After the Solarion Four settlement is destroyed, and a race called the Bajora claims responsibility, Picard meets with Admiral Kennelly, who tells him that the Bajoran responsible is a terrorist leader named Orta. (The Bajorans' homeworld was annexed by the Cardassians generations ago-they've been refugees ever since.) Picard's mission is to find Orta, and to get him back to the Bajoran settlement camps "any way he can." Kennelly offers amnesty to Orta, but nothing more than promises beyond it.

A possible snag in this mission is the very thing Kennelly proposed to help it: the presence of one Ensign Ro Laren, a Bajoran. Her past record is such that virtually no one on board wants her there (including Picard), but Kennelly insists she can be of help. She comes on board, with a sour disposition light-years across.

Despite her attitude, she manages to be of some help. Due in large part to her suggestions and efforts, Picard manages to locate Orta, and they head to the third moon of Vallor One, his base. After Guinan takes an interest in Ro (despite Ro's opposition, and to the extent of calling her a friend), however, Ro receives a private communication from Admiral Kennelly. Everything is "going as [he] predicted," she tells him...

The next morning, the away team (Picard, Troi, Worf, and Data) prepare to beam down, and find that Ro did so six hours ago. They follow her, and are promptly captured by Orta and his people. Orta, horribly disfigured as a result of Cardassian torture, tells them that he felt abducting them was necessary, and says that the Bajora were not responsible for the attack. (Ro had beamed down early to try to stop the bloodshed she was convinced the mission will eventually come to.)

Picard is somewhat inclined to believe Orta, especially since Troi sensed no deception from him. However, he confines Ro to quarters for her unauthorized beam-down. She broods in her quarters, but Guinan again comes to the rescue, coaxing enough out of her to find that much more is going on than originally thought, and she convinces Ro to talk to Picard (and convinces Picard to listen, equally importantly).

Ro reveals that she was given a different mission by Kennelly: to offer Orta Federation weapons in exchange for returning to the camps. (He also gave her authorization for her beam-down.) However, with Orta's revelation, she no longer knows what to do or whom to trust. Picard decides that the best course might be to actually take Orta back to the camps, and then "see what happens"...

As the Enterprise escorts a Bajoran cruiser [at half impulse, the cruiser's top speed] to the camp, however, two Cardassian ships cross the border and forcefully "request" that the Enterprise leave this "terrorist" ship to them. Picard initially refuses, and is given an hour. Kennelly, far from helping, insists that the Cardassian treaty is the more important issue, and orders Picard to withdraw-even after Picard openly states his belief that Kennelly was working with the Cardassians to draw Orta out so that they could destroy him.

Picard withdraws, and the Bajoran cruiser is destroyed. However, Kennelly is surprised to hear that no one was on board! (Picard and Ro, suspecting a chain of events like this might occur, planned it.) Picard informs Kennelly that the Bajoran ships are so old and obsolete that they were incapable of attacking the Solarion Four settlement, and suggests that the Cardassians staged everything, hoping to find someone like Kennelly, naive enough to help them solve their problems. All is well-and Ro, after Picard challenges her to stay in Starfleet, stays on.

Highlight Listing:

"Ensign Ro" - Picard suspects a high-level Federation conspiracy when the crew is ordered to locate the terrorist leader of a renegade race.

Advertising Headline:

A RACE WITH TERROR! The crew hunts for the leader of a terrorist race.

TV log listing:

Terrorists threaten Federation peace on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Operation SNAFU

When Ensign Ro takes off her jacket, her communicator is on her jacket. However, when she hands the jacket to the little girl, her communicator jumps to her uniform, with no action of putting the communicator there. (V) Then, when Ro talks with the girl, we sometimes se shots taken from behind the girl, sometimes from behind Ro. On the shots taken from behind the girl, Ro is less crouched, I mean that her head is much higher compared to when she is filmed from behind her.

Technical design, graphic design, interactive features, HTML & CGI programming by Andrew Tong. || All materials Copyright © 1987-1995 by their respective authors. || Document created: January 28, 1995 || Last Modified: November 09, 2010