to sleep perchance to dream

[warpfairy]

Isabella drifts into a new system. This is farther than she usually ventures, but she can make it back to a new human colony after a complete survey here, with a margin of error, and refuel there to get back into central Federation space. Still, she's a little apprehensive as she drops out of warp. If the system proves to be unusually complicated she'll have to do it in two stages.

Comments

[warpfairy]

"I would appreciate that very much."

[evesystem]

The capsuleer launches a small probe, which proceeds on laughably-slow impulse towards Isabella's ship.

[warpfairy]

She catches it in her cargo bay, when it gets close enough.

[evesystem]

It turns off its engines and coasts in to a stop, descending slowly to the floor of Isabella's cargo bay as if it were moving through a viscous liquid.

[warpfairy]

"Received, thank you."

[evesystem]

"No problem."

[warpfairy]

"So I suppose I'll carry this off and try to get it figured out while you mine your asteroids?"

[evesystem]

"Seems like the best plan we have at the moment."

[warpfairy]

"Can I use the ansible on it to talk to you in some straightforward way up until I have someone disassembling it?"

[evesystem]

"It's not really designed for that sort of communications, but it has sensors on it and bits I can control, therefore we can use it to pass data. It does have a maximum range, though: once I go back through the wormhole you won't be able to hail me."

[warpfairy]

"Do you know what the range is, besides 'not between galaxies'?"

[evesystem]

"I would guess about five light-years from a base station, but you can relay it as far as you want with no appreciable loss of speed: we have an interstellar comms web."

[warpfairy]

"I'll be more than five light-years away pretty quickly, so we'd better do any talking we're planning to do while I'm still in this system."

[evesystem]

"I can maybe jury-rig a comms chain as far out as twenty light-years with the probes I have on me and some help from your magnificent drive, but if you're going any further than that you're probably correct."

[warpfairy]

"Quite a bit farther."

[evesystem]

"Well then, you've got a few hours yet. Anything else you'd like to quiz me on?"

[warpfairy]

"Do ansibles require any exotic materials?"

[evesystem]

"Sorry: I don't know what they're made of."

[warpfairy]

"Well, how expensive are they, that would be a clue."

[evesystem]

"Well, one of these drones costs about six thousand ISK. Peanuts to me - the ship I'm flying is about five hundred thousand all kitted out, and it would only sting mildly to lose it - but I'm not sure if many people planetside could afford one."

[warpfairy]

"If it's small change to at least some people that suggests it's probably not staggeringly rare, materials-wise, at least not in quantity, but if it's expensive to most the manufacture is probably complex. I could be wrong, of course."

[evesystem]

"Well, that probe has a miniature warp core in it, and some pretty specialized sensors: the majority of its price probably isn't the radio. If anything, I'd expect them to be easier to manufacture than you expect."

[warpfairy]

"Ah, that makes sense."

[evesystem]

"Maybe your scientists can take the warp core apart too: if it achieves FTL in a different way from yours, it might also give you some new physics."

[warpfairy]

"Maybe. Especially if the power consumption is low it might be useful for short-range shuttling."