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With Starbase 28 under attack, Cadet Thira Sidhu, who works in the station's inventory control, is ordered to guard a prisoner held on a charge of mutiny. The prisoner turns out to be Captain Christopher Pike of the Enterprise. Pike insists he must reach his ship at once, warning that Tholian forces are threatening Starfleet vessels, among them the USS Bowman, on which Sidhu's husband serves. He tries reasoning, pulling rank and personal pressure in turn, but Sidhu holds her post and sticks to regulations. Then Pike reveals the truth: there is no attack and no mutiny. The whole ordeal was a test of her character, and she has passed. Her reward is a place aboard the Enterprise to complete her training. When she asks whether her phaser was ever live, Pike leaves the question unanswered.