Dear redwing,
Thanks for the welcome. I plan to spend considerable time at the probe discussion board, and other archives as well. My goal is to get complelely up to speed on the project this week, although that's no mean task, as the probes have certainly been prolific since contact was established.
I'm sure there are probably some interesting clues that we've overlooked to this point, as it has been my experience that certain xeno-cultures have been known to place objects that do not, at first observation, appear to be anything other than odd rocks or other "commonplace" objects. (I use that term advisedly...we are dealing with an alien landscape here and nothing can be truely considered "commonplace!").