uction, the Extractor uses the
planet's orbital momentum for launch. The launch
window is precise and short-lived along Planet
Pluto's outbound orbit; there is only one launch
opportunity in centuries for the Extractor.

Disengaged from Pluto, the Extractor fleet
accelerates along its course to optimum velocity
through integrated thrust of augmented thrusters
or other more advanced propulsion systems that
are or become available in time to accomplish the
Objective.

##

The Terminals and their command and control,
supporting research and development schemes
and projects, facilities, spunnel teleport and other
logistics and communications networks, surface and
space stations and outposts is formally designated
The Interstellar Mining and Transport System.
Authority acknowledges that the mission, launch and
assets acquisition processes intrigued the whimsical
fancy of the solar community during pre-program
definition studies and the System was nicknamed
"Slingshot".

THE UNIVERSE
-- or nothing

Chapter ONE

The recon-patroller's leg and torso-pads fine-tuned
their tensions as Lieutenant Pete O'Hare shifted
position. His eyes ranged the banks of flickering
lights around him. An aberrant indicator caught his
eye and he mind-stroked a sensor control. Satisfied,
he moved on; the greens held firm.

Planet Pluto arced into view from starboard, half
a million kay distant. The mottled moonlet, Charon,
orbited the mother planet tightly. Only tanktown
Coldfield's dome and its hard unblinking lights
broke Pluto's drab crust. A dozen or so rutted
trails formed a network that connected encapsulated
outposts to each other and to Pluto's solitary city.

The recon-patroller's omni-directional screen
displayed the huge cylinder that floated in space
behind him, its gravity-enhanced rotation barely
perceptible to O'Hare's vision. Five-meter high
orange letters glowed brightly along its blunt
bow and stern, and on each quarter sector of its
exposed surface, proclaiming the huge cylinder
as the UIPS SLINGSHOT LOGISTICS DEPOT.

Space transports, no two alike, rode their
magnetic-beam's moorings along the Depot's flanks.
Space tugs and barges labored in all directions,
taxis charged about, and space-cranes swayed above
dozens of platforms that protruded from the Depot's
hull.

Leviathans off-loaded to barges as other ships in a
multitude of shapes and sizes grappled with cargo
from flex-conveye