Nexus The Nexus was an extra - dimensional realm in which one ' s thoughts and desires shaped reality . Inside the Nexus , time and space had no meaning , allowing one to visit any time and any place that one could imagine . The doorway to the Nexus was a violent , destructive temporal energy ribbon which crossed through the galaxy every 39 . 1 years , among others in 2293 , 2332 , and 2371 . " Enterprise " - B incident . Starfleet first encountered this phenomenon in 2293 , when the newly - christened responded to a distress call from two vessels transporting El - Aurian refugees to Earth . Arriving at the vessels ' location , the " Enterprise " found them trapped in a powerful gravimetric field emanating from the trailing edge of the energy ribbon . Arriving too late to save the first ship , the , the " Enterprise " moved into transporter range in an attempt to beam aboard the crew and passengers from the other , the . The crew experienced difficulty in maintaining a transporter lock on them , however , as their life signs were experiencing a state of temporal flux , phasing in and out of the spacetime continuum . As the " Lakul " began to lose structural integrity , the transporter was initiated , but the crew was only able to save 47 people out of 150 , including El - Aurians Guinan and Tolian Soran . Afterward , the " Enterprise " itself became caught in the gravimetric field , and was unable to escape . Scotty , who was attending the maiden voyage of the vessel along with Captain Kirk and Commander Pavel Chekov , realized that a resonance burst fired from the main deflector might disrupt the field long enough for the ship to break free . Although this was successful , Captain Kirk himself was pulled into the Nexus when an energy discharge from the ribbon impacted the section of the ship where Kirk was modifying the deflector relays . For the next seventy - eight years it was believed that Kirk had died a hero . ( ) Soran ' s attempt to return to the Nexus . Before being rescued by the " Enterprise " , the El - Aurians experienced brief moments inside the Nexus , where all of their desires became reality . Soran became obsessed with returning , and dedicated himself to discovering a way to safely re - enter the Nexus , rather than the more random possibility of flying into it in a ship in the hope that he would be taken into the Nexus before his ship was destroyed . By 2371 , he had developed a plan to destroy two star s , altering the gravitational forces influencing the ribbon and bringing it to the planet Veridian III , where Soran would be waiting for it . Captain Jean - Luc Picard of the discovered the nature of Soran ' s plot , and realized that , by destroying the Veridian star , he would also destroy all of the planets in the Veridian system , including Veridian IV , a planet with a pre - industrial population of 230 million . Picard confronted Soran on Veridian III in an attempt to stop him , but was unsuccessful in preventing Soran from destroying the star . As all planets in the Veridian system were destroyed , as was the " Enterprise " - D , both Picard and Soran were pulled into the Nexus . While inside , Picard encountered Guinan , who described herself as an " echo " of the version of Guinan who once visited the Nexus , allowing him to realize what had happened to him despite experiencing his perfect world . With Guinan ' s advice reminding him of his responsibilities outside the Nexus , Picard located Kirk , who , from his point of view , had only just entered the Nexus after his loss on the " Enterprise " - B . Picard initially had difficulty in persuading Kirk to leave the Nexus , as Kirk saw it as his opportunity to correct the mistakes of his past . Kirk soon realized , however , that the events which transpired in the Nexus were not real , but rather a complicated illusion , and agreed to join Picard , recognizing that the fundamental unreality of the Nexus meant that the one thing it could never offer him was the one thing he had always wanted ; the chance to make a difference . Due to the timeless nature of the Nexus , the two captains were able to leave and arrive on Veridian III at a point in time before Soran destroyed the star . Teaming up to fight him , they were successful in changing history and stopping Soran , but unfortunately Kirk was killed in the process . ( ) In the Nexus . Describing the Nexus to Captain Picard , Guinan described it as like " being inside joy . " Inside the Nexus , all of a person ' s desires become reality , and one can reshape that reality to visit any time and any place one chooses . Picard ' s version of the Nexus was of a family he never had . He had two sons – Matthew and Thomas – and three daughters – Olivia , Mimi , and Madison . They lived , with his wife , in a beautiful house , and his nephew René , who had recently died in a fire in the real world , was still alive . Kirk ' s version was initially being at his log cabin in the mountains , which he had previously sold . While there , he reunited with his dog , and had the chance to propose marriage to Antonia , a woman whom he had regretted leaving to return to Starfleet . Later , he experienced his uncle ' s farm in Idaho , where he went horseback riding with Captain Picard . ( ) Appendices . Background information . In an early version of the " Star Trek : Generations " script , Guinan explains that her experience with the Nexus and the " Enterprise " - B are responsible for her " sixth sense " that lets her perceive people and events outside of linear time . Ronald D . Moore commented : Apocrypha . The novelization of " Star Trek : Generations " expands on Kirk ' s fantasies in the Nexus , with its timeless nature allowing him to experience multiple events while still feeling like no actual time has passed . After Picard enters the Nexus , the novel depicts one fantasy where Kirk is preparing for his wedding to Carol Marcus with all his friends and colleagues from the " Enterprise " – with Leonard McCoy expressing shock at the idea of Spock having brought a date and David Marcus giving his mother away at the altar – as well as referencing other encounters with other women from his past , including an occasion where he managed to save Edith Keeler and preserve the future . In the novel " Engines of Destiny " , a confrontation between an alternate Guinan and the Guardian of Forever reveals that the version of Guinan in the Nexus is the source of her constant " feelings , " as this version of herself exists outside all time , and can thus reach out to her other selves and provide valuable insight into possible actions that must be taken , although even she is ignorant of what the definitive outcome will be in the end . During the novel , Scotty travels back in time in a Klingon Bird - of - Prey with the intention of beaming Kirk out of the " Enterprise " - B before he falls into the Nexus – believing that this will ensure Kirk ' s survival without actually changing history – only for history to change so that the Borg conquer the Alpha Quadrant ( the reason for this chain of events is never explicitly revealed to the characters , but the evidence provided to the reader suggests that this is due to the Borg ' s invasion of the past in succeeding as Picard apparently failed to survive his confrontation with Soran without Kirk ' s aid ) . At the novel ' s conclusion , history is restored when the " Enterprise " - D – which had followed Scotty into the past and thus been protected from the changes in history – manages to send Kirk back into the Nexus in the new timeline , undoing all subsequent events . In " " , it is revealed that the Nexus was created from a solar flare by a very much younger Q during an idle moment in his " childhood , " but he was ignorant of what had become of it . In the " " novel " Oblivion " , chronicling Guinan ' s " first " meeting with Picard ( discounting Picard ' s meeting with Guinan ' s past self in ) , it reveals that , after her initial encounter with the Nexus , Guinan was left in a deep state of depression , mourning the loss of the reality she had in the Nexus , where all the family she lost to the Borg – including her youngest daughter , the one who was most like her – were restored to her . She experiences a particularly bleak mood after the Nexus passes through the galaxy once again , but after meeting with Picard , who subsequently risks his mission to save her , Guinan overcomes her depression , realizing that the universe can still give her joy and friendship even outside the Nexus . In " " , a Borg starbase is called a Nexus . The novel " The Final Nexus " details a series of intergalactic transport gates called Nexuses , which operate much like the Iconian gateways . The energy ribbon that function as the entrance to the Nexus makes an appearance in the " Star Trek Online " mission " Beyond the Nexus " . During the mission , Captain Geordi La Forge and the player investigate two starfleet ships that went missing while studying the ribbon . It ' s discovered that the ship ' s crews were hijacked by a powerful psionic entity called " Khaj ' Buur " , who was imprisoned in the Nexus . It is mentioned in the mission ' s conclusion that Khaj ' Buur ' s desire to leave the Nexus is highly unusual , considering its paradise - like nature .