| abstract | - Starfleet first encountered the spheres in 2153, when Enterprise NX-01 entered the Expanse in search of the Xindi. The first sphere they came across was being used as a base for Osaarian pirates. Enterprise engaged in battle with an Osaarian vessel within the cloaking barrier of the sphere, and was able to take a series of detailed scans. Quantum scans of the sphere indicated it was nearly one thousand years old. (ENT: "Anomaly") Upon further investigation, the Enterprise crew was able to determine that the spatial anomalies which riddled the Expanse occurred at points where the waves of gravimetric energy being emitted from the spheres intersected. This led T'Pol to hypothesize that the spheres were created for the express purpose of creating the Expanse. Enterprise later encountered the Triannons, who held that supernatural beings whom they referred to as "the Makers" had created the spheres to reconfigure space in preparation for their eventual return. The Enterprise crew later discovered that the Triannon myth was based in fact, and that the spheres had been created by a race of trans-dimensional beings who were attempting to make the Expanse habitable for their species as a prelude to invasion. (ENT: "Exile", "Chosen Realm", "Harbinger") Star Trek: Enterprise co-creator and Executive Producer Brannon Braga appreciated how, in "Chosen Realm", more information about the spheres was revealed, with them featuring as the basis of a religion. "The idea of further illuminating the mystery of the Spheres through the eyes of people who worship them as divine objects was fascinating," he enthused. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, pp. 31) Captain Archer learned from Daniels, a temporal agent from the 31st century, that, in the 26th century, the Expanse would grow to encompass fifty thousand light years of the Milky Way Galaxy, and that the Sphere-Builders were trying to manipulate the Xindi into destroying Humanity in an attempt to prevent the founding of the United Federation of Planets, which would ultimately defeat the Sphere-Builders. With this information, Archer was able to form an alliance with some of the Xindi against the Sphere-Builders. (ENT: "Azati Prime") The crew learned from Degra that the spheres were controlled by a network of artificial intelligence, and that each sphere held a redundant memory core. A team from Enterprise was able to gain access to the interior of a sphere through an exhaust port which was holographically disguised. The team was successful in retrieving the memory core, but not before Corporal Hawkins was killed by an automated defense system. (ENT: "The Council") With the information retrieved from the memory core, T'Pol was able to determine that each sphere was connected by an interspatial manifold on its surface, and that four of the spheres were integral to the connection. Enterprise was able to disable the manifold of the sphere designated "Sphere 41" with a deflector pulse, causing a chain reaction resulting in the destruction of the entire sphere network, and eliminating the spatial anomalies in the Expanse. (ENT: "Zero Hour")
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