Vellyngaith has a plan to destroy the humans on Belle Terre: he has constructed a giant olivium powered laser on a comet in the system’s Ort cloud. When the laser is fired, its effects are more powerful than Vellyngaith expected, and his ship is damaged, but the ships containing the soldiers/miners who had helped create the laser are destroyed. Just prior to the firing, two of the soldiers (Deloric and Terwolan) had realized what was going to happen, and escaped on a shuttle. McCoy and Scotty are sent out to find out more about the nearby species, and they spot Kauld ships in war trials. They also meet up with Deloric and Terwolan and are able to warn Kirk of what is planned, but since the laser beam is already on its 5 day passage to the planet, there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done apart from evacuation. A conversation with McCoy leads Spock to consider trying to neutralize the laser beam with a counteracting beam. Experiments with that idea lead to the discovery that olivium powered shields can convert photons into neutrinos, so the beam can pass through the planet. This plan is put into effect, and it succeeds after the Blood fleet arrives to assist the Federation ships in fighting off the Kauld fleet. The planet is saved, but the Quake moon is seriously damaged by the effects of the laser, leading to more olivium contamination of the planet.