Re: [VV] Vectorverse FTL

laserlight@quixnet.net wrote:
> 13. Signature (ie can FTLing ships be detected)

	Note that if the ships can be detected
	FTL, this implies FTL communication.
	That is, if you can detect the current location
	of a FTLing ship faster than a beam of light can
	travel from its location, the effect can be
	used for communication.

	If nothing else, the ship can pulse its drive
	in Morse code.

	example: if you can loft a spy satellite
	into hyperspace and have it warn you of
	an enemy fleet passing by Alpha Centauri,
	you have FTL communication.

	However, the FTLing ship detection method	
	in PROCYON'S PROMISE is *not* itself FTL.
	In that novel, an FTLing ship plowing through
	the interstellar medium generates intense radiation.
	This radiation can be detected normally, but it doesn't
	do much good.  By the time you see it the FTLing ship
	is long gone.

	And for complicated reasons I won't bother going into,
	you will see the spot of radiation from the ship
	traveling *backwards*.