Stardate 4202.9: The Enterprise picks up a garbled distress call from the USS Constellation. After investigating the system L-370 that is completely gone, the missing ship is found adrift in the system L-374, of which only the two innermost planets are left. An enormous weapon has destroyed the planets and converted their matter to fuel. After a desperate fight against that machine only Commodore Decker is still on the crippled Constellation. He tragically beamed his crew down to the third planet that is now destroyed. Kirk, Scott and a repair team stay on the Constellation. Decker, however, is obsessed with taking revenge, takes over command and orders the Enterprise to attack the planet killer. Kirk watches helplessly from the damaged Constellation how his ship is almost drawn into the maw of the machine. As soon as communication is re-established, he orders Spock to relieve Decker of command. Decker is supposed to report to sickbay, but he hijacks a shuttle and steers it right into the planet killer where it blows up. When Sulu notices a drop in the planet killer's energy output right after the shuttle's explosion, Kirk sees a chance to destroy the weapon from inside by overloading the Constellation's impulse engines there. Scott sets up an explosive device with a delay of thirty seconds, and Kirk stays behind on the Constellation to arm it. As the Enterprise's transporter has a malfunction, he is beamed out just a second before the explosion successfully destroys the planet killer.

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