Lost Conveyors

A conveyor can become entirely
lost – that is, fail to arrive where it was
expected – for a variety of reasons.
These boil down to “operator error”
and “bad luck.”
If someone on Homeline was
retrieving the conveyor with a projec-
tor, or expecting it to return under its
own power, its loss will be noticed
immediately.
If the conveyor was outbound from
Homeline, the time before its loss is
noticed depends on the shipment.
Loss of a regular supply run to a major
base will be reported as soon as possi-
ble, by sending a message capsule to
the other end. However, it might take
days or weeks to notice the loss of an
exploration mission!
The sooner a conveyor’s loss is
noticed, the better the chances of
recovery. The Infinity Unlimited com-
puters can get to work on the problem,
taking into account every known
variable, down to the exact mass
and capacitance of the conveyor.
Sometimes, they can predict where it
might have appeared. If they’re lucky,
this is a charted, habitable timeline.
But sometimes it isn’t.
Occasionally, the computers pre-
dict an uncharted location. In fact, this
is how several new timelines were dis-
covered. Even so, being randomly
dumped onto a brand-new timeline,
while it makes a great adventure, is a
trip most travelers would rather avoid.