Lieutenant Josh Herrick is joined by Lieutenant JG Toz, First Lieutenant Arturo Maxwell, and Second Lieutenant Jacen Xaivis take the runabout, Talents, to Port Coray to covertly seek out information by inquiring about Star Trek technology for sale or anyone unhappy with Starfleet.. The group prepares to head to Port Coray, ensuring they blend in with other residents rather than announce their presence by wearing their uniforms. Herrick reminds them they will likely see slave markets, but they must focus on the mission. As they draw close, Maxwell requests permission to dock, which is granted.
Xaivas wonders if they can take weapons onto the station, but since they weren’t told they couldn’t, they decide to go in armed, and Toz thinks there may have been a traitor on the Unity Dow. As the group steps out, a station representative approaches them, introduces himself as Bartholomew Quintius Coray, and asks what he can do for them. Toz asks where they can get some food and he directs them to the Port Coray Saloon and Diner. Xaivis agrees it’s a good place to start. Once there, the group is greeted by Reginald Augustus Coray the Third. The group orders food, and Maxwell points out some Ferengi he’s not sure he would trust asking. He wonders if simply observing and listening might be their best option, and Toz suggests they do just that.
Xaivis notices among the Gamma Quadrant species, there are several Alpha and Beta Quadrant species. He also mentions staying away from unpleasant types and R.A. Coray warns them they will find themselves on the other side of an airlock if they start anything. Herrick tells Coray they’re scoping for new talent for hire using a fists-first approach to weed out the weak, and repairs and asks for Fed-tech. Xaivis notes species usually associated with the Federation are present, but Coray assures them their ‘hot metal’ (or stolen goods) and they are safe.
As they observe what’s around them, Toz notices someone wearing Starfleet issue boots and suggests they follow them. Maxwell agrees, but only one rather than the group. Another man joins the boot-wearing individual at the table, and a subtle exchange of some tiny objects is made under the table. Maxwell sees it and states they might be on to something. Xaivis wonders if their host can provide a distraction. Herrick elects to split them up. He tells Maxwell and Toz to tail the man while he and Xaivis remain. Before they split, a new engineer, Ensign Kimonzi Lahl, joins them, and Herrick greets her. As she asks for a run down of the situation, the man stands up in preparation to leave.
After they depart, R.A. Coray returns to the table and tells them that he found someone who says they know someone who went to the Omicron system and back but is dead. The person with the information will sell it for 100,000 credits, but they only have 10,000. He then tells them some people, like some Breen, are interested in buying their ship and that they could generally get a couple of million. Still, Herrick asks if they could get a better offer elsewhere, and Xaivas wonders if any other parties, perhaps those off-station, might be interested. Lahl notes they would need transportation, and Coray mentions others would for a price. Herrick says to let them know what people will give and then they’ll make a decision.
As they sit, a Boslic joins them, referring to some ‘Esh-O’ friends, which tells them they know who they are. She indicates she has information about Omicron Victor and is willing to speak for 9,000 credits. Herrick pays her. Nanjjii, the Boslic, tells them that no one has returned from the Omicron Victor, even the Dominion avoided it, and likely their friends are all dead. Xaivis wonders where the stories came from and says that some people have dared to go close and don’t feel like she’s given them any facts. Lahl agrees it’s all theatrics. Nannjji hints that Luriaa has been to the Omicron system. Feeling like they’ve heard enough, the group leaves Nanjjii in the dust, who is miffed they didn’t even offer a thank you.
Upon Herrick’s return to the Butler, Rouiancet heads up a team of Herrick, Nilsen and herself to the bridge of the Unity Dow. Rouiancet uses a science station to try to reconstruct logs. Nilsen takes the Ops console, while Herrick takes Engineer to search for information there, and then suddenly sees a flash of blue. Dismissing it, he asks Nilsen for help reconstructing the fragmented logs. Nilsen expresses concern since Katsim also saw something on the bridge, and he notes that was also how Alpha Brenkelvi II started. Nilsen then checks how the power grid is being used and states it looks like they are trying to pump the power of half their warp core to the shields. Nilsen asks if there’s enough power to pull up a level 10 forcefield around the bridge. Concerned that the crew might have been interphased, she suggests they scan for chronitons.
Herrick gets the field up but notes he had to override the command because the computer didn’t believe it had the power to do so. He also notes a strange residual reading from the ready room. As he opens the door, a stench assaults their noses as a plate of dinner was left on the desk, but he manages to note that the residual readings seem to come from the chair behind the desk.
They find mouldy leftovers of a sandwich, which Rouiancet states they can test to find out how long the crew have been gone, but Nilsen notes most people wouldn’t leave out food, which means whatever happened was sudden. Nilsen notes that he had received an almost telepathic gift back on Alpha Brenkelvi II that he thought would allow him to facilitate communications, but he’s getting nothing. Herrick scans and finds some particles that are close cousins to chronitons, but with some key differences. He also notes they can pull a latent copy of any logs recorded in the ready room.
After opening the viewscreen and manipulating the circuitry, he tells Rouiancet he’ll need the proper command code to authorize playback. They get it to work, but the recording of the captain is unstable and almost incomprehensible. Nilsen thinks there might be a syntax there, so decides to send the information back to the OEB to try and translate it. The group review the logs, but finds nothing unusual at first. Then, Herrick notes some tiny spikes of energy. Rouiancet answers a call from Kessler while Herrick wonders if this was the result of a localised spatial phenomenon or something more nefarious, and notes that at the same time the small spikes of energy registered, the crew’s comm signals went fuzzy and he confirms the strange out of phase situation caused havoc.
When Nielsen mentions that the crew might still be there, and Herrick wonders if they could be shifting through different observable spectrums, just out of phase and imperceptible, Rouiancet wonders if they could get them in phase and it's a power transfer from the butler to the Unity Dow would be useful so they could try and determine whether or not they were still there. Herrick safely deflector would be their best bet, but could cause powerful accelerations and they don't want anything to explode in their faces. Since it would also affect the other team on the Unity Dow, they will have to warn the other team before they try anything. They have to get the deflector dishes facing each other, and Nilsen says so people watch on the power levels to keep it safe. Rouiancet contacts the Butler to let them know what they're doing and to prepare for a power transfer. Rouiancet reports that bridge crew have been having hallucinations and they believe something on the planet is causing them and they’re trying to find a way to mitigate the effects and get the Dow moving, but should leave the system as soon as possible.
Working on a console, Herrick prepares the program, but when he looks up he finds two aliens have replaced his fellow officers and he demands to know who they are. He threatens to open the hatch and invent them all into space if they don't and as he prepares to lower the force field, the being that was Lhandon tackles him and in the struggle, a phaser goes off and strikes the bulkhead. Rouiancet sees a severely injured woman and hears her voices, then aims a shot at Herrick who’s knocked to the ground. When he looks up, his crewmembers have returned to normal.
Herrick apologises to them and Nilsen asks about Herrick’s vision and compares them to others and that it suggests an intelligence behind it. Rouiancet informs the others they’re ready for the flash and when it occurs, Rouiancet sees a dozen bodies on the bridge, but she can’t tell if they are actively out of phase, or simply images from the past. Herrick also sees them but no devices detect life signs.
They receive a call from Caras to eject the warp core in his panic, and Nilsen prepares to do so, but a couple of minutes later, he calls back and explains that something picked him up then dropped him. They decide to go ahead and eject the warp core, just in case.
Herrick traces the drain to the hydroponics lab, but still can’t determine the cause, but his thoughts turn to the 500 officers of the Unity Down now lost. He’s joined by Stendhal and Lahl to investigate. Stendhal notes the UD’s crew have been displaced, and mentally are stuck on the ship, unable to move on and there was a strong psionic field on the station that she struggled with. Lahl asks about her telepathy and Stendhal shares she’s a telepath. Lahl mentions she had success finding devices that were draining the power on the UD and brings over the scanning settings they used when there, but can’t say that the power drain issue is related. A minute later, she pulls one out of a panelled area. After Stendhal suggests they scan for brain wave activity in the gamma band frequency range, which are the frequencies of lucid dreams for most humanoids, she notes she still senses some of the crew, and then hears a cry of some sort. As she looks at her hands, she seems to be disappearing, then suddenly goes back to normal. Herrick notes she started to phase into a subspace fold, tell them to turn off all the scanning equipment and get out of the lab, then puts the power to a minimum. Stendal is able to put a hand through the bulkhead and Herrick motions for her to pull it back while he opens only one tricorder to scan. The counsellor solidifies, and Herrick comments that it’s similar to what Kovacs and Qualunque experienced during a transporter accident.
Herrick asks Lahl if there was a change in the device they found, wonders if it’s a gateway of somesort and asks if the ship sensors detect any other subspace anomalies. Lahl uses a console and finds many more devices while Stendhal notices a haze that she thinks are spectral entities existing out of phase and wonders if they followed them from the alien station. The device Lahl pulled out begins to flash, and suddenly, all three find themselves in a completely different place. Suddenly, Herrick thunks down on his bottom and sees alien script on a wall, and they find themselves in a place similar to the station Arlill and his team were on. Stendhal gets fearful as the situation reminds he of the alien station, but when Lahl suggests they explore, she is encouraging. Suddenly, some lights flash and the group finds themselves at a corridor with a series of doors all made with different materials, and the group goes ‘out of phase’ and Stendhal suggests they choose a door. Herrick chooses one and they find a skeleton hugging itself.
They skeleton and Herrick asks if it shares minerals withthe planet below to determine whether or not it could be a deceased local. As Stendhal imagines Risa, the scene changes to an area with hot lava flow and skeletal remains scattered on a beach. The device flashes again and as Lahl thinks about the OEB, they find themselves back in the Hydroponics lab. When the device begins to flash again, Lahl smashes it and hopes that prevents them jumping again, but the node just puts itself back together again. It hovers in the air, the room spins, and everyone is moved to the alien station, then quickly back to the lab, back to the station, and it repeats til they feel sick. Suddenly, it stops with them in the lab, but there are two Stendhals.
Herrick wants to prove they are both Stendhal rather than one being an alien, and after trying the ‘guess what number I’m thinking of’ game, he decides to get saliva samples from both and use the lab to determine who is who. Lahl thinks about getting a phaser and both Stendhals state if she has to shoot one, shoot the the other which only spurs her to think about shooting both of them, which angers the Stendhals. The duo slap each other, then hug each other and begin to cry. Lahl starts a computer analysis of the DNA sample from the Stendhals, but it only asks why she submitted the same sample twice.
Herrick thinks they should try to recombine them and Lahl suggests using the transporter, but no one can explain why it is only happening to Stendhal. The group head to the Neuroscience lab and Lieutenant Rivka Brzezinski arrives about the same time and finds out the Stendhals are the same person, just separated. After a suggestion is made, Herrick expresses concern over trying to transport her through a subspace fold, and Brzezinski warns them Stendhal may very well discorporate if they don’t do something soon. Lahl suggests a reverse transcoil transport.
Suddenly, one of the Stendahls roars and then begins to attack the other non-Stendhals. The other Stendhal stands and screams, adding to the chaos. The biting one stops, and the two hug each other, then start spinning aound, screaming like maniacs. When the evil Stendhal releases her twin, she tries to jump on Brzezinski. Herrick tells Lahl to use the transporters on one and beam her into the buffers. A bit battered and bleeding, Brzezinski decides it’s no longer time for experimenting. Herrick feels strange and orders them to release her, but the evil Karen begins to attack the other one and the original Karen asks them to put her back into the buffer. Herrick comes to his senses and they get the evil Karen back in the buffer, and admits he felt like someone had controlled him there for a second. That done, they decide to get checked out at sickbay. Herrick is exhausted, but wants to make sure he has a clean bill of health.
