Jean-Luc Picard

Name Jean-Luc Picard

Position Former Starfleet Officer / Retired

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Mon Feb 13th, 2023 @ 12:16pm

Basic Info
Personality
History

Character Information

Gender		Male
Species		Human
Age		84

Physical Appearance

Height		5' 10"
Weight		180
Hair Color		Bald
Eye Color		Blue
Physical Description		Average height and build. Balding. Dresses well, making sure his appearance is proper.

Family

Spouse		Beverly Crusher-Picard
Children		None
Father		Maurice Picard
Mother		Yvette Picard
Brother(s)		Robert Picard (deceased)
Sister(s)		None
Other Family		René Picard (deceased)

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Jean-Luc Picard was a celebrated Starfleet officer, archaeologist and diplomat who served during the latter half of the 24th century. The highlights of his career were centered around assignments as commanding officer of the Federation starships: USS Stargazer, USS Enterprise-D, and the USS Enterprise-E. In these roles, Picard not only witnessed the major turning points of recent galactic history, but played a key role in them also, from making First Contact as captain of the Federation's flagship with no fewer than 27 alien species, including the Ferengi and the Borg, as well as becoming the chief contact point with the Q Continuum, to serving as Arbiter of Succession- where he presided over the investiture of Chancellor Gowron, and exposing the Romulan Star Empire as backers of his chief rivals, later aiding an Romulan underground movement of dissidents to gain a toehold on the Romulan homeworld. He continued to serve as captain of the Enterprise-E, the sixth starship to bear the name, until at least 2379.
Hobbies & Interests		Reading, Archeology, playing his Ressikan Flute.

Personal History		Jean-Luc Picard was born in La Barre, France on Earth to Maurice and Yvette Picard on July 13, 2305. He and his elder brother, Robert, spent their childhood tending to their family vineyards with their father. Concerned about the preservation of their familial values, Maurice and his wife, educated their sons in the ancient traditions, avoiding in particular any superfluous technologies. As a young boy, Jean-Luc watched his grandfather "deteriorate from a powerful, intelligent figure to a frail wisp of a man, who could barely make his own way home." As a child, Jean-Luc took piano lessons, but eventually gave it up because he dreaded performing in front of an audience. In his later life, he would regret doing so because his playing used to please his mother. Young Jean-Luc dreamed of adventure and exploration. He was fond of starships, of which he liked to build models. Moreover, he was captivated by the Phoenix, the first Human warp-capable starship, which he admired several times at the Smithsonian Institution. Like his nephew René, Jean-Luc wrote a ribbon-winning report on starships. It was obvious that since very early Jean-Luc knew he wanted to join Starfleet. He would later remember that he devoted his childhood for that end, which was like skipping that age altogether. His brother would later note that Jean-Luc always sought higher standards, such as becoming president of his school, and later a valedictorian and even an athletic champion. Robert was also jealous seeing Picard being the favored son and getting away after his mischiefs. Sometimes Robert had to bully his younger brother. Picard held diverse intellectual interests and recreational pursuits. He was a lifelong avocational archaeologist, inspired by his Academy instructor, Richard Galen, having studied the Iconian culture since his cadet days. Picard even addressed the Federation Archaeology Council as keynote speaker in 2367, on the subject of his oft-studied Tagus III ruins. He also had a deep love of Terran literature, from the works of William Shakespeare to detective stories featuring Dixon Hill, and preferred to read them in their written form rather than on a holo-visual display. Picard had studied semantics, and kept his Latin fresh. Other subjects that enthralled Picard were physics and celestial mechanics. He kept up with the Atlantis Project on Earth through journals. Picard was fascinated to be the first to reveal an ancient Promellian battle cruiser, as visiting such an elegant craft was always a dream of Picard's, a dream he had held on to ever since he was a child when he used to build model ships in bottles. After his experience with the Kataan probe, Picard began to play the Ressikan flute, and was good enough to perform works by Mozart. He considered the flute to be one of his most prized possessions. It represented, to him, an entire lifetime he lived in only 25 minutes. As of 2379, Picard kept the flute on his desk in his ready room aboard the Enterprise-E. His attempts at painting were less successful. Despite Picard being a rather private person, he maintained a good relationship with the members of his senior staff on board the Enterprise, but only joined in their weekly game of poker after seven years. When enjoying the comforts of home on the Enterprise, Picard drank Earl Grey tea. He delighted in fencing, horseback riding, and his scale models of various Starfleet vessels. His opponents in fencing included Lieutenant Dean and Guinan, whom Picard coached in the sport. She initially lost one of their matches, and said she did not think she liked the sport. Picard replied she liked it well enough two weeks prior, when she scored him two touches. Only rarely did Picard take extended time off to relax. In 2366, several of the members of his crew persuaded him to go on holiday on Risa. While intending to just relax in the suns, reading a book, he ended up going on a treasure hunt for the Tox Uthat, an artifact from the future. Philosophically, Picard saw life and death as more than two choices of eternal or momentary existence. In fact, he believed there was another concept yet beyond Human understanding due to the marvelous complexity and the clockwork precision of the universe. In 2364, confronted by Q, Picard quoted from Shakespeare: "What a piece of work is man? How noble in reason? How infinite in faculty, in form, in moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god..." Upon Q's interruption that surely he did not see his own species like that, Picard answered that he saw Humankind one day becoming so. In Picard's opinion, genetic engineering with its predetermination robbed Humanity of the unknown factor that makes life worth living.
Service Record		Jean-Luc caused "quite a stir" by leaving his family's generational vineyard and applying to Starfleet Academy. Although he failed to gain entry on his first attempt, Picard succeeded in his second attempt in 2323. He subsequently became one of the most outstanding cadets in his class. Picard's career at the Academy was difficult, at best – years later, Picard credited Academy groundskeeper Boothby with helping him develop a mature attitude. Among Picard's friends at the Academy were Donald Varley, Cortan Zweller, Marta Batanides, and an acquaintance called "A.F.", whom he blamed for his failed semester of Organic Chemistry and whose initials Picard carved into Boothby's prized elm. At the Academy, Picard developed an interest in archaeology. His professor, Richard Galen, encouraged him to continue in this field, but Picard ultimately refused his offer of becoming an archaeologist. Picard also excelled in sports. He won the Starfleet Academy marathon in April 2323 on Danula II, becoming the first freshman to win the race. During a wrestling match, Picard caught a Ligonian with a reverse body lift and pinned him down in the first fourteen seconds. During his sophomore year, Picard was assigned to training on Morikin VII where he had his first encounter with Nausicaans, who had an outpost on a nearby asteroid. Shortly upon graduation in 2327, Picard's promising career nearly ended abruptly during a layover at Starbase Earhart. During a bar brawl over a rigged game of dom-jot, he was stabbed through the heart by a Nausicaan, and had to undergo emergency surgery to replace his heart. He later related to Wesley Crusher that he laughed after looking down to see the knife protruding through his chest. This event helped him realize how fragile life could be, and thus made him more willing to take risks and make his mark on the universe, which he only realized when Q proposed him to change this event in 2369. As an ensign, Picard was posted to the USS Reliant, where he served with Lieutenant Nakamura. As a junior officer, Picard was the closest of friends with Walker Keel, and also became friends with Jack Crusher and his fiancée, Beverly Howard. Picard demonstrated command abilities early in his career, in particular when he led an away team on Milika III to save an ambassador. This incident would later be mentioned by Q as one of the crucial events forming Picard's personality. As a young lieutenant, Picard attended the wedding of Sarek's son where he briefly met Sarek and Spock for the first and only time before the 2360s. Picard was assigned as a flight controller aboard the USS Stargazer. In 2333, as a lieutenant commander, he assumed command of the vessel when the captain was killed on the bridge. Starfleet awarded Picard a promotion to the post of captain, making him one of the youngest Starfleet officers ever to attain the position. Picard remained in command of the Stargazer for twenty-two years. In 2342, Picard dated a young woman named Jenice at the Café des Artistes in Paris. However, he became afraid of a possible future relationship and posted Jenice, who later married Paul Manheim. During the Cardassian wars, the Stargazer was involved in a truce offering by the Federation. After making contact with a Cardassian warship, Picard lowered the ship's shields as a gesture of good will, but the Cardassian commander ignored the gesture and disabled the Stargazer's weapons and impulse engines. The Stargazer managed to regroup and flee. In 2354, Picard was on an away mission when he saved the life of one team member at the expense of another; Jack Crusher was lost in the line of duty. Picard met with Crusher's widow, Beverly, on Starbase 32 to present the body; it was one of Wesley Crusher's earliest memories. In 2355, the Stargazer was seriously damaged in a battle with an unknown enemy vessel, later discovered to be a Ferengi ship. Picard managed to destroy the enemy vessel using the Stargazer's warp engines in a unique tactical maneuver (later named the "Picard Maneuver"), but was forced to abandon the Stargazer. His actions during the battle were called into question by Starfleet prosecutor Phillipa Louvois, but he was exonerated by the inquiry board and was later awarded with the Grankite Order of Tactics (Class of Excellence) for the development of the Picard Maneuver. The encounter with the Ferengi vessel, later known as the Battle of Maxia, eventually came back to haunt Picard. DaiMon Bok, whose son was killed during the battle, twice tried to exact revenge on Picard. In 2364, Picard was assigned command of the newly-commissioned Galaxy-class starship USS Enterprise-D, the most prestigious captaincy in Starfleet. He commanded the flagship for seven years, participating in many important missions. Among these were the defeat of the Borg invasions of 2366 and 2369, and his command of the fleet which blockaded the Klingon-Romulan border during the Klingon Civil War. Picard hand-picked most of his senior staff, such as two young officers who impressed him enough upon first meeting. Geordi La Forge once piloted Picard's inspection tour shuttle and stayed up all night to refit an engine part Picard had made a passing comment on, and Picard witnessed Natasha Yar risk her life to save colonists amid a Carnelian minefield. He had also picked William T. Riker as his first officer and promoted him to commander sight unseen, impressed by the young officer's record of independence. Mere months upon taking command, Picard was offered a promotion to commandant of Starfleet Academy with the rank of admiral by Admiral Gregory Quinn, but turned it down to retain command of the Enterprise. Although Picard often heatedly defended a strict interpretation of the Prime Directive, he broke it numerous times when he felt it was warranted. Thus, in 2364, he allowed an Edo woman to confront her "god" from space, and in 2366, Picard brought a Mintakan leader aboard the Enterprise so as to undo the damage done by cultural contamination. Furthermore, in 2370, the Enterprise, by hand of Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko, transported a primitive group of Boraalans aboard from Boraal II before an atmospheric dissipation rendered it uninhabitable. Although in violation of the Prime Directive, Picard ordered that the Boraalans be resettled. In 2369, when the Enterprise was undergoing a baryon sweep at the Remmler Array, Picard uncovered a plan, by mercenaries, to steal toxic waste from the ship's warp core. He managed to take out all of the intruders by setting traps throughout the various sections of the ship. He even used the Vulcan nerve pinch technique on one of them. Commanding the Enterprise on its first mission, Picard made first contact with a member of the Q Continuum – Q. Picard and his senior officers had to stand trial for Humanity's immaturity. To prove their worthiness as a species, Picard had to solve the "mystery of Farpoint Station." The crew of the Enterprise discovered that the inhabitants of Deneb IV, the Bandi, had captured a space-dwelling being to serve their own purpose. The Enterprise helped to free the creature, and Q, somewhat disappointed by the crew's success, retreated, though he hinted that it would not be their final encounter. Thus, later that year, Q created a bizarre and deadly "game" for the crew of the Enterprise in order to demonstrate that he had given Riker Q-like abilities. Ultimately, Riker rejected these new powers, and Q again disappeared. (TNG: "Hide and Q") One year later, in 2365, Q first expressed an interest in joining Picard's crew. When Picard declined, Q tried to show how much he could be of assistance by hurling the Enterprise into the path of a Borg cube. Q was hoping to show that the Federation was entirely unprepared to meet some of the more powerful races that existed in the universe. Ultimately, Picard had to beg for Q's help in escaping from the pursuit of the Borg vessel. A fourth encounter with Q occurred in 2366, when the other members of the Continuum had stripped him of his omnipotence and immortality as punishment for his irresponsibility. He sought refuge on the Enterprise and, although Picard and the rest of the crew were initially unconvinced of the sincerity of Q's pleas, the captain agreed to provide Q temporary asylum. As the Enterprise began to suffer under Calamarain attack, however, Q resolved to end his life in order to prevent further risk to the Enterprise crew, but another member of the Q Continuum prevented Q from sacrificing himself, and restored his powers as a reward for his selfless act. Late in 2367, Q returned to the Enterprise to "properly" thank Picard for his role in helping him regain his standing in the Continuum. At the time, Picard was meeting Vash, whom he had met on Risa the year before. Q resolved to teach Picard a lesson about love and cast the captain, Vash, and the Enterprise command crew into an elaborate scenario styled by the ancient legend of Robin Hood. Q himself assumed the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Ultimately, Picard learned his lesson, and everyone was returned to the Enterprise. Intrigued by Vash, though, Q offered to take her on a journey of exploration to explore various archaeological ruins of the galaxy, and she accepted. In 2369, Q once again appeared aboard the Enterprise, this time to instruct Amanda Rogers, a Human who was the child of two Q and possessed Q powers herself. Although Q's petulant and acerbic attitude did little to ingratiate himself to Amanda, he eventually convinced her to go with him to the Continuum to learn to use her new-found abilities. Later that same year, Q appeared to Picard when the latter was critically injured in a Lenarian ambush. Appearing as "God", Q told Picard that he had died because of his artificial heart, and offered him the chance to return to the incident in his youth, allowing him to relive the events leading up to his near-fatal injury and change history. Although Picard was successful in changing history, he eventually realized that the event – and his previous nature as an arrogant, brash young man – was a part of his identity, and had helped mold him into the successful Starfleet officer he had become. Although he was uncertain as to whether the experience had been real or simply a vision, Picard was grateful for Q's revelation. In 2370, Q returned to the Enterprise to continue the trial against Humanity. Claiming that the seven-year-old trial had never actually ended, Q proclaimed Humanity guilty of "being inferior" and informed Picard that his race was to be destroyed. He sent Picard traveling through time to his past, present, and future, where he was presented with a temporal paradox in the form of an eruption of anti-time in the Devron system. In this paradox, Picard himself was responsible for the creation of the anomaly that propagated backwards in normal time (anti-time having the opposite properties of normal time), thus destroying Humanity in the past. However, in addition to sending Picard jumping through time, Q also provided Picard with hints to understanding the nature of the paradox. Ultimately, Picard determined the solution and devised a way to close the anti-time anomaly in all three time periods. Following the captain's success, Q revealed that the entire experience had been a test, aimed at determining whether Humanity was capable of expanding its horizons to understand some of the advanced concepts of the universe. Departing, Q promised to continue watching Humanity, proclaiming that "The trial never ends." In 2365, Q sent the Enterprise 7,000 light years into uncharted space, into the path of a Borg cube. Although the Enterprise suffered losses, it became the first ship known by the Federation to survive an encounter with the Borg and so managed to inform Starfleet of the Borg's existence. One year later, in 2366, the Borg launched their first invasion of the Federation. A single cube destroyed the New Providence colony and the USS Lalo, and kidnapped Picard when the Enterprise attempted to intervene. Picard was partially assimilated and became a Borg drone known as Locutus of Borg. The cube proceeded towards Earth and engaged Starfleet in the Battle of Wolf 359, resulting in the destruction of 39 Federation vessels. On arrival at Earth, an away team from the Enterprise successfully rescued Picard and used his connection to the Borg to implant false data in the cube, destroying it. It was revealed years later that his assimilation and time spent in the Collective had a profoundly disturbing effect on Picard's life. The Enterprise again encountered the Borg in 2368 when they rescued a Borg drone from a crashed Borg shuttle. This drone was cut off from the Collective and slowly regained an individual identity, eventually being named Hugh. Initially, the plan was drafted to use Hugh to destroy the collective in its entirety, although Dr. Beverly Crusher resisted the extermination of an entire race – even if it was the Borg. Picard eventually confronted Hugh, who immediately recognized Picard as Locutus. Picard took the role of Locutus while talking to Hugh, to simulate the authority that Hugh was used to. However, Geordi La Forge, Data, Dr. Crusher, and other members of the Enterprise crew had a profound effect on the former drone. Even Guinan, who initially wanted nothing to do with Hugh, taught him that resistance is not futile. Guinan's homeworld had been destroyed long ago by the Borg, but the fact that Guinan was still alive was proof to this assertion. When Picard reminded Hugh that "resistance is futile," Hugh informed him that it was not so. When Picard told Hugh that La Forge would be assimilated, Hugh stated that La Forge did not want to be assimilated. When Picard said that this was irrelevant, Hugh specifically said that he (and Hugh used the word "I") would not assist in the assimilation of La Forge. Picard was stunned that a Borg drone would say such things. He decided that he could not send Hugh back with the file that would destroy the Borg. Picard offered Hugh asylum on board the Enterprise, but Hugh said that the Collective would not stop looking for him until they found him. Hugh agreed to go back to the crash site and to be taken back into the Collective, to protect the Enterprise from harm. The individuality present in Hugh spread through the ship he returned to, causing a catastrophic separation of the ship from the rest of the Collective. This rogue mini-collective was unsure how to cope with its freedom, and so fell under the influence of the android Lore. Lore persuaded them to aid his plan to conquer Earth. Using the rogue ship, they attacked several outposts before being tracked down by the crew of the Enterprise-D. They destroyed the Borg ship and were able to persuade the remaining members of the mini-collective of Lore's unreliability. The mini-collective then disappeared into space and has not been encountered since. There were some within Starfleet who blamed Picard for the destruction of the task force at Wolf 359. Benjamin Sisko, who was serving as first officer of the USS Saratoga at the time, lost his wife Jennifer in the attack. Picard and Sisko finally met in 2369, after the Enterprise was the first Starfleet vessel to arrive at Deep Space 9. Sisko was, at first, hostile toward Picard, but later came to forgive him. Sisko also gave Picard his letter of resignation, which Picard did not send, feeling Sisko was the right person for command of Deep Space 9. In 2373, the Borg launched their second invasion of the Federation, and again the crew of the Enterprise played a major role in their defeat. Initially, the Enterprise was not to have participated in the Battle of Sector 001, because according to Starfleet Command, Picard would bring an "unstable element into a critical situation." Seeing that the Borg were getting the best of the fleet, Picard ordered the Enterprise to Earth to assist. He was instrumental in defeating both the main invasion and an attempt by the Borg to prevent the formation of the Federation by altering history. In 2368, the Enterprise encountered a space probe of unknown origin, which emitted a nucleonic beam directly at Picard. This led to his fainting and awakening on an unknown world where he was known as an ironworker named Kamin and was married to Eline. Picard later found out that Kamin was a member of the Ressik community on a planet called Kataan. For five years, Picard clung to his life aboard the Enterprise and searched for ways to return, but eventually settled into his life as Kamin, having two children with Eline and eventually a grandchild. In the approximately 35 years Picard spent as Kamin, he learned to play the Ressikan flute, dabbled in astronomy, and analyzed soil samples from the planet, eventually confirming that Kataan was a dying world. Near the end of his life on Kataan, it was revealed to Picard that Kataan had been destroyed more than 1,000 years previously, and the residents of the Ressik community had engineered the probe to share the memory and experiences of their people with someone who could then teach others about their civilization. He awoke on the Enterprise as Jean-Luc Picard once more, and discovered that he had lived a lifetime in only 25 minutes. The probe was collected by the Enterprise and disassembled. A Ressikan flute was found inside the probe, which Riker then presented to Picard. Picard considered the flute to be one of his most prized possessions. As of 2379, he kept the flute on his desk in his ready room aboard the USS Enterprise-E. In 2371, the USS Enterprise-D was lost over Veridian III, with the vessel's primary hull crash-landing on the planet's surface. Picard also met the legendary James T. Kirk while in the Nexus with him, and recruited him in defeating and killing Dr. Tolian Soran before he could have the chance to destroy the Veridian system. There were no fatalities, and most of the ship's senior crew was reassigned to the USS Enterprise-E, the sixth Federation starship to bear the name. Picard was installed as commanding officer and given a new authorization code: "Picard-4-7-alpha-tango." After a one-year shakedown cruise, the new Enterprise was nearly lost when the senior staff decided to sacrifice the ship in order to save Earth's future by preventing the Borg on board from changing history. Fortunately, the crew was able to repel the Borg attempt without having to destroy the Enterprise. Two years later, in 2375, Picard ordered the Enterprise-E to the Ba'ku homeworld in the Briar Patch when it appeared that his operations officer, Lieutenant Commander Data, had malfunctioned and assaulted members of the research team there. Picard was able to capture Data and uncovered a plot by Admiral Matthew Dougherty, the Son'a and some in the Federation Council to relocate the Ba'ku against their will. Picard rebelled against Dougherty, bringing word of his actions to the public. Picard was able to protect the Ba'ku and stop Son'a leader Ru'afo from destroying the Ba'ku's homeworld. Picard continued in command of the Enterprise through 2379, when the ship was sent to Romulus after the coup by Praetor Shinzon. Shinzon was a clone of Picard created by a former Romulan government – they intended to replace the captain with a spy of their own. Following a change of government and concern that it would lead to war, the plan was abandoned and Shinzon was sent to Remus to die. Instead, he prospered, becoming a highly successful leader during the Dominion War. Shinzon used a thalaron radiation weapon to eradicate the Romulan Senate and had planned to do the same to Earth. He needed Picard in order to repair faults in his own genetic makeup. In a pitched battle between the Enterprise and Shinzon's flagship, the Scimitar, Picard was eventually able to board the enemy ship and eliminate Shinzon. Data saved Picard's life by transporting the captain back to the Enterprise before sacrificing his own life; he destroyed the Scimitar by firing on the thalaron weapon with a hand phaser, thereby saving the over 800 men and women aboard the Enterprise. A few weeks after the Shinzon encounter, Picard was sent on a mission to the Romulan planet, Kevratas. Picard was joined by two former crewmates from the Stargazer, Pug Joseph and Dr. Greyhorse. Their mission was to bring hope to the dreary, plague-ravaged planet. However, their unofficial mission was to track down Dr. Crusher who was also sent to the planet as part of her work for Starfleet Medical, before being presumed killed. Upon hearing of Beverly's presumed death, Picard finally realized how much Beverly meant to him. Upon her rescue, Picard finally told Beverly how he felt about her. After many years of denying their feelings for the other, Picard and Beverly Crusher began a romantic relationship. Picard and Beverly married in early 2381. 2381 also saw the start of a new Borg offensive, one which Picard, via his link through Locutus, recognized as greater than any previous threat. The Enterprise was again the only vessel to be equipped with transphasic torpedoes and saw considerable front-line combat. Understanding that the Borg were no longer interested in assimilating humanity, but rather in exterminating it, he began to behave in ways that caused concern among his crew,; his wife recognized the signs early on and spoke with Geordi La Forge. His crew was able to trace the source of the invading Collective to the Azure Nebula where they were drawn into a trap, having to send out a general distress call. The timely arrival of Ezri Dax and the USS Aventine through a subspace tunnel to the nebula saved the Enterprise. After defeating the immediate threat, Picard ordered the two crews to investigate the tunnels to find ways to mine the nebula and collapse them to prevent further Borg incursions, despite the protests of Captain Dax and the feelings of several of his senior staff who considered the tunnels to be too valuable as an exploratory tool. However, scientific analysis performed by Dina Elfiki and Gruhn Helkara determined that attempts to collapse the tunnels could cause catastrophic reverberations, and the dynamics of the supernova remnant proved to thwart any attempts to create a minefield. After consulting with Admiral Nechayev and requesting reinforcements, Picard ceased production of the self-replicating mines and instead had the ships focus on opening the tunnels, hoping to locate the staging area of the Borg. After the arrival of an allied fleet of several hundred ships, the Enterprise and Aventine traversed one of the tunnels together, and ended up near the Carina Arm near the median between the Delta and Gamma Quadrants, where they fought and were boarded by Hirogen hunters. Despite the protests of his senior staff, Captain Picard refused to leave the Bridge and fought the Hirogen before the two vessels returned to the nebula, finding a graveyard of ships from an invading force of seven thousand Borg cubes. The Borg Queen spoke to Locutus through his link, taunting him, and Picard set course to chase the Aventine to attempt to cease their foolish attempt to be heroic. At one point, Picard ordered the illegal creation of a thalaron generator, an order which was refused by Chief Engineer La Forge. Ultimately, working with Riker, Dax, and former Earth Starfleet Captain Erika Hernandez, Picard enabled an ancient race known as the Caeliar to defeat the Borg Collective, liberate the Borg, and draw them into their gestalt, effectively ending the Borg once and for all. This act had the effect of eradicating the last remaining traces of Locutus from Picard's psyche and finally freeing him of its influence after fifteen years. During the subsequent reconstruction of the Federation, Picard's actions attracted controversy from Starfleet Command due to his decision to 'abduct' Governor George Barrile, the Prime Minister of Alpha Centauri to show him the scale of the damage caused to planets such as Pacifica during the invasion and thus reconsider his decision to withdraw from the Federation due to the current lack of support. Admiral Leonard James Akaar contemplated promoting Picard to admiral in recognition of his unorthodox position in Starfleet's chain of command – able to defy multiple orders and get away with it because his actions always resulted in the best possible outcome – as well as the recent losses sustained to the admirality. Picard, though, remembered the advice that he had received from James T. Kirk during their brief meeting in the Nexus: to never accept a promotion that would take him away from the Enterprise, prompting Akaar to decide to leave Picard where he was in memory of his infamous namesake, reflecting that the Federation may need another James T. Kirk more than it needed another admiral at this time. In December of 2387, the Enterprise-E was decommissioned at Starbase 400. While the ship was being readied for her new role as a museum, Picard retired from Starfleet, stating his desire to spend more time with Beverly (who was stationed at Starfleet Medical on Earth) and finally time to tend the family vineyards. In early 2389, at the request of new Federation President Slade Matthews, Picard agreed to become an Ambassador for the Federation, assigned to special assignments as requested by the President.