ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Preemptive Strike</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR=#000000"> <TABLE ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="595" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="3" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD ROWSPAN="2" WIDTH="150" VALIGN=MIDDLE ALIGN=CENTER><IMG SRC="STTNG Pictures/Next-Gen-Logo.gif" WIDTH="175" HEIGHT="117" BORDER="0" ALT="Star Trek The Next Generation Logo"></TD> <TD WIDTH="245" VALIGN=CENTER ALIGN=CENTER><FONT COLOR="#99CCFF" SIZE="3" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans"><B>'Preemptive Strike'</B><BR><BR><FONT SIZE="3">(Story Code 276)<BR>by René Echevarria<BR>Story by Naren Shankar</TD> <TD ROWSPAN="2" WIDTH="200" VALIGN=CENTER ALIGN=CENTER><IMG SRC="STTNG Pictures/STTNG S7 Cast.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="143" ALT="Star Trek The Next Generation Cast"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT COLOR="#99CCFF" SIZE="2" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans"> A newly-promoted Lieutenant Ro Laren returns to the <I>U.S.S. Enterprise</I>, 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 <I> Enterprise</I> 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 <I>Enterprise</I> 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 <I>Enterprise</I>. However, Ro soon realises that she really does sympathise with the Maquis - and soon faces a decision that could jeopardise her career in Starfleet& <BR><BR> Patrick Stewart (<B>Captain Jean-Luc Picard</B>), Jonathan Frakes (<B>Commander William Thomas Riker</B>), LeVar Burton (<B>Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge</B>), Michael Dorn (<B>Security Chief Lieutenant Worf</B>), Gates McFadden (<B>Doctor Beverly Crusher</B>), Marina Sirtis (<B>Councelor Deanna Troi</B>), Brent Spiner (<B>Lieutenant Commander Data</B>), Michelle Forbes (<B>Ro Laren</B>), John Franklyn-Robbins (<B>Macias</B>), Natalija Nogulich (<B>Admiral Necheyev</B>), William Thomas, Jr. (<B>Santos</B>), Shannon Cochran (<B>Kalita</B>), Richard Poe (<B>Gul Evek</B>) <BR><BR><B>Directed by Patrick Stewart <BR>Produced by Ronald D. Moore and Peter Lauritson <BR>Co-Produced by Brannon Braga <BR>Executive Producers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller and Rick Berman </B> <BR><BR><B>TX:</B> <FONT COLOR="#99CCFF" SIZE="2" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans"> <BR>16th May, 1994 <BR><BR><B>Notes:</B> <BR>*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 <BR><BR>*Working title: 'The Good Fight' <BR><BR><BR> </BODY> </HTML>