As Deanna Troi crosses the door in Jack's mind, she sees something terrifying but doesn't tell him. Troi heads for sickbay, where Picard and Crusher are already waiting, and reveals that it is the Borg. Picard protests, saying that Jack doesn't have any nanoprobes in his body. Yet, there has to be something that the admiral passed on to his son. According to protocol, Jack has to be taken into custody, but he manipulates the guards and escapes with a shuttle. His destination is a Borg vessel where he confronts the Borg Queen. But he gets assimilated. On the Titan, Geordi and Beverly find out that the Borg left a genetic code in Picard after his assimilation 35 years ago, which is the reason why he could still hear the Collective. It caused similar side effects as the Irumodic Syndrome but remained dormant until Jack was born. The Changelings stole Picard's body to somehow weaponize the Borg DNA. Meanwhile, a big fleet of starships has assembled in Earth orbit for Frontier Day. Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby on the USS Enterprise-F announces a demonstration of the fleet formation technology that links all starships together to act as one. Geordi and Data find out that the specific genetic code the Changelings extracted from Picard's body was added to the programming of the transporter system, so everyone using the transporter would become assimilated without their knowledge. The Titan arrives at Earth, and Picard tries to warn Shelby of the danger, but the communication gets cut off. A Borg signal activates the genetic modifications in all young crew members whose frontal cortex is still developing. They begin to attack the non-assimilated crew. The USS Excelsior is destroyed as the old crew members gain the upper hand. Shaw comes up with a plan to use a maintenance shuttle to escape from the ship. But he gets fatally injured. Raffi and Seven stay with the dying captain as Picard, Crusher, Troi, Riker, Worf, Geordi and Data board the shuttle and head for the Fleet Museum. Here, Geordi has a surprise for his former crewmates: He has restored the Enterprise-D after salvaging the saucer and connecting it to the engineering hull of the USS Syracuse. Using this old ship, which is not connected to the rest of the fleet, they hope to stop the assimilation somehow...

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