Nevis Stone

The Nevis Stone was an artifact first discovered on the planet Thelon III by Andorian researcher and archeologist Silla Sh'thaasreth. The artifact was similar in nature to Earth's Rosetta Stone, a stone tablet that provided a common base of translation between three ancient Earth languages. The Nevis Stone however, seemed to demonstrate a common origin for the languages of three separate planets with no other known connections, as well as a fourth language that did not correspond to any known extent civilization.

Initially, Sh'thaasreth believed the stone's fourth language was the native language of the local, pre-warp Thelon civilization. But subsequent study revealed that the Thelon language had been independently derived using the stone as a starting point. Silla and other researchers came to believe that the artifact was of extraterrestrial origin from the Thelon point of view and that ancient Thelons had discovered the Nevis Stone at some point in their history and then used it as inspiration to spur the independent development of Thelon language and consequently, Thelon civilization.

At the time she first recovered the artifact and brought it to the Vulcan Science Academy for study, Sh'thaasreth did not realize its ongoing cultural importance to the Thelon culture. Its removal caused significant disruption to Thelon society and had its significance been known in advance, the Prime Directive would've prevented its removal and the resulting upheaval.

Following this realization, Silla argued vehemently that the artifact be returned to the planet. But the leadership of the Vulcan Science Academy disagreed and ultimately decided to keep the artifact, reasoning that because it was an extremely valuable find and that returning it would not undue the cultural damage already done, more good could be done by keeping and continuing to study it.

As of mid 2339, the Nevis Stone remained in the possession of the Vulcan Science Academy on Vulcan and is continued to be studied. Sometime in 2339, Dr. Ramsey discovered a connection between the stone and an extinct civilization that once inhabited Athrak V. Though the nature of this connection remains unknown to most, it prompted Ramsey to approach Dr. Richard Galen, who subsequently arranged an expedition to Athrak V, a difficult diplomatic feat at the time, considering Athrak V's location inside Klingon space and the state of Klingon/Federation relations at the time.