“Face of the Enemy” is episode fourteen of season six of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A woman comes around in a darkened room. It sounds like Counsellor Troi but doesn’t seem to quite look like her. She staggers out of bed, not looking great, when the computer doesn’t turn the lights on. When she turns them on manually at a mirror, she’s revealed to be Romulan and in Romulan uniform.
Troi is on a Romulan Warbird. Another Romulan comes into the room and is glad she’s awake. He also knows who she is. There isn’t much time to talk, but he tells Troi she’s on the Imperial Romulan Warbird Kazara and he’s Subcommander N’Vek. Troi lasts remembers being at a seminar, then being attacked and hyposprayed on returning to her quarters. N’Vek says it was necessary; he couldn’t be sure she’d come voluntarily. She is Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar but there’s no time to explain everything. The captain will call; tell her nothing, only to proceed to the Kaleb sector. Troi needs to do what he says; she’s a Starfleet officer disguised as a Romulan and will be killed if discovered. She is an empath; is he lying? He is not.
The Kazara is in orbit around a planet and cargo has been loaded when N’Vek and Troi arrive on the bridge. Commander Toreth doesn’t seem to think Troi is acting much like a member of the Tal Shiar; Troi isn’t being arrogant enough. The military also do not like the Tal Shiar. Toreth wants to open the cargo, but Troi forbids it, finally being more forceful, and orders they go to the Kaleb sector.
The Enterprise is taking on a unique passenger. Worf, Riker and Dr Crusher are heading to the transporter room; the doctor is willing to be more forgiving of someone Worf and Riker consider a traitor. A man, Ensign DeSeve, is beamed aboard. He’s human, but in Romulan uniform, and is promptly arrested for treason. DeSeve says he needs to speak to Captain Picard urgently.
DeSeve tells the captain that Spock sent him, referencing “Unification II”. They need to meet a Corvallen freighter in the Kaleb sector and bring its cargo back to Federation space. It’s important for the future of the Romulans and the Federation. Picard asks DeSeve if he returned just to give this message. Partly. And he was ready to come back. When he was young, the moral certainty of the Romulans had appeal, and their passionate commitment was compelling. As DeSeve grew older, this became more ambiguous.
Troi meets N’Vek in the cargo bay; she says the crew is terrified of her. Yes; to defy the Tal Shiar is to invite imprisonment or death. Troi wants to know more and that’s why N’Vek called her. He opens a cargo container; it contains a Romulan. Vice Proconsul M’Ret of the Romulan Imperial Senate, and his two top aides, all in stasis. M’Ret is a member of the dissident movement and is defecting. N’Vek is part of Spock’s underground. If M’Ret can be delivered safely, that opens up an escape route for thousands of dissidents. Troi asks if there is a Major Rakal. There was; she was killed so Troi could take her place. They need a Romulan for the first part, but if anything goes wrong, they will need a Starfleet officer. When they meet the Corvallen freighter, Troi will accompany the containers back to Federation space. Now, the commander will expect Troi to dine with the officers.
Toreth is recounting a story when Troi arrives, the main goal of which seems to be tell how the intelligence officer was executed. It then seems like Toreth is trying to see if Troi is who she says she is, but Toreth is simply wanting to have another dig at the Tal Shiar; her father was arrested and disappeared by them.
The bridge informs them there’s a ship on an intercept course; the Corvallen freighter. The freighter’s captain contacts the Warbird, and Troi tells N’Vek that the captain is lying and won’t do what he was hired to do. N’Vek destroys the freighter and claims Troi ordered it.
The Enterprise is heading to meet a freighter that is now in small pieces, and there’s a Warbird in the general area. Troi is on a ship full of Romulans who hate her, as a representative of the Tal Shiar, but also fear her, as a representative of the Tal Shiar. And now they need to do the alternate plan designed for if the first didn’t work out.