Hologram Janeway begins training the runaways as Starfleet cadets, and Dal must ask her for help after he orders the ship into a dying star.
Believing the escapees are Starfleet cadets, the training hologram teaches them to operate the Protostar and explains what the Federation and Starfleet stand for. Zero, Jankom, Rok-Tahk and Murf like the idea of joining, but Dal, who has named himself captain, brushes Janeway off.
When Dal unknowingly has Zero fly the ship toward a dying star, he has to swallow his pride and ask the hologram for help. Gwyn, held prisoner aboard, plots to retake the ship for her father, who is chasing them with Drednok. Chad Quandt wrote the episode.