Notes : One of Voyagers more intriguing discoveries, the space ocean was a ball of water measuring some 1,200 kilometres in diameter. It was inhabited by the Monean Maritime Sovereignty, a group of 47 semi-independent groups who farmed the planetoids vegetation and oxygen. The Moneans discovered the sphere floating in space three centuries ago. Many of their people viewed the sphere as a supernatural gift designed to sustain them, but their scientists came to believe that the sphere had formed naturally in a manner related to the formation of gas giants.

The Moneans had expanded their industrial infrastructure on the sphere over the centuries until over eighty thousand of their people were in residence. However, in recent years a problem had been developing - the containment field which kept the sphere from dissipating had been loosing effectiveness. In the year preceding Voyagers arrival some 7% of the total volume had been lost through weak spots in the field. Voyagers instruments indicated that the sphere would completely dissipate within a further five years.

The Delta Flyer descended into the ocean in an attempt to discover the source of the problem. They found a large reactor unit at the centre of the sphere which was generating the containment field for the entire ocean. Lieutenant Paris was able to access the units computer control system and discovered that the water was once part of a planetary ecosystem. Over a hundred thousand years ago an unknown species used an elaborate kinetic transfer system to lift the entire body off the surface of the planet, a process which took almost 200 years. The system had been abandoned a long time ago, since which time it had been maintained automatically by the computer. Unfortunately, Paris also discovered that the Moneans were responsible for the problems the ocean had developed. Their activities had been gradually increasing the density of the water, increasing the pressure on the reactor. It had been diverting power from the containment field to its own support systems to compensate, so allowing water to escape.

Unfortunately the Monean authorities were reluctant to accept the realities of the threat, and Lieutenant Paris disobeyed orders and the Prime Directive by attempting to destroy some of the Monean installations in order to encourage them to incorporate less damaging technology in the replacements. Captain Janeway was successful in preventing Paris from accomplishing his goal, and he was reduced in rank to Ensign and sentenced to thirty days of solitary confinement in the brig.

The water sphere remains a unique and fascinating artefact, and it is to be hoped that the Moneans will realize the error of their ways and preserve this remarkable ecosystem.