Orders of Magnitude

Kirk is aboard the Enterprise, nominally for a medical check, when Pike leads a landing party to investigate an SOS from a cave system. In Pike's absence Admiral Simon Reeger, a celebrated veteran of the Klingon War, commandeers the ship to hunt a cloaked vessel blamed for the Vardan Massacre, which killed millions of Federation citizens, and Kirk becomes acting first officer. When the trail leads to Argus II, Reeger prepares to invoke General Order 24 and destroy the planet's population. Kirk learns that Reeger lost his family in the massacre, and that Kirk's own father commanded in the battle that made Reeger famous. Doubting the admiral's fitness, he provokes Reeger into exposing his instability, M'Benga declares him unfit, and Reeger is relieved. The cloaked ship escapes. Planetside, the SOS proves to be a trap set by Andorians, and Uhura's quick thinking frees the team, earning her promotion to lieutenant junior grade.