Beginning a sensational year-long series of two-part stand-alone stories set in between the events of Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis. Suspected without proof of destroying a fellow Starfleet vessel, the Enterprise is stripped of its flagship status and sent on a seemingly pointless mission to a backwater of space. Caught up in events outside their control, mistrusted even by their Starfleet companions, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew must struggle to win back their place of honour at the forefront of the Federation fleet. And if that were not enough to contend with, some of the crew have problems of their own. Chief among them is android Commander Data, who is forced to give up the chip which allowed him to access human emotions, the goal for which he has worked so hard and so long.