The USS Enterprise-D investigated the nebula in 2368 and found it to be populated by non-corporeal beings and filled with a dense web of plasma energy strands. The entities living in the nebula viewed Enterprise's energy systems as far purer than those normally present in the nebula on which they "fed". As a result, they began draining energy from the starship, which was slowed in its attempts to depart the nebula by the presence of the energy strands.