On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 9:06 PM, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:

> On Feb 12, 2016, at 6:39 PM, William Ewing (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
We list all waypoints of each transit, and the scheduled arrivals at each. If we are more than 4 hours ahead of or behind our Plan of Intended Movement, then we have to send a new MOVREP. That narrows a missing ship down to an 8-hour window at PIM-speed (typically 15 knots or less, so within 60 nautical miles of where we should have been, if 15 is PIM-speed.

The Imperium CANNOT DO THIS. The most recent information the IN can possibly have of a ship that is not in a particular system is 7 days old. . . .The existence of jump lag prevents this kind of close command and control; HQ might be *months* behind the front lines. . . .The IN operates like Admiral Nelson’s Navy, not Admiral Halsey’s.

While I agree with Bruce in principle, there are ways to mollify the grossest effects of jump lag. An IN force operating behind enemy lines could drop off a stealthed bouy loaded with it's latest MOVREP just prior to jumping out, which would float silently until interrogated with the correct codes, at which point it would tightbeam a compressed, coded update. If the force sticks to it's planned path, it would be possible for a courier seeking it to jump ahead and meet it a future point after only a bare handful of weeks.

This would be the high-tech equivalent of Nelson leaving coded dispatches behind at each port.

Richard Aiken

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