The crew asks a dormant Borg cube for help removing the weapon, and Zero is briefly assimilated before Gwyn frees them.
The crew finally locates the weapon hidden aboard the Protostar, a living construct concealed in a secret sub-deck, and finds they cannot destroy it. Coming across a dormant Borg cube, they wonder whether the Borg might help disarm it, and Zero links to the collective to search for answers, only to be assimilated. The others are captured, but Gwyn breaks Zero free and the crew returns the Borg to dormancy, though the construct still cannot be disarmed or removed.
Meanwhile, Admiral Janeway's Dauntless reaches the wreckage of a relay station, and she has the Diviner revived, though he has lost his memories. The episode belongs to the second half of the first season, in which the young crew learns the Protostar carries a weapon planted to destroy Starfleet, and it gives Zero, a Medusan, a central role. Diandra Pendleton-Thompson wrote the episode, with Olga Ulanova and Sung Shin directing.