You learn a lot when working on a colony. You learn about science and Engineering because you constantly needed to repair something, build some machine, or analyse the plants and wildlife around to see where and what you can construct in specific areas.

Personally I focused on studying Tactical Officer. And that sounds weird now, right? Well first I learn everything I need to know about Science and Engineering, so learning the third is a good idea.

Furthermore, you get taught a lot about organising and if your responsible for literally everything you need to be organised.

On this day, our anniversary, the natural insects were freaking out and attacked the nectar farms and the people there.

My task: kill the insects at the farm, repair the damage and find out why they're behaving the way they do and do something against it.

After killing the ones which were on the farms and near our people, the damaged pipes were easily fixed.

Then I looked around. I watched my surroundings. I waited for any movement. I waited for more insects to come, so I knew where they were coming from.

Once they appeared I charged them and ran the way they came from. Yes, not the securest way to do things but something was going terribly wrong and I was eager to find out what it was.

By the entrance to their nest, stood a machine. I pulled my tricorder out and scanned it. It was sending some kind of tachyon waves, which obviously drove the Insects crazy. And for some reason it recorded everything in a 5 kilometres radius.

"Tovan? Do you know anything about this thing?" I asked through com.

"Checking the data now... No it's not ours, nor do we have any technology emitting tachyon waves." He answered.

"I'll just reroute the power through the side array and cut the emitter and scanner off. That will make it useless." I explained. I could have just destroyed the machine but I wanted to investigate who it belonged to later.

"Alidar? I've almost finished my work here. When you're done...." Tovan started.

"Like now?" I cut him off.

"That was fast. Anyway can we meet up at the main area, where the festival is going to take place? I'm informing my dad about this thing on the way."

"Sure be there in a minute." I couldn't wait to see Tovan again. Even not hearing his voice before was hell. He was the only thing, the only one stabilising me.

As I was making my way to meet Tovan I picked up an Energy reading coming from the device. I turned around again.

A blue beacon was shining to the sky. My scans hadn't even given me any indications it could do that. My Tricorder received the message, the beacon was sending, which it started to decode automatically.

I scanned the energy beam further. The result? Shocking.

The signature was Romulan, coded with a Tal Shiar code. "Tovan this machine is Tal Shiar!" I yelled in the com. "Destroy it, quick!"

So I destroyed it. One beam from my phaser and it was gone. "I don't think that was enough, we have to get everyone out of here!" I said. I'd put the message the beacon sent into a decoding program, which had finished by now. It read:

Tal Shiar

Planet: Virinat

Population: 120 Romulans

Infrastructure: Well built up

Danger: None

Decision: Attack

At that moment a big ship appeared in orbit. "Ali where are you!?" Tovan asked franticly. "Making my way to the festival ground now."

I started running, not caring what was happening around me. "You better get to the shuttles; We'll evacuate everyone else."

Great, so I had to run to the other side of the colony? My heart fell. "I'm not going to make it" I whispered. I already sprinted and had reached the colony but it was still a long way through the city and with the Tal Shiar as a new treat for my success. Furthermore, I was nearly out of breath.

"You. ARE. going to make it!" typical for Tovan never giving up, never stopping to support me. Never leaving me go.

I was running through the city by now, good that I knew every shortcut there was. There were people getting beamed out left right and centre.

I shot right in front of me. Hit, one Tal Shiar less to worry about. "Tovan how many could you save?"

"Most of them were with us. Maybe just around 45 have made it to the shuttle though." He got silent for a second, then he said with a hurt voice: "My father isn't with us. He tried to hold the Tal Shiar Officers off with a few people and opened fire. I don't think he survived."

I didn't answer. How could I? He was like a father to me too. He practically adopted me after Romulus got destroyed. I turned around the last corner and...

"Ali! Get in, quick!" Tovan shouted. Once I was in, the shuttles instantly started flying away.

But that didn't mean we'd made it.

We still had to reach the ship we came with to this planet. Tovan's ship now since his father died.

"Get in between the asteroids. They're filled with lithium, which is messing with their sensors." I said explaining our best bet to get through this. "I just hope the others follow." Tovan whispered. This were our people. The only ones we trusted after Romulus died. The only ones we lived with. They were nearly like family to us.