n, communication relay,
and space rescue. Populated by humans and their
robots, colonies extended from the voids above
Mercury and Venus through the Asteroids, the
satellites of the gas planets, to Planet Pluto.

As colonies multiplied and spread across the
vast interplanetary realm the solar community
became impatient with time consumed in normal
point-to-point space communications and transport.
The excessive transmission and portage time was
especially irritating in communications, shipment
of priority cargo, and human travel across
distances from bodies orbiting along on opposite
sides of the Sun. Hyperspace technology solved
the problem.

"Spunnels" in the public's jargon, came into being,
the term compressed from the phrase "hyperspace
tunnels," a universal phenomenon once suspected
and eventually confirmed. In the centuries preceding
The Great Migration the phenomenon had been
generally referred to as a wormhole, an archaic and
irrelevant expression, even in those ancient times.

Spunnel networks reduced transmission time between
the most widely separated points in the system from
hours to real-time. Successful in communications,
scientists and engineers concentrated on the
technological leap from spunnel communications
to spunnel teleportation, a capability urgently and
clearly essential to move humans, machines, and
raw materials across interplanetary distances.

The flood of emigrants to space colonies and
outposts exceeded tens of thousands each
year over several centuries, leaving behind a
still over-crowded Earth that had long since
cried 'enough'. Among the migrants were artisans
and technicians, minimally to highly-skilled
administrators, sociologists, teachers, scientists
and engineers and, scattered among them,
contemporary philosophers who preached the
metaphysical. Together, they represented all
of Earth's peoples and a cross-section of their
cultures.

Technology, however, imposed constraints. The
insatiable appetite for metals, minerals, rare
earths and other nonrenewable substances increased
inexorably. They remained the foundation for the
Solar System's industries, driven by the constant
clamor of indulgent lifestyles. Fully aware that
vital minerals and other substances were beyond
replenishment from within the Solar System, the
solar community nevertheless squandered its
rapidly diminishing resources.

In time, reserves of nonrenewable resources
dropped from residue to glea