Geology Research Log: Silithium Procurement

[Neospirifer]

Security Level 1 - Open Project Title: Silithium Procurement Key Personnel: ENS Sorik Materials in Use: Silithium samples, research library, analytical lab equipment, verteron generator Lab Space in Use: Geology Lab 3

Stardate 95284.3

Literature Search:

Silithium is just as abundant in the literature as it is in Federation Space: not very. Our search has been ongoing but has yielded little in the way of known silithium sources outside the Gamma Quadrant. A few comets have historically been observed to contain or emit silithium, but these have been of sporadic frequency and there has been no pattern to their locations or directions of travel. Likewise, conditions of formation have not been investigated to any useful end. Conditions in the Gamma Quadrant are not significantly different from those in the other quadrants of our galaxy but the mineral is much more abundant there, which, along with its relatively common discovery in comets, suggests that there is a specific source either in the Gamma Quadrant or, more likely, there is a source outside the galaxy to which the Gamma Quadrant is closest. On a side note, this suggests that whatever the source outside the galaxy might be, it is either in synchronous orbit of the galaxy closest to the Gamma Quadrant, or it is stationary and the period of the galaxy's rotation will eventually expose other quadrants to it. Either way, it is not practical for our purposes of rapid procurement of silithium to either travel outside the galaxy or hunt down individual silithium-containing comets.

Silithium itself is similar to dilithium in name and in some compositional elements, but not in structure or capability. While dilithium has a general formula of Li₂Fe₇Al₂Si₈O₂₇, silithium's general formula is Li₃Na₃Fe^II₃Fe^III₂Si₉O₂₃(OH)₂. Correspondingly, while dilithium is most visually similar to common quartz, silithium more closely resembles amphibole asbestos fibers, but contains a semi-helical shape. And of course silithium's defining characteristic is its interaction with verteron particles. The mechanisms involved are still largely undiscovered, but interactions have been observed, most notably involving the Bajoran wormhole, which emits verteron particles and was "wedged open" by a silithium subspace filament. It has been theorized that the Bajoran wormhole contains a multi-dimensional helical verteron membrane, and as silithium has a semi-helical structure, one could speculate this as a mechanism of interaction. Veterons themselves have been studied a bit more than silithium. Notable interactions include the ability to manipulate wormholes, and the interference of field coils. This research suggests that possible avenues of approach for the synthesis of silithium might be its interactions with either verteron particles (or wormholes in general) or field coils. As for lab synthesis of silithium, some literature exists which suggests that it is theoretically possible, but little experimentation was actually done and the results were less than satisfactory.

Next steps:

Will begin subjecting silithium samples to interactions with both verteron particles and field coils. Will also begin using traditional lab chemistry techniques to attempt to grow silithium minerals in the lab.

[Neospirifer]

Stardate 95351.7

Geochemical techniques:

Research into the geochemical provenance of silithium has proved less than successful. Most sources in the literature merely state that it is found in comets, with no mention of formation like environmental factors, parent rocks, etc. Developed hypothesis that if silithium is indeed similar to a type of asbestos, imitating the formation conditions of asbestos but with different minerals may prove useful. Riebeckite (specifically its asbestiform variety crocidolite, also known as blue asbestos) is the asbestos mineral perhaps most similar to silithium in chemical composition and structure; devised an experiment to mimic its formation conditions but with added lithium. Created a pressure vessel inside a containment field, and placed a mixture of grunerite, magnetite, hematite, stilpnomelane, ankerite, siderite, calcite, chalcedonic quartz, and solid lithium inside. Increased temperature and pressure until the lithium was gasified and chemical changes began to occur in the sample, then maintained for a period of 78 hours. Remotely created microfractures in the now fused sample, and introduced water. Some fibrous minerals were observed, but upon analysis were found to be very brittle and unstable, and without a structure or chemical composition remotely similar to silithium. Could attempt to eliminate error by more carefully selecting the parent minerals or their arrangement, but the time required for the procedure makes in impractical at best. Temporal manipulation would be the only way I can think of to speed it up, but I'm not keen on resorting to that on even lab scale, let alone industrial scale, and I'm sure Starfleet agrees.

Verteron Interactions:

Replicated minature verteron array, and placed in a secure test chamber with a known sample of silithium. As predicted, the particles reacted with the silithium, resulting in an increase in heat inside the chamber, a small amount of gamma radiation, destruction of the verteron particles, and the reduction in mass of the silithium. Analysis of the silithium sample after the reaction revealed that the loss of mass was attributable to whole loss of material rather than conversion; the sample was unchanged but smaller. This suggests that rather than synthesizing silithium by converting it from other matter, it must be synthesized from energy. If the exact conditions under which the verteron particles destroy silithium can be reproduced but in reverse, in theory silithium can be "replicated" using verteron technology. However, power levels much higher than can be produced in the lab will need to be utilized, perhaps even more than can be produced on DS13.

Next steps:

Continue experimenting with lab-scale verteron/silithium interaction to refine parameters for optimal formation. Propose a trip to the Bajoran wormhole, which is both a known, and powerful, source of verteron particles, and has a known history of verteron-silithium interaction, to study and begin large-scale testing.