Probes away

They launched three probes. One flew out of the ship and up to attempt to determine the upper boundary of the cloud - upper defined as relative to the ship's orientation. The other two probes flew along a course on either side of the cloud - one around the port side, the other around starboard. Dawn remained in a stationary position; the measurements returned by the probes in addition to what her own sensors would uncover would provide enough information to be able to construct a three dimensional map of the cloud.

The topside probe was the first to return any useful data. The probe determined that the top boundary of the cloud measured at about eight hundred kilometers above the ship's position. Dawn's own sensors determined that the bottom of the cloud extended about three hundred kilometers below the ship's position. The port and starboard probes measured how wide the cloud was on the near side. With this information, Linda was able to construct a map of the near side of the cloud - the side that faced the ship. To map the far side they would have to wait while the probes circled around the cloud.

Having mapped out the near face of the cloud, they were able to calculate the optimal placements of four of the eight buoys they intended to leave behind to warn off other ships.

Unfortunately, probing the far side of the cloud was not so straightforward.

"I'm getting an intermittent data stream from the port side probe," reported Green.

"There is some kind of interference that is blocking the probe's transmission," Linda confirmed.

Arjay and Morgan exchanged glances.

"Captain, I've just lost contact with the starboard probe," Green announced.

Arjay and Morgan turned to look at Linda, who shook her head. "I'm not getting any readings at all."

Arjay and Morgan looked at each other. "We need to know what happened to those probes," said Arjay.

"We still need to know coordinates for where to send the four far side buoys," added Morgan.

"We'll have to send a shuttlecraft out."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"Sir," Green interjected, "I'd like to volunteer for this mission."

"Negative," answered Arjay. "Ms. Quarette is better qualified."

"Captain," Morgan spoke with just a trace of sharpness in his voice. His and Arjay's eyes locked for a second. Arjay took in that silent request from Morgan, and finally nodded with some unease. Morgan held his gaze for another second and nodded back slightly, in silent acknowledgement. "Mr. Green, you may join me on the hangar deck."

Ensign Green could not believe what he had just heard. He turned to look at Gaba Quarette beside him at helm, with an incredulous expression on his face. She looked back right at him, noticing peripherally that Morgan stood waiting in the turbo elevator. "Go!" she mouthed at Green, nodding towards the elevator.

Green went.