Balance of Nature Balance of Nature Summary . What they turn up will lead to a terrible secret from the Nasat ' s past , and it will take all of Blue ' s ingenuity to save her people – and an entire world . . . " Description . As P8 ( " Pattie " ) Blue steps foot on the Nasat homeworld for the first in years , a quake strikes , the first in sixteen seasons ( or eight years , Federation standard ) . While trying not to fall off the ledge of the city built into the treetops kilometers in the air , many other Nasat are injured by the debris . She is also worried about a very important duffel bag she ' s carrying - which contains young larvae ( her offspring ) . Nasat leave their young in special nursery buildings , and the young never meet their parents . Once the quake stops , she searches for her Betazoid friend " Zoë " who was there to meet her . The two of them try to treat injured Nasat , but a Nasat security guard tries to get everyone evacuated by order of the planetary council . After finally giving up with arguing with officer , ( as they ' ve done all they can for the injured anyway ) they head back to Zoë ' s paddock . Watching the news on Dr . Tarak ' s power cell viewscreen ( as the power was out ) , P8 tries to figure out why the more sturdy buildings were destroyed while the older ones were reasonably untouched . She takes several frames and studies them , as Zoë catches up with her on her and Taraks research into " quiets , " as well as her budding relationship with him . Pattie determines that she can , and must , help with the research operation to find out why the quake occurred , as the future of the entire city could be at stake if the mother tree is damaged in any minor way . After determinedly going through numerous channels , she finds a way to schedule an appointment with Governor Z4 , who assigns her to a research team going to study the problem . On the way back to her paddocks with the good news , she decides to stop by a nursery building to examine their facilities - since one of the reasons she came back to Nasat was to leave her young larvae . She realizes that her ' quiet ' genes may have been given to her offspring , and hopes that they aren ' t , so that they can have a better early life then she did . On the research team , they split up to climb part - way down the side of the huge tree . Pattie finds a large collection of patches of black , oily tar , and takes pictures of them when she hears a loud humming . She goes to call base , but can ' t . When Base calls her to see if anything is wrong , she can ' t speak : a condition she has when she is very nervous . The teams go to rescue her , after the mysterious cause disappears . At a meeting , they cannot determine the problem : until Pattie realizes a connection to two maps of the mother tree . This leads her to suggest that the only way they can find the cause is to travel to the surface , something unheard of . Finally , she convinces them , and a small team begins climbing down the side of the tree , including Pattie and Tarak . There , they find carvings into the tree from over eight hundred years before – depicting the black tar on the tree , ancient Nasat , and ancient Nasat without mouths ( which Pattie presumes stands for " quiets " ) . Pattie devises a way to alter their SIMs beacon s along the ultraviolet spectrum to see the trails left by the tar - creating creatures . Soon they are attacked by the strange humming monster from before , and the teams split up running . Pattie , Tarak , and a Nasat that actually showed Pattie respect run in one direction – as Y29 falls into quicksand . Pattie tries desperately to save him , as Tarak holds the branches , and they are successful . As they lose the strange cause of the " humming , " they set up camp . Pattie takes some time to think to herself , and go over the evidence they ' ve found , as the " monster " attacks again . This time the whole team is brought to the ground ( most of the Nasat curling into defensive balls ) but Tarak manages to crawl to Pattie , and meld with her . He tells her " not to resist " the high - pitched humming . She knows she can trust Dr . Tarak , and decides to let it in . A rapid influx of telepathic images enter her mind , and she is able to speak with the creature . They find each others name , ( the creature : a Citoac ) and Pattie realizes why they were attacking . In ancient times , the Citoac and Nasat lived together in harmony , until the Nasat decided to move to the treetops . The Citoac preferred a more simple life on the ground , and the two agreed that certain sections wouldn ' t be developed so that light could reach their photosynthetic food . The " quiets " were in fact a special group , that were the only ones that could communicate with the Citoac . But due to the Nasats nature of ignoring the past , the agreement with the Citoac had been forgotten - and they were being starved in the darkness . Pattie agrees to give them a voice in the planetary council in the canopy , and the team returns to the Nasat city level . After a week of convincing , the Planetary Council agrees to move the outer establishments further up the tree , so that light could more easily reach the Citoac . With only a week left of shore leave , Zoë is surprised that she didn ' t take up the offer to oversee the move , as it was based on her designs . But she reminds Zoë that this is still her vacation , and she wants to spend her last week resting before returning to Starfleet . But before she does that , she returns to the nursery building to drop off her duffle bag . After filling out a chart , she for the first time regrets the fact that she ' ll never know her offspring , and wishes them well - perhaps they may even be as lucky to be born a " quiet " as she was . Memorable quotes . " " Please be calm while you ' re being squashed flat . Resistance is futile . " " " " With many small limbs , large tasks are done . " "