'Preemptive Strike' (Story Code 276) by René Echevarria Story by Naren Shankar

A newly-promoted Lieutenant Ro Laren returns to the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is en route to a briefing on the situation in the Demilitarised Zone along the Federation / Cardassian border. But Ro's homecoming is rudely interrupted when the ship detects a distress call from a Cardassian ship under attack by the Maquis, a group of Federation renegades opposed to the Cardassian presence. Although the Enterprise is able to fight of the Maquis ship, the Cardassians, under the command of Gul Evek, are suspicious, implying that Starfleet is covertly encouraging the renegades; when Picard denies this, Evek threatens that unless the Federation forces the Maquis to uphold the peace treaty, the Cardassian military will take matters into its own hands. The Enterprise rendezvous with Admiral Nechayev, who informs Picard that she has decided to send Ro on an undercover intelligence-gathering mission to infiltrate the Maquis. Ro is surprised, but Picard points out that, as a Bajoran who has spent most of her life fighting the Cardassians, she is the ideal choice; Ro then accepts the mission out of loyalty to the captain. Posing as a fugitive accused of killing a Cardassian, Ro heads for an alien bar; evading capture from Lieutenant Commander Data and Lieutenant Worf, she makes contact with a man named Santos, only to be stunned by a phaser. She comes to in a Maquis settlement, and manages to convince her captors that she is sympathetic to their cause; they confirm her story, and accept her into their group. After making friends with a fatherly man named Macias, Ro learns that the Cardassians are believed to be smuggling biogenic weapons into the Demilitarised Zone; in order to launch a pre-emptive strike, the Maquis need extra medical supplies, which Ro is able to obtain by raiding the Enterprise. However, Ro soon realises that she really does sympathise with the Maquis - and soon faces a decision that could jeopardise her career in Starfleet…

Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Thomas Riker), LeVar Burton (Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Security Chief Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Doctor Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Councelor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lieutenant Commander Data), Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren), John Franklyn-Robbins (Macias), Natalija Nogulich (Admiral Necheyev), William Thomas, Jr. (Santos), Shannon Cochran (Kalita), Richard Poe (Gul Evek)

Directed by Patrick Stewart
Produced by Ronald D. Moore and Peter Lauritson
Co-Produced by Brannon Braga
Executive Producers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller and Rick Berman

TX:
16th May, 1994

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William Thomas Riker, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Geordi La Forge, Security Chief Lieutenant Worf, Doctor Beverly Crusher, Councelor Deanna Troi, Lieutenant Commander Data and Ensign Ro Laren

*Working title: 'The Good Fight'