Inamuri

The Inamuri was an entity from a pocket universe, in which it was the only thing in existence.

Hundreds of years prior to the 24th century, a Gamma Quadrant race, the Prentara, discovered the pocket universe and utilised the entity - calling it the Inamuri - to augment their virtual reality technology. Initially, they didn't realise that the Inamuri was alive, but when they did, they immediately stopped using it, horrified that they had invaded and violated a living being.

Through its contact with the Prentara, the Inamuri realised that there was more to existance than just itself, then, when the Prentara ceased their contact, it knew abandonment and loneliness. It used the interface between universes the Prentara had created to try and contact them itself by sending energy clouds through the interface to reorganise the matter of the Prentara homeworld into a form it could inhabit. However, it sent too much energy, causing a build up which eventually broke through the interface in a destructive pulse. The energy clouds conveyed the Inamuri's loneliness to the Prentara causing the entire race to kill themselves due to the mental onslaught. Unaware of the destruction, and desperate for contact with other beings, the Inamuri continued to push energy clouds through the interface. The pulses increased in power and frequency, eventually destroying all planets in the Prentara system and threatening the homeworld of the Vahni Vahltupali light-years away.

In 2376, the Inamuri made contact with the Dax symbiont when the USS Defiant (NX-74205) (II) came to investigate the source of the pulses. Ezri Dax, not knowing the name the Prentara gave it, called it the thoughtscape. It also contacted Commander Elias Vaughn while he was on the planet, successfully conveying to him its need for contact. Vaughn successfully widened the interface using subspace explosives allowing the Inamuri to enter our universe. He promised it that it would never be alone again, and arranged for a Starfleet science team to make proper contact. Lieutenant Dax explained to the Vahni Vahltupali what had happened and they said they would try to contact the Inamuri, too.