During routine operations the Enterprise is contacted by Starfleet Command and ordered to rendezvous with another ship and take on a Starfleet Admiral who will take the Enterprise on an as of yet undisclosed mission. The admiral turns out to be a former commanding officer of Riker's during his first assignment out of the academy. The adniral says they are going to retrieve a lost starship believed to have been discovered, and not destroyed as initially believed; the ship being the admirals and Riker's former assignment.
The admiral (whom we'll call "Admiral Locke") explains that 12 years ago he and the crew were conducting an experiment when suddenly most of the ship's crew mutinied against Captain Locke, he was able to escape along with a few supporting officers; one of whom was the still green Lieutenant Riker under the impression of always standing behind his captain. It was believed the mutineers did something that caused the ship to be destroyed but it now seems something else happened that caused the ship to become lost in an asteroid field. Picard finds gaps in the story, not the least of which is the unthinkable act of a mutiny on a starship, and no one is forthcoming with answers, including Riker. Just finding the barest of information was hard for him to get and it seems even Starfleet Command has covered up or ignored what had happened.
When the ship arrives at the asteroid field the Pegasus is believed lost in they find a Romulan ship nearby under the pretense of studying space phenomenon but everyone is sure they're also looking for the lost ship, feeling it to be of value to them in gather intelligence on Starfleet and The Federation.
Eventually the ship is located inside an asteroid, believed to have drifted in through the chasms in it, and ideas are tossed around on how to either recover the ship or at least some of the sensitive equipment on it, no viable ways are clear as space-greebles would interfere with shuttle engines and transporting isn't an option. Adm. Locke recommends flying the Enterprise herself in as the asteroid chasms are large enough -barely- to accommodate the ship which wouldn't be susceptible to the same vulnerabilities as the shuttles. Picard, against his judgment, defers to the Admiral's orders and takes the ship in. They find the Pegasus inexplicably half-buried in rock but still intact. Locke and Riker beam aboard to retrieve the equipment once the uses its shields and power to contain an environment on the damaged ship.
Lock finds the device he's looking for, much to disappointment of Riker who wished it was buried in the rock. The events of the last few days have troubled him as it's a ghost from his past he knew he'd have to deal with someday and it has finally come. He's decided to come clean about what's happened, feeling it to be the greater duty he has than the one he owes to Locke. Suddenly they are rocked by an explosion disturbing the asteroid, Locke, Riker and the recovered equipment beam back to the Enterprise.
The Romulans have "accidentally" sealed the ship inside the asteroid by firing on it, "if only they had known the Enterprise went inside." The Romulans "offer" to transport the crew to their ship, take them back to Romulous as "guests" where they will be returned to the Federation after a "short stay." Picard says he'll consider the offer and looks to other suggestions to get them out. Everyone is initially at a loss, firing on the asteroid from within could be more dangerous. Riker feels he has an idea, they can use the equipment recovered from the Pegasus to escape. Locke says Riker has ended his career, but Riker feels the need to come clean.
Riker says the device is a prototype for a Federation cloaking device, something the Federation is barred from developing under a treaty between the Federation and Romulans; which explains the massive cover-up around this series of events. Locke feels the treaty was a bad decision and has held the Federation back, while it's actually maintained some level of peace (or at least tolerance) between The Federation and Romulous. The Pegasus crew revolted due to the experiments, Locke and co. fled and the crew must have caused the device to fail in some manner, one of the results being a visible explosion of energy, though not the ship itself exploding.
The device is more than it a cloak, it's able to "phase" matter to make it immaterial to regular matter, allowing it to pass-through, how the ship is now buried in rock. Riker believes they can integrate the device into the Enterprise's systems and use it to escape the asteroid.
Data and Geordi are able to get the device properly connected and stable, and the ship cloaks and begins to pass through the asteroid. Once out, Picard orders them to decloak, but Locke objects, decloaking in front of the Romulans would give up their technological advantage, not to mention reveal they violated the treaty. Locke tries to rally the crew behind him, but no one agrees. The ship decloaks and Picard says he'll send an explanation to the Romulans in the near future, he has Locke arrested and Riker submits as well since he was part of the conspiracy.
Afterwards, in the brig, Picard speaks with Riker about the rough road ahead for Locke, but that Riker will likely weather the ordeal okay given his service and that ultimately he came clean and did the right thing. Riker and Picard leave the brig.
Oh.... and somewhere during all of this Riker dicks around in a holodeck recreation of the Enterprise NX-01 in order to decide whether or not he's going to come clean about all of this to Picard and Troi along with the holodeck recreations of the NX-01 crew, help me make the right call. WTG kiss from hologram T'Pol!
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This is one of the stronger episodes of the Seventh Season, dealing with an interesting storyline and giving a bit of a "darker' past to Riker. We also finally find out why the Federation doesn't have cloaks... the diplomats. I wonder what they got out of the deal and what was it about cloaking, specifically, that the Romulans didn't like the Federation having? Not that it's something the Federation needs, strictly, given their scientific slant but still seems like an odd thing for them to give up in the name of "peace" with the Romulans.
I like the sneaky, underhanded, smug act of the Romulan commander. It's sort of a joy to watch the coy, underhanded, banter between him and Picard and Picard even plays along to a degree.
I've always been confused by the way the cloak operates. We're told the ship is intact, yet we see from the inside of it the rock of the asteroid occupies parts of it. I guess the asteroid could have materialized where there wasn't a solid object to block it, but you'd think the air occupied by the space would be a hindrance, but maybe also I guess "easily" compressed or displaced.
Interesting the asteroid was large enough with large enough fissures and chasms in it to accommodate the massive size of the Enterprise. At what point does it then become a "moon" that just happens to not be around a planet? I also like the navigational/search lights emitted by the Enterprise as it navigates inside the asteroid (coming from around the RCS thruster quads) though one wonders what "use" they serve given the ship would navigate using sensors rather than visual clues and could provide the helmsman imagery without any need for visible light to interact with surfaces.
Ah, one of my other more favorite helmsmen(persons, women, whatever) the "black woman" who calmly, coolly, and collected commanded the Enterprise to do a 90-degree roll to escape the Dyson Sphere doesn't even bat an eye when she's ordered to do the unusual, risky and dangerous task of maneuvering into the asteroid, or pilot "through" it when the ship is cloaked.
I always get a chuckle from Riker's at-a-gasp face when Picard threatens Riker with a demotion.
Sigh, another episode with a silly cold-open. Yeah, we're given some useful exposition on the episode but the set-up of the scene just reeks of a silly cold-open to be there for the sake of being there to fill time.
Interesting the ship could so easily be outfitted with the cloaking device, you'd think special exterior equipment would be needed for it to work. I also guess all cloaking devices have the same "sound" when the cloak occurs. It is cool seeing the scenes of the ship cloaking/decloaking.
Picard and the Romulan are obviously playing a coy game with one another, you'd think the Romulan firing on the asteroid, trapping the Enterprise inside, would be taken as an act of aggression. Maybe this pushed against the cloaking device development and both sides decided to let bygones by bygones.
Sigh. The Federation decided not to building a cloaking device for diplomatic reasons? Really?!
