Prologue

Draloos V brimmed with its usual natural beauty when the Starfleet team transported to the surface; it was simply unfortunate that the team had to isolate themselves from the planet's environment, or risk death. That was no exaggeration, because Draloos V had one of the most hostile environments known to the Federation. Its beauty belied the dangers that lurked at every corner of the ecosystem. But it wasn't because of any harsh environmental or planetary condition. A significant portion of the biosphere was actually classified as tropical: warm, humid, sunny, with plenty of moisture. Draloos V, by technical definitions, was Class M: it had an atmosphere of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide similar to that of Earth, and sufficient water in its liquid state to support carbon-based life.

But the terrifying wildlife on the planet has caused the Federation to raise safety awareness and protective measures; anyone transporting to the surface of Draloos V was now required to wear a Class 3 biohazard-suit, one of the Federation's safest protective gear. The suit was designed to completely isolate the individual from its environment, much like the one used for space. But this suit was specially designed to be bioprotective; it was able to keep out virtually all viruses and invasive microorganisms, airborne or otherwise. The material that the suit was made of was anti-microbial, which could kill essentially all microorganisms that come in contact with it, even most foreign microorganisms. So the material itself, and on the surface of the suit, were sterile to ninety-nine point nine, nine percent. It was tough, so that no stinger or sharp object in the biological world could pierce the material. And it was sealed tight, so no gases could be exchanged with the outside. But the suit was thick, the head piece had a huge, clear glass-like dome, and overall it was just difficult to move around in. All three members of the team walked around clumsily, like they were the first explorers on the Moon.

"Why are we on this freakin' planet again?" Lieutenant Ray yelled.

"We're here on a mission, remember? We need to find out what happened to the cargo ships. If they lose many more, they soon won't have enough biomatter to feed everyone on Draloos IV," said the senior officer. But Commander Stevens could understand Ray's apprehension about the planet. He didn't want to stay there any longer than he had to.

"Fine. Let's just do this and get the hell out of here."

"It's an important mission, Ray. Just think about all of the families they need to feed."

Draloos IV was the sister planet of Draloos V, home to a large human populous that numbered just over a billion. The population used the biomatter of Draloos V to feed itself through means of converting the matter into useful energy. Trees, bark, grass, weeds, insects, empty shells, and even waste products were fair game as useful biomatter. The population of Draloos IV was deeply dependent on it because the planet itself had no means of creating its own energy supply. Draloos IV, unlike V, was Class K - a barren planet.

"And remember who you're talking to, Lieutenant."

"Yes, SIR."

God, I hate coming here, Ray was thinking as he walked through the thick vegetation. Ray was just very apprehensive about what he might run into. But the environment was beautiful. For total daylight, it was very dark, thanks to the large canopy that blocked most of the sunlight. Only beams of sunlight leaked through the cracks of the canopy. But despite the darkness, there were some bright wildlife near the ground that helped light the surface. There were plenty of weeds, flowers, and even trees whose leaves fluoresced all sorts of colors, anywhere from red to bright purple. Ray noticed that blue and green were the most common. He could have sworn that he saw insects and small reptiles that fluoresced as well.

All vegetation on Draloos V was toxic. In many of the plant species, only nano-scale quantities were needed to kill a large mammal in only seconds. These potent toxins were not at all unheard of, even on Earth, although most of such toxins were from organisms that lived in the ocean. Any animal or mammal on Draloos V just passing by could suddenly collapse to its death if it had unluckily gotten pierced by a poisoned thorn from a nearby bush. But that was the least of the team's worries. On Draloos V, as competition for food and energy became fiercer throughout the planet's evolution, some of the vegetation had actually evolved to hunt mammalian prey. And they were exceedingly aggressive about it.

The Class M designation, despite being a more fitting designation from a technical standpoint, was soon changed to Class Z, or what some officers refer to as a "Demon" world. Some officers who explored Draloos V died from poisonous materials, others were eaten alive by aggressive insects, and some just disappeared altogether. You couldn't even drink out of a nearby body of water because of poisons released by the organisms that occupied the water. Needless to say there were enough incidents to deter even the bravest of explorers. Only extreme exobiologists who worked for scientific glory braved the planet, and even then, some brought back nothing but more haunting stories.

"Are we close to the coordinates of the cargo ship yet? We've been walking for over twenty minutes," said Ray.

"Should only be about ten more minutes."

"You'd think the Chief could have transported us closer to our destination, rather than have us walk around this forsaken place."

"You heard the Chief before he landed us down here, Lieutenant. The distress signal was weak and scrambled. He could only get an approximate location from orbit. Just consider yourself lucky he didn't transport us farther away, or near the water," said the Commander, trying to sound encouraging.

"Yea, well, still, we shouldn't have come here," Ray said. "How are we doing Ensign?"

"Just doing my job, sir," said Ensign John. It was one of his very first missions, so he was following orders to the letter. But Ray could tell that John was still very nervous. The ensign stayed very close to his commanding officer.

"Stay together, guys," said Stevens.

Ray moved very uncomfortably in his suit. He wasn't used to wearing this kind of thing. He was always one to avoid away missions in general, let alone ones that required to put on cumbersome gear. The suit had an internal cooling unit which was supposed to keep the internal temperature at a comfortable level, but Ray was still sweating like crazy. Maybe it was just nerves.

Ray continued to walk, reluctantly getting sucked into the beauty of the plant life. As he turned, Ray suddenly noticed that he began to veer off from the rest of the group. Or they veered off from him. Great.

"Lieutenant, we're only about five minutes away from the crash site, so get your ass back here," said the Commander.

"Got it," said Ray, looking at his tricorder in order to triangulate their position. "Closing in on your location."

Ray heard a very light flutter behind him, as if a small flock of birds passed by him. Ray turned back, and there was nothing. Whatever, he thought, just get back with the rest of the group. At that moment, a small bright green butterfly landed on Ray's arms. Pretty, he thought. It flapped its wings slowly. Ray shook his arm to get rid of it, but it seemed 'sticky.' Ray swatted at it with his other arm, and it flew away. Good thing it was only a butterfly, he did not want to come across any of the aggressive ants that he had heard about.

Ray came across something. It was maybe twenty meters away, a white material, or something. It was in the opposite direction of the team, but since it was clearly not part of the environment, Ray felt it important to investigate. He ran towards it. It was a thick white material, partially buried into the ground. He proceeded to dig it out, and the overall form of it began to take shape. He also noticed something attached near the center of the piece. It was corroded, difficult to make out, but the shape was unmistakable. It was a Starfleet combadge.

In that instant, Ray realized what he was looking at. It was the very same suit he was wearing. He managed to pull out the head dome out of the ground as well. But there was no body. Did someone from the cargo crew come down and take their biohazard-suit off? That seemed unlikely, given Starfleet's stern warning. "Commander," Ray said, "Have our biohazard-suits been cleared by Starfleet to use on this planet?"

"Yea, nobody's who has transported here before with the Class 3 biohazard-suit had any problems. Some of them have been here for days, even weeks. Others have been to a lot harsher planets with these babies on. You could practically walk through lava in this. Believe me, we're safe," Commander Stevens said.

That made Ray feel marginally better. In addition to its bioprotective properties, their suits had numerous defenses that could withstand any number of harsh conditions. It was temperature- and pH-resistant. So the wearer could be blasted with a modern flamethrower, or have concentrated sulfuric acid poured onto him, and there would be no signs of damage or corrosion on the suit. The hardest part of its design was actually trying to seal the connections properly when you put it on, because that could leave tiny gaps in the suit if the wearer was not careful. But in general, for all intents and purposes, it was indestructible. "Then I think you guys had better come down here."

When Ray looked up, he noticed that the trees suddenly had fewer leaves on its branches. But it was hard to tell because it was so dark anyway. Maybe the leaves were just loose, and flew off from a strong breeze, but Ray didn't remember any breezes coming through. And second, there were no leaves on the ground. What was unusual also was that the trees in the distance appeared to have their leaves intact. It was only the trees around him that had lost their leaves. As Ray walked a few more steps, he began to put two and two together. Were all of those leaves on the trees the butterflies he just saw?

If that were true, that means there were a lot of them. And they were close by, too, because he heard the flutter again. Ray pulled out his tricorder to try and analyze at least one of them, and see if they were in Starfleet's database of known species. But he really couldn't see any around him when he looked for them. It would be nice to know if they were hostile. Of course, nowhere in Starfleet's database of butterflies on any planet were any species labeled as dangerous.

He heard the light flutter yet again. And this time, two butterflies landed on his arms, one on each arm. "Guys? Do you hear me? You need to see this," trying to get back to the subject at hand.

"Yes, we hear you, Lieutenant. We're moving in on your location. Should be there in a couple of minutes."

Three more butterflies landed on him. He couldn't shake them. Get the hell off, he thought. How the hell did they stay on? They must have strong little legs. He swatted them right on his arm, killing them almost instantaneously, which was one way to handle them. Ordinarily, he wasn't supposed to interfere with the life forms there, let alone kill them. But to hell with Starfleet regulations, he thought. The butterflies were starting to become annoying. He could hear more of them nearby. One by one he swatted them, but they were beginning to catch up. "Guys?"

"Almost there, are you in trouble?"

"Umm…well…" Ray wasn't even sure how to answer, since they were just butterflies. And he was killing them left and right. They were beginning to pick up speed, but it was nothing that he couldn't handle. At that very instant, however, he felt something tingling on his arms. Underneath the suit. It was causing sharp and needle-like pain on his skin that came and went, and came again. As more butterflies landed on him, he felt more tingling. Were they biting? That was impossible. Even if they were secreting some sort of corrosive agent, it still couldn't get through the suit. And besides, as he looked at his arms, he saw no signs of any penetration anywhere.

He felt more and more pain, covering a larger area on his arms and reaching onto his torso and his legs. The tingling now felt like a burning. How? How were they getting something through the suit? He felt a strong urge to look at what was eating away at him. "I…I need to get this suit off of me…" Ray was gasping. "I need to…"

"Lieutenant! Are you alright? We're almost there!" the Commander could hear that something with Ray was not right. Ray must not take his suit off.

But Ray was too distracted. The burning was starting to become unbearable and covering a larger and larger area of his body. He could almost feel the burning reach deeper into his flesh. The butterflies were overwhelming him, and he had stopped swatting at them. He didn't know what to do, because the pain was becoming agonizing. He could feel something burning on his face now, and his eyes began to sting very badly. He couldn't even see outside, since his entire helmet was covered with the butterflies. As he stood there, gasping, he could begin to smell his own corroded flesh. He yelled.

"RAY!" the commander yelled. "This is Commander Stevens to the Ion, can you get a lock on Ray?"

"Yes, sir. But he's flailing around too much. It's going to take me a couple of seconds to…"

Ray collapsed to the ground. His body was beginning to convulse, and he was now unconscious. By now, the swarm of glowing green butterflies had completely covered him.

"Get him out! NOW!" Commander Stevens was running as quickly as he could, but the thickness of the suit slowed him down significantly.

"I can't, sir! His…his mass…it's all over the place! There's nothing left to lock onto!"

Commander Stevens finally arrived to the site. Though he couldn't see Ray's face, he was easy to spot because he was lit up brightly by the butterflies that enveloped him. Commander Stevens quickly pulled out his phaser, and instructed Ensign John to do the same. "Setting 5, wide dispersal pattern. Ready? Fire." The wide phaser beams vaporized a sizeable chunk of the butterflies, but most of them fled quickly and returned to the branches of the trees, where they passed off seamlessly again as normal leaves. Commander Stevens and Ensign John ran to Ray's body, but it was too late. Most of Ray's body, including much of his skeleton, had already been dissolved. What remained was partially digested tissue, and the sight of it made the commander very nauseous. But Ray's suit remained intact.

Commander Stevens stepped closer to the trees and looked closely at the 'leaves.' The veins were blood red, and they appeared to be pulsating.

It looked like they were feeding the tree.