- During an emergency transport, Sulu returns 30 years older than when he left and with his daughter.
- The story surrounds Sulu. As the episode opens, Captain Sulu is at the helm of the Excelsior watching a shuttle approach with "guests". Former Yeoman Rand comments that he should be patient since he has plenty of time and that sparks his memory and the flashback that will be the rest of the episode.
The Enterprise goes into the neutral zone to rescue a stranded ship but the stranded ship is destroyed by the Romulans before any rescue can occur. The Romulans are about to fire on the Enterprise but the Enterprise is able to disable/destroy the Romulans. Unfortunately, the ships are able to get off a partial shot of their new weapon and it starts a transdimensional field around the Enterprise. The shields are holding but they cannot activiate warp drive to escape without knowing their exact coordinates and the temporal fields shift too much to get an exact fix. Scotty is able to extend the shields enough to let a shuttle try to approach the last partially intact Romulan ship to try to see if its computer system is still intact and may have a way to get coordinates.
As the best pilot, Sulu is selected to fly the shuttle and a new addition to the ship, Dr. Lisa Chandris, is selected as an expert on Romulan computers to accompany him. They are able to retrieve the data but the Romulan ship starts to explore before they can get back to safety. The shuttle is blown away from the Romulan ship and the Enterprise tries an emergency transport of Sulu and Chandris but it appears to be going badly as the Romulan ship explodes. Suddenly, Scotty is able to stablize things and it appears that they have Sulu.
Sulu materializes on the transporter but it is a much older Sulu (now played by George Takei). He attacks everyone in the transporter room with his sword and knife before finally being subdued by Spock. Scotty is able to get one other partial signal and tries to beam that person aboard. Everyone is shocked to discover it is not Dr. Chandris but Sulu's daughter, Alana. She is unable to be fully beamed aboard however and retains a subspace connection with another planet so much remain in a partial stasis field for the present time.
Sulu explains that as the Romulan ship exploded, he and Dr. Chandris were somehow transported to another planet. They believed the Enterprise had been destroyed and eventually started their lives as the only people on the planet. For Sulu, 30 years had passed although 30 seconds passed for the Enterprise. He and Dr. Chandris had a daughter and Dr. Chandris was killed about 15 years before the "rescue".
The shields are rapidly decaying and the crew must find a way out. The data that Sulu was able to obtain from the Romulan ship should provide the answer but they do not have the tricorder any more and Sulu cannot remember since it has been 30 years. Spock tries a mind meld but the coordinates are buried too deep back in Sulu's memory to reach and Spock and Sulu relive the death of Dr. Chandris trying to save Alana. Dr. McCoy prepares to try some medicines that he hopes will help Sulu remember.
Alana proves to be a kind and beautiful woman. She has interactions with Kirk and with Spock especially that reveal some depths of each person's character. Scotty is able to have some of his technicians deploy some stasis generators around the ship so that Kirk is able to take her for a tour of the ship.
Spock and Scotty surmise that it may be possible to collapse the field holding them prisoner by using photon torpedoes fired at a precise point. Dr. McCoy is unable to gain any more information from Sulu and Sulu becomes too exhausted to continue. With no other option, they try the photon torpedoes but it does not work. In addition to not working to free them, it also significantly reduces the remaining time for them to find a solution. It also alerts them to the fact that destroying the field will almost certainly kill Alana and there is no way to shift her fully to the Enterprise in the time available.
Scotty and Spock come up with another plan to use the data stored in the transporter buffer to basically change Sulu back to the Sulu that was being beamed off of the exploding Romulan ship. He would have the coordinates fresh in his mind but would remember nothing of Dr. Chandris on the planet nor of his daughter. Sulu is willing to try it nonetheless until it is disclosed that by the ship escaping the field, Alana would almost certainly die. Further, Spock calculates a 92% chance that if the Enterprise is destroyed, Alana would be safely returned to her world. Sulu refuses to cooperate and insists that he does not care how many die as long as Alana lives.
Alana explains that she does not want to live with knowing that her survival cost the Enterprise crew, and Sulu, their lives. She pleads with her father not to try to save her at the cost of all the others. Sulu relents and goes into the transporter. The reversal procedure is successful and the young Sulu rushes to the bridge.
Alana is brought to the bridge to watch and she marvels at how young Sulu works on the problem. With seconds remaining, young Sulu activates the warp drive and saves the ship but Alana disappears. Young Sulu is confused about what went on even after watching a computer playback and is saddened that he cannot remember Alana. Spock offers to share the memories of older Sulu with him with the caution that he will also have to relive the pain but young Sulu insists on getting the memories.
Everything fades back to Captain Sulu (Takei) on the bridge of the Excelsior as Janice Rand shakes him out of his remembering. The shuttle has docked and he goes to his cabin or ready room where he is met by his daughter in that timeline. She is fully oriental and is carrying a baby. She shows him his granddaughter and he tears up with pride. She then says that they followed his request and named the baby Alana but she does not know why he wanted that. He says that it is complicated but that she had a sister named Alana. It is assumed he continued explaining but the camera pans out of the portal and away from the Excelsior and the credits roll.
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