Hi, Ric here, and well…there is relatively little known on the subject of today’s cultural
index video, the Malon of Star Trek’s Delta quadrant are only ever encountered in once
capacity and seen in a single murky light. From what we see their entire culture seems
to orbit around the disposal of waste and while technically true, I guess, there is
far more that we don’t see. For example, the homeworld of the Malon is
Malon Prime, which I have to admit always bugs me when the home planet is called the
same as the species. Side tangent here, but my rationalization for this is that the universal
translator defaults to naming a home planet after the species then adding “Prime”
to the end if the name is unrecognized by Starfleet or something.
Anyway, Malon Prime is a beautiful and verdant M class world located in the Delta Quadrant
end of the galaxy and as the USS Voyager never visited it, we don’t have exact coordinates
for it. They are a warp capable and advanced species, however their technology is lacking
in several areas, but we can get to that in a minute.
The leadership of the Malon Cooperative is in the form a government called the Sanctity,
though little else is known. The territory that the Malon occupy seems rather expansive
given their first encounter in 2375 in the void and the subsequent 30,000 light years
traversed by the USS Voyager before their next encounter. This is likely due to the
Malon’s extensive travelling distance to find uninhabited and isolated areas of space
and their true territory is much smaller, somewhere in the centre of this 30,000 light
year range. Doesn’t narrow it down much, I know.
There are references that among its many exports is a grain called Therhea and another plant
called Smap which would suggest a blooming agricultural industry which meshes with Malon
descriptions of the planet as thriving. It is also rumoured to be full of beautiful scenery
and fresh air but all this is a veneer over a grubby core.
You see, although they have harnessed the power of matter-antimatter reactions to produce
great energy, such as that which powers their warp drives, they have yet to reach the level
of advancement in this field that powers like the United Federation of Planets has, or even
the Klingons. Their matter-antimatter reactions, which are used to power their entire society
have no way to process or dispose of the residual waste that can be produced by certain reactors.
This waste is highly toxic and most notably produces high levels of theta radiation. This
sort of “dirty” reaction was overcome by humanity, with one of the only vessels
to produce theta radiation being the Phoenix, Zefram Cochrane’s legendary warp 1 vessel.
The waste produced by their society is around 6 billion isotons and is routinely exported
from the planet via the Disposal Union and therein lies the problem. The waste disposal
business is very profitable for those involved even though a hazardous occupation. This means
that there is a great focus from individuals within the industry to resist change to the
status quo in order to maximise profits. For this reason, the development of cleaner energy
sources has been artificially postponed by payoffs and a lack of funding into alternatives.
The waste is loaded into large export vessels which vary in design and size from smaller
single pod cells to super-tankers that carry eight times the waste and can be up to 730
meters long. The tankers themselves are constructed of darker metals that are usually slightly
degraded and warped from radiation damage. It’s likely that the vessels were originally
of much higher standard but constant use has taken its toll. Inside the vessels is a dark
and dingy atmosphere that would be a health and safety inspector’s nightmare. Facilities
on the larger ships included decontamination facilities and medical bays. The crew members
and labourers themselves have to wear protective suits to help counter the intense theta radiation
and take routine analeptic injections. The dangers of theta radiation include fatigue,
hallucinations and nausea to begin with followed by the appearance of skin lesions and boils.
These symptoms increase in severity with prolonged exposure until the point of complete cellular
breakdown and the liquefaction of organic matter. The radiation also has damaging effects
on non-organic matter with time and can even distort subspace. Despite all this it does
have its uses in early treatments for removing pathogens by irradiating them and exposure
can be treated with anti-radiation treatments such as Arithrazine.
The medical know how of the Malon seems to be adequate, but nothing compared to Starfleet
levels with many disposal crews succumbing to “freighter blight”, name given to a
mild radiation sickness and considered a general occupational hazard.
Crews on these waste export vessels seem to apply for runs and pick an occupation, with
the highest paid jobs being that of a core labourer. These individuals operate closest
to the source of radiation and have a survivability of 30% per run. Two months of core labour
is enough to equate to a lifetime’s worth pay-out but the survivability is so low that
this money is usually paid to the family of the worker. The captain of a freighter is
called the Controller and can be distinguished by the dark blue suit that they wear.
Your everyday citizens however look at the whole process as a necessity of everyday life
and respect those who sign on to disposal crews as acting out of a civic duty. A lot
of care does go into the disposal of the waste with numerous safety features to contain the
harmful toxins and the selection of isolated and uninhabited areas of space to dump it.
However the run-down state of equipment and the lack-lustre medical care leave much for
improvement and accidents can and do happen. On top of this, some of the more unscrupulous
Controllers may prioritise a quick pay check over observing proper safety and dump the
materials in less-than-ideal locations. There are also myths centred around the spacefaring
race, in particular the Vihaar is a bogeyman of sorts that lurks in the bowels of the vessels,
the hazardous and grim atmosphere of the bloated boats conducive to the spread of this myth.
The truth of these tales may be centred around the rare few individuals with a theta radiation
resistance who still succumb to its necrotising and damaging effects. Such inflicted people,
often core workers can find themselves broken by the pain and resorting to violence and
irrational thought until they perish. For the reason of containment, the Malon ships
tend to have very powerful shielding and are armed with spatial charges to protect their
runs. They seem to excel at industrial occupations such as ship construction alongside their
export business and some sources state that ship construction is one of their chief exports.
Malon names seem to adhere to a convention of being in few syllables with male names
ending in a harsh “K” sound, such as Pelk, Emck, Vrelk, Fesek and Dremk while the only
female name we see does not, that being Sivad. Their written language, much like their ships
seems to favour circular lettering as seen in their ship’s computer interfaces.
A sign of respect for a deceased Malon is to touch two fingers to the forehead of the
deceased then to themselves in a sign of remembrance. I wish there were more we got to see beyond
their dumping industry but it seems to be the only aspect ever explored in both the
show and extra materials as an analogy to environmental damage. We only hear about the
society their actions protect as well as witness the damaging effect of their dirty operations.
So have you come across any other Malon lore that I missed? Let’s see what else we can
dig up. Thanks again for watching and as usual, there
is a vote on the next index’s choices which should be both in the comments below and on
the community page as a vote so leave your choices in either or both and we’ll see
how this works out, the choices for the next species are either the non-humanoid and extreme
environmental preferring Tholians of Trek, or from the Star Wars universe, also of non-human
form, the Hutts. Let me know which you’d like to see next
and until the next video, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you again. Thanks again and
goodbye!