Scythe was a large asteroid in the Alpha Proxima system, a former moon of third planet Proxtrey and the site of an automated Proxtrite military outpost.
Specifics[]
In the 23rd century, its extreme elliptical orbit brought it within range of the system's inner planets every 200 years, when it made a close pass by the third planet.
Its barren rocky surface contained tri-phosphorate silver. The spherical asteroid had weak gravity, insufficient to sustain an atmosphere. The moon's outpost recycled and replenished the air, maintaining a minimal but breathable level of oxygen on the surface. It had a slow rotational period.
History[]
In the 13th century, the interplanetary Lucrs culture on Proxtrey founded an outpost on Scythe intended as a base from which to maintain their superiority over the rival Sof culture. Sent to disable the base, a Sof infiltration team accidentally trigged a missile firing sequence, igniting a nuclear war that killed three-fourths of their homeworld's population. A retaliatory nuclear strike by the Sofs was powerful enough to deflect Scythe out of planetary orbit.
Over the next 1,000 years, Proxtrites worshipped Scythe as a war god. Its cyclical return every 200 years was seen as a time of contemplation.
By the 2260s, Proxtrey's inhabitants had advanced back to Earth's 20th century level of technology. In 2269, as Scythe approached Proxtrey, the outpost detected unrecognized radio signals and concluded they must be of Sof origin. Unaware that the war ended, it rearmed. With the threat of another nuclear war, Starfleet diverted the Federation starship USS Enterprise to investigate.
A computer virus from Scythe's outpost traveled via the Enterprise's sensors and infected the starship's main computer, leaving the vessel unable to destroy the missiles with phasers or tractor beams. A landing party entered the operations center, discovering that one of its computers was infected with a computer virus. Since the various computers were not networked, the missile launches could rescheduled so that they would run out of fuel before reaching Proxtrey and end up drifting harmlessly into Alpha Proxima's star. (TOS video game: 25th Anniversary mission: That Old Devil Moon)
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Appearances and references[]
- TOS video game: 25th Anniversary mission: That Old Devil Moon