elt and ramming
rocks into the hoppers for transfer to meltdown and
refining above Venus.

"In short, the big space sweeps of five to eight
hundred years ago cleared away most of the residue
in Belt orbits that had no beneficial purpose and
were a hazard to traffic. The Belt was a good
source for minerals -- while it lasted."

He paused to key the instrument in his hand.

"That's done," he said. "What's left are only a few
of the big asteroids, like Ceres. They serve both
regions as Solar Spacetrack Centers, communications
relays, search and rescue operations, space lanes
debris collection teams, urgent care hospitals, and
for spunnel gateways management."

As he spoke the ring of lights in the tank
flickered. Another ring formed, evenly spaced rods,
each glowing a contrasting color.

"The Guardian Stations," Xindral said, "have been
in position for more than six centuries. Twenty
stations; no more are planned."

The tank zoomed in on five of the twenty rods
in a quarter segment of the full orbit; the rods
expanded to form slowly rotating cylinders.

"The Guardians are apportioned among four
generally equal sectors, any one of which serves
the quadrant that it happens to transit at the
time. Responsibilities and missions overlap, and
are passed along from the station moving out of a
quadrant to the one entering it along the common
orbital path. Using standard and hyperspace
omnidirectional surveillance, each station's
primary job is to monitor its sector: inward toward
the Sun, and outward to the rim and beyond as far as
our technical capabilities extend. The service areas
change constantly in keeping with the alignments
and dynamics of planets and their satellites,
traffic-lane management, neutralizing debris
intrusions, and conventional and spunnel teleport
maintenance."

Xindral folded himself back on to the high stool as
he spoke.

"After the political separation of the Inner and
Outer Regions these Guardian Stations reverted
to us by the treaty. Formally, they serve only the
Inner Region's jurisdictions. Informally, however,
the stations cover the entire system; to do
otherwise would bring about enormous disruptions
and disasters in space traffic and communications.

"The Guardians' functions include standard and
spunnel communications, disaster relief, search and
rescue of distressed spacecraft, intercepting and
diverting comets-of-hazard, meteors, debris and
other threats to traffic in t