Malon
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Malons come from Malonis, the third planet in the Neled System in the Delta Quadrant. Once lush and beautiful, Malonis now has no unspoiled land to speak of. The Malons have settled every corner of the planet and exploited it so carelessly that most cities are domed to keep out atmospheric pollution and more than half of their agriculture is hydroponic because so much arable land has been ruined by overdevelopment and industrial waste.
The Malons have also settled the other planets in the Neled System, exploiting them for mineral wealth, fuel for their antimatter power generation systems, or simply for living space.
Personality
Malons are gruff and blunt. They don't like others interfering with their affairs, and they will defend their selfish interests ruthlessly. Nor do they care much for trying to understand an issue from someone else's point of view. Malons in leadership positions are prickly and interpret even well meaning suggestions from subordinates as challenges.
Physiology
Malons are humanoids characterized by their green-yellow skin and small but noticeable bony ridges running down the middle of their foreheads. Young Malons have thick, unruly hair that grows down from the top of the skull and recedes with age. They are slightly shorter than humans and rarely reach two meters in height.
One of the reasons that the Malons pay so little heed to the environmental consequences of their actions is that they themselves are unusually resistant to toxins. For instance, the waste created by their antimatter power generation technology is intensely poisonous, but it affects them less than it does most other forms of life.
History and Culture
Throughout their history, Malons have always been enamored of the most advanced technologies in their possession, as well as epic engineering projects that would exploit them. Early in the 24th century, they developed the antimatter power generation technology that enabled them to invent their own warp drive, as well as supply cheap and endless power for their day-to-day needs. They immediately set about exploiting as much of their neighborhood in the Delta Quadrant for industrial purposes as they could. By 2330 they had colonized all of the Neled System and had begun to explore space beyond it.
The Malons made first contact with the Federation in 2374 when Voyager, during its odyssey through the Delta Quadrant, came upon their ships dumping highly toxic antimatter waster into a vortex in an area known as the Void. The Malons engaging in the waste disposal refused to stop after Captain Kathryn Janeway of Voyager presented them with evidence that they were poisoning an intelligent lifeform living in the Void. Captain Janeway then ordered her ship to destroy the vortex's entrance with its weapons, effectively shutting down the Malons' dumping ground.
Because of the remoteness of their homeworld and the testiness of that encounter, the Federation did not follow up with any diplomatic overtures to the Malons. For their part, the Malons carry with them the impression that the UFP is a bunch of busybodies who enjoy nothing more than sticking their noses into the affairs of others.
Society
Malon political institutions are weak, and their society is instead dominated by large, corporate enterprises, almost all of them devoted to inventing or exploiting advanced technology. These corporate entities develop the land of which Malon cities are built, supply all the necessities of life (including energy from their unique antimatter generation technology) at a profit, and build and run all of the Malons' outposts outside their homeworld. Just about every Malon works for one of them at some point in his adult life, and they become the primary focus of individual loyalty, supplanting all social relationships and even blood ties.
This is not to say, however, that Malons always bend to higher authority. Shortly after is first encounter with Malon waste-dumpers, Voyager came upon a disabled Malon freighter that had been sabotaged by a crewmember protesting the deadly working conditions in the ship's power generation system.
Reference(s)
- Bridges, Bill, et al. Star Trek Roleplaying Game Book 5: Aliens, Decipher, 2003. ISBN: 1582369070.