March 9, 2126
Hidaya checked her ship’s link with Sci-Com 14, deployed ten days before. The link to the fully functional, fully powered satellite was strong. Before today, when she’d sent messages, she’d sent them straight to Sci-Com 1, which relayed them to Earth through some process she hadn’t been curious about. Now she wished she’d asked something about it.
“Memre’, can you send a message to Sci-Com 3?”
“Yes, Captain. I can program a message to stop at Sci-Com 3.”
“I don’t want the message to stop at Sci-Com 3. I want the message to go from Sci-Com 3 to the science outpost on Europa. Jupiter and its moons should be within reasonable com range for about the next eleven months.”
Hidaya knew she hadn’t programmed Memre’ to be curious, but she felt pressure to justify herself anyway. “Those scientists must feel almost as isolated as I do. I’d like to talk with them, maybe play a few strategy games.”
Memre’ spoke, “I found the command codes in the technical specs. I can get Sci-Com 3 to send messages to somewhere other than Sci-Com 2 or 4. I also found a clearance override so that Europa can access Sci-Com 3 to talk to us.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. Would talking with Europa compromise the security of the satellite system?”
“No, Captain. We can program the clearance override to apply only to the transmitter on Europa, only for this destination, and only for the time window you wish.”
Hidaya exhaled with relief. She wanted to try this, but not so badly that she would risk compromising the security of the whole project. “Then let’s do so.”
Tags: communication satellite, Europa, gaming, jupiter, loneliness, science fiction, scientists, security, space travel
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