The starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) encounters a rift in spacetime while on

a routine mission. As they monitor the anomaly, the heavily damaged USS Enterpr
ise-C, a ship believed to have been destroyed more than two decades earlier, eme
rges. Instantly, the Enterprise-D undergoes a sudden and radical change from its
current timeline: it is now a warship, and the United Federation of Planets is
at war with the Klingons. Neither Worf nor Counselor Troi are seen or referred t
o and Tasha Yar, who was killed years before, is now running the tactical statio
n. None of the crew notice the change, but Guinan senses that reality has shifte
d, and has a meeting with Captain Picard to discuss her concerns. She senses tha
t there are supposed to be children on the ship, which of course is completely i
mpractical on a warship. She suggests that the Enterprise-C does not belong in t
heir time and must return to the past. Picard, who knows that this would be a su
icide mission, refuses to give such an order on Guinan's intuition alone.
Captain Rachel Garrett of the Enterprise-C and her crew learn they have traveled
into the future. Garrett explains that they were responding to a distress call
from the Klingon outpost on Narendra III, and were attacked by Romulan starships
. While his crew works to repair the Enterprise-C and tend to the crew's injurie
s, Picard and his command staff discuss whether or not the ship should return to
the past. Commander Riker argues that their deaths would be meaningless, but Da
ta suggests that it would be considered an honorable act by the Klingons. Picard
discusses the situation with Garrett, who tells him that her crew will serve th
e Federation in the present. Picard quietly reveals to her that the Federation i
s on the verge of defeat and the presence of one ship will make no difference, b
ut if the Enterprise-C were to return to the past they might prevent the war fro
m ever starting. Garrett agrees and announces to her crew that they will return
through the anomaly; at that moment, the two ships are ambushed by a Klingon Bir
d of Prey. Garrett is killed, and her helmsman, Richard Castillo, takes command.
During the repair efforts, Yar becomes close to Castillo, but is unnerved by ten
se interactions with Guinan. Guinan reveals to Yar that she knows Yar dies a mea
ningless death in the other timeline, and that the two should never have met. Ba
sed on her discussion with Guinan, Yar requests a transfer to the Enterprise-C,
which is granted by Picard. As the Enterprise-C prepares to return through the a
nomaly, three Klingon battlecruisers attack. With the anomaly becoming unstable,
Picard orders the Enterprise-D to cover the Enterprise-C's withdrawal. The Ente
rprise-D suffers major crew losses under the Klingon barrage, including the deat
h of Commander Riker, forcing Picard to man the tactical station himself. With t
he Enterprise-D on the brink of destruction, the Enterprise-C traverses the anom
aly, triggering the return of Enterprise-D's original timeline. In the restored
timeline, Guinan, the only one subtly aware of what has transpired, asks Geordi
La Forge to tell her more about Yar.