Bullet ship

From Red Galaxy

There are various ways of communicating over long distances. The most common way is by laser beam. The receiving station just watches the beam source and translates the signal back into useful information. Laser beams are the fastest way to communicate over interstellar distances, but are low bandwidth, especially when you consider the amount of information generated by a fully engineered star system. The other problem with laser communication is that they are not secure.

To communicate more substantial amounts of information galactic civilization relies on bullet ships. Bullet ships are beam riders optimized for maximum network throughput. A bullet ship is a small, entirely solid state ship. A bullet ship draws power from the propulsion beam that it rides. It would only use power reserves when coasting from one beam way to another. The primary components of the ship are the solar sail, the densest on-board memory available at the ships last rebuild, and the fastest communication gear available.

As a bullet ship passes a stellar system without slowing down, if at all possible. First the ship negotiates methods of payment (often this is pro forma). After negotiating rates, the ship dumps data addressed to the system. Finally, it uploads data from the system, limited by availability of the ship's memory.

Note that it is not possible to send a parcel using bullet ship post. However, galactic nanotechnology is sufficiently advanced, and bullet ship memory sufficiently dense that it is often possible to send a virtual parcel. Indeed, intelligent personalities can themselves be copied to bullet ships, provided that they are of reasonably modest size. Memory limits and costs limit high-level intellects to posting only intellectual compartments or highly edited digest personalities (avatars).