Pentarus V

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Setting	Star Trek (Gene Roddenberry)
Location	The fifth planet of the Pentarus system. Never shown on screen — the episode built around it instead takes place on Lambda Paz, a desert moon of Pentarus III, a different planet in the same system, reached because the crashed shuttle's debris was traced there.
Type	Mineral
Extent	Not described anywhere in the episode — no workings, layout or scale are shown or mentioned beyond the fact of the dispute.
Status	Researched

Overview

The mine that gives 'Final Mission' its reason to exist, and the one place in the episode the story never actually goes: a salenite-mining dispute serious enough that Captain Picard was asked to mediate it in person, resolved entirely off-screen while the hour itself follows his shuttle crash on an unrelated moon.

History

In 2367, a dispute among the salenite miners of Pentarus V had grown serious and 'unfortunately prone to violence', per Picard's own log, to the point that he was asked to mediate it personally — bringing along Ensign Wesley Crusher, on what was to be Wesley's last assignment before Starfleet Academy, specifically so he could observe 'the effects of outpost judiciary decisions on Federation law'. The shuttle Nenebek, piloted by a miners' representative named Dirgo, suffered a thruster failure en route and crash-landed on Lambda Paz, a moon of Pentarus III. Dirgo died attempting to force open a shielded water source there; Wesley eventually disabled its automated defences and both he and an injured Picard were recovered by the Enterprise, which located them by following an arrow Picard had scratched into the sand. At no point does the story return to Pentarus V, and the mediation Picard set out to perform is never shown taking place or being resolved.

Workings

Not described. Nothing is shown of the mine, its workings, its scale, or the substance of the miners' actual dispute beyond Picard's characterisation of them as 'a contentious group'.

What became of it

Unknown — the episode never returns to Pentarus V after the crash, and no later episode checked for this record revisits it.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

A dispute among the salenite miners of Pentarus V had become serious and 'unfortunately prone to violence', requiring personal mediation by a Starfleet captain. (explicit canon) ¹
The crash that derailed the mediation trip happened on Lambda Paz, a moon of Pentarus III — a different planet from Pentarus V itself. (explicit canon) ¹
The episode never depicts or states the outcome of the mediation Picard set out to perform; Pentarus V itself is never shown. (explicit canon) ¹

Sources

(primary canon) Final Mission (transcript) — Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 4, episode 9 (1990)
(interpretation) Dilithium (List of Star Trek materials) — Wikipedia, cross-referencing multiple Star Trek series and films
(interpretation) Latinum (List of Star Trek materials) — Wikipedia, cross-referencing Deep Space Nine
(primary canon) The Quality of Life (transcript) — Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, episode 9 (1992)

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026