Okay, so it wasn't a tunnel drive. It was a warp drive with acceleration gates. Similar to what was used in Cowboy Bebop actually. I'm glad I checked first.
Basically the gates are used to "launch" the ship to a speed fast enough it can jump to warp from (instead of having Star Trek's super sub-lights) it would be possible to go to warp raw, but it would take a very very very long time to get up to speed without a gate. My thought is that's there are gates spread throughout the known systems. The treasure planet might not have one, but they've got a great mechanic that might be able to beef up the sub-light engines instead . . .
Does that sound like it'll work for everyone?
Also, I will be taking a three day weekend and going camping. I'll have my next post up before I leave, but I probably won't be online Thursday night, and I won't be online at all Friday through Sunday afternoon.