Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
A Geek Culture Podcast - Two life-long Nerds explain, critique and poke fun at the major pillars of Geek Culture for your listening pleasure.
Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
Memory Gamma: The Crystalline Entity
A cold lab, stale air, and a wall of children’s drawings signal a mystery no tricorder can soothe: an entire colony erased without a trace. We follow the trail to a being that looks like a celestial snowflake and feeds like a storm—an immense crystalline lifeform that turns living worlds into power. Along the way, a door creaks open on Dr. Noonien Soong’s workshop, revealing not only the origins of Data, but the shadow of his brother, Lore, whose choices bend science into tragedy.
We dig into the science behind silicon-based organisms and crystalline biologies, from the Horta’s rock-dissolving metabolism to the Tholians’ lattice-bound radiation, and even laboratory systems where crystals move, split, and reform. The question isn’t whether such life can exist, but how we respond when it does. The crystalline entity forces a hard look at survival, intent, and the ethics of first contact. Is a predator evil if it lacks malice? Can we design deterrents and communication channels that respect life even when it threatens our own?
That moral line blurs when grief enters. Dr. Kyla Marr’s pursuit of answers and retribution collides with Data’s careful logic and Picard’s mandate to seek understanding. Together they find the entity’s antiproton trail and a way to speak through graviton pulses—only for vengeance to seize the moment and shatter a rare intelligence into drifting shards. The loss is more than tactical; it’s the silencing of a unique voice in the galaxy’s choir and a reminder that curiosity without restraint becomes conquest.
Join us as we unpack the science, the lore, and the consequences of choosing revenge over discovery. If this story moved you—or challenged how you think about alien life—follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with your take on justice versus survival.
Well to the memory library something worry now.
SPEAKER_01:Stale air filled their lungs as the Enterprise D crew scanned the dimly lit room. Strangely, the underground bunker echoed with the low hum of machinery and laboratory equipment, even though no living being had treaded its floors in more than twenty-five years. As a matter of fact, outside the various Starfleet missions to the surface, not a single living thing had appeared on the once flourishing world. None of the Federation colonists, no natural flora or fauna, not even a microbe. Nothing. As the away team took stock of the mysterious laboratory, the questions raised by its discovery only grew more numerous. Even Lieutenant Commander Data, who had been discovered unconscious on the surface twenty-six years before and possessed the memories of all four hundred and eleven colonists, was at a loss to explain what happened here on Omicron Theta, let alone where they currently found themselves. On one far wall hung the only discernible decoration, breaking up the utilitarian aesthetic of a room obviously meant for serious work. The framed pictures were obviously crude drawings, crafted by various children of the colony. They portrayed stick figures of themselves, their families, fleeing from what can only be described as an enormous snowflake. The strange contradictory imagery would be amusing if it weren't the last physical proof that these innocent children ever lived at all. Earth may be a paradise today, but crime does still exist in the universe. Some mundane, some on a galactic scale. This is a journal of the most memorable, most important crimes in the Milky Way galaxy, and the complex beings who commit them. To the few who survived their encounters with it, the crystalline entity seemed wondrous and mysterious, a near mythical figure in its behavior and physicality. On a visceral level, seeing it descend from the skies and raise the surface of all that lived must have screamed vengeful God. From a purely scientific standpoint, it seemed just as baffling. How could a sentient spacefaring being capable of entering warp through some sort of natural process evolved from crystal? Well, you wanted to know, so let's get the dry stuff out of the way.
SPEAKER_00:In addition, macroscopic single crystals are usually identifiable by their geometrical shape, consisting of flat faces with specific characteristic orientations.
SPEAKER_01:Though most life discovered in the galaxy is structured similarly to terrestrial life, it's obviously far from impossible that life forms could evolve from sources that are traditionally considered inorganic. The silicon atom has been much discussed as the basis for an alternative biochemical system because silicon has many chemical properties similar to those of carbon and is in the same group of the periodic table, the carbon group. Like carbon, silicon can create molecules that are sufficiently large enough to carry biological information. However, silicon has several drawbacks as an alternative to carbon. You see, silicon, unlike carbon, lacks the ability to form chemical bonds with diverse types of atoms as is necessary for the chemical versatility required for metabolism. And yet this precise inability is what makes silicon less susceptible to bond with all sorts of impurities from which carbon is, in comparison, not shielded. Elements creating organic functional groups with carbon include hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals such as iron, magnesium, zinc, and, of course, copper. There are categories of copper-based species such as Vulcans, Romulans, Mentokins, and other proto-vulcan beings. Silicon interacts with very few other types of atoms, you see. Moreover, where it does interact with the other atoms, silicon creates molecules that have been described as monotonous compared with the combinatorial universe of organic macromolecules. This is because silicon atoms are much bigger, having a larger mass and atomic radius. They have a difficulty forming double bonds. You see, the double-bonded carbon is the part of the carbonyl group, which is fundamental in carbon-based bioorganic chemistry. It has been suggested that some silicon-based chemicals are more stable than equivalent hydrocarbons in a sulfuric acid-rich environment, as is found in some extraterrestrial locations. The cosmic abundance of carbon to silicon is roughly 10 to 1. Now, this may suggest a greater variety in complex carbon compounds throughout the cosmos, providing less of a foundation on which to build silicon-based biologies, at least under the conditions prevalent on the surface of planets. Also, even though Earth and other terrestrial planets are exceptionally silicon-rich and carbon-poor, terrestrial life is carbon-based. The fact that carbon is used instead of silicon seems to suggest that silicon is poorly suited for the biochemistry on Class M planets. This led to a centuries-long belief that silicon-based life was highly unlikely. Well, discovering the silicon-based horta pretty much slapped contemporary science in the face. Horda did not evolve in an oxygen environment, and it consumed mineral rock for biochemical energy. Unless we forget the tholians. Though their isolationism has left us with very little information on tholian physiology, we do know that they are, or at least partially, crystalline and silicone-based. It's unclear, however, if the crystal structures that make up their bodies are generated as an exoskeleton, protecting maybe a softer form, or if they themselves are living crystal. Much like the entity, Tholians use their body to transmit various forms of radiation, using the crystal lattice as some sort of resonance antenna. But how could such a being evolve? Well, it's been known for centuries that synthetic active systems involving crystals can reproduce some features of living systems. But this field of study saw very little progress until the 23rd century discovery of the horto.
SPEAKER_00:In an experiment from the early 21st century at New York University, researchers created structures that when exposed to light and fed by chemicals, they form crystals that move, break apart, and form again. It was discovered that under certain wavelengths of blue light, the hematite conduct electricity. When particles are submerged into chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide under that blue light, the chemical reactions catalyze around exposed tips of each particle. As the hydrogen peroxide breaks down, the concentration gradients formed the particles travel down these aggregating into crystals that also follow the gradients.
SPEAKER_01:Technically, living crystals, if only on a microscopic level. These are the building blocks of life, as observed on numerous newly formed planets. Any one of these scenarios could lead to the formation of complex sentient life of crystalline makeup. And since silicon life forms don't require oxygen atmospheres to evolve, it's conceivable that it could have evolved to enter the vacuum of space. Of course, the curiosity of the origins of the crystalline entity is academic. To the colonists of Omicron Theta, its dazzling complex beauty simply added to the abject terror of its destructive power. Fundamentally, the entity, often classified as a cosmozoan, is a living electromagnetic collector. Like most living beings, its drive is simply to feed, in this case, converting organic matter into EM power. Everything, including vegetation and bacteria, is completely consumed and obliterated. Bitreous matter was one of the only traces of life left in the entity's wake, as were elevated levels of hydrocarbons, lanthanides, and nitrates. That's all that would remain of the lives lost to its raising. Out of context, feeding to survive is not really something to judge, but the enormity and indiscriminate nature of its feeding threatens the existence of any living being in its path. The incident at Omicron Theta wasn't due to random chance, however, as the Enterprise crew would soon discover. The biggest revelation in that forgotten laboratory was not the aftermath of the crystalline entity, at least not immediately. Instead, it was that this was the personal workshop of legendary cyberneticist Dr. Nunion Sung, and along with the existence of a second Tsun-type android. Commander Data had thought himself a unique being, the only one of his kind in existence, but now his place in the universe has changed with the reactivation of his older brother, Lore. The entirety of Lore's crimes are another story, but his greatest sin would prove to be vicious, cruel, petty, and senseless. As an android, Lore was a triumph, an enormous step forward in cybernetics. Extremely advanced intellectual capacity and physical skills, surpassing the strength, speed, and intelligence of an average humanoid. And on top of that, he was the only sentient android known to exist. So advanced was Lore's programming that it included complete emotional actualization. However, as he attempted to integrate into the social structure of the colony, he began displaying signs of emotional instability and malevolent tendencies, leading Lore to see himself as superior to humanoids. Whether suffering the shock of the uncanny valley or due completely to Lore's slowly twisting personality, the colonists grew to fear him. Eventually demanding Sung deactivated him. In Lore's eyes, they were simply jealous and resentful of his abilities, seeing him as too perfect. Recognizing Lore's cruelty, Dr. Sung reluctantly acquiesced and dismantled the android with hope to one day repair what had gone wrong. Lore was torn down and put away on a shelf like broken equipment, but not before his last act of vindictive anger. Somehow Lore had contacted the crystalline entity as it passed through the sector, alerting it to a fresh, new feeding ground. It's doubtful Lore achieved actual dialogue with the entity, but he sure got its attention. So as not to give up on his pursuit of a functioning positronic brain, Sung and his wife brought Data into the world. Physically identical to Lore, but without the emotional matrix that corrupted his older sibling. In an act of coincidental foresight, Dr. Sung helped Data's positronic pathways by scanning the neural patterns and therefore, eventually, the memories of every colonist on the planet.
SPEAKER_00:The positronic brain was a sophisticated computation device capable of artificial sentience, created by Dr. Nanian Sung, based on an idea from 20th-century science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Each unit consisted of an artificial neural network designed to imitate the humanoid brain. Due to the complexity of design, only six positronic brains have ever been functionally constructed, all by Dr. Soon.
SPEAKER_01:Following Lore's communiques in the year 2338, the crystalline entity descended upon Omicron Theta and raised all life on the planet. The colonists likely saw a moon-sized being clearly as it entered the atmosphere, its shimmering form filling the colony with awe and wonder. Both Lore and Data were left behind, neither aware of the other. But Data was subsequently discovered on the surface by the crew of the USS Tripoli. Lore remained in Sung's laboratory until 2364 when the Enterprise rediscovered it and the mystery of the crystalline entity. The ship's chief engineer, Commander Argyle, and the chief medical officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher, were successful in reactivating Lore, but no one had any inkling of the malevolence that hid behind bright golden eyes. Although initially presenting himself as willing to please and serve the Starfleet crew, sharing select information on the lost colony, Lore was quietly plotting. He still demanded satisfaction for his perceived slight by the colonists, and now there was an android more beloved than he. Eventually Lore deactivated Data, stole his uniform, and took his place among the crew. Lore once again summoned the crystalline entity, intending to sacrifice the crew of the Enterprise. His instability was clear. The shield to the Enterprise would easily deflect the attacks of the entity. His plan had very little chance of succeeding, and he seemed to have no good plan beyond it. Eventually, Lore was discovered, due to the idiosyncratic differences between the two androids, such as Data's inability to use contractions, which is baffling to me since I've been using them since day one. After a thrilling phaser fight, Data eventually transported Lore into open space. Unsatisfied, the entity moved on to greener pastures, for lack of a better phrase. In 2368, the Enterprise crew offered routine assistance to a Federation colony on the remote world of Melonia 4. They were the true adventurers and frontier folk yearning to build a home from the ground up. Before the ground could ever be broken, however, the skies filled with refracted light, the sun no longer visible due to the entity's prismatic lattice. With only minutes to seek shelter, Enterprise First Officer William Riger and Commander Data led a desperate evacuation into nearby caves with nothing but hope that they could survive. Though not all made the escape, those who reached the caves were shocked to hear the assault come and go. Within hours the entity had consumed every living thing on Melonia 4, but somehow, those in hiding were spared. Back aboard the Enterprise, Data led an investigation of the attack, joined by the Federation's foremost expert on the crystalline entity, Dr. Kyla Mar. By 2368, Marr had studied at least three different attack sites, including one at 4LA 3. There she developed an offensive measure by modifying photon torpedoes to possibly destroy the entity. Dr. Marr had been a woman obsessed, spending every waking moment studying the entity dedicated to making sense of her son's death on Omicron Theta. A death she blamed on Deta. Lore had summoned the entity, and both he and Deta had survived Omicron Theta. Then Data helped the Melonia 4 colonists become the only flesh and blood beings ever to survive a feeding. Was Deta the key? Was he to blame as much as Lore? Did Dr. Mark truly believe Data was in collusion with the entity just as his brother Lore had been? The truth was, of course, the conspiracy began and ended with Lore. Dr. Mar was projecting her own survivor's guilt onto Data, something that became very clear when Data shared her son's memories with her in his voice from beyond the grave. Eventually Mar began to warm up to Data after Captain Picard commanded her to collaborate with him in developing a way to track the crystalline entity. Together, they discovered that the creature left a residual anti-proton trail as it journeyed through space, the shared effort opening her eyes to Data's good nature. At the urging of Picard, Dr. Marr dropped her demands to hunt and kill the entity in hopes of finding a way to communicate with it. Perhaps they could reason with it or lead it to a food source that spared sentient lives. Sadly, though, Dr. Marr had no intention to spare the entity from her revenge. The Enterprise responded to a distress call from a freighter called Calisco, but had no hope of reaching them. The freighter had minimal shielding and weaponry. As soon as they gained the attention of the entity, their fates were sealed. The Enterprise crew could only listen, helplessly, to their transmissions as all hands aboard were lost. As they reached the entity, the Enterprise attempted to establish a mode of communication, emitting graviton pulses like those they'd observed from the entity before. The gamble was fruitful as the entity reacted and responded in turn. Perhaps now they could negotiate a strategy that would guide it away from population centers or create a harmless deterrent based on their research. Perhaps if it weren't for the failings of Dr. Kylo Mar. Purposefully, coldly, and with malice of forethought, Marr generated a constant graviton beam that could not be broken. The entity froze, paralyzed by the attack. Its dazzling lattice began to shake, vibrating furiously from the quantum level up. Before the Enterprise could sever the beam, the crystalline entity had shattered, sending the remains of what could very well have been the only of its kind diffused into the cosmos. Dr. Mars' fragile psyche seemed to collapse in on itself as she was escorted to the brig by Commander Data. The primary mission of Starfleet is to discover new life. And the crystalline entity was just that. No different than billions of species across the galaxy. The entity showed no malice, no cruelty, it simply fed to survive. Even sentient species have known to feed on other sentient beings. The knowledge offered by its existence, a new understanding of what intelligent life could be, of the evolution of the universe, was lost forever by its death. When all was said and done, the real crime committed in this affair was one of the oldest and most tragic in history. The human thirst for revenge.
SPEAKER_00:Star Trek and all related marks, logos, and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non commercial fan made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures. Live long and prosper.