In 2278, a Klingon named Kozara tries to cross the Neutral Zone and attack Starbase 12 while all Starfleet ships are distracted at the border. The Klingon cruiser encounters a damaged border cutter, the USS Bozeman, under the command of Captain Morgan Bateson, who is a longtime foe of Kozara. Kozara knows that if he leaves the small ship alone and heads for the starbase, the crew of the Bozeman will warn Starfleet, which could jeopardize the mission. Bateson has his people rig a comm buoy, set to transmit half an hour after being launched. Meanwhile, the Bozeman is evading the cruiser's powerful disruptor bolts. In desperation, Bateson orders the ship to hide in a small nebula. Upon exiting the nebula, the Bozeman nearly collides with the USS Enterprise-D (as seen in Cause and Effect), and the crew learns they have been catapulted nine decades into the future. They are told that their sacrifice has allowed the original Enterprise to chase off Kozara and save the Starbase. With no reliable way back, they decide to make new lives in the 24th century.
After the loss of the Enterprise-D, Jean-Luc Picard and William Riker as stuck at Starbase 12, uncertain of their fate. Riker hopes that Picard will be given the new Enterprise-E that is about to be launched from the Starbase. Instead, command is given to Captain Bateson, who has maneuvered himself into being given the ship, while Picard is sent to Cardassia to negotiate the release of Federation citizens being kept by his old nemesis Gul Madred. He brings Beverly Crusher and Worf along. Bateson is about to take the ship on her shakedown cruise and asks Riker to be his first officer, with a number of Picard's former officers also being assigned to the ship. In addition, the ship's main designer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, is assigned as her chief engineer for the shakedown. Bateson plans to take the Enterprise to the edge of the Neutral Zone for war games. Riker is against the plan, especially with the Klingons rattling their sabers again.
Meanwhile, Kozara, still alive after all these years and living in shame after his failure all those decades ago, learns that Bateson is back and is in command of the Enterprise. He reveals that one of the Bozeman crewmembers is a spy who will allow them to capture the Federation flagship and ruin both Bateson and the very name Enterprise.
Riker's suspicions prove correct. As soon as they arrive to the border, they are attacked by Kozara, who boards the ship and neutralizes her skeleton crew. Bateson, Riker, and Scotty are trapped in an escape pod, although Scotty quickly frees them. They try to retake the ship, which Kozara has taken into Cardassian space in order to lay waste to the Empire's enemies.
Picard arrives to meet Gul Madred and threatens him with his daughter's life unless he reveals the location of the prisoners. Madred relents, only to learn that Picard was bluffing. He still takes Picard to retrieve the captives and learns that it was his own daughter who informed Starfleet about them, which breaks the man. Picard learns about the Enterprise being hijacked and on its way to Cardassia. He is given command of three Cardassian warships and has them crewed by the freed prisoners, moving to intercept the Federation flagship.
Bateson and Riker burst onto the bridge but are subdued. Bateson then gets Kozara to realize that he's doing it all for his spoiled brat of a son, who doesn't deserve such a great warrior for a father. When Picard arrives, Kozara surrenders the ship without a fight. Bateson has all the Klingons released and sent back home, intending to inform the High Council of Kozara's great victory.
Upon returning to Starbase 12, Picard is given the Enterprise, while Bateson is given a new ship that has been rechristened Bozeman II.
In the epilogue, Picard muses that Bateson and his people are at this moment preparing to defend Earth from the Borg, while he himself has been sent away.
The novel provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Riker tries the "We strive to better ourselves" line about humans in the 24th Century, Bateson's asks "Really? And just who is it you think you're 'better' than?" Riker is embarrassed by this, and Bateson says the 24th Century people look down on others. It is Lampshade Hanging about how the TNG characters were arrogant in the first two seasons of the show.
- Boring, but Practical: The Bozeman is equipped with a tractor beam but prefers to use clamps for towing. When the new officers ask why, they're told that tractor beams are power hogs, while a clamp can be reused, as opposed to wasted energy.
- The Bozeman herself is described this way: as a workhorse of the fleet that will never reach the celebrity status of ships like the Enterprise but one that still toils loyally in obscurity.
- The Cameo: Kirk and Spock briefly appear early in the book. A holographic recreation of Kirk is later used by Picard to figure out his next course of action. Worf also appears for exactly one scene and says a single phrase. Then again, Picard said that he was on loan from Deep Space Nine.
- Clip Show: Picard is able to interact with holographic recreations of Captain Kirk's original mission. He sees the events of "The Enemy Within" and "Balance of Terror." Picard is able to interact with Kirk in the recreation.
- Continuity Snarl: Despite working off of about thirty seconds of screentime, it's amazing how much is contradicted from "Cause and Effect."
- The Typhon Expanse is remarked (repeatedly) to be an unexplored sector, while the novel has it a well patrolled sector of the Federation-Klingon border
- The Bozeman of the novel is in pitched combat from its perspective when it enters the loop, while things appear pretty calm on the Bozeman's side of the screen in the episode.
- Most egregiously, the novel states that the crew of the Bozeman is all male, while in the episode there are two women seen on screen, one of them at Bateson's side (implied to be his first officer, and, in an earlier draft, intended to have been Kirstie Alley's Saavik).
- Cool Ship
- Bateson has all his crewmembers take a good look at the original Enterprise (post-refit), calling her a "ship of the line". Indeed, when the Enterprise receives the warning, she arrives and drives off Kozara's heavy cruiser.
- The newly-launched Enterprise-E is said to look to be moving fast while standing still and has powerful weaponry.
- Even Bateson's original Bozeman is lovingly described by both Kirk and Bateson. It's a variant on the Reliant class (technically, it should be the Miranda class, though) that's focused on combat at the expense of labs and entertainment facilities, redesignated as Soyuz class. Better weapons and defenses. The Bozeman has the best track record of all ships in that sector.
- There's also Kozara's heavy cruiser SoSoy Toj in the beginning, whose class isn't stated but, based on the description it appears to be either a D7 or a K'tinga, having undergone a refit.
- David vs. Goliath: A small Soyuz-class border cutter (a damaged one at that) against a massive Klingon heavy cruiser five times her size.
- Delaying Action: Crosses with Suicide Mission. The USS Bozeman is keeping the SoSoy Toj occupied while a comm buoy is drifting out of the Klingon ship's jamming field, so that a warning could be sent to Starfleet about the planned attack on Starbase 12. After ending up in the future, they learn that their delay was successful, and the Klingons were driven off.
- Drowning His Sorrows: Bateson's former Number Two Gabriel Bush now spends his off-duty time drinking. The rest of the crew is covering for him and trying to keep him sober. Riker learns that his fiancée tried to find him after the battle and got captured by the Klingons. After learning her identity, they sent her back... in ten small boxes. Bush blames himself. He quits drinking after helping to capture Kozara's warbird and even starts to consider applying to get his own command.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Kozara names his heavy cruiser SoSoy Toj after his recently-deceased mother. It's also how Bateson immediately realizes who's in command of the ship.
- A Father to His Men: Captain Bateson treats his crew as his family. He even says as much at the beginning and suggests it may be because he never knew his own father. He also rejects Picard's offer of a counselor after Bateson learns about ending up in the future, as 23rd century crews are used to relying on each other.
- Kozara is shown to be this to his men, as they all willingly follow him into exile after their disgrace at Starbase 12 and show no signs of resentment when he orders them to surrender at the end.
- Hydra Problem: Scotty traps six Klingon warriors in a holodeck, activating a program showing his uncle's poultry farm with thousands of chickens. And whenever one chicken is killed, two more are spawned in their place. Riker is impressed.
- Initiation Ceremony: Bateson has a tradition for any new crewmember aboard the Bozeman. A shot of rum. This also includes visitors like Captain Spock (apparently Vulcans do drink sometimes).
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Kozara surrenders to an inferior force upon realizing he's been fighting for an unworthy cause. His men are actually pleased with his decision.
- Legacy Character
- The novel features three ships named Enterprise: the original (post-refit), D, and E. At the end of the novel, a new ship is designated Bozeman II in honor of the original Bozeman.
- The crew of the Bozeman considers themselves to be continuing the traditions of the US Coast Guard (and the US Revenue Cutter Service before that), a job less glamorous than a front-liner like the Enterprise but nevertheless important.
- Bateson points out that several elements of the new Enterprise were salvaged from the previous one, including support beams and even a table.
- Literary Allusion Title: The novel is named after A Ship of the Line, a Horatio Hornblower novel. Chapters often have quotes from other books of the saga.
- Manly Facial Hair: Bateson's beard is constantly described as a "musketeer beard". And, of course, there's Riker's beard as well. Bateson jokes that one of them is going to have to shave, or else everyone aboard the Enterprise will want to grow one. Cue Deanna piping up, "Don't look at me!"
- Military Maverick: Bateson's views on Starfleet and Klingons are outmoded in the 24th century, but with the tensions with the Empire on the rise, Starfleet Command thinks that Bateson may be the right man for the job of commanding the flagship. Bateson takes the ship to the border in order to run war games right under the Klingons' noses to bait them into making a move. After Kozara succeeds in taking over the ship, he admits he was wrong and wants Riker to gloat. Riker, for his part, points out that he was right. The Klingons were preparing for trouble. Bateson's trap forced them to move before they were ready.
- The Mole
- Kozara claims that a number of spies infiltrated Starbase 12 and sabotaged its power supply, leaving it unarmed and undefended.
- Also, one of the members of the Bozeman's crew is a Klingon agent. It's Science Specialist John Wolfe, or rather someone who killed the real Wolfe and took his place.
- Number Two
- There's Riker, of course. After the loss of the Enterprise-D, he and most of the other senior officers remain at Picard's side, hoping to be assigned to the same ship, preferably the Enterprise-E. He is eventually asked to be Bateson's first officer.
- Bateson's original first officer Gabriel Bush was reliable and knew his business. Their relationship was typical of a captain and his XO. Unfortunately, after ending up in the 24th century, he started drinking. Bateson and the rest of his crew cover for Bush. It's why Bateson chooses Riker to be his first officer aboard the Enterprise-E with Bush being bumped down to second officer. Bush gets better by the end and resumes his role on the Bozeman II.
- P.O.V. Sequel: The opening chapters are essentially the Bozeman's side of the story shown in the TNG episode "Cause and Effect".
- Spanner in the Works: The Klingons had a perfect plan: they would mass warships along the border, causing every Starfleet ship in the sector to go there in case of trouble. Then Kozara would cross the Neutral Zone in another place and head straight for Starbase 12, which Klingon spies have rendered powerless. Kozara would destroy the Starbase using explosives in the cruiser's hold, dealing a terrible blow to the Federation. But then the Bozeman got into a fight with some smugglers and suffered damage. Instead of putting in at the Starbase, Bateson chose to have the crew repair the ship. It's also why they did not go with the other ships. The Bozeman's crew ended up being in the right place and the right time to keep Kozara occupied while sending a warning to Starfleet.
- Suicide Mission: See Delaying Action above.
- Time Travel: A strange anomaly catapults the Bozeman 90 years into the future. When Bateson asks if it's possible to travel back in time, Picard answers that it is, but the method isn't reliable, so it's entirely possible to miss the intended date by years.
- Title Drop: Early on, Bateson refers to the original Enterprise (post-refit) as a "ship of the line" compared to his small border cutter.
- Worthy Opponent: Bateson and Kozara see one another as this, having clashed for years.
