Tau Ceti: A Ship from Earth

The colony ships took sixteen years to travel the twelve light years between Earth and Tau Ceti. Tau Ceti 2, known as Pitcairn, was easily the most successful of the original three colonies, a stable peaceful world for two hundred years, yet isolated more than any other group in history.

Supply ships came every twenty years or so, bringing cargo not available on the planet and new colonists, but not disturbing the tranquil colony. But change, for better or worse, was coming. It began with the arrival of the library ship Asimov in the year 2322 or, in Pitcairn time, the year 264.