T'Vam

T'Vam is a planet located within Federation space, and is the site of an Orion colony.

During the Four Years War, the Klingon's captured the planet along with its small Orion population. T'Vam was fortified, but eventually fell to a Federation task force on stardate 1/9708. The remaining 2,000 Orion settlers elected to join the Federation, which resulted in the arrival of new colonists.

Three Federation colonies were established on the planet's surface, the first two totalled 30,000 settlers and all died to the last man. The third group of settlers were accompanied by a cruiser and research team who discovered T'Vam's secret; in the spring, plants across the planet released an hallocinogenic pollen. The effects of the pollen varied from one race to another and included anything from nausea and disorentation to violent homocidal mania in about 10% of the cases. Unfortunately, over half those afflicted remained violent and murderous even after being removed from the planet's surface. For some reason, only the small number of Orion colonists who remained were unaffected by the pollen.

Starfleet has labelled the planet as prohibited. However, a lucrative trade in drugs derived from T'Vam's hallocinogenic plants has begun to emerge, despite the best efforts of Starfleet. Orders specify that any smugglers caught within the vacinity of T'Vam are to be intercepted in space, and never on the planet's surface. (The Orions: Book of Common Knowledge)