June 22, 2006

The last scene I started writing takes place just after the shuttle got smacked by a piece of debris from one of their probes. Through some quick, reactionary, thinking, Green magnetizes the shuttle's hull and flies the vehicle back into the piece of debris so that the ship "catches" it with its magnetized hull. This will allow them to bring the piece back to Dawn so Mr. Crenshaw can analyze it.

Green and Dante will speculate that the probe was destroyed by its interaction with the cloud, but Crenshaw's analysis will confirm that the cloud is made up of some kind of gas that interacts badly with the engines, or with the material of which the probes are made of - I'm not sure which yet.

Recall that Dante and Green are on this mission in order to scan the cloud so that they can get coordinates for creating the bounding array around the cloud, and warn other ships that might otherwise be damaged by the cloud.

So after the collision, Green manages to "grab" a piece of the debris. Dante instructs him to maintain a greater distance from the cloud. They fly around to the other side and manage to get the measurements they are looking for, but are unable to transmit them to Dawn while they are on the far side of the cloud.

My sense of this is that the shuttle Asimov started going around the cloud on the starboard side, will circle around it and return on the port side, relative to Dawn. Therefore, the debris they find comes from the starboard probe. So what happens with the port-side probe?

Recall that Dawn had lost contact with the starboard probe, and we now know that it was destroyed. They had been receiving only an intermittent data stream from the port side probe, so we still need to explain that.

I don't know how much more I can keep writing about Dante and Green in the shuttle. I might want a scene break, go back to a scene on Dawn, so I can allow the shuttle to continue its loop around the cloud without having to write all the excruciating details.

So if I were to cut to a scene that takes places aboard Dawn, what would it be? Show Crenshaw and his team work to flush out the engines? Write the scene where Tsui comes to the bridge to run scans on Arjay and embarrasses him on the bridge? That one might work. Or start setting up for the surprise birthday party for Arjay's 40th. The birthday scene might be out of place here, I can't imagine that happening while the ship is on alert and in the middle of a crisis. I think setting up Tsui's meeting with the captain is the way to go.

So up to this point, Tsui has examined all the crew except, of course, the captain. Her going to the bridge at this time is part of her character; she has this way that she can be aggressive at times, and this is one of those times. Now, would she come up to the bridge while the ship is on alert just to run some medical scans on Arjay? My guess is that during the alert, she would be required to remain in Sickbay and be available to treat any patients. Okay, but she would have a staff that could tend to any injuries that are minor. (Hmm, I'll have to give some thought to creating a medical staff. At least a nurse. How about a male nurse, as a reversal of the Dr. McCoy/ Nurse Chapel relationship?). So when the alert is called, Tsui determines that there aren't any major injuries to take care of. Well, maybe one. Normally she should report it to the bridge using the comm system and remain in Sickbay, but she decided to use this as an excuse to go to the bridge. So two things I need to figure out - who is her nurse, and who got injured.

Once on the bridge she starts scanning the captain. "What are you doing?" he asks her. "I've completed my medical examinations of the entire crew except you," she replied, "I know that you're really busy and don't have time to come to Sickbay for your examination, so I'll just do a few scans here." Leading the water to the horse instead of the horse to the water. She is being somewhat sarcastic, and she and Arjay both know it, but neither will admit it out loud.

"Doctor, we're in the middle of an alert right now," Arjay tells her. So what does she say to that? She just kind of shrugs it off. "This won't take long", something like that, and continues her scan. Arjay steps from the center of the bridge towards one of the consoles, pretending to move in for a closer look at some readings, and Tsui just follows him and keeps scanning.

"Doctor, this is embarrassing," he tells her. She shrugs her shoulders, as if to suggest that it isn't her problem. She makes some comment, something with a double meaning. The surface meaning is something superficial, something bogus, that again implies that the process won't take long, or some such thing. The deeper meaning is the implication that if he hadn't been avoiding his examination all this time, then he wouldn't be putting up with this crap from the doctor on his own bridge. Not to mention - what kind of example does this set for the new crew members? Maybe she makes a comment to the effect that he should take an example from the new crew members, since they've already reported for their exam. Oh yes, that would sting Arjay some.

So finally Arjay concedes, and agrees that he will come to Sickbay for his medical. Perhaps he agrees to do so right away, or perhaps in, say half an hour, and turns command of the bridge to - who? Dante is already off the ship. Who is third in command? Linda? That would be a delicious irony, turning command of the ship to Linda while he gets his medical exam done, considering the teasing she was giving him about it earlier!