In 2370, Jadzia Dax and Arjin, a Trill initiate who had been assigned Dax as his field docent, snagged a developing protouniverse after impacting a subspace interphase pocket while piloting the runabout USS Mekong in the Gamma Quadrant. As the protouniverse had become embedded in the runabout's starboard nacelle, Dax and Arjin brought it back to Deep Space 9 for study. Dax eventually discovered that the mass did not conform to their own laws of nature, and was displacing their own universe as it expanded. She also realized that the protouniverse displayed signs of containing life.