Later that same twenty-four-hour period. "That wasn't so difficult, was it?" Ryan says, rubbing his knuckles as he and Shawn walk through the corridors. "You nearly killed him," Shawn points out. Ryan ignores that minor bit of information and tells Shawn to remodulate the weapons. "What about the Nausicaan?" Shawn asks. "Keep him locked up," Ryan tells him. "We might still need him." Shawn reminds him they've got what they wanted: "Let's just get him off the ship." Ryan stops walking and looks accusingly at Shawn: "How?" Shawn grasps at straws and says, "An escape pod?" "So his friends can pick him up?" Ryan supplies, "and he can tell them to change their shield modulations. What was the point of all this?" Shawn says he's been asking himself the same thing, since they been able to deal with the Nausicaans before without taking hostages or beating them bloody. Ryan tells him it's time they show the Nausicaans they're serious, or else they'll never leave the Fortunate alone. Shawn asks how Captain Keene would want them to handle this. That gets Ryan's dander up, and he gets up in Shawn's face: "I'm responsible for this ship now, and I need to know that you're going to help me do whatever it takes to protect her." Shawn wipes his face, considers this, and nods. Ryan grasps him by the shoulders and says they've taken enough Nausicaan abuse in the past; it's time they started giving it back.

Enterprise. Quantum throws a supplemental star log on the fire and reports that they've picked up a warp trail that could belong to the Fortunate, but they still don't have their long-range sensors. So, in essence, nothing new under the nearest sun. "Anythang?" Trip asks Mayberry in Engineering. Mayberry answers negatively and gives some technobabble direction to another officer as he and Trip walk off. The other officer responds with an "aye, sir." Hey, isn't Mayberry just an ensign? Who does he get to command? Trip says he doesn't get what's going on with Ryan: "I can understand taking on those pirates -- I probably woulda done the same thing, but firing on a Starfleet vessel? He's got a lot more than pirates to worry about now." Mayberry says he never thought he'd be pursuing an errant cargo freighter and, since it's been nearly four minutes since he worked his "boomer" background into everyday conversation, he says, "When I was growing up on the Horizon, anything that happened on board, you handled yourself. [Isn't that exactly what the Fortunate is doing?] If someone on the crew got into a fight, you just worked it out. You took care of your own. If Starfleet suddenly showed up and told my father what he could and could not do on his own ship --" "Things are changing -- Ryan's gonna have to figure that out," Trip interrupts. "There's a battle outside and it's ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls," Mathra Dylan whines, "for the times they are a-changin'!" "Maybe he already has and he just doesn't like it," Mayberry says in Tones Of Portent. There's a blippity-bleep and Trip says, "Got it. Sensors are back online," before dashing off. Mayberry does some smell-the-fart acting.