The single object that did more to change human space than any ship. A communication node
holds station at a junction margin, couples to the seam, and writes its own position and
the junction's state into a medium every other node can read. Chain enough of them and the
frontier stops being a place you send a message to and wait months for an answer —
it becomes a place you can talk to, now, with only the small honest lag of
distance and relay depth. Fifteen of these were operational in 2195. Forty by 2204. By the
end of Marcus Cole's watch, more than eighty — and the curve was only steepening.
ISCA · OFFICE OF NETWORK ENGINEERING
DRAWING CN-MkII / SHT 1 · GENERAL ARRANGEMENT + NETWORK
CLASSIFICATION · ISCA RESTRICTED
N.T.S. · METRIC · REV C — 2195
FUNCTION
ROLESEAM RELAY
STATIONJCT MARGIN
CREWNONE
WRITESPOS + STATE
TRANSPORT
MODENEAR-REAL-TIME
LAG∝ RELAY DEPTH
TRAFFICPUB + PRIVATE
ENCRYPTSUPPORTED
LEDGER
RECORDAPPEND-ONLY
AUTHORPROVABLE
EDITIMPOSSIBLE
SECRECYNONE
PROGRAMME
MKII
219515 LIVE
220440 LIVE
222080+ LIVE
SYSTEM · TYPE
COMMUNICATION NODE · Mk II · SEAM-COUPLED RELAY
DRAWING
CN-MkII / 1
REV
C · 2195
SCALE
N.T.S.
OFFICE
ISCA NET-ENG
SHEET
01 / 06
Every node writes its own position and the junction's state into the shared medium, so the
network knows where all of itself is — that is what makes the near-real-time relay possible,
and it is sold, rightly, as the gift that finally joined the frontier to home. It does its job
perfectly. That it does its job perfectly is the whole of the marvel, and the reader of a much
later book may decide whether it is also the whole of the danger.