After the funeral service for Lee Kelso and the debriefing about the mission to the edge of the galaxy, Kirk starts thinking back to another incident (seven years previous, in 2257) when Captain Garrovick had died after the gaseous creature attacked the Republic. Kirk then recalls an event involving himself and Gary Mitchell when both of them were serving aboard the Constitution. The event starts with the Constitution being diverted to the area where a classified event had occurred during the earlier training cruise and they see a Klingon vessel in orbit of a planet inside Federation space, but the Constitution is then ordered away by Admiral Mangione (who had earlier been first officer on the Republic). Then they are sent to assist the inhabitants of the planet Sordinia Four, which has just noticed alien satellites appearing in orbit and fears an invasion. Captain Augenthaler and the first office beam down to assure the planet’s leaders of their assistance, but then the satellites start firing weapons on the planet and cut off communications, leaving Kirk as the senior officer on the Constitution. He initially sends an away team over to one of the satellites to download information from its computers, but they (and a rescue team) get killed when the satellites’ mother ship turns up and destroys the satellite with the away team aboard. Kirk is later able to analyze the retrieved information and send another away team, including Gary Mitchell, aboard the alien ship to disable it sufficiently for the Constitution to attack it. It looks at first as though they will not be able to get this away team back, but Kirk holds off on the attack long enough to retrieve them and still destroy the mother ship, then the satellites. The captain and first officer are then able to contact the ship again.