Her face had been flint steel-hard as she refused deck space to anyone her own med staff couldn't guarantee was free of the bio weapon which had devoured Sheldon. She'd never spoken about her own past, never explained where she'd been or what she'd done before she arrived in what was left of the Madras System with Noah and Ham and ordered all two hundred uninfected survivors of the dying planet of Sheldon aboard. For that matter, no one was certain Perez had actually ever been an officer in anyone's navy, much less a commodore.

Of course, calling any of the expedition's ships a 'transport' was a bit excessive. (ed note: this is occuring during the horrors of Case Ragnarok) The safe containing the code book may be on the communications deck, but on some ships it is in the captain's cabin. Hit the red 'incinerate' button to keep the one-time pad and Captain Midnight secret decoder pin from falling into enemy hands. If this is a military spacecraft, the comm officer is responsible for destroying the code book if the ship is captured by a hostile power. The communication officer may also be responsible for encrypted communications, using the proper keys to encrypt and decrypt.

The communication officer must also maintain the ship's transponder, which broadcasts the ship's ID. The best they can do is notify the Orbit Guard. If they tried to match postion and vector they'd use up all their delta-V, so now there are two ships in distress. John Reiher points out that given the reality of the spartan limitation on a ship's delta-V, there is probably little they could do to render assistance besides helpful advice over the radio.

Responding binds the ship to render assistance, a decision reserved for the captain. All messages must be logged.ĭistress signals are sent to the watch officer, but never responded to without authorization. Communication noise must be monitored and auxiliary channels used if required. They direct incoming messages to the proper departments and send outgoing messages in the proper format to the proper channels. Sometimes this deck is called a 'radio shack', manned by a communication officer whose nickname is 'Sparks.' Communication officers are the ship's ears and mouth. This deck contains communication gear, perhaps even with something like a Morse code key for use when radio interference becomes a problem (If this was a Metalunan ship, this is where you'd find the interociter). For unrealistic science-fictional faster-than-light communication see this page. This page is for realistic scientifically plausible slower-than-light communication.

Tor project hopes replace fragile rust