Trilithium

Trilithium was a synthetic compound.

Overview
The development of this compound as difficult to achieve at one time due to an inability to stabilize it. Its noted characteristics was being an inhibitor of nuclear reactions such as those found in the fusion prcesses within the interior of stars. A small amount of the compound was enough to half all nuclear fusion in a star which resulted in a quantum explosion. This in turn brought about the collapse of the star which did so under its own mass and generated a powerful shockwave that was strong enough to destroy everything within a star system. Should the star be of sufficient size, this core collapse could even result in a supernova.

It was known that trilithium isotopes were a component found within Romulan Plasma torpedoes. 

History
In 2371, the Romulan Star Empire was conducting experiments with trilithium but faced numerous problems with it as they were unable to stabilize the compound. This supply was stolen in a raid by the House of Duras who had been contracted by Doctor Tolian Soran. He required it in order to develop a fully functional trilithium based weapon which he was going to develop for the Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor. After getting the compound, Soran used it to detonate the Amargosa star as part of his plan to control the course of the Nexus. 

Soran also formed an alliance with the Chodak who had an outpost which contained trilithium present on it but were unable to mine it. In exchange for their help, Soran helped the Chodak in mining the outpost of the compound and developing trilithium weaponry for them. 

The doctor later attempted to use it on the Veridian star which would have destroyed the pre-warp civilization of Veridian IV in order to have the Nexus pass through one of the worlds present allowing Soran to be one with the Nexus. However, he was thwarted in his plan by the actions of the USS Enterprise. 

The USS Voyager encountered a conventional trilithium based explosive in 2373 which was employed by the Akritirian terrorist group called Open Sky who used it to bomb the Laktivia recreational facility. Oriignally, the Voyager crew were implicated in the attack until it was discovered that Open Sky had been responsible for synthesizing the compound from paralithium which was taken from an Akritirian freighter. 

Later in the same year, the Dominion had a Founder spy in the Alpha Quadrant create a trilithium explosive device which was mixed with Tekasite and Protomatter in order to detonate the Bajoran sun, B'hava'el. As a delivery mechanism, the Changeling infiltrator hijacked the USS Yukon, a runabout from Deep Space 9 in order to deliver the device into the sun in the Bajor system. The objective was to cause the star to explode and destroy a combined fleet of Federation, Klingon and Romulans which had assembled at Deep Space 9 as a show of force against the Dominion. Had the Founder been successful, the triggering of the supernova would have destroyed the entire system and the assembled fleet. However, the USS Defiant was able to learn of this and tractored the USS Yukon away frmo the sun where it exploded harmlessly in empty space. 

By 2375, a biomimetic duplicate of the USS Voyager had collected samples of trilithium ore on its journey. 

Related Articles

 * Dilithium
 * Decalithium