The Cerritos docks at a notoriously cursed starbase where crew members start behaving erratically.
The Cerritos is forced to dock at Starbase 80, an understaffed outpost full of obsolete equipment and notorious throughout Starfleet. Mariner, who was once posted there, is sure the place is cursed when crew members start acting like zombies.
The real cause is Clem, an anaphasic lifeform the Cerritos unknowingly picked up on an earlier mission, which has been possessing people while trying to communicate. Once Clem is shown to be harmless, the station invites it to stay, and the Cerritos crew fixes many of the starbase's problems. Freeman, determined not to repeat a mistake her alternate-universe counterpart made at the station, is sent by its chief engineer on a pointless chase with Ransom after a giant bat.