Passage to anywhere

The story opens on a world where the race to the stars has taken an unexpected turn: instead of rockets, a matter‑transmission device promises instant voyages to Venus or Mars. Behind this breakthrough, a fragile coalition of scientists—known as SPR—has been kept afloat by the United Nations, navigating Cold‑War legacies and endless political maneuvering. Park Hamilton, newly appointed director of SPR’s executive operations, feels the weight of the organization’s lofty ambitions and the delicate balance of global power that sustains it.

When a startling pink envelope lands on his desk, Hamilton’s intuition tells him that something is amiss. Small irregularities—a too‑smooth workflow, missing colleagues, an odd ladder‑incident—begin to coalesce into a foreboding pattern that hints at a hidden battle for control of the teleportation technology. The stage is set for a tense clash between scientific idealism and the ruthless interests eager to claim the new frontier.