

Kirk informs them that he is looking for another group of strangers led by a man named Merik. These ""sun worshippers"" distrust the landing party but soon discover that they are not a threat. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet to investigate and find a ragged group of fugitive slaves trying to stay hidden from the police. Beagle, missing for six years, is found as debris near Planet IV of System 982. As the Enterprise begins to experience the same problems that doomed the Defiant: power loss, weakness and insanity among the crew, an alien vessel appears and demands that they leave Tholian Spock calculates that the next time to interphase will be approximately two hours, and that the captain can be rescued at that time.

A power loss partially disables the Enterprise transporter, but the landing party manages to beam back to the Enterprise except Kirk who suddenly disappears along with the Defiant. What's more, the Defiant seems to be trapped in an interphase between two different universes. Kirk beams over to the Defiant with a boarding party to investigate and finds the entire crew dead. When the Defiant appears on the viewing screen enshrouded in a strange green glow, Spock is unable to scan the vessel on his sensors. Defiant (NCC-1764), an area of uncharted space, to search for the missing starship. Stardate 5693.2: The Enterprise arrives at the last known position of the U.S.S.
