Nijil and Valdore continue to control the mysterious Romulan ship that has trapped Reed and Trip, masking it to look like Enterprise and using the ship to destroy a Rigellian vessel. After a Romulan Senator named Vrax chastises Nijil and Valdore for losing control of the ship, Nijil and Valdore vow to kill the humans onboard (Trip and Reed) in order to cover their tracks. Nijil and Valdore trap Trip inside the service junction and leak radiation coolant inside. Over a speaker, Valdore orders Trip to re-establish the damaged warp matrix on the ship or he will die. Reed works frantically to free Trip, but the situation is made worse when the ship engages Enterprise in an intense firefight.

Meanwhile, aboard the real Enterprise, T'Pol devises a plan that will require the cooperative use of 128 space ships in order to expose the real culprit behind the recent attacks. Archer realizes that to amass enough ships to carry out the plan he will need to unite the Andorians and Tellarites. Archer's attempt hits a snag when Talas dies from her wound and a devastated Shran, vowing to avenge her death, challenges Naarg to a duel to the death to be fought with an Ushaan-Tor, an ice-miner's tool.

Knowing that either a Tellarite or an Andorian death will forever halt peace talks in the region, Archer announces to Shran that he will fight him as Graal's replacement. Archer and Shran both fight valiantly, but Archer gets the upper hand and wins, sparing Shran's life.

Aboard the Romulan ship, which is under fire by Enterprise, Reed and Trip narrowly escape death by ejecting themselves from the spacecraft, and are transported back aboard Enterprise. Archer is pleased when the Andorians and the Tellarites agree to stay aboard the ship to hold their peace talks.

Back at the Romulan command center, Valdore makes his case to Nijil and Vrax: Jonathan Archer must die so the Romulans can carry out their goal of reunification with Vulcan.