Doctor Paul Manheim was considered a visionary scientist in the 2310's. He focused most of his efforts on the nature of time, advancing several theories on the subject. None of these gained wide acceptance, although his ideas concerning the relationship between time and gravity were considered intriguing. Upset at the rejection of his ideas, Manheim gathered a team of scientists and vanished from sight in 2314.

Nothing was heard from Manheim for fifty years; then, on Stardate 41697.9 the Enterprise-D experienced a small temporal anomaly - a moment in time which repeated itself. Shortly afterwards the ship received a distress signal from the Pegus Minor system requesting urgent assistance.

On arriving at the system the ship found nothing but a second distress call coming from the Vandor system - a binary star system comprising a B class giant and a Pulsar. A planetoid orbiting the star was the source of the distress call, and it was here that the Enterprise located the source of the trouble.

Manheim and his wife were the only survivors of an accident in his laboratory. He had theorized that there are an infinite number of dimensions, and that the only thing keeping us anchored in one was the constancy of time. He had succeeded in varying this constancy, using the dense gravity of the nearby pulsar. Unfortunately, in the process he created a crack in time which radiated its effects over at least several thousand light years.

Lieutenant Commander Data was successful in analysing Doctor Manheims research and concluded that it was possible to repair the crack by inserting a small quantity of antimatter into it during a time distortion. Data beamed down to the planetoid and managed to penetrate the security systems; some difficulty was encountered as a result of the time distortion, but Data was able to add the antimatter at the right moment and seal the crack.