7-167: Harmon Block Accommodations
Terminal and Messages
Messages
From the terminal he has access to PubNet and limited access to VizNet.
Unless he has subscriptions to something, his only message is the one from Dicard.
Message Research
The Vizierate operates much of the comms infrastructure for the Dominion, and he finds quite a bit of useful information on VizNet about the Dominion’s message transfer and Net update mechanisms.
Vizierate Message Packet Service
Basically, a Vizierate starship, specially designed for this work (they are called Message Packets) departs on the route from each Octant Capital and Zargonia at the start of every shift. Leaving Zargonia, that’s eight different routes but, for example, leaving Captree there are only three routes that cover all eight destinations, so only three Message Packets leave.
A Message Packet departs each Octant Capital for each route to the Colony A worlds in the same Octant, and vice versa, at the start of Red Shift every Cycle (unless they happen to be on a route already serviced by a Capital-to-Capital dispatch.)
A Message Packet departs each Octant Capital for each route to the Colony B worlds in the same Octant, and vice versa, at the start of Red Shift every three Cycles (unless they happen to be on a route already serviced by a Capital-to-Capital or Colony A dispatch.).
A small number of Way Stations are not covered by this arrangement, and these are serviced by Message Packets every ten Cycles.
In normal circumstances, when a Message Packet arrives in a system, it transmits its data to the system Mainworld, and ongoing messages are relayed from there to relevant Message packets waiting at the outbound jump points ready to jump on their next scheduled Shift or Cycle.
The Vizierate service provides transmissions for PubNet, VizNet and BurNet. The Legion provides their own service for MilNet. The Vizierate Message packet service also doesn’t service Legion installations, unless they happen to be on a route between Colonised worlds. The material he uncovers is light on detail about how messages are transferred between PubNet and MilNet, but they do suggest this happens.
Oliver’s Specific Query
Oliver sent his message at Witnish, with the expectation that, at least as far as his dad was concerned, the message would have to get to Russell’s World, and a return message from there to Zargonia.
As it happens, Witnish is on a Capital-to-Capital route joining Memoria Niccolo in Octant 5 to New Zargland in Octant 7, so he can expect his message was outbound from Witnish at the start of the Shift after he sent it. From there it probably went to Memoria Niccolo, being the closer of the two worlds. From Memoria Niccolo, a Capital-to-Capital route to Russell’s World via Outpost Harrison (and reading that may prompt one of those times Oliver may especially enjoy or regret his excellent memory…)
The return from Russell’s World is a Capital-To-Capital route to Zargonia via Way Station Graceton.
Adding all that up (and Viznet even has a little online tool that can help), assuming average travel times, and that his father responded immediately, the earliest he could reasonably expect a response at Zargonia is eight Cycles from now.
As for his mother, he doesn’t know where she is, so the Message Packet propagation will have to find her.
Exercise Books
He will have time to read five books before dinner if he’s eating at his usual time.
What’s he going to do regarding dinner?
How will he spend his evening after dinner?
Will he do anything in the morning before the meeting (assuming he’s attending)?
Oliver notes that to memory.
He will probably do that.
He will go dine on the dining floor.
He will attend the meeting, he will just keep working until it happens.