Stardate not given: The young Dal R'El is an inmate of the Tars Lamora prison colony in the Delta Quadrant. He is the only one of his species and not able to communicate with other prisoners. When a mysterious creature known as "Fugitive Zero" sabotages the security measures and unfastens his manacles, Dal seizes the opportunity, runs away and hijacks a loader. But his escape ends when the Watchers turn off the power grid, making the loader fall to the ground. The Diviner, the ruler of the prison colony, allows his daughter Gwyn to interrogate Dal R'El, rather than turning the prisoner over to the robot Drednok who would torture him. Gwyn tells him that he would be free to leave if he could find Fugitive Zero. Dal is then partnered with a Brikar in the deep region of the mine where the fugitive was last spotted. After accidentally collapsing the cave they were working in, the two find a starship that was buried in the rocks. They proceed to the bridge where they activate the universal translator and can understand each other. The Brikar introduces herself as Rok-Tahk. Fugitive Zero joins them and reveals that he is actually a non-corporeal lifeform in a containment suit. In order to get the ship operational again and escape from the planet, Dal approaches the Tellarite engineer Jankom Pog. While Pog is working on the ship, Rok-Tahk allows a gelatinous lifeform named Murf to join the crew. When Zero senses that the Watchers are heading in their direction, Dal approaches them, in an effort to keep them away from the ship. He is arrested again, owing to his lacking success to find Zero. Dal manages to escape once more, but this time it is a ruse and he leads the Watchers straight to the ship, the USS Protostar, that they have been looking for at the Diviner's behest all along. The fugitives take Gwyn as a hostage. The ship falls down a cliff during the firefight, but the crew succeeds in starting the engines. On the hull, Dal is struggling to restore the shields, while Drednok is going after him. The shields are raised, and Drednok slips off the hull. Drednok then fires a cannon and seals the exit from the mine for the Protostar. No one of the crew knows how to activate the weapons, but then Murf covers a console and thereby fires the phasers, destroying the debris that blocks the flight path. The Protostar is in open space now. As the crew wonders what to do next, a hologram of Captain Janeway appears and offers her support.

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