SHIP U.S.S. VOYAGER:

STARFLEET PROBES

Page 3

PAGE CONTENTS

Probe types continued: Multispatial Probe Class-5 Probe, modified

MULTISPATIAL PROBE

multispatial probe [Extreme Risk]

In early 2375, by the episode [#97 Extreme Risk], the Voyager crew have constructed a technologically advanced autonomous remote sensing device, designated the multispatial probe. The probe is equipped with immersion shielding, which is an advance deflector shield technique developed by Tuvok which employs Borg unimatrix shield technology whose details have been revealed by Seven. This successfully protects the probe even after Janeway steers it into the atmosphere of the class-6 gas giant it had surveyed that morning. She does this in order to try and hide the probe from pursuit by a Malon freighter vessel which had locked a tractor beam onto it with the intent of stealing it. The Malon vessel implodes when it foolishly continues its pursuit despite a warning broadcast by Janeway.

SHOW NOTE: CONSTRUCTION DATE

Encylopaedia states that it was constructed in 2375. Before that statement, which appears in Encyclopaedia's Supplement published in 1999, the tv dialogue was open to interpretation that it could have been manufactured slightly earlier, but of course, due to its Borg-based technology, no earlier than Seven's co-operation which began in 2374. HIDE NOTE

However, although the probe remains intact and can be repaired, it gets stuck in a layer of liquid hydrogen and methane about 10,000 kilometres below the outer atmosphere and no longer responds to Voyager's remote commands. The immersion shield technology is later incorporated into the construction of Voyager's newest shuttlecraft, designed to withstand the special rigours of the Delta Quadrant, christened the Delta Flyer, and built at this time in order to rescue the probe. On its first mission, the Delta Flyer enters the atmosphere of the gas giant planet and its crew (consisting of Paris, Kim, Torres and Seven) successfully retrieves the multispatial probe, doing so before another Malon freighter's specially built shuttle can take it. The immersion shielding is not the sole feature of the Delta Flyer - see DELTA FLYER INDEX

Steered remotely from Voyager, the multispatial probe flies into the class-6 gas giant in order to evade theft by a pursuing Malon freighter. (pop-up window) [Extreme Risk]

the multispatial probe locked in a Malon space freighter's tractor beam [Extreme Risk]

LCARS monitor display of the multispatial probe schematics [Extreme Risk]

the gravity sinkhole anomaly analysed on Voyager's astrometrics lab viewscreen; Chakotay says: "I'd say it's time to break out the multispatial probe." [Gravity]

In 2375, stardate 52438, in [#107 Gravity], the shuttlecraft which is crewed by Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor is pulled into a gravity sinkhole phenomenon and crashlands on a planet within. The anomaly, approximately 600 metres in diameter, is out of phase with normal space and the zone within it includes a type-3 sun and three planets. The anomaly is collapsing and will eventually crush everything within and, in addition, Supervisor Yost of Renovation Team Delta of an unidentified species has orders to seal the rift the next day and begins his work early. This leaves the Voyager crew little time in which to mount a rescue operation for the missing shuttlecraft crew.

Voyager sends the multispatial probe into the phenomenon to find them, and the probe's telemetry locates the shuttlecraft's distress beacon on a class-D planet. It returns astronomical data covering a three-month period because there is a temporal differential between Voyager and the planet with a ratio of .4744 seconds per minute. According to that formula, thirty minutes would translate to two days, eleven hours and forty-seven seconds. Voyager uses the multispatial probe as a transporter relay by reconfiguring the targetting scanners, using the distress beacon as the focussing point, and also uses the same relay to send a com. signal to let Tuvok and the others know that help is on the way. The shuttlecraft crew, along with an alien female called Noss, are successfully transported aboard Voyager. Illustrated dialogue extract from [#107 Gravity] (The probe is not seen on tv in this episode.)

In early 2376, stardate unknown, Torres returns injured in a shuttlecraft after retrieving the multispatial probe [#123 Barge of the Dead]:

Janeway: "When I give you an order I expect you to follow it. I told you to return to Voyager not chase the probe into the centre of an ion storm." Torres: "We have only one multispatial probe. I didn't want to lose it." Janeway: "We have only one B'Elanna Torres. I don't want to lose her either." (The probe is not seen on tv in this episode.)

Torres manages to bring a damaged shuttlecraft into Voyager's shuttlebay after retrieving the multispatial probe. (pop-up window) [#123 Barge of the Dead]

CLASS-5 PROBE, MODIFIED

The modified class-5 probe does not look physically similar to the standard class-5 probe but is visually identical to Voyager's multispatial probe. (Explanation: the exact same CGI prop was used.)

	In main engineering, Torres and Chakotay are looking at an LCARS monitor display. Torres: "The next series of scans is coming through. I'm downloading them into the display buffer." Chakotay: "No doubt about it. There's a city down there." Torres: "Elevated levels of carbon monoxide, ammonium - that's 'progress' alright."
	Chakotay: "They've developed internal combustion technology since the last few scans. Look at those radial lines: it looks like a system of roads." Torres: "Well, one thing hasn't changed - the geological disturbances that Voyager seems to be causing. The probe recorded half a dozen each month. Still no way to tell how severe they are."

the flashing red light (and an audible alert) indicates imminent probe failure

Chakotay: "Look at the amount of iron being used in that city. That's ten times what you'd expect to see in a culture at this stage of development." Torres: "Do you think they're using it to support their buildings?" Chakotay: "If you lived on a planet that wouldn't stop shaking, you might be doing the same thing. If they're reached this stage of industrial development, they must be observing us." An alert sounds and flashes a red light on the LCARS interface. Torres: "The probe's impulse thrusters are starting to fail. At its present altitude, it's been operating for over two hundred years. Its orbit is becoming decayed." Chakotay: "Initiate self-destruct." Torres does so. "It disintegrated in the upper thermosphere. If they saw anything it just looked like a shooting star."