Riker receives a message from Admiral de la Fuego informing him that all Titan's Andorian personnel are being reassigned to less sensitive posts. The USS Capitoline is being despatched to collect them. At the same time, the Titan is investigating the Vela Pulsar but their warp drive interacts with it and causes the magnetic shield protecting Ta'ith, an inhabited planet inside the pulsar, to begin rapidly destabilising.