The Burning Bridge by Poul Anderson Science Fiction Adventure Fantasy

<p><strong>The fleet numbered fifteen more than half the interstellar ships humankind possessed. </strong>But Earth's overlords had been as anxious to get rid of the Constitutionalists (the most stubborn ones at least; the stay-at-homes were ipso facto less likely to be troublesome) as that science-minded liberty-minded group of archaists were to escape being forcibly absorbed by modern society. Rustum e Eridani II was six parsecs away forty-one years of travel and barely habitable: but the only possible world yet discovered. A successful colony would be prestigious and could do no harm; its failure would dispose of a thorn in the official ribs. Tying up fifteen ships for eight decades was all right too. Exploration was a dwindling activity which interested fewer men each generation.</p>