On board "Voyager", Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is informed by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) that the area of space they are in belongs to a species that the Borg know as the Zahl. Upon entering this space, a small vessel appears off of "Voyager"s port bow and begins an unprovoked attack. The ship is a Krenim destroyer, and the captain of the vessel declares that "Voyager" must leave Krenim space or be destroyed. As the ship's weapons prove useless against "Voyager"s hull, Janeway ignores the ship and proceeds to negotiate with the Zahl, who disdainfully threaten the weaker Krenim vessel. During their discussion, Tuvok (Tim Russ) observes that a temporal disruption involving the homeworld of the Zahl race has just occurred. As they try to understand what happened, a wave of temporal energy reaches their sector of space.