Freeman's Project Swing By revisits abandoned worlds, but a journalist's exposé and a Breen ambush follow.
Admiral Les Buenamigo approves Freeman's Project Swing By, which sends California-class ships back to worlds Starfleet has neglected. The Cerritos visits Ornara with journalist Victoria Nuze aboard, and Freeman works hard to control what she sees. Mariner talks to the reporter without permission, and when Nuze raises embarrassing details from past missions, Freeman transfers Mariner to the dead-end Starbase 80.
On Brekka, the Breen ambush the Cerritos, which is saved by the USS Aledo, Buenamigo's fully automated Texas-class ship. Nuze's story shows that the embarrassing details came from other crew and that Mariner had praised her mother and the ship. Mariner resigns from Starfleet and joins Petra Aberdeen.