> >> At 1706, the comm springs to life..."Brand and Gigo, > >> how can we help you?" > > > > "This is Ricardo O'Brien, captain, 'Mae Lee'. Sianna > > Brand sent word that another cousin has surfaced. What is > > this person's name, and where are they right now?" At 1728 she says.... > "Oh, good afternoon, Captain O'Brien. Just a second and I > will get that information for you." there is a short pause > then the woman comes back online, "That would be Ilane > Lanik. Oh, and a cousin you had met earlier and 'got lost' > named April Rose also came in. I don't know exactly where > they are right now, but they asked for directions to the > asteroid that you inherited. They may be there. Over." That's a long lag time! There must be a means that the carrier indicates signal origination time and probable location, synthesizing an announcement message that leads into the actual message.... Like... * Captain OBrian initiates the call, hitting the Mark WorldComm system switch * The out-going ship comm appends a data packet * The Mark WorldComm system accepts and takes the ship data packet and indicates what ship is calling and 'when' in system time. * Brand and Gigo's comm indicates incoming call * Answer the comm, "Brand and Gigo, how can we help you?" * Mark WorldComm 'voice' indicates, "Incoming communication from /Mae Lee/ Captain Ricardo O'Brian. Estimated transit lag-time 0 hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds [0:25:15]. Will you accept the call?" Either that or it probably comes up in text on the screen... * 13 minutes later, Ricardo gets the carrier code back again and the comm indicates his return message... It includes a lag time update...0:24:45. He replies, "This is Ricardo O'Brien, captain, 'Mae Lee'. Sianna Brand sent word that another cousin has surfaced. What is this person's name, and where are they right now?" * 12:30 later, Brand gets his response and she either guesses what he's going to ask, or she does say, just a minute... Her response then comes, probably with a data pack of any late breaking legal news or updates that had been planned for in the retainer agreement. And so forth. The email pbem.... :-) Greg
