hull. In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D is in a holodeck computer simulation, celebrating the promotion of shipmate Worf to lieutenant commander. Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire and is distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. The Enterprise receives a distress call from a stellar observatory, where an El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, launches a probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the star to implode, creating a shockwave that destroys its planetary system. Soran kidnaps Enterprise engineer Geordi La Forge and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters. Enterprise crewmember Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among the El-Aurians rescued in 2293. Soran—who lost his family when their homeworld was destroyed—is obsessed with returning to the energy ribbon to reach the "Nexus," an extra-dimensional realm of wish fulfillment that exists outside of normal space-time. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering its path by removing the gravitational effects of nearby stars. Soran plans to destroy another star to bring the ribbon to Soran on the planet Veridian III, consequently killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet. Upon entering the Veridian system, Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters in exchange for La Forge, but insists on being transported to Soran directly. La Forge is returned to the Enterprise, but unwittingly exposes the ship's defense details through the transmitter installed in his VISOR device. The Duras sisters attack, and the Enterprise sustains critical damage before destroying the Bird of Prey by triggering their cloaking device and firing photon torpedoes. When La Forge reports that the starship is about to suffer a warp-core breach as a result of the attack, Commander William Riker evacuates everyone to the forward saucer-section of the starship, which separates from the engineering section just before the breach occurs. The resulting shockwave sends the saucer-section crashing onto the surface of Veridian III, damaging it beyond repair. Picard fails to stop Soran, as Soran succeeds in launching another probe into the Veridian system's star, resulting in a similar shockwave to the one that destroyed the observatory. The destruction of the Veridian star and the disappearance of its gravitational force alters the course of the ribbon. The shockwave causes the destruction of Veridian III