Dark Matter Anomaly and First Contact with Species 10-C

In 3190 a vast, unpredictable gravitational phenomenon, the dark matter anomaly, began moving through the galaxy. It destroyed Kwejian, homeworld of Cleveland Booker, and threatened other inhabited worlds. Federation scientists discovered that it was not natural: it had been built by an unknown civilisation from beyond the galactic barrier, later called Species 10-C.

The crisis divided its victims. Booker and the scientist Ruon Tarka tried to destroy the anomaly with an experimental weapon, while Captain Michael Burnham and President Laira Rillak sought dialogue. Discovery crossed the galactic barrier and reached the 10-C, whose language had to be decoded through mathematics, chemistry, light and shared emotion.

The 10-C had used the anomaly to mine boronite without realising the galaxy was inhabited. Once they understood, they dismantled the anomaly and spared Earth and Ni'Var. The contact was a triumph of Federation diplomacy, and Ni'Var rejoined the Federation.