Rose mentioned that in the Furthest Ring, the way time and space shifts makes it so even if you take the "same" path it can take you a different amount of time (or...space) to get there.
If that were true the meteor and its crew wouldn't even stay together. It's too late now of course, but it everyone followed Dirk closely they should end up in the same place.
But it seems too convenient that Dirk is apparently going to find his way back to Derse either way. I hope there's more to it than that. If there isn't then the Furthest Ring isn't what it's cracked up to be.