

While ferrying several ambassadors to a conference on Ivor Prime, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew encounters a Naradan cargo vessel in apparent distress. However, there appears to be more to the ailing ship than meets the eye.

The U.S.S. Enterprise crew comes across a planet with a pre-industrial civilization that seems to be sending radio transmissions into space. While rendering aid to a crippled courier ship in orbit of the planet, they wonder if the two situations are related.

The U.S.S. Enterprise crew takes on a Federation historian to investigates an ancient space station which has suddenly appeared in orbit of a planet that the crew has visited before. After they enter the space station, they soon realize that there is much more to the ancient complex than they expected.