Stardate 5849.2

At Douglas Station, the Cerritos is being repaired after the battle with the Breen. Ransom reports how badly they came off after the Texas-class USS Aledo saved them. Freeman’s been recalled to Starfleet Command to answer for the Cerritos’s humiliating performance and the exposé by the reporter, Victoria Nuzé.

Freeman faces the Council with Admiral Buenamigo at her side. However, he points out the the Texas-class ships are superior and recommends decommissioning the California-class fleet and give all second contact missions to the Texas-class ships.

The Council decides to take Buenamigo’s advice.

Freeman intends to fight this decision and doesn’t want her crew to know but Boimler brings the gossip to Tendi and Rutherford. Tendi panics over the future of her senior officer training. Boimler doesn’t want to be transferred to an outpost. Rutherford, meanwhile, is admiring the design and code of the Texas-class ships.

Boimler’s entertaining the others with impressions of the senior bridge crew. Unfortunately, Shaxs walks in while he’s impersonating him and is offended.

Boimler chases after Shaxs. Rutherford and Tendi worry about Mariner.

Mariner is running from a gang of Ferengi with a golden idol. Petro beams her out just as the Ferengi catch up to her.

As they head off to their next destination, Mariner thanks Petra for being so cool with her behavior. Petra comments that their funding guarantees a long career of doing whatever they want. Mariner wonders about the funding but Petra avoids answering.

Before the Council, Buenamigo offers Freeman a promotion which she refuses. Instead, she challenges him to a mission race between the Aledo and the Cerritos to see whether the Texas-class ships are better than California-class ships at second contacts.

Buenamigo agrees. Freeman sends her senior officers to light a fire under their departments. Rutherford is deep into reading something when Billups gets his attention on the job at hand.

T’Ana and Ransom give their departments very different tips. Boimler tries to apologize to Shaxs again but is rebuffed.

The mission race begins. Buenamigo gives the Cerritos a bit of a headstart. At the first planet, Galardon, Rutherford is distracted by the Aledo code. While they complete the module, the Aledo beams a complete module down directly. Freeman orders them to move faster.

At the second planet, LT-358, the mission is to install a new outpost. However, Tendi’s scans detect a possible sentient lifeform. The Cerritos team halts construction to examine the lifeform which T’Ana confirms is not sentient. Meanwhile, the Aledo’s been, beamed down a pre-fabricated outpost, and left.

The next task is to deliver supplies to Ockmenic 9, a planet that phases in and out of the Prime dimension. Freeman’s counting on the Cerritos catching up to the Aledo before the planet phases in.

The Aledo transports the supplies to the Ockmenians and the planet phases out before the Cerritos arrives. The Aledo has won and Buenamigo celebrates with a villainous laugh.

The crew is morose in the mess hall. Rutherford is still fixated on the Aledo’s coding.

Freeman overhears Tendi asking why the Aledo didn’t slow down to investigate the possibility of life on LT-358. She contacts Buenamigo to point out that he ignored the Prime Directive in the Aledo’s mission completion. She tells him that she plans to take that to the Council.

Rutherford finally realizes why the coding is so familiar. It’s his own work. Buenamigo was the commander who ordered Rutherford’s memory erased.

Rutherford explains that the code he wrote before his implant is the same code he used for Badgey. They hurry to warn Freeman.

Buenamigo is raging at Freeman. Rutherford bursts in. Buenamigo recognizes Rutherford who confronts him with his newfound memories. Buenamigo reveals he did everything Rutherford remembers. Also, he admits he’s been trying to set Freeman and the Cerritos up for failure at Deep Space Nine. He know about the Breen on Brekka and purposely put the Cerritos in danger so the Aledo could save them.

Rutherford tries to warn Buenamigo that the code he’s using is unstable. Freeman tries to reason with Buenamigo but he decides to use the Aledo to destroy the Cerritos to prevent the truth about the project getting out.

Buenamigo gives the Aledo autonomy and gives it the order to destroy the Cerritos. Now fully independent, the Aledo refuses to follow Buenamigo’s orders and fires on the admiral, destroying him and part of the station.

It continues to attack the station and activates its sister ships, the Dallas and the Corpus Christi.

Freeman orders a distress call while the three Texas-class ships fire on the station.

On Qualor-3, Petra and Mariner are delivering the idol. Mariner begs off tired and when Petra leaves, she tries to hack the system to find out who pays for the missions. Petra returns and catches her in the act.

Annoyed at the subterfuge, Petra tells Mariner to take a look if she’s so curious. It turns out Independent Space Archeologist Guild is funded by an endowment from Admiral Picard.

Mariner realizes she was subconsciously looking for a reason to go back to Starfleet. Petra’s insulted and lets her in on the Cerritos’s situation at the space station.

Mariner insists they go and try to help. Petra eventually agrees.

At the station, another Starfleet ship arrives to try to help but the Texas-class ships overpower it easily. Freeman tries to distract by telling/bluffin the Aledo that Rutherford wrote its code and he’ll delete it if the Texas-class ships don’t stand down.

It works and the three ships leave off attacking the other Starfleet vessel to target the Cerritos. The Cerritos warps away with the ships in pursuit. In warp, Billups pushes the engines to get some distance but the ships are gaining. Freeman asks for ideas. Shaxs, as always, recommends ejecting the warp core. Other people provide other ideas but Boimler forces them to seriously consider Shaxs’s idea.

Freeman gives the order to Shaxs’s delight. He gets down to engineering and he and Billups make it so.

The explosion takes out the Dallas and the Corpus Christi but the Aledo survives. It comes after the Cerritos which is dead in space without a warp core.

Freeman starts to give the abandon ship order, but a voice orders a delay to her order. Mariner and Petra have arrived with the entire California-class fleet.

Boimler identifies the Oakland, Alhambra, San Diego, San Clemente, Sherman Oaks, Vacaville, Burbank, Fresno, Santa Monica, San Jose, Sacramento, Culver City, Anaheim, Riverside, Vallejo, West Valley, Pacific Palisades, Redding, Eureka, and Mount Shasta.

Additionally, the Cerritos is hailed by several other ships including the Carlsbad and the Inglewood. They are all ready to stand together with the Cerritos and fight the Aledo.

Mariner orders Attack Pattern Delta, full-spread. With the entire California-class fleet firing on it, the Aledo’s systems are overwhelmed. It tries to target the Cerritos one last time but Petra’s ship destroys the torpedo it launches. The Aledo’s shields fail and it explodes under the California-class ships’ barrage.

While the Cerritos is repaired, Mariner joins the crew in celebrating the victory. Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford welcome her back. Rutherford decides to keep the implant.

Dr. Migleemo comes to congratulate Tendi on how she conducted herself during the mission race. He tells her Starfleet was so impressed, they’ve transferred another Science ensign to join her in the training program. It’s T’Lyn, who cautiously enters the mess hall. She has no pips, just a bar.

Tendi greets her enthusiastically and insists she meet the others before they find a quiet place to discuss the training.

Shaxs finds Boimler. Boimler tries to apologize again. Shaxs swoops him into his arms and tells him he’s in the “bear pack” now.

Mariner spots Freeman and greets her. Freeman reinstates her to the crew. Mariner gives her a big hug. They reconcile. Mariner asks if Ransom can continue to be her mentor. Freeman agrees.

Captain Ramsey addresses the whole of the mess hall and praises the combined efforts of the Cali-class ships. They cheer.

In the stinger scene, the debris of the Aledo and the other Texas-class ships is scavenged by a Drookmani ship. On a com screen, Badgey’s angry face flashes.