Hello Ric, All here. Wait… that’s wrong. Anyway, I’m here with another Star Trek Bestiary video,
this time looking at one of the newer additions to the Star Trek lore, the aptly named
Sphere from Star Trek Discovery. It was encountered in 2257 by the USS Discovery
NCC-1031 and was in the final hours of its life. It was approximately 565 kilometres in diameter
and had a mass of 6.39x10^20 kilograms. It was comprised of both organic biomatter as well as
non-living matter, all melded together into a single entity. It was hundreds of
thousands of years old, and had spent most of that time drifting about space, scanning, observing and
accumulating knowledge for an unknown purpose. An object of its mass would probably not be capable
of atmospheric flight, although I’m not ruling that out, as terrifying image as that conjures.
This means that it possess a way to observe creatures at extreme range on planet’s surface.
It can also witness entire solar systems of events with time and hoard information stored
even in digital state. This suggests that it has some form of artificial memory core, to record
digital media and the ability to intercept as well as broadcast signals compatible with a wide range
of technologies. This is very likely considering its state as both organic and non-organic,
making it the biggest cyborg I’ve ever seen. It quite simply did not want its vast knowledge
to go to waste and sought out a like-minded creature or creatures that could act as
custodians of its data. This it found with the crew of the Discovery and transferred
its knowledge (and mind, somewhat) into the computer core of the Crossfield class vessel.
It communicated by creating a resonance within its giant frame in a very complex pattern that even
the universal translators had a difficult time adapting to. Its internal temperature was just
under 10,000 degrees Kelvin which is incredibly hot for a mass of that size in space, suggesting
that there were internal functions going on that generated its temperature. In terms of scale,
it is just slightly larger than Uranus’ moon Miranda, which may have had molten core created
by tidal heating at one point in its life, but is too small to sustain its own heated interior.
It was an incredibly powerful object, almost too much so for the Discovery as its attempts at
communication and data transfer almost crippled the ship. It was also able to simply snatch
the vessel from its warp flight by generating a multiphasic stasis field that held it in place.
At a whim, it was also able to invert this field to repel Discovery to a safe distance,
protecting the vessel from its violent death, which saw the Sphere explode.
Interestingly enough, it seems that the sheer quantity of information, estimated to take a
team of analysist hundreds of years to sift through, created some unexpected results. Once
within the computer systems of a starship, that information gradually merged with that computer,
possibly creating an emergent intelligence. It had the ability to exert control over the Discovery
itself, and displayed a self-preservation instinct as well as a desire to keep the
crew in high spirits. Quite why and how this consciousness formed is still unknown,
but the computer systems of the Discovery have not been the same since the transfer.
As for why it desires to protect the ship and the crew? It could be that the sphere’s
influence simply sees Starfleet as a kindred spirit, and wants to work alongside the crew.
It could simply be an act of compassion from a benign entity that want’s to repay them for
saving its mind. Or it could just be further self-preservation, keeping the crew happy and
efficient keeps the sphere data alive and intact. Despite not having the greatest name, the
Sphere is an interesting addition to cosmozoans that drifted around the Star Trek universe.
It’s lacklustre name however also shows just how little the crew managed to glean from it,
before it was destroyed and its origin may always elude them. The fact that it floated around
collecting information is such a passive fashion, never interfering, just observing
suggests its purpose as an explorer. But its nature as both biological and not
could indicate an origin as either an organic creature that evolved with time,
or as a technological probe that also, adapted with time. Perhaps it’s a sort of knowledge
space ship from a gestalt race of machines, or a singular mind
at the centre of a mass that grew around it from assimilated materials and growth.
Could be a moon based AI system that took off one day. We don’t know. But if it really is several
hundred thousand years old, then its observed a significant portion of the Trek universe’s
history from around the time of the Iconain Empire, the T’Kon and everything in between.
I can see why it did not want all that experience to be lost to stardust and radiation when it
exploded at the end of its lifetime. As it continues on, in some form in the sentient
computer of the USS Discovery, we’ll have to see what else emerges from this strange and unique
encounter. Until the next video, I’ve been Ric and I hope to see you again for another. Goodbye!