"What do you think?" Lieutenant Larsson asked.

Commander Doreen Mollerstrom sighed, enjoying the serene warmth and climate of Veridian 3 for a moment; she needed to think especially after she had seen the state of the Enterprise-D. The famous Galaxy-class starship, reduced to this…

A few weeks ago, the Enterprise D had been responding to a distress signal from the Amagosa observatory, which had been studying the Amagosa star; one of the scientists, an El-Aurian by the name of Tolian Soran, had been planning to destroy the star, and he'd arranged to collect trilithium from the Romulans, stolen by the renegade Klingons, the Duras sisters who had gladly committed the deed so they could gain a new weapon to allow them to reconquer the Klingon Empire.

Soran was a survivor; he had seen his civilisation and planet be destroyed by the Borg, who then twisted the El-Aurians they caught into cybernetic monsters like themselves. He had lost his entire family to the Borg, and he and many others were caught in the Nexus, an interdivisional rip of temporal energy which transported anyone who went inside it to a kind of dream world.

But Soran, who'd lived with the fantasy he was living once more with his wife and children, was pulled out of it, and he had been trying to return there ever since; he had worked for 80 years to return to the Nexus, and he had hit upon the idea of destroying two stars since the Nexus responded to changes in gravitational forces, so he wanted to change its course.

But the crew of the Enterprise D had interfered with those plans; once Captain Picard and his crew had deduced Soran's plans they had immediately gone after him, and they had succeeded in stopping him. But the Enterprise D, usually more than a match for the D-12 Klingon Bird of Prey the Duras sisters used, had found a way of breaching the Enterprise's defences and overwhelmed the ship, and while the Duras sisters were now dead and wouldn't cause any more harm, the crew had dealt with a warp core breach which destroyed the star drive section by evacuating to the saucer section, but the ship was blasted into the planet's gravity and had skidded miles to a stop.

Mollerstrom and her team had been sent to evaluate the situation while they worked to remove the saucer of the Enterprise away from Veridian 3; there was a pre-industrial humanoid society and one day they would develop basic interplanetary flight, they could not risk Federation technology falling into their hands.

But that was nothing compared to what was nearby.

Mollerstrom knew her job well enough to know that this part of the galaxy had several alien races who were at different points in their developments; several of them were, like Veridian 3, pre-industrial and they hadn't yet cracked the equations of relativity, never mind discovered how to split the atom.

But they would.

The people of Veridian 3 were advancing very quickly, and some races nearby were long past that point. On one world, the people had engaged in a vicious war reminiscent of Earth's World War 2, but with a massive difference; the scientists of that world had discovered rocket science, and they had turned space into a battleground.

20 years on, they had travelled to every moon and planet near their own, and they had accelerated their science greatly because of that. Thanks to the early discoveries and finding a way of launching space planes, that race had managed to largely sidestep the problems facing Earth before the invention of warp drive. They had already discovered a slower-than-light drive capable of moving them beyond their solar system, it wouldn't be long before they discovered warp drive. They were advancing quickly, and that was why they should not reach this planet, and discover the saucer section of a wrecked Galaxy-class ship.

If Starfleet had just left the ship, lying here, crashed, and badly damaged, aliens who were primitive would gain access to fresh alloys, a new awareness of life within the galaxy, star charts, and knowledge of various worlds and races. Also contained in the database were some of the Federations' technical secrets - warp drive, shields, weapons, and on and on it went.

Starfleet couldn't just let a massive breach of the Prime Directive occur, so they sent a team to Veridian 3 in the aftermath to salvage the Enterprise-D's saucer section. And they had discovered the ship could be salvaged, totally contradicting Captain Picard's opinion.

"Our teams have been going over the Enterprise's saucer for the last week," Mollerstrom said at last, "the ship was deemed unsalvageable. But that's not true. The space frame for the saucer is still intact; the inertial dampeners took a lot of grief because of the Duras sister's attack, but they took the brunt of the crash."

"Do you think the ship will be salvaged?"

"Well, it has to be moved off-world. Just because the inhabitants of Veridian 4 haven't developed interplanetary flight doesn't mean they won't, and they would solve many problems like interstellar travel when they get to Veridian 3. Besides, there are other societies in this backwater part of the quadrant where interstellar travel is only just coming about; we don't want to give them any more knowledge before they're ready."

"No, we don't," Larsson whispered. "We've got the tugs in orbit. We can bring them down in a bit."

"Tell them to be gentle, and tell the captains and use these exact words, please; be gentle. There, that should do," Mollerstrom nodded, pleased.

Larsson chuckled. "Do you think they're gonna refit the Enterprise D and fit her to a new star drive section?" She asked seriously, with just a hint of scepticism in her voice. "The Federation could do with some more ships; after the destruction of the Odyssey in the Gamma Quadrant, and the threat of the Dominion, we need every single advanced ship we can get, and the crew of the Enterprise were among the best in the fleet, but do you think Starfleet will expend the effort to build a new star drive section?"

"We've been here for the best part of a week and from what we've found," Mollerstrom tapped the padd that was in her hand, "I don't see any reason why the Enterprise D can't be restored. The saucer just needs a fresh lick of paint and some refitting and we only need to build a new star drive section; that's simple enough with the automated factories of Utopia Planitia. Besides," Mollerstrom grinned impishly, "I am the daughter of an admiral and he is friends with dozens more, who can hopefully listen to sense. Okay, I think we've made some progress. It's time to go."

Xxxxx

2 years later.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard flinched as he adjusted the tight collar of his new uniform. Starfleet had changed greatly in the last two years. The destruction of the Odyssey in the Gamma Quadrant and the resultant onset of hostilities in the Gamma Quadrant, the destruction of the combined fleet set up by a cabal of the Romulan Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order being destroyed by the Jem'Hadar which spread increasing levels of paranoia through the Alpha Quadrant, which culminated in the war with the Klingons before the Founder masquerading as Martok, one of the Empire's most popular and most influential generals, was killed.

And then…

That conspiracy was orchestrated by Admiral Leyton, who wanted to transform the Federation into a dictatorship. Picard felt physically sick at the notion that Starfleet would even contemplate doing such a horrendous thing; that mess with the Pegasus was bad enough, but thinking that the changelings wouldn't take advantage of the Federation being twisted was flawed in itself. Oh, Picard had no doubt Leyton's intentions were good but that was what made it worse.

But one thing was for sure, the galaxy was darkening.

The recent Borg attack had nearly torn apart his sanity; Lily Sloan was right about the fact he wanted revenge, but after what the Borg had done to him, was it a surprise?

No, it wasn't.

The good thing was they'd saved the future. But what kind of future did the universe have in mind for them? In his more quiet moments, Picard realised something important.

His mind kept going back to that encounter with the first Borg Cube. Q had flung the Enterprise into the path of the Borg ship, and it had started an avalanche.

Starfleet was taken by surprise by the sudden Borg attack, but at the time the fleet was already making preparations. And they had dragged their feet. The result?

The Battle of Wolf-359. Him being assimilated.

The loss of so many lives had shaken the Federation and the Borg had launched small attacks against Earth itself. In the aftermath, the fleet had spent years rebuilding, creating new defences.

And it was paying off.

The Dominion War was still new, but the Battle of Sector 001 had shown they could fight the Borg.

If they were lucky, they would have a chance to get out of this mess.

For the last two years, Picard and his senior staff, barring Worf who'd transferred to Deep Space Nine had stuck together through the usual inquiries and court martial into the loss of the Enterprise D. They had served together on a Sovereign-class starship, one of the newest, and most advanced ships in the fleet, and for a time they had assumed she would become the newest Enterprise.

The Enterprise-E.

But it had never happened.

Picard was confused. They had assumed the Enterprise-E would have made an appearance some time ago, but it hadn't happened.

Picard pushed that aside as he turned to look around the shuttle. All of his senior officers were there (it had taken time to get used to Worf's absence) and he saw they were just as nervy about their new assignment. Out of the blue they had received new orders, to take command of a new starship. That was a surprise. But they had no idea what the ship was, what their mission was. Nothing.

It was frustrating.

"Almost there," the shuttle pilot was young, likely fresh out of the Academy by the look of her.

"Any idea where we're going?" Beverly asked.

"Or anything about this new ship?" Deanna added hopefully.

"It's a surprise," the pilot's teasing smile (or was that a smirk?) was even more irritating than ever, and Picard had to bite his tongue. It wasn't the pilot's fault she had likely been given orders to keep quiet, but it was still irritating.

Picard turned his gaze to the rest of the dock complex. Starbases like this one always took his breath away with their cavernous interiors which were designed to protect the starships. Sometimes didn't know why they bothered as the ships would be passing through into the void of space, heading out for a mission. These days those missions were tactical or espionage. The thought hurt.

They passed by several starships; they passed by several Excelsior-class starships, a Miranda-class starship, and three Nebula-class ships. "I bet we'll get an Akira," Geordi said, nodding towards an Akira-class starship that they were passing close to.

But they passed by.

"It appears not, Geordi," Data commented.

Finally, the shuttle drew close to a Galaxy-class starship. Picard sighed, but his eyes were curious and sharp. Why would Starfleet give them a Galaxy-class starship?

But to their surprise, the shuttle passed by over the starships' saucer section.

"No," Will gasped.

"Impossible," Geordi whispered.

"It's like….going back in time," Beverly gasped.

"Hardly, Doctor," Data said matter of factly, almost spoiling the moment for them all. "The saucer section clearly shows that some of the damage sustained during the crash on Veridian 3 has been repaired. It would not be too difficult for Starfleet to build a new secondary hull and install it."

"The Enterprise-D? But how?" Picard finally said.

"The Prime Directive," the pilot said, and they turned to her; while she was smiling still, it wasn't as impish as before, it was more to the point. "Starfleet went to the Veridian system, and they discovered that the Enterprise's saucer section was still workable; its inertial dampeners had managed to protect it from the worst of the damage. Once they got back, the salvage team commander, who's a fan of the Enterprises by the way, put a good case forward to her dad, who's an admiral and he managed to persuade Starfleet."

"That must've been one helluva argument," Geordi said.

"It was, from what I heard," the pilot agreed.

"How do you know this?" Deanna asked curiously.

The pilot chuckled. "When I was given the job of shuttling you here, which was nice, by the way, they gave me the specs of the history of this refit. And I mean it's a refit. You have a whole new ship over there; because of the war, the Enterprise's weapons have been enhanced, and you have new phaser arrays, quantum and photon torpedoes of the latest grades. The hull is also lined with ablative armour and polarisable hull-plating."

"That is 22nd-century defence technology," Data observed.

"Yeah, but given a 24th-century spin. Three layers of plating, and can take a massive battering," the pilot said.

Picard was still taken by surprise by the unexpected reunion with his ship. In a way it was like that mess with the Stargazer, when Bok tried to make him out to be a madman. But this time he was unsure how to take the notion of his old ship being now dedicated to warfare, despite the times.

"Take us onboard," he said.

"Aye, sir," the pilot said and slowly moved the shuttle closer to the Enterprise-D. As the shuttle passed through the bay's forcefield-protected entrance, Picard wondered what changes would await them onboard.

Xxxxx

"I missed the carpet," Picard whispered in awe as he looked around the bridge, nodding politely to the few crew members there; he was pleased to note that his old crew were here, and he was just as relieved to see that he and his senior staff weren't the only ones wondering if they'd stepped into a dream world or something like that. He was relieved that Starfleet had ensured the old bridge module had been reinstalled instead of putting a whole new one in its place.

The rest of the ship was no different from what she had been before; the engineering section looked the same as before, with one or two adjustments here and there, but all starship classes were designed according to a specific set of blueprints, which gave the view of the ships being mass-produced, with one or two differences between them all; it was only in refitted states that the internal designs differed.

There were no children on board, something that gave him peace of mind.

"Hello, chair," Data said as he patted the ops chair affectionately; a few years ago, the android would never have been able to do that.

"Why did they put the old module back in?" Geordi asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Given how sophisticated the fleet's become lately, I think it a good question," Geordi said.

"They likely refitted the bridge as they did with the rest of the ship, Geordi," Will said, "we just can't see it yet."

"They have, sir," One of the crew members said; Picard didn't know this one, a young human man who wore one of the new, heavy, thick, militant cut uniforms that seemed to really not go well with the older decor of the Galaxy-class ship's bridge. "The computer cores have been rebuilt and fitted with a mix of bio-neural gel packs and isolinear circuits. We even have an EMH installed."

"Oh no," Beverly cursed as she closed her eyes.

"Now, Beverly, young minds, fresh ideas are put on the table," Picard chided her.

Crusher glowered at him. "You know how I feel about those things, Jean-Luc, and I know you're not crazy about them either."

"Doctor, I am an artificial life form, and yet you like me," Data said when Picard blushed at the doctor's well-played tactic.

"It's not the same thing, Data; I know you, and I like you. You can learn to change and grow, but the EMH doesn't have that. And he doesn't want to. I tried to be nice to the EMH we had before, but the EMH is typically brusque and impolite. Why Dr Zimmerman thought it wise to base both the EMH's form and personality on himself, I will never know," Crusher said. "Why he couldn't have used a doctor from the fleet, I'll never know that either. And I'm not the only one; other doctors dislike the holo doctor idea because of how it was done, even if it was a good idea."

Fortunately, a crewman appeared on the bridge, through one of the turbolifts, and hurried over to Picard. "Captain, I was told to give you this," he said, passing Picard a padd.

Picard took the padd and saw it was their new orders. "Thank you." After the crewman left the bridge, Picard held up the padd. "Our new orders. We are to head for the frontlines of the war. Our mission is to begin now. Stations, please."

Daniels took the tactical station while Deanna and Will took their seats. Data took the ops console and the new helm officer took the controls.

"Spacedock control, this is Enterprise; requesting clearance to depart," Picard said as he took his seat.

"This is Spacedock control, to Enterprise. Permission to depart is granted. Good luck, and may we say it's great to have you guys back," the controller said, finishing off her compliment with a smile. Picard smiled back, the cheer in that voice was certainly contagious.

"Thank you, Spacedock control, it's good to be back," Picard said as he looked around the bridge of the Enterprise D; his last temporary command had been something but there had been a feeling of a stripped-down military vessel that this ship lacked. "Helm, take us out, one-quarter impulse power."

Riker chuckled. This little twist was one of James T. Kirk's quirks, inherited by many future Starfleet captains who didn't care about following the book and would leave quickly through space docks into space while the regulations specified thrusters in spacedock, but he was wondering if the helm officer would comment on it or just decide to not bother.

"Aye, sir," there was a hint of mischievous glee in the helm officer's voice, showing what she thought about the rule, too. A woman after Will's own heart.

The Enterprise D moved slowly but quickly into space.

"When we're out, set a course for the front lines. In-system warp has been authorised," Picard said, "Maximum warp. Wait for me to give the command," he added, taking into account that this officer was new and was unaccustomed to his ways of command.

"Aye, sir," the new helm officer said as she finished inputting the commands, and the crew on the bridge had a grand view of the ship gracefully moving through space, like a bird through the air.

"We're clear of the dock now," the helm officer said.

"All sy