Vice Admiral Janeway attempts to convince her guard that she needs to warn Starfleet Command about the weapon aboard the Protostar. The guard reminds her that she has been deemed medically unfit to fulfill her duties.

The Protostar crew take in the sight of the Starfleet armada. Hologram Janeway posits that the living construct wanted to be in the heart of Federation space to do as much damage as possible to Starfleet. Their hopes lie in Vice Admiral Janeway being able to explain about the living construct. Dal explains that his time in Janeway’s body on the Dauntless has made her crew think she’s crazy.

Commander Tysess discusses the new developments with Admiral Jellico. Asencia reports that the Protostar refuses to answer their hails so they want to board the ship. Jellico approves the order.

Tysess orders the Dauntless to fire on the Protostar to take out their shields. On the Protostar, Zero is able to hotwire the ship to bypass the living construct’s blockade. However, they can’t proto-warp away until the core is online.

Dal orders evasive maneuvers but the other ships in the fleet are firing at them now too. As Dal gives a pep talk, Rok starts to share the news he won’t be admitted because he’s an Augment, but Gwyn cuts her off.

Vice Admiral Janeway continues to try to convince her guard to free her. The guard reveals that she was one of the Brenari refugees Janeway helped escape from Devore persecution on Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 Episode 10. She frees Janeway.

As their shields drop to critical levels, Gwyn leaves the bridge to arm herself to face the boarding party. Dal follows her to try to convince her not to take up arms against Starfleet as it’ll mean she can never enroll in Starfleet Academy. Gwyn decides to tell him about the Augment rule but hesitates. Dal misinterprets the hesitation and kisses her.

After a quick awkward apology from Dal, Gwyn tells him about the Augment rule, devastating Dal.

The shields, warp, and impulse go down. Dal takes Gwyn’s weapon, determined to make sure the rest of the crew will be able to join Starfleet.

On the Dauntless, the boarding party prepares to beam onto the Protostar. Asencia unmasks as The Vindicator and knock out the rest of the party while her Drednok takes out the transporter chief. Drednok and The Diviner step onto the transporter pad. The Vindicator orders them to take out anyone who stands in their way. The Diviner states an exception for Gwyn. The Vindicator agrees but looks skeptical.

Dal, Zero, Gwyn, and Rok rush out to fight the boarding party. Drednok takes them all on as The Vindicator and The Diviner stroll onto the bridge where The Vindicator immediately disables Hologram Janeway. Gwyn hides.

One by one, Drednok incapacitates the crew members.

The Vindicator sends The Diviner to check on the living construct and locks him in the subdeck. Gwyn confronts The Vindicator.

Just as Drednok is about to eliminate Dal, Murf jumps into the fray, allowing Dal to escape.

Murf and Drednok fight in the corridor as Gwyn and The Vindicator engage in battle on the bridge. Drednok uses a freezing spray to stop Murf and restrains Dal with a collar to the wall. The Diviner escapes the subdeck only to find The Vindicator holding Gwyn captive. She orders him to open hails, but he tries to take her out with the fretwork weapon. Declaring him weak, she catches it and spears him with it.

Drednok enters the bridge, declaring all threats contained. The Vindicator commands the computer to open a channel on all Federation frequencies. The hail comes in to the Dauntless just as Janeway arrives on the bridge. Too late, the channels are open and all ships in range are immediately infected by the living construct’s virus.

In the corridor, things look hopeless as they see the fleet’s ships start to fire on themselves. Rok refuses to give up and using Jankom’s prosthetic, lights a blowtorch to free Murf. Murf releases Zero who frees Dal. Dal gets rid of the gravity grenade holding Rok and Jankom down. They regroup and try to take the bridge.

The Vindicator taunts them for a moment before her Drednok encloses her in an escape capsule and launches through the top of the bridge.

The crew gathers around Gwyn and The Diviner as he dies. His body rises up and disintegrates. Gwyn’s light lines shine for a moment as he disappears.

Hologram Janeway comes back online. Jankom tries to give a status report but he suddenly switches to speaking in Tellarite. Rok’s words emerge as Brikar. Janeway realizes the living construct has impeded the universal translator.

On the Dauntless, Janeway orders the crew to prepare to abandon ship. But no one understands her because the universal translator has gone down there too.

On the Protostar, Gwyn steps forward and speaks to Rok and Jankom in their own languages.

Vice Admiral Janeway opens a channel to see if they can communicate. Dal realizes the living construct only affects ships with Starfleet signatures. He asks Janeway how many allies without Starfleet signatures are nearby. Gwyn offers to be the translator. Janeway opens a distress call to any ships nearby. Dal cedes the captain’s chair to Gwyn.

A Klingon ship responds to the distress call and Gwyn explains the situation, imploring them to come save Starfleet.

As Vice Admiral Janeway begins to evacuate the Dauntless, a phaser shot comes right at them. A bird-of-prey appears suddenly and blocks the fire with their shields. The Klingon captain hails them with their translator and offers to start beaming the crew over to their ship.

The Protostar crew watches as the ally ships arrive. The translator is fixed so they understand each other again.

A new Starfleet vessel arrives and is immediately infected and starts firing on the fleet. Starfleet protocol is that when ships are in danger all other ships come to their aid. The Protostar crew despairs that anything can save Starfleet.