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Iconian probe

The Iconian probe scans the USS Yamato

An Iconian probe was a spherical blue orb with energy tendrils arcing at random and which was employed by the ancient, powerful, and extinct Iconian race to download an operating system into a ship's computer core, presumably in order to facilitate communication. However, if the operating system of the ship is too different from the Iconian one, they will clash, causing the vessel and its systems to malfunction and possibly suffer catastrophic consequences. Once the ground-based computer detected an incoming vessel into orbit of Iconia, an automated sequence would begin launching one probe per vessel. The probes were housed in a launch bay in the planet's surface. If many were released at once and the egress door failed to open, the resultant detonation would destroy the facility.

A probe affected the USS Yamato on stardate 42592.72 causing a malfunction in the ship's dilithium seals, resulting in the release of matter and antimatter and causing the vessel to explode, killing all hands aboard. Upon achieving a standard orbit of Iconia several days later, another probe was launched at the USS Enterprise-D, but it was destroyed before any systems could be affected. However, the Enterprise had previously downloaded the Yamato's logs, which contained the Iconian program, thereby "infecting" the Enterprise with the same program that destroyed the Yamato. The data "infection" was later removed. Another probe was launched at the Romulan vessel Haakona. It, too, was destroyed before it could upload any information. However, it also downloaded the Yamato's logs and inadvertently received the program. The crew of the Enterprise was able to aid the Romulans in removing the program before the Haakona could be destroyed as well and Captain Jean-Luc Picard destroyed the launch facility and all of the remaining probes in order to prevent the technology from falling into Romulan hands. (TNG: "Contagion")

According to the log entries of the USS Yamato viewed by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the probe scanned the starship on stardate 42607.95.
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