Warp message relay system

The Warp Message Relay System was created at some point "after 2121 and before 2249". It is first mentioned in The Lion in Paradise. It does not exist in Part I of that novel, but does exist by the time Part II rolls around.

It is a joint project of SpaceX and the Wolff-Von Barronov Corporation. SpaceX holds 49% of the stock and WVBCorp holds 51%, however SpaceX operates the system and pays license fees to WVBCorp for the technology, which it recovers through annual fees and per-message charges.

Precursor

An earlier relay system (first mentioned in passing in A Huntress on the Rocks) was simply a physical message carriage system operated informally by the various liner and shipping companies, as well as the U.S. Space Force. In most cases only a token fee was charged as immediate delivery was, of course, not possible, and a message might traverse a path of several stops, and weeks or months, before reaching its final destination. As colonies grew and became more numerous, it was obvious a better and faster system would be needed, and thus came into being the Warp Message Relay System.

Details

The System is made up of SpaceX micro-drones fitted with Wolff-Von Barronov rotation engines. In a bit of a departure for ships in the Timelines universe, the drones use a cold gas maneuvering system to handle the short distances they travel in real space to and from the mothership.

A supply of drones is held in a "mothership" in orbit around every inhabited planet that pays an annual fee for access to the service, and individual messages are sent to the drones through standard radio communications systems. When a drone receives a message, it is ejected from the mothership and, after traveling a safe distance away, rotates to whatever star system the message is bound for. When the drone arrives at its destination, it rendezvouses with that system's mothership and transfers its message to the ground station, then wipes its memory and re-charges and tops off its maneuvering system for another trip.

Each drone is good for several hundred trips, though part of the service (handled by the local SpaceX daughter corporation, which also runs the ground station) includes a twice-annual inspection and preventive maintenance on the mothership and drones.

Drones are about a foot in diameter; a mothership, depending on local traffic, might hold anywhere from ten to fifty of them.

Annual fee

The annual fee paid by the planetary government (or owner corporation, or whatever) is generally fairly high but based on projected traffic (the U.S. covers Earth's fee and pays about five million gold dollars per year, Mars pays about two million, Devlin's Strike pays about half a million), but is negotiable as it is understood new colonies and corporate worlds that have not yet proved out are not in a position to pay huge sums, but could need the system in an emergency.

Per-message charges

The per-message charges are extremely high, and there is no discount available (however, message size is effectively unlimited -- each drone carries several terabytes of crystalline memory, the same type used in standard data chips). High charges are intended to prevent misuse of the system; there is not an unlimited number of drones, and they and their infrastructure are quite expensive to maintain.

Emergency and compassionate messages

Two classes of messages are exempt from per-message charges. The entity paying the annual planetary fee has the right to send certain types of emergency messages (e.g., "We have a plague," "Coronal mass ejection destroyed our comms and power systems," "Aliens are invading," etc.) at no cost. Such messages are not unlimited, but the local operator has sufficient flexibility to determine at what point the system is being abused and to stop allowing free messages.

The second class of such messages are "compassionate" messages -- someone has died, someone is very sick and not expected to live, someone has lost their job and is contacting family back "home" -- wherever "home" is -- to try to raise money to get off planet, or something along those lines. There is a protocol for handling such messages and all such messages are eventually audited to ensure someone isn't sending a coded message disguised as a compassionate message. The penalty for such is a permanent ban from the relay system (enforced by biometrics) and a choice of a stiff fine or several years of imprisonment at hard labor. The cover page of the application to send a compassionate message has a warning to that effect emblazoned on it.

Station status

Ground stations, the motherships, and the corvettes used to service them, are all considered diplomatic territory. All system personnel have diplomatic immunity. Other than guaranteed access to paid messaging, the entire relay system is, by contract, strictly off-limits to the local government and the local citizenry. This is at least in part because of the power the station manager has to declare what does and does not constitute an emergency message under the contract with the government.