Stardate 58130.6: The Cerritos is tasked to assist the USS Archimedes under the command of Captain Sonya Gomez in establishing first contact with the Laaperians. Mariner inadvertently overhears a conversation, in which her mother says she has accepted a promotion and will leave the ship. Frustrated as she is, Mariner lets the senior staff in on the secret. Tendi witnesses how T'Ana deletes her personnel file. As she thinks she will be transferred off the ship, she goes on a goodbye tour with Rutherford. While the Cerritos is waiting outside the system, the Archimedes approaches the Laaperian homeworld and is suddenly hit by a solar flare, which also destroys an unstable planetoid. With main and auxiliary power down, the ship is going to impact on the planet in 20 hours. There is no way for the Cerritos to pass through the debris field of the planetoid located between the two ships because any interaction with the shields or the magnetized hull would disable the Cerritos. Freeman heads to the captain's yacht in a desperate effort to reach the Archimedes, but Mariner follows her, saying it would be useless. Rutherford, who was just on the yacht with Tendi, appears and suggests that in order to prevent the hull from interacting with the debris, the hull should be removed. As Rutherford deletes extra copies of his memory files that he created in order not to forget Tendi again, unsettling memories resurface of how his implant was installed. The crew starts to release hull plates all over the ship to make the Cerritos fit to navigate through the debris. One big hull plate is left, however. It can only still be accessed from a corridor flooded with water connected to the cetacean ops. Mariner volunteers, but Boimler tells her she should better go to the bridge and support her mother. Boimler releases the hull plate in time but rips open his diving suit. Kimolu and Matt, the two beluga whales, take him back to the surface where Tendi revives him. On the bridge, everyone is in spacesuits because the main viewscreen module has been removed. When the ship hits an asteroid, Mariner is hurled outside but Jennifer Sh'reyan saves her. The Cerritos locks the tractor beam on the Archimedes, just as the ship is beginning to break apart in the atmosphere. All crew members are saved. The honor of making her first first contact with the Laaperians falls to Captain Freeman. Tendi learns that T'Ana indeed initiated her transfer but recommended the ensign for senior officer science training. As the crew is celebrating Captain Freeman Day, Freeman herself welcomes a team from Starfleet Command aboard the ship and tells them she wants to turn down the promotion. But the actual reason for them to see the captain is to arrest her - for planting a bomb in the Pakled capital.

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