Janeway is speaking to The Diviner about the Protostar and Chakotay. He recognizes Chakotay and says he was taken prisoner but doesn’t remember anything clearly.

Asencia enters and reports an empty escape pod that was launched by Barniss Frex from CR-721. Janeway orders a hunt to find Frex.

Stardate 61296.9

Dal records a log recounting the reason they cannot seek out Starfleet, the weapon aboard the Protostar designed to destroy the Federation.

Jankom Pog has been unable to deactivate the living construct and is frustrated by the failure. When they approach an M-class planet emitting a distress signal, he is pessimistic about their ability to help.

Rok is concerned about Murf who seems ill. The others leave her to care for him while they beam down to the planet. The subspatial interference cloaking the planet makes the transporter seem a little glitchy.

They encounter two humanoids wearing uniforms resembling Starfleet. One of them stuns Pog. Dal cries out they come in peace.

The humanoids look identical, but one addresses the other as “Sool’u” and speaks like Kirk. He tells Sool'u to stand down, identifying the Protostar crew as a “Starflight” landing party. He introduces himself as “James'T” and celebrates the fact they have answered the call of “N-Song” which brought them to the planet.

Sool’u gives them a variation of the Vulcan salute and states something like, “Live logs and proper.”

James'T leads them back to a settlement called “New Enderprize” and they find the population living in the hull of a crashed ship.

James Tee brings them to Doctor Boons. They declare the logs must be played for the landing party as they kept them word for word over generations in hopes a rescue party would come.

The logs commence as a live performance, recreating the adventures of James'T, Sprok, and a man with a Scottish accent. When the adventure brings them to this Delta Quadrant planet, a crew member named N-Song, the only one in a red uniform, steps up to the challenge of saving the inhabitants below.

The logs show that N-Song brings technology to the people but warns them not to enter the woods, claiming a great evil called The Gallows has followed him to the planet.

An illness afflicted the people after some went looking to confront The Gallows. On his deathbed, N-Song promises Starflight (Starfleet) will return to rid the planet of the evil.

As Dal tries to lead the crew back to the beam out point, a local stumbles into the settlement, struggling to walk and claims it was The Gallows. She is identified as Cadet Huur'a, and she collapses in Dal’s arms.

In the medical space, Hura describes The Gallows. Two glowing eyes, pouring smoke, breathing fire and death.

Dal tries to reason that The Gallows can’t be a curse because curses aren’t real. Pog points to Dal’s arm. He has the same black discolorations on his skin as Hura.

Zero needs more information about The Gallows before they can synthesize a cure. Gwyn decides to go out and find the source of the infection.

On the ship, Rok is upset she can’t find a reason for Murf’s illness. Gwyn contacts her and Janeway and asks Rok to bring medical supplies to the planet for Dal.

Dal’s itching from the disease gets worse, and he starts to freak out. Dr. Boons places wood leeches on his skin and it eases the irritation.

The doctor points out that the inhabitants of the planet know they aren’t Starflight/Starfleet but they believe in the principles. He challenges Dal to believe in something too.

Gwyn leads Rok and Pog to the heart of the toxicity poisoning the planet. They discover an Enterprise Galileo shuttle. Rok realizes the broken warp engine of the shuttle is causing the subspatial interference. Pog realizes the shuttle leaking plasma is what is poisoning the planet.

He also realizes the shuttle has a com system they could use to let Zero know the cause of the illness. Gwyn warns him that if the shuttle falls into the leaked plasma, the entire cavern will explode. He’s determined to do it anyway.

He is successful in contacting Zero and telling them what they’ve found. Zero takes the information and synthesizes an antidote and revives Dal and Huur'a.

Pog tells Dal the cavern is about to collapse and explode. Janeway says they can’t beam the team out unless the ship is closer. However, the subspace interference will knock the hologram program out so Dal and Zero will need to pilot the ship in manually without the other three.

Dal has Janeway beam James'T, Sool’u, and Huur'a up to the Protostar. Once the bridge is reconfigured to resemble the 23rd century Enterprise, the three take up positions to navigate the ship to rescue the team.

Rok and Gwyn take refuge with Pog aboard the Galileo shuttle. As the explosions around them become more violent, the distress signal recording starts to play.

“This is Ensign Garrovick of the USS Enterprise. This will be my final call to Starfleet, hoping you’ll come, though I’ve long given up that anyone will hear it. Hope’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I tried to do my duty, salvage what I could from the wreck. Went to save the locals from the danger before I fell to my injuries. But then, they welcomed me. Healed me. Gave me hope when I had none. In the end, they were the ones who saved me.”

Just as the shuttle falls towards the plasma pool, the Protostar arrives and beams the team to safety.

Before leaving, the Protostar crew provides the Enderprizians with some help building onto their settlement and sealing off the area of plasma leakage. They leave them with new medical technology.

Rok checks in on Murf and finds that he’s cocooned.