Welcome to the Star Trek Bestiary where I do the lore on the things. I thought considering
the season, it would be fun to look at some of the creepier encounters in Star Trek, and
I don’t mean that ghost lamp. To begin with, let’s look at the being that identified
itself as “Isabella”, the FGC-47 lifeform. This creature is actually the first pure energy
being that I’ve covered in this series, although there have been others with some
energy based anatomy, and while not totally malevolent, it and its species were a genuine
threat to the Enterprise D, and quite capable of eventually destroying it. What gives it
the creepy edge for me, is the fact it posed as Clara Sutter’s invisible friend while
it scouted the vessel. This creature is rather small, but we did
see several varieties of it, and its environment itself might actually be a part of it. The
one that entered the starship was only a dozen or so centimetres, while ones that attached
themselves to the shields were far larger, judging by the scale shown here.
As mentioned they are non-corporeal energy beings that float around just as easily in
the vacuum of space as within an atmosphere. They were encountered within the FGC-47 nebula,
which consisted of hydrogen, helium and trionium and had formed around a neutron star. Initially,
these creatures were undetectable to the sensor systems of the Enterprise as they entered
into the mists and the first indicator that anything was wrong was when the ship struck
something it couldn’t see and began to drag. Unknown to the crew, there were a series of
high energy plasma strands woven throughout FGC-47 that would only reveal themselves in
the presence of a warp field. These strands in turn interacted with the ship’s shields,
essentially causing a drag effect, slowing down the vessel. It was effectively a spider’s
web of snaring strands, but also one that was moveable to the creatures that dwelt within.
After the issue was uncovered, the Enterprise found that its retreat had been cut offwith
10 times the amount of strands obscuring their path out. At one point, they detected 47 million
individual fibres within a 2000 kilometre sphere of the ship.
This was the environment for the creatures, but it could perhaps even be that these were
actually extensions of them, or just a product, like spider silk, we don’t know for sure,
but the creatures could control the fibres. These lifeforms themselves were sentient and
before the shields were raised, could pass through matter unimpeded. While in their energy
orb state, they could perceive and fly at will, and evaded detection as long as possible.
It could also mimic other lifeforms, as it did when it duplicated a flower after passing
into it. Presumably it simply mimicked its image in this case, but things get stranger
when it enters the mind of the adolescent Clara Sutter. After somehow scanning her mind
through contact with her brain, she was able to adopt the form of her imaginary friend,
Isabella with a close or perfect approximation of what Clara expected to see.
However, it seems that this being could not directly read her thoughts after she had assumed
the Isabella form, as she began to act in ways unfamiliar to the child. The energy being
could also render itself completely invisible, which makes me wonder why it was sneaking
around earlier, but Clara could still hear her, suggesting some form of link still at
play. Additionally, it seemed as if originally it
was unable to travel too far from Clara, but that later proved to be a limitation born
only of the fact it wanted to remain near her. Its goal was to explore the ship, predominantly
main engineering and locations with many people. The former was easy to explain, it wanted
to feed of the energy reserves in the core, but the latter is a little unsettling. Because
these creatures can feed off of people’s energy too, as it did by stunning Troi, sapping
her strength and disrupting her bio-electrical processes. So evidently, it was evaluating
the rest of the crew as potential sources of food.
The creatures did have a weakness or two however; they could be detected in the presence of
a warp field and once that was in place, they were detectable to sensors. Additionally they
could not pass through deflector shields, but could feed of them; several of these energy
vortices could have drained them from max in 8 minutes. Fortunately however, they are
intelligent creatures and could be reasoned with. The reason for this hostility was simply
that their scout had determined that the crew were cruel creatures, who placed unfair limitations
at a whim on others. It had come to that conclusion, because it did not differentiate between the
adult point of view and a child’s, which also suggests that when these beings are created,
they do so without an adolescence. However they procreate, they probably don’t “grow
up” as most biological creatures do. Once it understood that the crew of the Enterprise
were benign, it backed off as did its web and allies while the Enterprise then released
a large amount of energy for them to feed off by way of an olive branch.
So while this one did have a happy ending, and the threat was basically a misunderstanding
between different lifeforms, the fact that this energy vortex creature basically haunted
a young girl and then started getting aggressive to the crew was kind of unsettling. The limits
the adults place on the children, no matter how slight, must have seemed overbearing for
a species that had no concept of childhood and dwelt in the limitless expanse of space.
But at least it was all’s well in the end. Thanks for watching this video on the FGC-47
entities, and until the next creature, I’ve been Ric and goodbye!