An Alliance court-martial looks into Nick’s handling of a containment and cover-up operation in Seattle. A Tribune alien craft had crashed in the city, and the occupant tried to get a disc to a world-renowned reporter. But as the Alliance tried to convince the world that the craft was a new high-tech weapon employed by terrorists, Nick probed further into the Alliance’s webs of deceit, questioning the motives of an organization that would use lethal force against non-hostile aliens.