Chapter 23 p21 – Can’t lose the beard
Lightning: You — Master — Let me talk to him!
HNNNGH
(TRAN . . .
. . . SFORM . . . ?)
Camellia: I’m sorry, I can’t! He’s not on right now. No cell reception, see?
It turns out humans can imagine things into this world with us . . . but only if we already know how to make them. I have no idea how to build a communications satellite. And unlike the phone and the flare gun, that’s not something you can pick up at the local StuffMart.
Reseda: I get it now, boss . . . You know how to make a fabulous dress.
Camellia: Right! Also, it turns out I know how hair works.
Dr. Köhler is still in Germany. Even in this world, it’s thousands of miles away. We didn’t prepare to hang around while you fly that far. Besides, you don’t look like you’re in any shape to travel.
But he gave us some things to tell you, if we could find you. And once this round of the Game is over, we’ll let him know anything you want us to say.
The satellite alone wouldn’t help. The call between person in US and Germany MAY go over satellite (it may also go through the transatlantic cable) but it will definitely go through several dozens of various pieces of hardware for routing it. Quite likely, no single person would know how to make all of them or even exactly how many of them is on the path. And if you change the topology, you would need to modify the configuration and sometimes even software to adapt.
… I suppose Camellia doesn’t know that, which guarantee she wouldn’t be able to do it.
If both the phone Timothy created/brought with him and Dr. Köhler used were satelite phones maybe one satelite in orbit would be enough. Something like http://www.iridium.com
Which still leaves the question on how to get said satelite into orbit. Perhaps if they both brought a shortwave radio station with them… Anyway anything but the simple method used would require ridiculous amounts of preparation/work to make ist work with little gain. I suppose bringing an audio recording of the conversation to the next challenge might be possible.
Satellite phones tend to be bigger with bigger antennae, don’t they? And they may need two satellites anyway AND the satellite might not cooperate without some confirmation from base station. Shortwave radio station would be simpler but it might be out of range. Germany – US is really far away.
Personally I think the professor should just visit US in real world to get closer.
Actually, just because it’s called a ‘satellite’ phone doesn’t mean it *requires* a satellite. It requires talking to a device that is typically mounted on a satellite. It could be mounted on a small aircraft instead. The number of such devices would be determined by the distance and curvature of the land between the two parties, as well as the power of the devices. And I’d guess that there hasn’t been enough exploration of the space performed by people who would’ve informed any of our protagonists to determine how closely that space maps to the real world.
Note that I’m not aware of any satellite communication devices being attached to planes since they were proof of concepted before the first communications satellite was launched. I just studied the history of that stuff enough to know there was a proof of concept done before they went into orbit. I would guess that they still test out new versions like that, because it’s very expensive to put something into orbit only to find out it doesn’t work like it did in the lab.
Finally, Lightning gets a tiny big of help! I’ve been wanting someone to find this poor abused baby for so long!
Shortwave.
Wait, do we even know if the same physical laws fully apply here? Or even if this is a real place and not just a temporary altered perception of reality by the players involved?
Is this Dr. Köhler, Keith Köhler, or related to? :)
The very same!
But if absolute time doesn’t actually pass in the battlespace, would it really matter if they waited 5 minutes or 5 months for the bird to go around the globe?
I’m so confused by battlespace. I thought Masters were transported in when their Beings were.
But glad to find I hadn’t missed the key point of them figuring out who his Master was.