New Life, New Civilizations, and other Weird S#!%.

Summary: These semiaquatic creatures are often served as a breakfast food in the Terran Empire. However, keep in mind that the Terrans have also been known to make meals out of other sapient humanoids, so you might wanna skip this particular course.

Summary: These energy-based entities were a part of Pahvo's astounding biosphere. In said biosphere, every living thing (and some non-living things) on the planet's surface vibrated in complete harmony with a distinct tone. The vibration made a strange sort of "music" that was broadcasted into space via a massive biocrystalline antenna. First contact with the Pahvans was made by the USS Discovery in 2256, and the Pahvans were overjoyed to have made contact with beings from another world.

Summary: These immense space-dwelling beings were on the Federation's Endangered Species list as of 2256. They fed on alpha particles in solar winds, and had virtually no reproductive instincts. Add to that the fact that some species, such as Orions, were known to hunt them for meat, and the Gormaganders were in serious trouble. Between 2246 and 2256, only 57 encounters with these gentle giants were recorded by the United Federation of Planets.

Summary: These tall, pale humanoids are generally neutral in galactic politics, often allowing their home world to be used as a neutral ground for warring species. The Klingons and the Federation have used the planet as a neutral region for diplomacy in the past, though the Klingons have also tended to take advantage of their light armaments, and more than one Cancri has met a bloody end at the blade of a bat'leth.

Summary: This small, semi-intelligent arthropod was the pet and assistant of legendary conman and grifter Harcourt Fenton Mudd in the mid-2250s. Stuart's species remains unknown, but he showed loyalty to Mudd, gleefully stealing food for the man when Mudd was thrown into a Klingon prison. The little creature later helped Mudd escape from the prison, though later, when Mudd seemed to be in serious trouble, Stuart wasted no time in making a break for it and vanishing on a remote planet.

Summary: Little is known of this strange cyborg. Her species, her role, even her identity changes depending on whom you ask.

Summary: This mysterious alien lived in a kind of symbiosis with the fungus Prototaxites stellaviatori, feeding on the fungus's spores and using the mycelial network to travel across space. It may or may not have been sapient. It resembled a gigantic version of an Earth tardigrade, and may or may not have been related to them. It was amazingly powerful and resilient; not only could it survive a phaser blast and exposure to the vacuum of space, but it was strong enough to tear through a duranium-reinforced door (though force fields gave it a much harder time). Though capable of gentleness, the entity was extremely aggressive when it sensed a direct threat, and would tear the threat to pieces with ease. For a time, it was used as a kind of "wetware" for the Spore Drive of the USS Discovery before modified people were used instead, as "Ripper" was put under extreme pain every time the Spore Drive was used. When freed, the tardigrade vanished to parts unknown.

Summary: This distinctive fungus is found in limited numbers across the entire universe and in all known parallel ones. They are made up of a remarkable substance that exists not only in normal space, but also in a distinct subspace domain known as the mycelial network. Their fungal roots fan out across the entire known multiverse and beyond. Their spores were of great interest to the Federation for a time in the mid-23 century during the Klingon War, as harnessing the mycelial network using the spores would allow for incredible interstellar travel speeds. Two Crossfield-class starships - the USS Discovery and the USS Glenn - had prototype "Spore Drive" systems that would allow for access to the network. Unfortunately, the Spore Drive ultimately had to be abandoned by the Federation, as the cost of its use would prove too high - the mycelial network was misused by Terran scientist Paul Stamets, giving the network a disease that threatened the nature of the Prime Universe and the Mirror Universe alike.

Summary: These small, swarming spaceborne organisms are known for their distinctive blue bio-luminescence. They tend to feed on the power from passing spacecraft. They are capable of draining an entire ship unless "scrubbed" from the hull, which can result in death from freezing, starvation, or asphyxiation.

Summary: A cousin species to the Bolians, the Tulians embraced cybernetic implants into their species to the point where few of them don't have any at all. This remarkable ability to mesh tissue with machines makes some species nervous.

Summary: These tall, slender humanoids are among the most physically adept beings serving in Starfleet. They are far faster and stronger than humans, able to run at up to 80 kph, and their senses are amazingly keen - particularly their hearing. Their spacefaring population is quite low. On their home planet, the Kelpians did not have food chains or food webs. Rather, there was a simple dynamic with a single predator species, and a single prey species - and the Kelpians were the prey. Farmed, hunted, and bred like animals, they became astoundingly adept at anticipating danger, to the point that they claim to be able to "sense the coming of death". When they detect a threat, they distend a small web of ganglia from their heads in response. They have a reputation for caution bordering on cowardice, but when faced with a threat, they are capable of controlling their instinctive fear response quite admirably.

Summary: These sapient aliens dwell in a single small village on a vast, dry desert planet. They are terminally dependent on a single well for their water, which led to Starfleet intervention in 2256 when ambient radiation from a meteor mining accident interfered with the well and threatened their society with an 89-year drought. Captain Georgiou and First Officer Burnham of the USS Shenzhou quietly visited the planet and restored the water supply without being accosted, though it was eventually revealed that the Crepusculans were quietly watching them the entire time.

Summary: These peaceable humanoids have multiple cranial appendages, which they generally keep curled up close to their heads. However, they can open them at will, and can even use them to hold items. They have tremendous emotional attachment to others, and will do nearly anything to protect their close friends.

Summary: These pale humanoids are tough and self-reliant, but fairly affable. The black markings on their faces have meanings in their culture's language, from which they derive their names. The individual seen here has the marking for "Jaylah", which translates to "Fierce". They have remarkable engineering abilities, and can reverse-engineer and jury-rig surprising solutions to various problems.

Summary: As Krall preyed on every ship that passed by Altamid for decades, a rather nasty, cutthroat society developed on the surface. Any species that could evade Krall's drone patrols was out for survival, and only the most cunning, prepared, and/or brutal could survive.

Summary: These robotic "Bees" were semi-autonomous drones designed for mining and heavy labor, though they were equipped with energy weapons for self-defense or clearing obstacles. They were constructed by the ancient beings of Altamid, but were mysteriously abandoned eons ago. When Krall found them in the mid-23rd Century, they were still operational and able to pilot their thousands of small vessels. These heavily-armored ships lacked any long-distance weapons. On the other hand, they could bypass shields and ram into starships in enormous numbers, either in order to let the drones board, or to simply smash their foes into pieces. However, they relied on a constant communication stream with one another in order to coordinate their actions. The entire gigantic swarm was destroyed when a loud radio signal was deployed from the USS Franklin (which was carrying the crew of the USS Enterprise) and into the swarm itself. Unable to coordinate with one another, the swarm vessels smashed each other apart, destroying most of them.

Summary: In the mid-to-late 22nd Century, the career of ex-MACO Balthazar Edison was ascending beautifully. Having survived the Xindi Conflict and the Romulan War, and witnessed the birth of the Federation, he was made Captain of the USS Franklin - an older ship, but notable for being Starfleet's first Warp 4 vessel - and given an assignment exploring deep space. For reasons unknown, the Franklin crashed upon Altamid, a remote world in the Necro Cloud Nebula. Unable to leave, Captain Edison and his crew waited for rescue. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years and then decades. Lost and alone, his crew dying from accident and attrition, Edison grew bitter and resentful at Starfleet, which he believed to have abandoned him. In reality, Starfleet had simply never recieved his distress signal due to the proprties of the nebula, and he had been given up for lost. Driven insane with grief and despair, Edison discovered a massive underground complex created ages ago by an unknown civilization that lived on Altamid. Among the wonders he found were an army of robotic "swarm" drones intended for use as miners, a huge host of small two-crew starships designed for the drones, and a remarkable device that allowed him to restore his health and youth by absorbing the life from another animal. However, the process changed his appearance to assimilate traits of the beings he'd "drained". Together with the sole survivors of his original crew, Anderson Le and Jessica Wolff, who were both similarly insane by this point, Edison restyled himself as an alien warlord named "Krall". Krall and his cohorts repurposed the drones to attack passing starships, capture their crew, and allow the three survivors to drain their energy. However, Krall was also on the lookout for an even greater weapon that the ancients of Altamid had created: the Abronath, a device that hosted a massive cloud of flesh-destroying particulates that could disintegrate any living thing in seconds. When released in a confined area, the particles would expand to fill the area, killing anyone or anything within. The ancients, fearing this weapon, had divided the Abronath in two and jettisoned both halves into space. However Krall eventually recovered both halves, and intended to use the weapon and his drones to wage a war on the Federation that had abandoned him. His first target was the Federation's Yorktown Station, just outside the nebula. Countless innocents would have been slaughtered had James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise not stopped him in time. While Krall's drones destroyed the Enterprise, the vessel's crew mostly survived, and found assistance on the planet that allowed them to unveil Krall's true identity.