Upon reading Patrick O'Brien's novels, I instantly associated with Traveller those scenes in which Jack Aubrey receives orders from higher authority, stares off into space for a few seconds to calculate in his head how the intervening time has most logically affected matter and then begins snapping out sailing directions.

I found it especially charming how Aubrey is always saying some version of, "Not a moment to waste!" as he sets out to accmplished Whatever, when it's going to be literally weeks until his ship/force can get to Whereever it's next supposed to be.