nings. Recycling, salvage,
ever-deeper mine shafts and tunnels, repeated
sweeps of the Earth's sea beds and planetary
and satellites' crusts, trenches, beds and craters
offered insufficient returns. Scouring the Asteroid
Belt, sifting the Kuiper-Oort regions, and intense
competitions for substitutes provided inadequate
and merely temporary relief. The solar community's
population, on Earth and in space, had exploded to
more than fourteen billion people. The search for
substances to support humankind's needs ranged
throughout; there were no more sources, nor were
there sanctuaries.

Certainly, there would not be enough for voyages
to the stars.

##

At long last, humankind confronted its reality. Net
yields from nonrenewable reserves, residues and
substitutes had dwindled until exhaustion was
certain and a timeline predictable. The choice
among grim options could no longer be postponed.
In the end, there were two:

-- Remain in place, ration, recycle and
redistribute minerals, metals, ores and other
usable substances and substitutes with Draconian
discipline, and take the consequences, or

-- Chance the most awesome venture in humankind's
long history: reach out to a distant star and tear
from it the raw matter that would preserve and
perpetuate the grandeur of the human experience.

The second option would be the ultimate gamble:
winning would bring the cornucopia sought
throughout the ages. Failure, even at an early
stage, would dissipate what little reserves
remained. Vitality drained, humankind would slip
back into the pits and the mud from which it had
so laboriously climbed.

The decision was to reach for the stars.

##

The Interstellar Mining and Teleport Program

The Objective: To draw from Alpha Centauri, the
nearest star system, 4.35 light-years distant, its
minerals, metals, elements and whatever useful
substances could be moved across space, and store
them nearby in the Solar System, accessible to all
humankind.

The Task: Increase the Solar System's spunnel
range, capability and capacity to teleport matter
across interstellar space in a continuous flow and
in sufficient quantities to satisfy the purpose of
the Objective;

Construct and dispatch an advance fleet of drone
scouts to the Alpha Centauri star system at
the earliest possible time to survey, analyze and
report via spunnel on the availability, locations
and accessibility of resources specified generally
in the Objec