Commander Sinclair (Michael O)’Hare) and Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) are happily having breakfast and joking with Ivanova (Claudia Christian). Strange readings are coming from Sector 14. Alpha 7 is sent to the location and the pilot (Doug E. McCoy) reports. He calls out, is surrounded by light, and communication is cut off. Ivanova tries to contact the pilot to no avail, but the Starfury is returning on its own. They believe communications have been affected by startling tachyon emissions coming from Sector 14. Delenn, in a Minbari flyer, leaves the station and enters the jump gate. Alpha 7 arrives, but the 30-year-old pilot has died of old age. Before dying, he scratched B4 on his safety buckle. It appears that Babylon Five received a distress call from Babylon Four, which disappeared four years earlier.
Major Krantz (Kent Broadhurst), on board Babylon Four, reports that the station is damaged, and they need help evacuating the skeleton crew, but the message vanishes. It was time-stamped four years ago. Sinclair warns the pilots that the rescue mission is dangerous and unpredictable. Sinclair and Garibaldi lead the mission. Ivanova is told not to send any more ships. Delenn arrives at a Sharlin Class War Cruiser and greets the rest of the Minbari Grey Council. They have chosen her to be leader, but she wants to remain on Babylon Five because of the prophecy. The ships from Babylon Five approach Babylon Four through a distortion field and land safely.
Sinclair and Garibaldi debark first and tell the others to stay back. They are fired upon by a raving crewman, who is subdued by Garibaldi. Major Krantz greets them. He is shocked to learn the date and that the visitors are from Babylon Five. A sudden flash of light and Sinclair is in the middle of a firefight. He is next to Garibaldi, dressed in riot gear and armed with a machine gun. He shouts that he has rigged the reactors to explode and Sinclair must get out now. Another flash and Sinclair is back in his own time. Krantz explains that people flash back or flash forward in time randomly. Delenn insists on returning to Babylon Five and the Grey Council debates.
Krantz says the problems started 24 hours after the station going online. Sinclair is introduced to an alien named Zathras (Tim Choate) whom Krantz found on the station. Zathras brightens when he sees Sinclair, but then shakes his head and refuses to talk. He says he came with a group intending to steal the station to use in a great and terrible war. He is following “The One” and would die for him. The One is hurt and he must help him. Zathras rushes out of detention before the guards can restrain him. In the corridor, a figure in a spacesuit materializes. Zathros declares he is the One.
The figure in the spacesuit is in pain as a consequence of stopping the station where and when it is, to allow the crew to evacuate. Sinclair touches the figure and is thrown across the room. Zanthras rushes to the One and gives him something, and the figure vanishes. Zathras tries to flee but is captured again. He says he must leave or be trapped forever, but he is taken back to the interrogation room. Delenn tells the Grey Council she must return to Babylon Five as she has not finished with the humans. She may never return to Minbar, or may become an outcast, but she does not care. She is allowed to return to Babylon Five.
Garibaldi struggles to get the terrified mob onto the shuttles. Zathras has given the One his own time stabilizer, without which he will die. There is a flash and Garibaldi is in a room with Lise Hampton (Denise Gentile), his old girlfriend on Mars, as he is just about to leave her to take the job on Babylon Five. Krantz insists that they take Zathras with them, but a tremor rocks the station and Zathras is pinned by a fallen column. He tells Sinclair to leave. As soon as he does, Zathros is joined by the space suited figure. The rescuers from Babylon Five leave just as Babylon Four shimmers and disappears behind them.
As Babylon Four moves through time, the space suited figure doffs his helmet and is revealed as a much older Sinclair. He says, “I tried to warn them, but it happened just as I remember.” A voice very much like Delenn says, “We have to go. They’re waiting for us.” In the returning shuttle, Garibaldi asks if Sinclair believes Zathras. He says he does and hopes Babylon Four will help them somehow. Delenn realizes she will never see the Grey Council again, and she is given a triluminary, which she will need in the future. Back on Babylon Five, Ivanova says she is sorry to have missed the excitement. Sinclair thinks the station will return.
Babylon Four was a mile longer than Babylon Five and could hold twice as many people. It was equipped with engines to move it in space and rotated in two directions at once. After losing four stations, they cut back a little. It was stolen by people from the future, including Sinclair, to be used in a great battle between the forces of light and darkness. It is very moody and foreboding. Sinclair’s spacesuit looked like the suit from 2001 because it was the only one they could get their hands on. The episode asks more questions than it answers.