Skygowan was an inhabited class M planet in the Ba-Dates star system. It was the homeworld of two indigenous humanoid species: the Cali-Katchna natives who inhabited the primary city of Cali-Katchna, and the Skygowan natives who resided on the rest of the planet. Skygowan was connected by several "ley lines" to other locations in space, enabling interdimensional travel between them. Among those locations were Vadia IX and an unstable wormhole.
Astronomical data[]
Skygowan planetary analysis
The planet was located at coordinates 3448.7421. It had a rotation period of 25.1 hours and a revolution period of 355 days. Its mass was estimated to be 6.38941×1024 kilograms, and its age at 6.947 billion solar years. Its atmosphere was composed of 78% molecular nitrogen, 20% molecular oxygen, 0.8% argon, 0.8% water vapor, and 0.3% carbon dioxide, with trace amounts of methane and nitrous oxide.
The surface of Skygowan was mostly covered by ocean, with a global archipelago of islands and a mean temperature of 14.1 degrees Celsius. Lifeforms documented from the planet included 289 mammalian, 472 avian, 543 reptilian and amphibian, 719 insect, and 975 aquatic species.
History[]
Despite being pre-warp, by the 23rd century the people of Skygowan engaged in interstellar trade with the Orions and other species, most of whom were hostile to the Federation. The planet's native defensive capability was minimal, but they potentially had access to advanced weapons and warp technology through the Orions. Skygowan culture was based on the worship of the Vezda as gods; they believed that in the "final days", the Vezda would come to "liberate" them.
In 2261, Doctor Roger Korby arrived on Skygowan to investigate Cali-Katchna, whose name bore a close phonetic similarity to a phrase uttered by a Vezda who had possessed Dana Gamble. He found that the local High Cleric, Zeperez, was in fact the same Vezda in Gamble's reconstituted body, having escaped the USS Enterprise's transport buffer. Zeperez used Korby to lure the Enterprise to Skygowan, as he required Doctor Joseph M'Benga to activate an interdimensional portal to Vadia IX. Once there, he intended to destroy the Beholder and free the rest of his kind to possess the population of Skygowan. The portal sealed shut after their passage, as it was designed to permit only the two of them through.
To force the doorway open again, Lieutenant Spock melded minds with Lieutenant Commander James T. Kirk of the USS Farragut, allowing them to act as one to fire two perfectly synchronized phaser beams from their respective starships at the portal. Captains Christopher Pike and Marie Batel then crossed through to Vadia IX, where Batel took advantage of her hybridized anti-Vezda genetic memory to become the Beholder and reseal all the Vezda in their prison. With the Vezda gone, Skygowan's people began to recover, as though "waking up from a terrible dream." Korby remained on the planet to study the history of the Vezda; his research revealed a large number of uncharted planets ripe for exploration. (SNW: "New Life and New Civilizations")