Quark (Richard Benjamin) and his team are sent out on another garbage run by The Head (Alan Caillou). A good will ambassador ship has been on a journey to Perma One and after twenty-seven years they have accumulated a lot of garbage. On the way they run into an alien spaceship. When they realize they are outgunned they try to flee. The alien ship hits them with a tractor beam, and they are taken aboard and captured by Emperor Zorgon the Malevolent (Ross Martin), a Gorgon space pirate and half-brother to the High Gorgon himself.
When Zorgon orders that they be killed his daughter, Princess Libido (Joan Van Ark), intercedes on their behalf. Princess Libido becomes enchanted by Ficus (Richard Kelton). Zorgon has everyone put in a prison cell except Quark. Quark demands that Zorgon set them free, but Zorgon is interested only in something he refers to as IT. He believes that Quark knows where IT is and threatens to kill Quark’s crew unless he tells the emperor where IT is. Quark has no idea what Zorgon is talking about. Stalling for time Quark lies and says that IT is on an asteroid called Rumbar.
As they head for Rumbar Quark knows that they need to find a way to escape. Knowing that Princess Libido is in love with Ficus, he tells the Vegeton to make love to Libido and have her help in their escape. Things don’t go as planned.
This is part one of a two-part story. The Zorgon character is based on Flash Gordon’s nemesis Ming the Merciless. Princess Libido is a takeoff of Princess Aura. Space station Perma One’s director Palindrome, played by Conrad Janis, makes a reverence to the Star Trek villains the Romulans, specifically the episode “Balance of Terror”.
We also get a lesson from Ficus on how Vegeton’s procreate.