After a machine race leaves a trail of mentally damaged victims across Federation space, Fleet Captain Grigory--with the help of his Vulcan science officer, T’Sov, and a crew of officers in training--finds this robotic race might actually be victims of something more contagious than any plague. And now, accused of subverting the machine race’s routine, Alec Grigory returns to face the ultimate punishment: the erasure of his programming.