Nancy Hedford was a female human who served as a Federation Assistant Commissioner in the mid 23rd century. In 2267, she was assigned to a mission to Epsilon Canaris III in order to prevent the outbreak of war. Her mission was cut short when she contracted Sakuro's Disease, and the USS Enterprise was sent to transport her to a medical facility. The shuttlecraft sent to bring Hedford to the ship, however, was seized by an energy-based alien entity and diverted to an uncharted planetoid in the Gamma Canaris region. There, Hedford and the Enterprise crew encountered Zefram Cochrane, who had gone missing from Alpha Centauri 150 years earlier.