Tiny, black earbud that fits into the ear canal, almost invisibly. Used for communicating between people on the same Commbud system. It relays surrounding environment sounds through the earpiece when inactive but blocks external sounds when activated for a conversation.

<aside> 📝 Touch, then speak, everyone on the commbud system hears you.

Touch, say a name, that person hears you.

When someone touches their comm and then speaks your name, you hear them say your name and whatever else they may have said, such as “Fred, do you read me?”. When you touch the commbud, you accept the connection to the ‘caller’.

Touching the commbud during a conversation closes the connection and returns the commbud to inactive state.

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When you register your commbud at the Outside Ship console, it registers your full name and title and identifies you by all unique words. So, if you register “Captain James Kirk” and no one else is a captain or a James or a Kirk, then communication can be initiated by saying “captain” or “James” or “Kirk” or any combination of the three. If Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura are both registered, saying “Lieutenant” will not be enough to ping either of their commbuds. You must use the unique identifiers of “Hikaru” or “Sulu” or “Nyota” or “Uhura”.

The commbuds are all connected to the ship, so you must be in range of the ship. The range is estimated to be several miles but this has not been tested. If you are planetside and the ship is in space, you are way out of range.

The commbuds are stored in a covered panel at the Outside Ship console. This console interfaces with the commbud system and the individual units, handling all signal management, unit diagnostics, etc.. When the commbud panel is opened, there is an array of 20 holes the earbuds plug into. 3 of the earbuds are missing and 5 are non-functioning, leaving 12 available to the current crew. The battery inside each unit is estimated to last for several years without charging but this also has not been tested.