 The shuttle craft Kirk, Spock and McCoy use to bring a Assistant Commissioner Nancy Hedford (a Federation diplomat) who needs urgent medical care on board is suddenly irresistibly diverted by a mysterious energy cloud to planet Gamma Canaris N, where they are greeted by a young man claiming to be Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of the Warp Drive, who lost track of time, but was 80 when he disappeared over 100 years ago and yet is physically still young. He calls the strange, partially electric  cloud  the Companion; it not only makes him effectively immortal, but is devoted to please him, communicating mentally, and brought the Enterprise party to the planet when he complained about loneliness, while he hoped it would get him off. They conclude it is in love with him, but this idea enrages him against  her ; however it proves able to disable they device they hoped to paralyze its electrical component with, and yet time presses as the diplomat is dying...