-Disclaimer: I didn't create Star Trek Online. If I did, Cryptic wouldn't be in charge. Please try to keep the comments and reviews civil. Haters will hate, but their words will always hurt. Enjoy!-

Tomalak stood on the patio of the Virinat Town Hall and looked for his friend Tovan Khev. "Tovan! Where are you?" he called out, scanning the crowds. Tomalak quickly spotted his friend, who looked absorbed in a problem on his datapad. The tall Romulan jogged over, lightly tapping Tovan on one arm. "Tovan? Virinat to Tovan Khev?" he teased, and Khev jumped a foot in the air. "Ah! Tomalak! You have to stop scaring me like that!"

"You always say that, and I never stop. You know why? It never gets old." Tomalak grinned widely.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Tovan grumped. "Anyway, you should go see the security chief. She was looking for you–says there's trouble at the vineyard. Avrak's been filing reports all night about Khellids chewing up his vines. He sounds really worked up."

Tomalak grew serious, and mused, "Khellids in the vines? That doesn't sound right."

Tovan nodded. "Something must have annoyed them. That's not typical Khellid behavior. With the big celebration tonight, I think everyone's a little over-excited. Even the bugs. You should listen to one of Avrak's messages before you head out there. The console over there's open-you should use it to listen to the message."

"Thanks, Tovan. I'll look into it. See you at the celebration!" With that, Tomalak jogged over to the computer console. "Computer, access mail. Username- Tomalak24."

"Please enter password."

"Password-Terix."

"Welcome, Tomalak. You have three new messages from Avrak. The second and third messages have been flagged as redundant by the computer. Playing message one now."

"Message delivered: 0800 hours today. Please help me! The Khellids have gone crazy and are chewing through the irrigation pipes, and everyone says they're too busy with the BIG PARTY to help. There won't be any party if everyone's standing knee-deep in water by nightfall!"

"Computer, analyze two subsequent messages."

"Messages are mostly identical."

"Right. Delete all messages." Tomalak jogged over to Tovan, and told him the news.

"Get going, but get a plasma pistol from the locker first. If the Khellids really are mad, you'll need it." Tomalak nodded, sprinting over to the weapons locker in a burst of energy. He grabbed a plasma pistol, and then sprinted all the way to the vineyards. When he arrived, Avrak was shouting angrily at a trio of his workers. His wry humor coming to the fore, Tomalak called out, "For lord's sake Avrak, stop treating your workers like that! They're bound to unionize if this keeps up!" The workers laughed, but Avrak was NOT amused. "Very funny, Tomalak. No one gives me ANY thanks for this job. You're here to fix the pipes?" Tomalak nodded, still grinning. "They'll be easy to find- they're the ones spraying water all over the place. The Khellids shouldn't give you much trouble. A few shots from the pistol should take care of them. And maybe I can get a little thank you while you're at it?"

Tomalak winked at the workers, and said in an overly submissive voice, "Thank you, Avrak, for you unending contribution to this colony. I am forever in your debt."

Avrak haughtily replied, "Thank you. Now go fix those pipes!" Tomalak jogged off, laughing internally at Avrak's cluelessness. He found a broken pipe almost immediately. A Khellid drone, about the size of a badger, was angrily hacking away at the pipe with its razor-sharp claws. Tomalak switched his pistol's safety off, sighted his target, and squeezed the trigger. The blue-green beam of superheated plasma lanced out, blowing a hole in the Khellid's armor. The angry insectoid creature turned on Tomalak, lurching as it charged towards him. A bit fearfully, Tomalak backed up and shot again. This time the blast caused a mortal wound, and the Khellid fell, writhing on the ground. Tomalak walked over to the pipe, quickly welding the broken conduit back up. He immediately spotted another Khellid by a broken pipe farther down the row of vines. The pistol flashed twice more, and the Khellid fell. Tomalak welded the pipe, repeating the process once more with a third Khellid. Tomalak holstered his pistol and jogged back to Avrak. "I fixed your pipes. I don't think the Khellids who I caught in the act will be bothering you again, too."

Avrak nodded irritably. "The flooding is stopped, but if those Khellids come back they'll just break the pipes again! Something's making those insects go crazy, and with bugs this size that's a real problem. Nevala might be able to help, if she's not goofing off again. She knows all about Khellids.

"She's normally down by the greenhouse at this time of day. Tell her to stop being lazy and keep those critters contained!"

Tomalak nodded, a bit offended at Avrak's insults towards Nevala. Nevala was one of the most hardworking people Tomalak knew, and he wondered what Nevala had done to tick off Avrak that much. Probably nothing, he thought. Avrak just hates everyone. Tomalak was a little biased, though, given his relationship with Nevala. "I'll find out what Nevala knows," Tomalak replied, concealing his inner thoughts as he sped off.

Sure enough, he found Nevala's slim, pretty form by the greenhouses, plasma rifle in hand. "Hey, Nevala. You look a little hassled. You're pretty as ever, though."

"Hey, Tomalak. I appreciate the compliment, but I could use a hand here. The Khellids have overrun the area beyond the greenhouses. They seem angry."

"I know, I just had a rather rough encounter with a few of them who were tearing up the vineyard's irrigation system." Tomalak proceeded to recount the events of the past hour. When he reached Avrak's comments about Nevala, she exploded.

"He says I'm WHAT? LAZY?" Tomalak nodded, continuing his explanation. "He said I was GOOFING OFF? Argh. I want to kill that SOB sometimes. He's just trying to make me look bad so he can get promoted. Let me tell you what's actually happening. As you know, the Khellids have gone crazy. I've been working all day to keep him out of the residential areas. This aggressive behavior is new, and we absolutely must figure out what's causing it. Could you gather samples from a couple of these creatures?"

"Sure. They won't attack me unless I open fire, right?"

"Yeah, except the flying ones. They're more aggressive. They won't seek you out, but if you get in range of them, they'll start shooting."

"Right. Thanks." Tomalak jogged out, pistol ready. The area was crowded full of normal Khellids, with a few flying Khellid matriarchs mixed into the crowd. Tomalak flipped his pistol over to its split-beam setting, sighted one of the fliers and two of the normal Khellids, and pulled the trigger. The split plasma beam caught one of the Khellids in the head, killing it instantly. The other two took only major damage and charged Tomalak. Tomalak finished off the matriarch first, but the third Khellid managed to close to melee range. It grabbed the tall security officer's leg, pulling him to the ground and pinning him. Tomalak's rage and combat training combined in one savage burst of energy in that one moment. "Get. Off. Me!" He grunted, punching the Khellid with a massive uppercut that pushed the Khellid away and gave him a moment's breathing room. He hit the Khellid with another plasma bolt, finishing it off. He knelt, using a small scalpel to collect a sample. He put the sample in his bag and hurried back to Nevala.

Nevala examined the sample, a puzzled look growing over her face as the computer reported its findings. "That's odd…. This Khellid carapace has a fungus on it that appears to be releasing pheromones into the blood vessels in this sample. That could explain their behavior, but how did they get infected in the first place? Also, the Khellid fliers have never left their cavern before. This is so strange…"

Tomalak nodded, thoughtful. "Something might be happening in the cavern. That could explain their strange behavior. I'll check it out."

Nevala gave him a look of strong approval, combined with a wry smile that reminded Tomalak of why he had asked her out in the first place. "You want go to dinner and hang out at the festival tonight?"

Nevala gave him a warm smile that removed all his tiredness and gave him a fresh burst of energy. "Sure. You want to try The Stardrive? The food there is amazing, and it's usually pretty quiet even during Festival."

"Sure. Meet me after I'm done with the samples and the cave?"

"You got it. Be careful in the cave!"

Tomalak winked. "Hey, careful is my middle name."

Nevala snorted, calling out "Sure it is!" to his retreating form.

Tomalak ignored her, a grin on his face. He considered his options for getting into the cave. Khellids are weak individually, but there are a lot of them around that cave. If I try to fight my way through, I'll get swarmed. My best option is to snipe the flyers and dash past the rest on the way in. He flipped his weapon's firing selector to single target, dashed into the green, verdant field, and targeted the first of two fliers blocking his way to the cave. He opened fire, plasma beams lashing out at the flier. It dropped without getting off a shot. The second flier had moved away from the cave, and Tomalak dashed past to seize the opportunity.

At first, the cave seemed normal. As Tomalak walked through, however, he saw a few Khellids crawling around on the floor. They were ingesting fungal spores that appeared similar to the fungus that was angering the insects. A few yards deeper, Tomalak saw dead Khellids lying on the floor at random. As he knelt to examine the dead Khellid, his trained eyes caught movement. Mechanical movement. A few yards away, a small, green-and-black, spiderlike robot skittered across the floor. Like all soldiers since the dawn of time, Tomalak's first reaction was to open fire on the robot. Once he did so, the spider was just as weak as the Khellids, dying after two plasma shots. To Tomalak's consternation, the floor ahead was lined with the robots. He systematically shot all of them, without a single one coming within a meter of him. At the end of the hive was a strange device, with an unidentified creature floating nearby. Tomalak had the old soldier's reaction to the unknown: shoot it. The moment he tried, a green bolt of energy from the floating creature knocked him backwards. More than annoyed, he swung his pistol around. This target was shielded, but he disabled it with ease. He then destroyed the device, walking out of the cave. Nevala was pleased to see him. "A strange device and some weird drone things? That is troubling. Someone's been in there. We have to let the Maiori know about this. Good thing you destroyed the device, though-maybe now they'll calm down.

"I took a look at those samples while you were gone, but I can't do much more than a basic tricorder scan. It's just not my area.

"D'vex might be able to help, though. He was an engineer in the Romulan military before the homeworld was destroyed. Now he's helping us with the water supply and anything else that takes more specialized knowledge. You should talk to him."

"Thanks. I will. See you tonight!" With that, he jogged off.