Star Trek: 10 WORST Things Captain Picard Has Ever Done
5. Abandoned Elnor
It would be easy to say that no one could have predicted the events of First Contact Day in 2385. Certainly, reprogramming all of the A-500 synths to destroy the Utopia Planitia Shipyards was perhaps out of bounds of belief, but when one considers the events depicted in The Last Best Hope by Dr. Una McCormack, the warning signs were all there.
First, there were many both within the Federation and indeed the Romulan Empire who weren’t happy that the two great powers were working together. Then, there were those Romulans who flatly refused to do anything, even as more and more evidence piled in around them that the supernova was imminent. Before the attack took place, only one world had successfully rehomed Romulan Refugees - Vashti.
There, the Qowot Milat, an order of Romulan nuns who practiced absolute candor, took up residence. They adopted a young boy, Elnor, and trained him in their ways. Picard came to love the boy, frequently visiting, and bringing gifts. They had what promised to be a father-son relationship until the synth attack levelled Mars, and Picard was recalled to Earth. While the events that followed that will be discussed in another entry here, one of the worst things that Picard did, pained as he was, was never going back for Elnor, leaving the boy wondering what it was that he had done wrong. When they eventually reunited, it was clear that the damage had been done, though Picard worked to repair what he could.