Rommie is trying on Trance's clothes, and Beka is teasing her about spending too much time and effort on her appearance. Rommie claims that she only does so for the benefit of her crew.

The Andromeda comes across a debris field. The debris starts to stick to the hull and force its way into the hangar deck, where it assembles itself into a humanoid form. Dylan orders the crew to hold their fire, but be ready. The figure, identifying itself as "HG" claims to come in peace. He is overtly friendly, and says that he has been instructed by the Consensus of Parts to make contact with the Andromeda as quickly as possible.

Beka, Tyr, and Harper say that the Consensus of Parts is a legend – it is a sinister machine intelligence rumoured to lurk in the empty space between the stars. HG says that the Consensus is, in fact, a collection of cast-off parts. He wants to take Andromeda to meet one of the "Directing Intelligences".

Tyr and Beka do not trust him – they say that machine intelligence is driven solely by logic. If logic says to kill, they kill. Dylan says that they should give them a chance, because he feels that re-forming the Commonwealth is also logical – but they will be careful.

Trance and Harper get along fairly well with HG. Dylan and Rommie decide to give HG a chance, and go to meet the Directing Intelligence, while still exercising caution.

HG has to interface with Rommie to give her the route. Dylan is concerned about security, but Rommie reassures him that she can set up a firewall, and can maybe even learn more about HG and his intentions in the process. Harper monitors the transfer, and is amazed at the data transfer rate. The transfer goes well – HG does not try to access anything he is not supposed to, and Rommie has the routes.

HG is fascinated by how different life is for organics. He is interested in the crew, and how they work as a team. When Beka says they will arrive in "a couple of hours", he is amazed by the imprecision. He is also intrigued by the world outside logic – concepts like "fun", "beauty", and things without a specific "function".

Andromeda is met by a Directing Intelligence that identifies itself as "VX", who sends an android drone to meet with them and "evaluate" the ship.

VX asks HG why he is still here, since he has completed his purpose.

Dylan shows VX some of the less-critical areas of the ship, and discusses his mission to restore the Commonwealth. VX claims there is not much chance that Dylan will succeed, so he invites Andromeda to join the Consensus, claiming it is the logical thing to do.

Dylan discusses this with Rommie. She is not at all interested in joining the Consensus, so Dylan instructs her to keep VX busy until they are able to leave.

HG tells Trance that he is going to die, because he has completed the purpose he was created for, and if he tries to stay together, he will be destroyed. Trance tries to convince him to stay alive, but he is not willing to put the Andromeda and her crew in danger. He says that he has read about the custom of the wake, and would like to have one. During the wake, he gives each member of the crew a piece of himself. Tyr is not impressed, saying he does not want a souvenir from a suicide (since suicide is contrary to Nietzschean ideals). After the wake, HG separates into parts and leaves.

Dylan and Rommie tell VX that they are rejecting his offer, and Tyr escorts him to the hangar.

The parts that HG gave to the various crew members, which they stored in various places throughout the ship, activate on their own.

Andromeda attempts to leave via slipstream, but cannot. Investigating the problem, Harper finds carbon filaments growing throughout the ship. At the source, he finds one of HG's parts. He starts trying to remove the filaments, but cannot take them out without damaging Rommie.

VX issues an ultimatum: Join the Consensus "or else". Dylan expects VX to use the invasive technology to take control of the Andromeda, but, instead, he fires on them. Andromeda fires back, but VX, about 1000 times the size of Andromeda, just absorbs the hit.

Harper reports that the invasive technology is overrunning the ship's systems. Rommie begins to speak in HG's voice, making Dylan and Beka realize that VX is not responsible for the attack – HG is. Dylan and Harper use Rommie's avatar to communicate with HG, by allowing him to take control of the avatar. HG says that he did not mean any harm, he just wanted to live, but the plan got out of control. He asks them to help him.

Tyr and Harper want to destroy HG. Harper says he can build some nanobots for that purpose. Dylan and Trance say that he is sentient, and should not be killed out of hand.

VX says that he has detected an "illegal joining" that must be destroyed.

Dylan tells Andromeda to stop fighting HG, and let him take control of the ship. She does so, and HG activates the slipstream drive, allowing them to jump away. To their surprise, VX follows. While machines cannot navigate the slipstream, HG informs them that VX has "human neural components" – or, as Harper describes it "brains in bottles".

As a back-up plan, with Dylans consent, Harper has designed the nanobots which can fight HG. Trance objects.

Dylan asks Trance if she can tell him about the probabilities. She says that it's not something she can do on command. She says that the answer, in this case, the answer has to come from Dylan.

Dylan takes them back to the debris field where they found HG, and tells HG that he has to take the lead for himself, and suggests that he can make use of the parts. HG speaks to the components, and they activate, joining with the Andromeda. He also convinces some of VX's components to collaborate with him, and they destroy VX.

Afterwards, HG leaves Andromeda's system, and the components leave her hull. They combine with the remnants of VX to form "Outcast Consensus 1".