The long-range scout vessel, Sagittarius (with Captain Clark Terrell), arrives at Nereus Two (known as Arethusa to the natives) to investigate high-level energy signatures that had been observed coming from it, but which couldn’t be located now. One humanoid community was noted on the main island, and an away team (led by Lieutenant Commander Vanessa Theriault) sets out from a nearby island, using an amphibious rover to get to the main island. Locating the natives’ village, they see that most of the natives are heading out towards a crater from which the blue flames of burning methane are emerging. The team observes some form of religious ceremony in which a number of the natives (all of which appear to be not much older than 17) voluntarily throw themselves into the flames. However, the final one, Nimur, grabs her baby (who had been put in the care of two younger natives) and makes a break for it, running into the forest close to where the Federation team is hiding. A Klingon team has also been observing, and they intervene and offer to take Nimur to safety on Qo’noS, and she willingly agrees. The six Klingons take Nimur to a cave while they call their ship to come and pick them up. Theriault’s team, soon joined by the local High Priestess (Ysan), her eldest disciple (Seta), and a group of Wardens with their lances, arrive at the caves and discover the scattered remains of five of the Klingons, along with the abandoned baby (which was given back to its young guardians). The Tomol (as the natives are known) had apparently been moved to Arethusa by the Preservers (who the Tomol call the Shepherds), and around the age of 17 they start to go through a transformation that can give them horrendous powers and brings on a form of madness. The ritual sacrificing of themselves, when the change starts, had been planned by the Preservers for the safety of the community. Nimur had not believed the traditions, and simply wanted to live, but when the Klingons threatened her baby because it was keeping them awake, her new powers surged and she destroyed the Klingons using telekinesis, except for one (Tormog) who escaped further into the caves. Ysan is killed, along with the Wardens that were there, when they try to stop Nimur. Seta reluctantly assumes the role of High Priestess and leads Theriault and her team deep into the caves to the Shepherds’ wordstone which is supposed to be able to control the Changed by turning them to stone. The wordstone is identifies as being a Preserver obelisk and is the power source they had been looking for. Between them, they work out how to activate the obelisk, but then have to beat a hasty retreat as the power starts to build up. Meanwhile, the Sagittarius has had to call on the USS Endeavour to come to its aid, as the Homghor (a Klingon heavy cruiser with Captain Kang) and the Voh’tahk (a bird-of-prey) were approaching orbit, but the Endeavour is two and a half hours away. Nimur tries to talk the villagers into accepting the change and joining her, but opposition is led by her unchanged husband, Kerlo, who now sees Nimur as the epitome of what they have to avoid. Nimur does force the Change onto a group of Wardens, who then join her. The Sagittarius crew had worked out that the Tomol DNA had been altered to incorporate some of the Shedai Meta-Genome. Because of that, Theriault’s team tries to destroy Nimur and her Wardens using overloaded phasars, but that just seems to annoy them. The Klingons had been planning to capture at least one of the Tomol in order to discover the secret of the Change, so they could weaponize it, and, in continuing with that goal, they accidently beam Nimur and her Wardens aboard the Voh’tahk. Theriault and her team are relieved by that, as Nimur had been chasing them, but Nimur now takes over the Voh’tahk, killing its crew and torturing Captain Durak until he reveals how to use the autopilot. The Sagittarius had already been in a dogfight with the Homghor and the Voh’tahk, but when Terrell realizes what has happened, he goes after the Voh’tahk. The Homghor goes after the two of them, shooting them down. The Voh’tahk crashes on the eastern side of the populated island, but Master Chief Ilucci restores power to the Sagittarius in time for it to make a survivable crash landing, and Theriault and her team make their way to join them. This is when the Endeavour arrives, and Captain Khatami gets Kang and the Homghor to back off a bit. The crash of the Voh’tahk caused a large crater, and the Tomol villagers gather around it to see what has happened. They are greeted by the sight of Nimur emerging from the wreckage. Tormog had been trying to identify a pair of unchanged Tomol that Kang could capture, but Tormog finds himself being captured by Nimur. [Timeline: August 2269, a couple of months after events in the TV episode ‘Turnabout Intruder’ and six months after the destruction of Starbase 47 in the book ‘Storming Heaven’]