Andromeda receives a courier drone, containing mail for the crew. Harper receives an anti-gravity hoverboard – he is planning a vacation. Beka receives some holo-novels. Dylan receives a package, from someone named Konstantine, that seems to disturb him. It contains a map and a shard of pottery. He tells the crew that when "they" ask, he did not receive this message.

Dylan takes Harper on the Maru, and they go to Fellenhoff Drift. When they get to Dylan's objective, he finds the door locked, and gets Harper to open it by jacking in to the lock. In the room, he finds a dead body, and a spider-web pattern drawn in its blood. The body is Konstantine, the person who sent him the message. While he is considering his course of action, Commonwealth authorities arrive and arrest Dylan and Harper for murder.

Information of Dylan's arrest arrives on the Andromeda. Tyr notes that the evidence seems quite convincing, but Beka reminds him that the evidence against Tyr on Castalia was similarly convincing.

Dylan and Harper are being held in a cell. The Commonwealth Security force is expected to arrive in three days, so they have that time to escape and clear their name. A guard opens the door and tells them he is letting them go – he has received a large bribe to do so. Dylan tries to get him to tell them who bribed him, but he insists that he does not know.

Harper suggests that they call the Andromeda in to help, but Dylan does not want to get the rest of the crew involved.

Beka, Rommie, and Tyr are researching the background of Dylan's victim, who was a contract killer. They receive news of Dylan and Harper's escape from the jail, and that Dylan is now accused of the murder of a jailer as well.

Harper comes to the conclusion that the spider-web pattern was a clue left for Dylan by the murder victim. He also deduces that this is about the shard of pottery, and that Dylan already had a shard of his own. Dylan still declines to volunteer any more details.

They travel to a world where they find a cave complex. Dylan claims that someone is hiding here, and Harper finds a spider-web pattern drawn on the walls. A robotic sentinel emerges from a door and targets Harper, but Dylan destroys it with his forcelance. They duck through the door just before it closes.

Dylan finds Abelard, the person he was searching for. Abelard knows who Dylan is, and has yet another shard. He explains that there were four people who each had one shard, and they needed Dylan's to complete the set. They planned to blackmail Dylan, take his shard, and kill him. Abelard has received a package from one of his former partners, Zeus. The package contains a message and a finger cut from the hand of Peder, the final partner. The message demands Abelard's shard.

The Andromeda is contacted by a Commonwealth officer, who demands Dylan's surrender, and will not believe that he is not on-board. She gives them two days to hand him over. Beka and Tyr decide to use these two days to delay the Commonwealth Security forces, and give Dylan the time to do whatever he is doing.

Abelard plans to give his shard to Zeus, but Dylan speculates that Zeus will probably kill him anyway. Harper offers to manufacture a fake, but Dylan dismisses the idea.

The Maru lands on a jungle planet, where Abelard was to meet Zeus. Dylan follows Abelard to the meeting place, to protect him. Dylan is attacked by an alien thug, whom he kills. Abelard arrives at the meeting place, and sets the shard down. Suddenly, it is snatched by a human, who runs away with it. Dylan pursues, and catches him, taking the shard and a communication device. Zeus contacts Dylan on this device, and demands that he bring the shard to a café on Zenth Drift.

The Andromeda continues to delay and distract Commonwealth Security.

At Zenth Drift, Dylan leaves Harper to watch Abelard. Abelard tells Harper that Dylan led a mission to recover the shards, and Harper is upset that Dylan did not take him along. Suddenly, Abelard says that he realizes where Dylan went – to meet Zeus – and runs out of the Maru, with Harper in pursuit.

Dylan meets Zeus in the café. Zeus claims to have been studying Dylan. He demands the shards, saying that he has people positioned in the café. Dylan claims that he, too, has people in the café, but Zeus does not believe him.

Harper contacts Dylan on his sub-dermal communicator, which Zeus cannot hear, although he can tell that Dylan is receiving a message. Harper tells him that Abelard has left. Zeus deduces what the message was, and verifies it for Dylan by showing him that he has Abelard held hostage.

Zeus seems to believe that re-assembling the shards will grant him some sort of power.

Dylan speaks to the waiter in an alien language, which he understands, but Zeus does not. Dylan orders a cream pie for dessert. When the waiter brings the pie, singing (as if for a birthday), Zeus signals his people to attack. Dylan fights (making use of the pie), and manages to overpower the thugs, but Zeus escapes.

On the Andromeda, Tyr asks how long they will have to run. Beka says that run until they hear from Dylan, or about what has happened to him. Trance encourages them to trust Dylan to be where he needs to be.

Harper asks Dylan for more information about the shards, and why Dylan did not take them on the initial mission. Dylan explains that the mission was 310 years ago, before he was trapped in the black hole, but is still not giving details about the shards.

Zeus contacts Dylan on the communications device. Dylan says that he will give not only the shards, but instructions on how to use them, if Zeus will release Abelard and Peder, alive. In the background, Abelard warns Dylan not to do it, but Dylan heads for the arranged rendezvous anyway.

Harper thanks Dylan for trusting him enough to take him on this mission. Dylan finally explains the nature of the shards. He reminds Harper about a children's rhyme about the "Vase of Rimni", which is said to bestow "the sympathy of the cosmos" on its bearer. The shards are the pieces of this vase. Admiral Stark had sent a Special Ops mission to retrieve the Vase from a tyrannical dictator. When the mission team found it, the vase was broken into five pieces, so each of them took one piece, to keep it out of the wrong hands.

Dylan and Harper arrive at the rendezvous point to find Peder's body. After a brief scuffle with Zeus' thugs, they agree to take Harper and Dylan to Zeus.

Harper and Dylan burst in on Zeus unannounced, and in the heat of the fight, Abelard turns on them. When Zeus pulls a gun on Dylan, Harper jumps in the way. Abelard tackles Harper, distracting Zeus enough for Dylan to overpower him, but Abelard is holding Harper with one of the vase's shards held to his throat. Zeus runs off, and Abelard shouts after him to meet at their pre-arranged point. Dylan tells Harper to give the shards to Abelard.

The Commonwealth fleet breaks off their pursuit of the Andromeda – they have discovered that Dylan is on Zenth.

Abelard re-assembles the vase – but nothing happens. Dylan claims that it was all just a story. Abelard is upset by this, and starts to protest the unfairness of the universe, and how all this work, including the murders, was for nothing.

The Commonwealth is preparing to attack the Drift, but Andromeda opens a communications channel to Dylan, allowing him to broadcast Abelard's "confession".

Back on the Andromeda, Dylan praises Harper's courage, and gives him a medal. He tells Harper that he does not consider the vase worthless, but priceless.