| abstract | - Aboard the Excelsior, the combined forces of the Starfleet remnants and Jean-Luc Picard's rebels shake about as the ship travels through time and space. The ship sustained damage from its battle against the Klingons and is having trouble sustaining itself. To free up power for the shields, Commander Rachel Garrett orders the lower decks evacuated of all but Data, then cuts their life support. As the Excelsior exits transwarp, they are unable to tell if they made it to the right time. Garret orders Ambassador Tuvok to hail the Enterprise, but it is nowhere to be found. Picard concludes that Braxton has further altered the timeline to remove Kirk and keep his changes from being undone. With this knowledge, Data is able to confirm that they have arrived with minutes to spare. Picard tells Garrett that the crew of the Excelsior cannot go down to Khitomer because they have been there before and could mess the timeline up even more. Picard beams down with Geordi, Will and Tasha to intercept Braxton. Braxton pulls Picard out of the timestream before he can prevent the assassination of Federation President Ra-ghoratreii. Braxton anticipated Picard's actions because, as he explains, he has been here before. He then transports himself and Picard onto his timeship. Braxton explains to Picard that there is an unknown event on time's horizon which will destroy the entire Milky Way Galaxy, but that it is only prevented in timelines where the Federation no longer exists and that Picard's generation of the Federation must be the last. He explains his work in trying to destroy the Federation's history and that Kirk was a temporal menace, particularly during the trip to the past to steal the humpback whales. Picard claims Braxton has gone insane from too much time-travel, but Braxton is unmoved and believes that Picard never had a chance because he knew that they were coming. Picard turns the tables on him, explaining that Data, who was created to study the timestream, was able to figure out how to outsmart even a 29th century temporal agent. Picard places a transporter beacon on Braxton, teleporting him into the path of the assassin's rifle and mortally wounding him (while preventing Ra-ghoratreii's death at the same time). Braxton, even dying, refuses to let Picard win. He sets his timeship on a collision course with the conference. Unable to change the coordinates, Picard warns Garrett that the timeship has to be destroyed. Realizing that the Exelsior's weapons cannot penetrate the shields in time, she orders an evacuation, intending to pilot the ship to crash into the timeship. Data beams Picard off the timeship and on to the surface, but when Garrett orders him to evacuate, he instead beams her off the ship and pilots the ship to collision himself. The explosion of the two ships being destroyed causes severe damage to the conference building, but no one is killed. When the dust settles, Klingon Chancellor Azetbur demands an explanation. Picard paraphrases the lines Kirk spoke at the Khitomer Conference in the normal reality and convinces her to make peace with the Federation. Picard believes that whatever event Braxton saw can be avoided now that the Federation and Klingon Empire are allied and the time travelers can stay and help. Picard says that it had to be the last Federation generation for the galaxy to survive. But, he says "We're not the last generation. We're The Next Generation".
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