Stardate 1709.1: The wedding ceremony of Angela Martine and Robert Tomlinson is interrupted by a red alert because Earth Outpost 4 is under attack, after Outposts 2 and 3 have already vanished. These outposts were set up a century ago to monitor the Neutral Zone that was negotiated via subspace radio after a war with the Romulan Star Empire. Now the Romulans have sent a cloakable vessel with a powerful plasma weapon to get rid of the outposts. When Spock manages to retrieve a video signal from the attacking ship, Lt. Stiles, who lost a relative in the war and suspects that there could be Romulan spies on the Enterprise, is shocked to see that the Romulans look just like Vulcans. Spock surmises that the Romulans may be an ancient offshoot of Vulcan colonization. When Kirk finally manages to anticipate the moves of the cloaked enemy vessel, the Romulans desperately detonate a nuclear warhead directly ahead of the Enterprise. The Romulan ship is already on its way home, when Kirk orders the Enterprise to play "dead", luring the enemy into a trap. The Romulan commander refuses to be rescued from his crippled ship and initiates the self-destruct. The Enterprise has lost one crew member: Tomlinson.

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