During an Academy inquiry, team leader Nick Locarno testifies that the collision occurred while they were executing a "Yeager Loop" maneuver in orbit above Saturn's moon Titan.
Satellite imagery shows the team's ships to have been in a different formation from that described; these records, combined with the cadets' sudden reticence to explain their actions, prompt Picard to direct his crew to open an investigation of their own.
Picard and his crew discover evidence to suggest that Nova Squadron had actually been performing a maneuver called the "Kolvoord Starburst", last attempted at the Academy more than a century earlier; it was banned following a training accident that killed all five cadets involved.
The next day, the admiral in charge of the inquiry prepares to dismiss it since there is no conclusive proof of any wrongdoing beyond the minor infractions that the cadets have admitted to committing.
[4] Sito Jaxa, one of the other cadets involved in the accident, later made a prominent appearance in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 episode "Lower Decks."
[9] Nicholas Locarno would later return as the main antagonist of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, now an independent civilian pilot and the leader of Nova Fleet who was still bitter about the events of "The First Duty" even thirteen years later.
The season finale, "Old Friends, New Planets," contains a flashback to shortly before the events of "The First Duty" featuring Nova Squadron discussing their plans for the Kolvoord Starburst, showing that both Crusher and Cadet Albert had their doubts but were pressured by Locarno.
At the end of that episode, the detonation of a Ferengi Genesis Device involving Locarno emitted the Kolvoord Starburst in the process of creating a new planet.