The Battle of the Bassen Rift was an encounter between the Federation starship USS Enterprise-E, assisted by forces of the Romulan Star Empire, against the Reman warbird Scimitar in 2379, which was commanded by Praetor Shinzon.
Prelude to battle[]
Shinzon, allied with the Remans, had recently led a coup against the Romulans, assassinating most of the Romulan Senate and assuming the role of Praetor himself. Shinzon was a clone of Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and had developed a vendetta against his originator.
After luring the Enterprise to Romulus under the guise of peace talks, Shinzon kidnapped Picard from his vessel. Lieutenant Commander Data, however, had infiltrated the Scimitar, rescued Picard, and escaped in a Scorpion-class fighter which was collected by the Enterprise. The ship quickly went to warp. (TNG movie & novelization: Star Trek: Nemesis)
Battle[]
As the Enterprise attempted to join up with Star Fleet Battle Group Omega near the Bassen Rift, seeking safety in numbers, the Scimitar caught up and knocked the Sovereign-class out of warp with a series of torpedo strikes to the warp drive. Shinzon then dropped to sublight speed, cloaked, and began firing on the Enterprise through his cloak. Picard retaliated by firing barrages from his phaser arrays to locate his opponent and launching quantum torpedoes when he made contact, but the Scimitar proved surprisingly nimble and evaded the attacks.
Two Mogai-class warbirds, IRW Valdore and Soterus, decloaked ahead of the Enterprise, and the Valdore's CO Commander Donatra offered assistance. Unfortunately the Scimitar still heavily outgunned all three ships put together and disabled first the Soterus, then the Valdore.
Picard was finally able to execute a successful ramming attack against the larger vessel, heavily damaging it and disabling his own vessel, but the ship fired reverse thrust and broke loose. The attack had disabled Shinzon's main weapons, however, and he ordered his captain to deploy the ship's thalaron generator and kill everyone aboard the Enterprise. Picard and Lieutenant Commander Data boarded the Scimitar to sabotage the weapon, and Picard managed to kill Shinzon in hand-to-hand combat. Data caught up with him and beamed him back with an emergency transport unit, then fired a type-2 phaser into the generator, destroying the massive vessel instantly. (TNG movie & novelization: Star Trek: Nemesis)
Aftermath[]
The Enterprise, Valdore, and Soterus were rescued after the battle by Star Fleet Battle Group Omega, and the Romulans expressed interest in renewed peace talks. Now-Captain William T. Riker was dispatched with his new command USS Titan to open negotiations. (TNG movie & novelization: Star Trek: Nemesis)
The Bassen Rift would remain irradiated with trace amounts of thalaron radiation left over from the Scimitar as late as 2409, also known as Shinzon's Folly. (ST video game: Star Trek Online)
External link[]
- Battle of the Bassen Rift article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.