You've Got Xmail!

Merchant captain Ir Uushli of the far trader Cydonia sat alone on the orbital concourse of her ship’s home port of Kline (Magyar 3012 A642987-E). The Cydonia was scheduled to depart for Fornorb (Magyar 2616 C997A85-A) in twelve standard hours with a shipment of electronics. Before she jumped out Captain Uushli wanted to send a message to her daughter Iriaa, who lived back on Gadarur (Magyar 2903 A7558B9-C), ten parsecs away.

How does Captain Uushli do it? How much does it cost? And how long will it take to arrive? What does Iriaa do if she wants to send a reply to her mother?

Recently I was thinking about Traveller and the difficulties of sending messages across interstellar space without faster-than-light communication. The Traveller setting famously resembles the Age of Sail in that messages can only travel as fast as the starships that carry them. This creates an innate lag in the transmission speed of information, but also introduces significant uncertainty if the recipient is mobile. A communique meant for a specific starship might arrive in-system long after the intended recipient has jumped away.

While sending such a message seems like a straightforward and common activity, the details are surprisingly scattered across several different Classic Traveller books, and some of this information never quite made it into every subsequent edition of the game.

As a merchant captain, Ir Uushli likely has many contacts in port who might be willing to carry her message to Iriaa. As The Traveller Book explains,

Other ships may be approached to deliver private messages, at times through the ship’s owner or captain, and at times clandestinely through a crew member. Private mail is usually intended for delivery to a specific point (such as the Travellers’ Aid Society building, or a tavern keeper), and is generally accompanied by a Cr20 to Cr120 honorarium. … Serving as a carrier for private mail also serves as an introduction to the recipient as a dependable, trustworthy person (53).

Similar language can be found in the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia at 90 or GURPS Traveller: Far Trader at 64. However, whether Captain Uushli could find a suitable ship is dicey. Although the Traveller Book suggests the referee “Throw 9+ for a private message to be awaiting transmittal, and determine randomly which crew member is approached to carry it,” a multitude of modifiers could apply: How busy are the origination and destination ports? Are they served by scheduled commercial traffic? How far away is the destination? And so on.

Kline is a high population world with a class A port, and Gadarur is a pre-high pop world also with a class A port, but ten parsecs away and off the main trade routes. Even if Captain Uushli found a ship headed for Gadarur, a little Type A tramp might take 21 weeks to get that far, and once there it’s up to the ship’s captain to ensure the message is delivered to Iriaa.

If the message was particularly urgent or sensitive, Captain Uushli could probably charter a courier. While this would likely represent the fastest and safest solution, reaching Gadarur in four weeks, it would also be ridiculously expensive—a Type U armed packet with Jump-3 would need to be chartered for eight weeks total for Cr540,000 using CT rates.

As Kline sits on a link in the Imperial Express Boat network, Captain Uushli’s best bet is likely to send an xboat message to her daughter Iriaa.

Many, many descriptions of the xboat network are scattered throughout different versions of Traveller and they are all largely consistent. The network helps the Imperium cope with the challenge of great distances between member worlds. The network is run by the Communications Office of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. This Office is “responsible for interstellar message and data transmission within the Imperium … [and] serves as a large-scale Imperial Post Office” (CT Scouts 6).

But how does an individual send or receive a message on this network? The best description of how the network actually runs is contained in The Traveller Adventure, which defines Xmail simply as “Messages sent by xboat. Xmail carries information only; material objects may not be sent. The message is digitally coded [and] … printed out at its destination and delivered by a world’s local mail system.”

Captain Uushli is in a starport, which Traveller⁵ describes as normally having a message center. Book 2 - Starships explains that such a facility provides “Access to communications (physical mail, electronic mail, express mail, telegraph, telephone, and video)” (24).

Who runs the message center? This might be an Imperial facility, such as a local branch of the IISS Communications Office—especially if the starport is on an xboat route and/or a Scout base is present. The message center might also be run by the Starport Authority. The Travellers’ Aid Society probably runs many message centers, though these might be exclusive to TAS members. Most message centers outside a starport are likely run by either the postal office of the planetary government or if this service has been privatized, a corporation—but in any case any entity handling xmail messages must operate in accordance to IISS standards, and perhaps with an Imperial license or warrant.

Let’s say the message center at the Kline highport is operated by the Walpurgean Postal Service, the Imperial equivalent of a crown corporation with a subsector-wide charter. At the center Captain Uushli can fill out standard IS Form 6 for her xmail message, which as described in CT is pure text in the clear. The Traveller Adventure shows us a completed example of IS Form 6, and a blank form is contained in CT Supplement 12: Forms and Charts.

“Typically, the message may be as long as desired, so long as it can fit legibly in the space provided. The text is optically scanned and transmitted for reproduction at the destination” (37). It looks like the space allows for about 3,200 characters, or a little less than an expanded Tweet. In addition to the message itself, the form has fields for “Date of Preparation,” “Addressee,” and “Destination.” IS Form 7 is a similar document used for “an Xboat Image Facsimile.”

As seen, this document strongly resembles a telegram form. As far as I can tell, the CT pricing of an xmail is only detailed in The Traveller Adventure: “Cr10 per 20 kilobits per parsec. The message may be sent using a standard Anglic character set (about Cr10 for a 500 word message) or a picture may be reproduced in facsimile (Cr20 for a 200 x 200 bit matrix)” (145). These prices reflect Terran data costs circa 1983. GURPS Traveller: First In attempted to update these costs to 1999: “The standard rate for Xmail traffic is Cr10 per gigabyte of data per parsec. Assume a minimum of Cr1 for any given message, no matter how short” (132).

By the standards of 2023, even these revised data costs are absurd. I would be inclined to simply charge Cr10 per parsec for text, image, or audio of any reasonable length (using IS Form 6), or Cr20 for video or holo data of any reasonable length (using IS Form 7). Reasonable here is the operable word, to be defined by the Referee. I would also rule that the recipient only receives a physical printout of the communication if required by the local tech level; otherwise the message is received electronically.

So Captain Uushli sits down in a small booth in the message center of the Walpurgean Postal Service and records a 20-minute holo message to Iriaa that mixes family gossip, business news, and exhortations to mind her studies. She also appends a written checklist of tasks she wishes Iriaa to complete. 

Captain Uushli then fills out an IS Form 7 and pays Cr200 (Cr20 x 10 parsecs). As the pilot/navigator of the Cydonia, under CT rules she draws a monthly salary of Cr8250, so this fee is quite reasonable. The cost of mail is almost certainly highly subsidized by the Imperium, which is not unusual for any postal service.

In any case, the center beams the captain’s message to the local IISS express station, where the message enters the custody of the Express Boat Service of the Communications Office. As CT Scouts explains, “The Service is responsible for operation of the express boats carrying xboat messages over the xboat routes of the Imperium. Service also extends to neighboring Imperial client states to which service and routes exist. The Service also staffs the various express boat tenders along the routes” (6).

At the IISS express station, a sophisticated routing program designed by Naasirka transmits the message to the next coreward-bound xboat. This xboat jumps from Kline to Stanko (Magyar 2810 A555649-C), relays the message to another xboat that jumps to Nosret (Magyar 2807 A897477-D), where the message is relayed to yet another xboat that then jumps to Anise (Magyar 2904 A8419B7-E). Three weeks have passed.

However, Gadarur, the next link in the chain, lies one parsec off the xboat route. The Traveller Adventure explains that “Express boats … do not touch every world within the Imperium; many planets lie well away from the mainstream of communications and commerce. These backwater worlds depend on less efficient means of information transfer and trade. The xboat service sends along messages by [Type S] scout/courier whenever one is going that way or once enough messages build up” (10).

For this next leg the message could either be carried on by the Scout Service itself or a private concern contracted by the IISS.

As CT Scouts explains, the Imperial Courier Service of the Communications Office “is responsible for carrying messages, small packages, and important personnel to worlds off the main express boat routes, and operates small courier ships running unscheduled routes as the needs of the Service demand” (6).

The [Type S] scout/courier is the final part of the network, although this type of ship is not restricted to working with the express boat system.… When a message can no longer be forwarded by xboat along the major routes, it is transferred to a scout/courier which then carries it to the specific world in question. Main routes are plotted to come within several parsecs of every star system in the Imperium, so the added transit time is rarely more than an extra three or four weeks (CT Traders & Gunships 8).

These scout/couriers are often operated by IISS personnel, but occasionally private companies win contracts for this work. For example, CT Merchant Prince states that within Regina subsector, the corporation “Sinzarmes is also a major mail carrier, delivering xboat messages to worlds off the main routes” (11).

CT, MegaTraveller, and GURPS: Traveller all allow Type R subsidized merchants to receive mail-delivery contracts:

[Usually] as an adjunct to their established routes. In order to receive such contracts, the ship must be able to dedicate five [tons] of cargo capacity to postal duty on a full-time basis, the ship must be armed, and at least one gunner must be part of the crew at all times. The captain is paid Cr25,000 for each trip made regardless of the amount of mail carried on that trip (GURPS Traveller: Far Trader 64).

Why subsidized merchants? These starships are financially backed by a government and are presumably held to higher operating standards. Subdized ships are also subject to mobilization (and use as auxiliaries) in the event of emergency or hostilities, even after private interests have paid off the mortgage. GURPS Traveller by extension allows Type M subsidized liners to receive mail contracts, which makes sense.

Traveller⁵ appears to allow any ship to carry mail if it is armed, includes a gunner, and has a specialized mail vault. This vault costs MCr1 but occupies only one ton; each ton of mail is shipped at Cr15,000. Mongoose Traveller likewise appears to allow any ship to carry mail, but has absolutely no requirements. Mail takes up five tons and pays Cr25,000 (2022 Core Book 241). Of all these different takes, I think I prefer Traveller⁵ here.

Let’s assume that Captain Uushli’s message, once it reaches the Anise express station, is then transferred to the Imperial Courier Service for delivery to Gadarur. After only a week wait the Courier Service assigns a scout/courier to make a run to Gadarur.

The scout/courier jumps to Gadarur, where the message is then transferred to the planetary postal service. Gadarur’s government is a charismatic dictatorship, and the postal service is a government agency. At low tech levels, a planetary postal service might deliver a physical printout of the xboat message to the recipient’s door by wet boat, ground car, flyer, or even on animal back. This might add several weeks to the delivery of the message, depending on the size of the planet and the efficiency of the government.

As Gadarur has an average Imperial tech level (12), Captain Uushli’s holo message can probably be electronically beamed directly to Iriaa’s home address. The total elapsed time for the ten parsec journey of the xmail was five weeks—pretty good for government work.

Although the message was probably encoded to prevent unauthorized snooping by individual couriers or local governments, Imperial citizens using xboat messages likely have limited expectations of privacy. Survival Margin mentions an Imperial Censor Bureau, but it’s unclear if this is a product of the Rebellion era or an institution with earlier origins.

What if Iriaa wants to send a message back to her mother? Because Iriaa had a fixed address on an Imperial world, it was only a matter of time before the message was delivered to her. But her mother is the merchant captain of a starship on the move. Iriaa could always send a message to Kline, the home port of the Cydonia, on the reasonable presumption that the far trader will eventually return there. If Captain Uushli gave her daughter an anticipated itinerary and schedule, Iriaa could roughly estimate where the Cydonia would be at different times.

For example, the far trader will need three jumps to get to Fornorb. Assuming the Cydonia takes a week at each port, it would be eleven weeks out before returning to Kline. When Iriaa gets the message, five of those eleven weeks have already elapsed. Assuming it takes five weeks to send a message back to Kline and ten weeks to send a message to Fornorb, Iriaa’s best bet is probably to simply send any reply messages straight to Kline.

Not all travellers will have the benefit of a set itinerary. Merchant ships subsisting on charters or speculative cargo usually keep unpredictable routes and schedules, and might well be away from their home port for months or even years at a time. In such cases ships probably try to establish set times and locations for receiving messages and orders: “We’ll plan to be back at Kline by Holiday, and will berth there for 45 days.” The annual engineering overhaul would be a perfect occasion to establish such a rendezvous point.

Messages bound for someone on board a “ship at space” should probably be addressed to a specific express station rather than a world. In this way the message is never transferred from the Scout Service to the local planetary postal system. The xboat station probably has the ability to store such messages and a long-term data retention policy, say at least 36 months and maybe 5 years or longer. A ship that has recently jumped into the system might query the xboat station to see if it is holding any messages for passengers or crew.

It seems like there ought to be an option to send a wide-cast message for starships in transit. Rather than being delivered to a specific express station, copies of the message could be distributed to every xboat station on the network within a certain astrographic region—a subsector, say—and delivered to the ship once it reaches port.

Iriaa could simply address her message to “Captain Ir Uushli, on board the far trader Cydonia, Kline subsector.” The message then propagates across the entire xboat network in Kline, where copies are stored at each of the seven express stations. As soon as the Cydonia arrives at any system with a copy, the message is transmitted to Captain Uushli. The cost for such a message is probably a flat rate per subsector, say Cr1000 for text/voice or Cr2000 for video/holo. Such messages would also be retained for a set amount of time before being purged from the data banks.

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