Taking Federation Commissioner Hedford back to the Enterprise's sick bay so McCoy can treat her for a potentially dangerous but curable ailment, the shuttlecraft containing Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Hedford is diverted by a strange energy field to a barren planet, inhabited only by Cochrane, who invented the basis for current warp engine technology decades ago and should be dead by now. Cochrane reveals, however, that an energy creature called the Companion has halted his aging process. The Companion is also concerned about Cochrane's psychological well-being, and Kirk and the others have been brought to keep Cochrane company - possibly for the rest of their lives.
