoxically requires planning and oversight. Day-to-day life is hardly rigorous or demanding, though, and that may very well constitute the colonys biggest challenge.