view on Voyager's Bridge's main viewscreen as Braxton's Timeship Aeon comes out of the temporal rift to make contact, [Future's End]

Captain Braxton's first encounter with USS Voyager occurs in 2373. He is the captain and sole crewmember of the Federation Timeship Aeon. His mission, as directed by the Temporal Integrity Commission of the 29th century Federation Starfleet, is to travel back in time to the Delta Quadrant and destroy USS Voyager, since debris from Voyager's hull was found in a cataclysmic explosion in the 29th century thereby indicating to the temporal authorities that Voyager was responsible for it. Braxton reaches his destination through an artifically-generated distortion in the space-time continuum. He refuses to answer Voyager's hails upon his arrival in the 24th century. His first action is to open fire on his quarry with a subatomic disruptor.

When Voyager resists, Braxton calmly informs the starship's captain, Kathryn Janeway, that she must lower the ship's shields and allow her ship to be destroyed in order to safeguard the future. He expects his order to be obeyed without question but Janeway, however, decides she cannot allow the destruction on the basis of such a short conversation. For Captain Braxton, this is the beginning of a long waking nightmare.

Braxton and Janeway in communication via Voyager's Bridge's main viewscreen, [Future's End]

When the Aeon and Voyager hurtle toward Earth, caught in the temporal stream, the Aeon arrives on Earth 29 years ahead of Voyager, in the year 1967, and crashed in the High Sierra mountain range in North America. Braxton manages an emergency beam-out and avoids being killed in the crash. But a native of the time period, one named Henry Starling, hears the crash and investigates, and finds the crashed timeship before Braxton can find and hide it.

Henry Starling finds the Timeship Aeon in 1967 in the High Sierras, [Future's End]

Starling realises the significance of his discovery and uses the technology of the timeship to build an electronics empire, which he names Chronowerx (the "chrono" being no doubt an in-joke concession to how he started the company) and he even uses the 29th century Starfleet logo as his own company's logo. Chronowerx is responsible for every major computer advance of the late 20th century.

the Timeship Aeon, thanks to Ex Astris Scientia for the scan which is from TOSTFF

click to enlarge the Timeship Aeon; I did not do this scan; believe thanks to Ex Astris Scientia for the scan which I think is from TOSTFF

As he is running out of innovations for the hungry market, he plans to journey in the Aeon to the 29th century and steal more technology. Starling keeps the Aeon in a secured laboratory facility at the top of his headquarters building in Los Angeles.

Aeon, in Starling's lab, [Future's End]

Starling has a window which, when activated, enables him to see through it to view the lab where Aeon is stored, [Future's End]

Aeon, in Starling's lab, [Future's End]

Chronowerx headquarters, [Future's End]

Chronowerx thrives, unlike Braxton. Braxton is lost and out of his depth in a world of what he describes as "post-industrial barbarians". He is unable to get near the timeship, and cannot get close to Starling as the one-time poor hippy ends up becoming rich and powerful to the extent of Presidential connections, and Braxton ends up being forced to eke out an impoverished living as a beggar on the streets of Los Angeles.

Press photograph in Starling's office showing Starling meeting President Nixon, [Future's End]

Henry Starling, CEO of the internationally successful corporation Chronowerx, which dominates the computer and electronics market including the internet, [Future's End] Chronowerx logo

display of Aeon's schematics on Starling's computer as accessed by Janeway and Chakotay, [Future's End] 29th century Starfleet logo

Braxton spends his time trying to warn the natives of the end of the world (which he knows will occur in the 29th century) but the natives, and particularly the authorities, regard him as merely a socially inferior harmless eccentric. He is once institutionalised and treated with drugs (Braxton puts it this way: "Do you know that once they put me in a mental institution and filled me with primitive pharmaceuticals?") for what they view as psychiatric illness, but otherwise, apart from frequent police visits (Braxton calls one policeman "quasi-Cardassian totalitarian") to try to stop him putting up posters proclaiming the end of the world (the end of the world he expected to avert), he is allowed to live his beggar's life.

Braxton puts up a poster in the city park, [Future's End]

He is essentially a typical tramp - his hair grows long, wild and unkempt, and he wears filthy rags as he lacks regular or proper wash facilities. His life apparently consists of pushing a trolley around the Los Angeles park raiding rubbish bins, muttering uneasily to himself, and putting up posters. He is unrecognisable as the smartly uniformed Starfleet officer of 29 years previously. Braxton's sad circumstances are discovered by Janeway and Chakotay during an away mission after Voyager's arrival on Earth, which occurs in the year 1996.

When Janeway and Chakotay find him, Braxton at first believes them to be social workers and refuses to answer their questions. But on closer inspection of the newcomers, memories of the events leading up to his downfall come flooding back.

Janeway and Chakotay follow Braxton back to his tramp's "abode"

[Future's End]

He blames Janeway fully for what has happened to him. Nevertheless, realising that his circumstances render him powerless, Braxton passes on a hand-drawn 'schematic' of the chronometric data from the Aeon's sensors.

Aeon, in Starling's lab, [Future's End]

Braxton explains the causal paradox to Janeway and Chakotay (see text below), [Future's End]

But he rants that it is too late - his timeship has been stolen and he believes Starling will attempt to pilot it into the future without recalibrating the temporal matrix - the cycle will be complete, and the explosion that destroys Earth's solar system will take place.

Braxton: "A leads to B, leads to C, leads to A. Eh, juvenile minds, oh how can I make you understand, huh? A: there's an explosion in the 29th century. Debris from Voyager's hull is found in evidence. I go back in time to destroy you. B: You try to stop me, disabling my weapon which causes me to crashland back here in the 20th century. C: someone in this century steals my timeship and launches it. They go into the future and once there they make one critical mistake, which causes a temporal explosion and takes us all the way back to A: there's an explosion in the 29th century. The cycle of causality is complete!"

During his encounter with Janeway and Chakotay, however, it is clear that circumstances have made Braxton mentally unstable. Apart from the temporal paradox problem, he seems just as concerned with the fact that scavengers have taken his pencils from his stockpile of rubbish. His attention lapses and he cannot focus on the vital issue which is the temporal paradox. This compels Janeway and Chakotay to leave Braxton to the attentions of two Los Angeles policemen who pass by, rather than risk getting Voyager (ship or crew) involved which would jeopardise their mission.

Eventually the Voyager aways teams are successful in corroborating Braxton's data and analysis and in identifying the location of the timeship. The Voyager crew successfully abort Starling's journey to the 29th century by destroying the Aeon with him inside it, and the correct timeline is restored.

Starling pilots Aeon and launches for the 29th century from inside the lab inside his headquarters, [Future's End]

inside the cockpit of the Aeon, Starling realises he is about to die as Voyager's torpedo reaches him, [Future's End]

Then Braxton appears once more on Voyager's Bridge's main viewscreen, explaining that the Temporal Integrity Commission detected Voyager's temporal displacement and that he has been despatched to return them to the 24th century.

Janeway to Braxton: "You tried to destroy our ship in the 24th century, and the next time we saw you, you were an old man, homeless, in 1996.
Braxton: "I never experienced that timeline.
Paris: "Then what are you doing here?
Braxton: "In my century we can scan time, much as you use sensors to scan space. The Temporal Integrity Commission detected your vessel over 20th century Earth. I was sent to correct that anomaly. Prepare to follow me back into the rift. I'm returning you to your own time, to your previous co-ordinates in the Delta Quadrant."
Janeway: "Captain, we've been trying to get home to Earth for the last two years. Can you return us to our century but keep us here, in the Alpha Quadrant?"
Braxton: "I'm sorry. Temporal Prime Directive. I'm afraid you're on your own. Braxton out."
Kim: "The timeship is re-entering the rift."
Janeway to the conn officer: "Mr Paris, follow him in."
Paris: "Aye Captain."
Janeway later makes this entry in her captain's log: "Captain's log, stardate 50312.5. We are again in the Delta Quadrant, at the exact time and place we first encountered the timeship. I've resumed a course for Earth....."

Braxton and Janeway communicate after the timeline is restored, [Future's End]

Braxton's words "I never experienced that timeline" is not necessarily the anomaly it seems given Braxton's later "After three decades with those post- industrial barbarians I had to go through extensive rehabilitation before I could return to duty." as, to explain this, I suggest that both can be and are true if 29th century Starfleet somehow has records of all timeline variations and Braxton was later told of his exile on Earth, or else, more plausibly, his "I never experienced that timeline" is his mind's way of dealing with the exile induced by his rehabilitation treatment. Braxton's problems, however, are far from over once he has undergone rehabilitation from his time of exile and returned to duty. TOSTFF explains it thus: "He ultimately retains a full awareness of the three decades he spent stranded on Earth - perhaps because his alternate selves have been reintegrated as per T.I.C. (Temporal Integrity Commission) policy, or perhaps because the timeline was not fully corrected. The 29th-century mobile emitter given to Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram by Henry Starling does not disappear, supporting this theory." Whatever the situation, Braxton undergoes extensive rehabilitation before he is permitted to return to his duties in the 29th century Starfleet, and he is later given the command of the Federation Timeship Relativity.