In the year 2293, retired Captain James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-B. During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two refugee ships from a strange energy ribbon despite its lack of readiness. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed and the Enterprise becomes trapped in the ribbon itself. Kirk descends to the lower decks to alter the deflector shields, allowing the Enterprise to escape. The ribbon makes contact with the ship's hull and causes major damage to the section Kirk is in; being exposed to the vacuum of space, he is presumed to have been killed.
In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D receives a distress call from a solar observatory. They find that everyone, except Doctor Tolian Soran, has been killed by Romulans. The android Data, who recently installed a chip that enables emotions, helps engineer Geordi La Forge search the station. The two discover a compound called trilithium in a hidden room. Soran appears, knocks La Forge unconscious, and launches a trilithium solar probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the sun to go supernova, sending a shock wave towards the observatory. Soran and La Forge are transported away by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the treacherous Duras sisters. Data is rescued just before the station is destroyed.