Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) and Ivanova (Claudia Christian) survive a contentious meeting with the Transport Pilots Association. Afterwards, Sheridan meets with Narn Counselor Na’Far (Stephen Macht) and his bodyguard Ta’Lon (Marshall Teague). The latter is the Narn with whom Sheridan escaped from kidnappers a few episodes ago, and the former is a liaison between the occupied Narns and the occupying Centauri, and he has been chosen to replace G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas). He meets with Sheridan and Ivanova to insist that G’Kar as head of the resistance must step down and return to Narn. Sheridan is sure he will be killed.
Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and Doctor Franklin (Richard Biggs) are eating at Earhart’s. The doctor complains of being exhausted but returns energized from a trip to the men’s room, causing Garibaldi to think he is abusing stimulants. Na’Far reports to Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) about the Narn occupation, and Londo’s aide Vir (Stephan Furst) watches uneasily as Na’Far is humiliated. C & C detects an unknown alien probe, which is sending a message which must be deciphered.
Londo meets with Delenn (Mira Furlan). They are estranged but Londo is estranged from everyone. He wants Vir transferred to the Centauri embassy on Minbar for his own good, but he really just wants the disapproving Vir out of his considerable hair. Garibaldi confronts Franklin over his stim problem, which Franklin denies. As a recovering alcoholic, Garibaldi has seen it all before. Ta’Lon meets with Sheridan as an old friend and admits he isn’t sure what side Na’Far is really on.
The probe is travelling the universe in search of intelligent species. It has a list of questions, which when answered will prove the questioned race is intelligent enough for technological benefits, but if the questions are not answered in 24 hours, Babylon Five will be destroyed. Na’Far and G’Kar argue over the best way to deal with the Centauri occupation of Narn. Franklin is tempted by stims. Vir does not want to leave Londo. There is a confrontation in a corridor involving all the Narns on the station. It almost comes to Narn-on-Narn violence.
Sheridan is suspicious of the probe. Garibaldi tries to talk G’Kar out of returning to Narn. Franklin takes more stims. Sheridan thinks the probe is bogus and a berserker. If the questions are answered, it will prove that the questioned are advanced enough to be a danger to the probe’s creators. To Ivanova’s horror, he decides not to send the answers. The probe moves off. Then, to wipe it out, he sends out a drone with the answers when it is far from the station, triggering an explosion out in space.
G’Kar, leaving, is confronted at every turn in the corridor by every Narn on the station, begging him not to go. They convince him that his leadership is worth the trouble to all their families. Franklin lies about stims and Garibaldi doesn’t believe a word of it. Vir leaves with a heavy heart.
The woman who dances with the stim-revived Franklin was played by Richard Bigg’s wife. According to J. Michael Straczynski, the probe was inspired by the official policy of the US House Science Subcommittee on such probes: Don’t ask, it might be a trap. As usual, G’Kar and Londo are the best thing in the episode, which seems kind of ordinary to me.