  We consider the manner in which the spacetime manifold emerges from a quantum
substratum through the transactional process, in which spacetime events and
their connections are established. In this account, there is no background
spacetime as is generally assumed in physical theorizing. Instead, the usual
notion of a background spacetime is replaced by the quantum substratum,
comprising quantum systems with nonvanishing rest mass. Rest mass corresponds
to internal periodicities that function as internal clocks defining proper
times, and in turn, inertial frames that are not themselves aspects of the
spacetime manifold, but are pre-spacetime reference structures. Specific
processes in the quantum substratum serve to distinguish absolute from relative
motion.
