About a thousand years before the 24th century, the planet Kataan died as its sun went nova, after its people launched a probe to preserve the memory of their world.
The people of Kataan saw that their star was growing hotter and that their world would soon be uninhabitable. Lacking the means to escape, they launched a probe designed to find someone in the future and share with them the life of their civilisation.
In 2368 the probe found the Enterprise-D and linked with Picard, who lived an entire lifetime as Kamin in the village of Ressik in about twenty-five minutes. He awoke with memories of a wife, Eline, children and friends, and kept a flute recovered from the probe, which he had learned to play.