- Without the support of Starfleet, Picard turns to Dr. Agnes Jurati and his estranged colleague Raffi Musiker for help in finding the truth about Dahj, unaware that hidden enemies are also interested in what he'll find.
- Picard begins investigating the mystery of Dahj as well as what her very existence means to the Federation. Without Starfleet's support, Picard is left leaning on others for help, including Dr. Agnes Jurati and an estranged former colleague, Raffi Musiker. Meanwhile, hidden enemies are also interested in where Picard's search for the truth about Dahj will lead.
- Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars were attacked in 2385, 14 years ago. The synthetics were deeply involved in running the mundane operations on the shipyard. F8 was one such synthetic. All of a sudden, something changes and the F8 brings down planetary defense shields on Mars. F8 kills all of its human supervisors. Satellites and autonomous spaceships in orbit around Mars start their attack. As the stratosphere ignites, F8 proceeds to kill itself.
Hoping to find Soji before the assassins get to her, Picard investigates Dahj's apartment with his Romulan employee Laris. The latter believes the assassins may be members of the Zhat Vash, a secretive organization with a deep-rooted hatred of synthetics. Zhat Vash are the keepers of secrets. Rumors suggest that the Zhat Vash are keeping a secret so terrible that even learning it could break a person's mind. Their reason for the loathing of any form of synthetic life, is the secret. Laris helps Picard discover Soji's location from Dahj's computer. Liras ascertains that Soji's messages to Dahj came from off world subspace relays. Soji is not on Earth.
On the Borg Cube, called the "Artifact", Soji develops a relationship with Romulan agent Narek while she works on a project to remove Borg technology from former Borg drones. Soji thinks that the Romulans are profiting from the sale of Borg Technology on the black market. The Artifact is severed from the collective. It is broken and lost. Narek is very secretive with Soji and doesn't reveal anything about himself.
Despite the onset of a terminal illness, Picard asks Starfleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy for a ship and crew to find Soji. Picard says that Maddox is using neurons from Data to create a new line of organic synthetics. Romulans are involved as well. And if some part of Data exists, Picard wants to retrieve it before it is lost. She refuses him and says that everyone saw Picard's interview where he blamed Starfleet. Romulans were the enemies and Starfleet tried to help them as long as they could. Even before the synthetics attacked, 14 allies had asked the Federation to cut the Romulans loose or loose the Federation. The Federation didn't have enough ships left and had to make choices, but Captain Picard did not like his orders. Picard warns of an oncoming calamity, but Kirsten says Picard is delusional and is desperate to matter again.
Kirsten refers the incident to Starfleet's security chief Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita), who discusses it with a lieutenant; this is Narek's sister Narissa (Peyton List) in disguise. Commodore Oh is also Romulan. Kirsten tells Oh that Picard suspected clandestine Romulan synthetic operations on Earth. Narissa led the assassins to kill Dahj while Narek is approaching his target, Soji, with seduction rather than violence. Oh chastises Narissa for her mistakes that led to Picard's meeting with Kirsten. Oh tells Narissa not to focus on Picard and stay on mission. Mission was to capture Dahj alive for interrogation and then only have one more chance. Narissa almost blew their cover. Oh wants Narissa to make sure that she and Narek capture Soji. Narrisa and Narek want to find out the location of the "nest" and its fellow synthetics from Soji.
Agnes Jurati says that Dahj's entire history was fictional and was created all at once around 3 years ago. Bruce Maddox did have the ability to create an entirely new and plausible, credible identity, but then so did others. Picard decides to find and save Soji himself and begins to assemble a new crew, starting with his former Starfleet first officer Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). Laris and Zahban are worried for Picard's security and warn him against the Zhat Vash. Picard narrates the events to Raffi at her house in the desert.
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