An older Pike shows his younger self a future where he avoids his fate, leading to a war with the Romulans and a Captain Kirk in command of the USS Farragut.
Near the Romulan Neutral Zone, Pike meets one of the cadets he is destined to save at the cost of his own health and decides to warn him. An older Pike then appears from a future in which that accident never happened and shows him the consequences. Years later, Pike handles a Romulan attack on an outpost through negotiation, a story that reworks the original series episode Balance of Terror, with Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Farragut urging a harder line.
The talks fail, Spock is gravely injured, and the Romulans go to war with the Federation. Returning to his own time, Pike accepts his fate. The season ends as Captain Marie Batel of the USS Cayuga arrests Number One for concealing her Illyrian heritage.