Epilogue
The networks of mass attractors that tetheredthe Extractor to Planet Pluto disengaged nineEarth centuries after construction began. Plutocontributed its orbital momentum to the launch.In time the integrated drives of the most advancedpropulsion thrusters took on the full load, and thedream of humankind was on its way to the AlphaCentauri star system, on schedule.
Scientists and technicians on The Solar System'sSlingshot Control Center maintained constantreal-time oversight of the Extractor's subsystemsand structures through spunnel monitors. Aconvoy of robot deflectors and screens clearedthe Extractor fleet's path of meteoroids, sand androck swarms and space debris. Hundreds of logisticsrobots crammed the station's cavernous bays,self-sustaining and programmed to activatesub-systems on schedule, deploy robotic specialistsand service the machine during its voyage, and inperpetuity thereafter.
Maximum acceleration for almost two Earth decadesincreased the fleet's velocity to five percentspeed-of-light, which it maintained for more thana Solar System Standard Century. Deceleration andvector adjustments took another three decades.Alignment to major concentrations of potentialsources, selection of a 'first phase' work site,calibration of instrumentation and activating itsspunnel channels and monitors required still more.
Back along the Solar rim, the Collector remainedlinked to Planet Pluto for two decades followingthe Extractor's departure. Its schedule alongPluto's orbit provided sufficient time for theCollector's transit to its permanent stationalong the rim, to track the Extractor's positionvia spunnel to refine details for integratedoperations, and for positioning and calibrating thethousands of networks that coordinate the solarand interstellar arrays.
The citizens of the Solar community tuned in towitness the release of the Interstellar SpunnelSignal from the hand of the President of the newlyformed United Nations of the Solar System. It wouldbe the final signal to synchronize and activate thecollective controls of the Extractor and Collector.
The President keyed the Signal.
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Remote spunnel nodes and boosters along the routefrom the Solar System to Alpha Centauri monitoredthe Signal and the response. Rings of laser arraysalong the edge of the Extractor's hopper flashedalive and focused their beams on a large, slowlytumbling planetoid hundreds of kilometers acrossits minor dimension.
Sensors, analyzers, siphons and beam-guidesparalleled the lasers' signals along anincandescent column of plasma from the dissolvingplanetoid into the Extractor's processes and, whenready, into the hopper. The truncated apex of theExtractor's teleport gate cone glowed red, thenviolet, and thirty meters of its length disappearedinto its new hyperspace home.
The invisible nozzle hurled a concentration ofelemental substance across hyperspace to itssister station four and a half light-years distant.
The first sign of incoming was a churning,expanding mass of violet bubbles around the apexof the Collector. Shifting colors as it cooled andsolidified, the mass transformed into a huge brownglobe. The globe separated from the nozzle anddrifted off, replaced by another mushroomingbubbling mass at the nozzle's tip.
A fleet of robot tugs clamped mag-beams on thefree-floating globes and hauled them off. Anotherfleet of giant space tugs moved into position forthe next gift of crude but treasured substanceteleported across interstellar space from adistant star.
The cornucopia was in flow and humankind's firstoutbound and inbound highways to the greateruniverse were complete and working.