The Enterprise-B is commissioned, but the maiden voyage becomes a rescue mission when two ships with El-Aurian refugees are about to be crushed in an energy ribbon. In the course of this mission Captain Kirk is apparently killed when he works on a deflector modification and vanishes through a hull breach. 78 years later: The Enterprise-D investigates an attack on the Amargosa research outpost and barely escapes the explosion of the Amargosa central star. The El-Aurian Soran, with help from the renegade Klingons Lursa and B'etor, is responsible for the destruction of whole solar systems. His intention is to return into the Nexus, the energy ribbon moving through the galaxy that he once experienced 78 years ago. In his effort to stop him and save the Veridian system, Picard seeks help from Kirk, who has actually spent the last 78 years inside the Nexus. They succeed, but Kirk loses his life, and after a skirmish with the Klingons the Enterprise-D saucer crashes on Veridian III.