Starfleet commissions the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E, on 28 October 2372 under Picard's command. In 2373, space station Deep Space 5 detects a single Borg cube heading toward Earth. Starfleet Command believes placing Picard in a confrontation with the Borg may introduce an "unstable element" to the encounter; Admiral Hayes orders the Enterprise to the Romulan Neutral Zone. However, after receiving a troubling transmission from the fleet in combat with the Borg cube, Picard orders the Enterprise to Earth to support the overwhelmed Starfleet defenders. Picard assumes command of the defending ships, and his residual "link" with the Borg enables the Enterprise and the other task force ships to destroy the Borg cube near Earth.

Prior to the cube's destruction, a smaller sphere ship launches from inside the cube and creates a temporal anomaly that sends it 300 years into Earth's past. The Enterprise follows the sphere back in time by riding in its temporal wake, and manages to stop the sphere from preventing Zefram Cochrane's historic first contact with the Vulcans. The sphere attempts to achieve this goal by destroying a missile complex in Bozeman, Montana, where Cochrane is conducting tests on his warp ship. The Enterprise destroys the sphere, but a group of Borg beam aboard at the last minute and begin assimilating the ship.

Picard becomes obsessive in his efforts to fight and destroy the Borg. Lily Sloane, Cochrane's assistant, brought aboard for medical treatment, confronts Picard and likens the situation to Captain Ahab's self-destructive pursuit of Moby Dick. Picard subsequently gives in to Beverly Crusher's and Worf's suggestion to destroy the ship, and the Borg with it. Before he can evacuate with the rest of his crew, however, Picard's latent link to the Borg makes him aware of Data's presence. Picard resolves to rescue Data, who is a Borg prisoner.

The Borg Queen confronts Picard in the engine room. Picard concludes that the Borg created Locutus so that the Queen would have a counterpart, and Picard volunteers to take up that role in exchange for Data's release. Data's initial refusal and suggestion that he has sided with the Borg are a ruse; while the Queen is distracted, he smashes one of the tanks on the side of the warp core, releasing plasma coolant which destroys the Queen's organic components, essentially killing her.

Picard and his senior officers wait in the shadows to witness Cochrane's successful first contact with the Vulcans, then transport back to the ship and return to the 24th century.

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