Tysess reports to Vice Admiral Janeway that the Protostar continues to refuse their hails. He comments on the music playing in Janeway’s ready room. She names it as Chopin’s Prelude No. 4.

Talking over the situation, she bemoans the fact they have so little information about the Protostar’s crew. Tysess provides her with the bounty information put out by The Diviner.

On the Protostar, Dal’s trying to fix the auxiliary warp drive. He’s still upset with learning he is the result of genetic experimentation. Zero reveals that everyone’s story of how they got to Tars Lamora is tragic. Rok-Tahk is the first to share. She was called The Monster and performed in a staged arena with a humanoid Hero actor. After successful performances, she got to hang out with her partner and eat a bowl of Nutri-Goop.

When she saw how the fans feared her, Rok-Tahk began to dislike the show. Finally, one day she flips the script and defeats the Hero in the show in a comedic way. It entertained the fans for that one day but afterwards, the food is withheld and the Hero seems sad. The show’s owner sells her to a Kazon who takes her to Tars Lamora.

Zero suggests they get back to work but their arm falls off. While Jankom is fixing them up, they share how they were captured and sold to Drednok.

On the Dauntless, The Diviner asks how Asencia could be a Vau N’Akat. With assistance from her Drednok unit, she explains how the Vau N’Akat captured the Protostar and its crew and planned to travel back with the living construct programmed to destroy the Federation. However, Captain Chakotay send the ship back in time without a crew. The Vau N’Akat send one hundred citizens called The Order back to find it. They are separated in the temporal anomaly.

Asencia, aka The Vindicator, arrived in the Alpha Quadrant three years ago. She infiltrated Starfleet and joined up with Janeway, knowing she was looking for the Protostar as well.

On the Protostar, the repairs are going well, but they have to kill some time as the systems reboot. Rok asks Jankom to tell his story.

Jankom was an enlisted orphan on Tellar Prime, sent on a deep space mission. He was awakened early to fix the ship. Eventually, after fixing a myriad of malfunctions, the ship didn’t have enough oxygen to sustain the lives of all the travelers. Jankom launches himself in an escape pod to save the others.

Murf doesn’t have anything to share beyond some bodily function sounds. Hologram Janeway informs them the ship is ready to charge. Rok-Tahk sets the core to charge and the crew asks Hologram Janeway about her backstory. She offers to tell them about Mollie.

Vice Admiral Janeway comes to the conclusion that the kids on the Protostar aren’t criminals. Tysess suggests they seek out the person who set the bounty on the kids. Knowing it was set by someone known as The Diviner doesn’t help a lot. She wonders if their Vau N’Akat guest might know the name. Tysess reports he is in Asencia’s quarters.

Vice Admiral Janeway directs her crew to investigate The Diviner on her way to Asencia’s quarters. When she enters, she finds The Vindicator and her Drednok unit. Shocked, she is caught unaware by The Diviner who knocks her out.