Rutherford is having a nightmare where something is overheating and he wakes when it explodes, screaming.

Stardate 58354.2

The Cerritos is at Tulgana IV and with a little extra time on their hands, they’ll be setting up a recruitment booth at a local job fair. Mariner and Boimler are tapped for the booth. Mariner complains. Boimler accepts it.

Rutherford is working on the shuttle and dropping things out of exhaustion. Tendi asks if he’s okay. He tells her about his nightmare.

Tendi offers to purge his long-term memory cache. He accepts and she sends him off for a nap to reset.

Ransom overhears Mariner complaining about the recruitment booth assignment and warns her that he’ll be checking in and if he finds her not recruiting enthusiastically, he’ll transfer her to Starbase 80. The threat works and Mariner is determined to be a great recruiter.

Rutherford lies down for a nap. Suddenly, his implant flashes and his optic viewer turns red. He wakes up and speaks in a very un-Rutherford manner, complaining of a headache. He is disoriented and unhappy with where he is. When he looks at his reflection, the Rutherford we know is in the reflection, trapped.

Old Rutherford demands to have control over his body again. New Rutherford refuses and walks away.

Boimler and Mariner set up their booth. Mariner’s recruitment pitch is foiled by the neighboring booth, the Independent Archeologists Guild, where a woman gloats over the freedom she has over her life.

Evil Rutherford hits on Barnes and then hurts her feelings. Good Rutherford postulates that Tendi might be able to help him. Evil Rutherford overhears and decides to track down Tendi.

Evil Rutherford is able to fool Tendi but Good Rutherford discovers that punching himself harms his physical self. This gets Evil Rutherford’s attention. He freaks out which alarms Tendi. When she tries to examine him, he shoves her and runs away. Tendi calls for a medical team.

Mariner taunts the archeologist with the fact her guild steals artifacts and points out the museum behind them where she could steal more.

The archaeologist introduces herself as Petra Aberdeen (Georgia King). Boimler looks her up and she has an impressive Starfleet record from when she served. She continues to poke at Mariner.

Evil Rutherford evades the medical team by climbing through a Jeffreys tube to the transporter room. Shaxs finds him there and points out the transporter won’t work in orbit around Tulgana IV because of its ion field.

Evil Rutherford activates the transporter and sends himself to the Captain’s Yacht on board the ship. Good Rutherford stalls him until Shaxs can stun him, which causes both of their implants to glitch.

In sickbay, T’Ana rules out an alien parasite. She discovers there are two personalities in conflict. Rutherford is unconscious. They don’t know which Rutherford will emerge.

In his subconscious, Rutherford and his evil younger self argue over who should be the dominant personality.

His younger self accuses him of trying to erase him with his cyborg implant. He remembers technicians talking about programming an explanation for the implant, making him think it was his choice.

His younger self takes credit for the implant glitching all the time.

Only one personality can survive the conflict. The other will be erased. They fight.

Rutherford wants to know about the space young Rutherford has recreated. Young Rutherford explains they used to sneak to a secret garage to build their own ships that Starfleet wouldn’t let them test. They funded their builds with illegal races through the Neutral Zone.

Their brain is starting to break down. Young Rutherford proposes they build their own ships and race them to see who is the better engineer.

Petra and Mariner continue to trash talk at their booths. Representatives of the Collectors’ Guild approach the Starfleet booth. They tease Boimler and Mariner about not being allowed to leave the booth.

Next, they are approached by the Conspiracy Truthers who ask about Sisko and the Conspiracy parasites. They leave, laughing that they can’t leave their booth.

In Rutherford’s subconscious, the two personalities build their ships. Young Rutherford builds his Sampaguita. Rutherford builds Voyager’s Delta Flyer.

Boimler and Mariner continue to be targets of ridicule at the fair. The Outpost Scientists come and laugh at their uniforms. One scientist takes Boimler’s pip and throws it away where it gets stepped on. This triggers Boimler into a berserker rage. He flips the booth table and attacks his bullies, tearing the other booths apart.

Mariner tries to calm him while, in the chaos, Petra heads to the museum to steal stuff.

While Boimler runs rampage, Mariner starts collecting contact info from witnesses who are impressed by Boimler’s antics.

The Rutherford vs. Rutherford race begins. Young Rutherford pulls ahead but takes damage was a Romulan ship attacks. Rutherford reveals that he staffed the Delta Flyer with his friends. Together, they are able to fight off the Romulan attack.

Ransom arrives to check on the booth.

As the Romulan ship zeroes in on the Sampaguita, Tendi rescues Young Rutherford by transporting him on board the Delta Flyer.

Young Rutherford is fatally wounded and accepts that Rutherford is better off now. With his dying breath, Young Rutherford shares the memory of how they got their implant. The explosion from the nightmare happens and he’s badly wounded. A faceless voice orders the technicians to erase all memory of him and “the program” in order to cover-up the explosion.

Left alone, Rutherford emerges from his subconscious and wakes from his coma, back to his familiar self.

Ransom and Kayshon escort Boimler to the brig for leaving the booth.

Sitting with Boimler, Rutherford shares what he learned about his implant and the explosion. Mariner thanks Boimler for keeping her cool. She heads off to record the mission log.

While she’s recording the log, a communication comes in from Petra who admits she was trying to get them to lose their cool so she cool steal a Ferenghi artifact back from the museum and collect the reward from the Grand Nagus. Petra offers Mariner a place by her side. Mariner rejects it but saves the contact info.