I have a handful of questions about the X-Boat network and el-google
hasn't given me the answers I'm looking for.

## Questions

1. What criteria does the scout service use when it figures out where
   X-Boat transfer points are?

2. How often do X-Boats visit a given system?

3. How do messages propagate from systems with an X-Boat "base" to
   systems without an X-Boat base?

For me all these questions are part of the bigger question: How fast
does information propagate in the Imperium?

Is there good source material on this? The Library Data article on
this is pretty thin.

## My random thoughts

I hadn't really thought about question 1. but I would assume that you
would place X-Boat bases in systems where wilderness fueling is
possible. Part of the job of the X-Boat tender would be to refine fuel
for the X-Boat. A ship would jump in, transfer it's data to tender or
another X-Boat and that boat would jump to the next system downstream
on the "route". Alternately, an X-Boat would jump in, partially
transfer it's data to the tender while being refueled and then jump
out to the next system once the transfer and the refuelling are
complete.

On question 2, I'd figure the periodicity is between daily and
bi-weekly. I can imagine that some X-Boat bases are a nexus for
multiple X-Boat routes. Those systems would have a higher frequency of
visits.

On question 3. I really don't know. Type S Scouts don't seem to have
the computing power needed act in this "last mile" capacity. Also, it
doesn't seem like the Scout service would assign courier runs like
this but maybe I'm wrong. Is there some other courier ship that the
ISS uses to haul data from X-Boat bases to other systems?

--
Chris

     __o          "All I was trying to do was get home from work."
   _`\<,_           -Rosa Parks
___(*)/_(*)_____________________________________________________________
Christopher Sean Hilton                    [chris/at/vindaloo/dot/com]