# Communication

There are various methods of communication. This section covers a few of the important ones used by the project.

Communication stones seem to come in pairs and have mysterious properties:

- They can transfer thoughts in two directions once activated if used alone.
- If used with another device, they can transfer one's consciousness to another body.
- If both stones are used with another device, the consciousnesses switch bodies.

Radios use the electromagnetic spectrum in the meter range and longer.

Signal flares use the electromagnetic spectrum in the nanometer range.

# Food

All food at the project is rationed:

Potatoes
  Two per day
Soup
  One bowl per day

Cooking is done by the chefs on a set rotation.

Dudley was ninety-two, in his second life, and fast approaching time for another rejuvenation. Despite his body having the physical age of a standard fifty-year-old, the prospect of a long degrading campaign within academia was one he regarded with dread. For a supposedly advanced civilization, the Intersolar Commonwealth could be appallingly backward at times, not to mention cruel.

Maybe it won't be that bad, he told himself. The lie was comforting enough to get him through the rest of the night's shift.

The Carlton AllLander drove Dudley home just after dawn. Like the astronomer, the vehicle was old and worn, but perfectly capable of doing its job. It had a cheap diesel engine, common enough on a semi-frontier world like Gralmond, although its drive array was a thoroughly modern photoneural processor. With its high suspension and deep-tread tyres it could plough along the dirt track to the observatory in all weather and seasons, including the metre-deep snow of Gralmond's winters.