Ten light years into Romulan space, the Borg sphere is annihilating warbirds because they fail to fulfill the Borg request. The assimilated Captain Terrell is asking for "the outlier" from a Romulan captain, who claims not to understand the query. Meanwhile, on the Federation side of the border, Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, and Valas are debating if they should follow the sphere into the Neutral Zone. Risk the Endeavour to save the Concord crew?