Another crazy admiral story! It's also a good Riker episode. You don't often see him put in a spot that's contrary to Picard or in any ways helpless to the events around him. It's in the same vein as The First Duty, only instead of seeing it unfold after the fact, we see the action in real time. It's a mature story and although it didn't have anything to do with DS9 directly, it helped to continue setting the darker tones that Star Trek was moving towards.
It starts with some humor though in the observation lounge. Picard and Troi are looking at entries spread across the table for "Captain Picard Day." Picard isn't amused as Troi reminds him that they do this every year because he's a role model for the kids to look up to while Riker imitates him as he holds up a little Picard doll. After he leaves Troi prods him to choose the winning and follow up entries when he's interrupted by a message from a vice admiral. She's ordering him to a sector with no information on the mission except that they will rendezvous with the Crazy Horse (a fun indication of the personality to come) to pick up somebody from Starfleet Intelligence who would fill them in. More humor as she observes the Picard Day decorations behind him, and then down to business. It quickly cuts to their meeting with the other ship and indicates the passage of time by a brief conversation in which Will asks Picard who won the contest. They then go to the transporter room to beam up their contact. He is Admiral Erik Pressman and Riker looks as though he will faint when he sees him. His discomfort is tangible and it continues through the briefing. We learn that Pressman was Riker's captain during his first assignment on a ship called the Pegasus which was rumored to have been destroyed by a warp core breach 12 years prior. Riker escaped with Pressman and seven others and confirms that the ship was reported as destroyed. Pressman tells them that it may have been found and Starfleet wants it back because it was an important prototype vessel with unique weapons systems.It's located in the Neurtral Zone and the orders are to salvage it or destroy it if they can't. Riker isn't happy about it but nobody notices. They go to the Devolin system. They don't encounter Romulans at first but soon a ship uncloaks. The Commander and Picard exchange snarky pleasantries and lies about what they're each doing there and agree to stay out of each other's way but they watch the Romulan's movements nonetheless. It will take a long time to search the asteroid field and the Romulans already have a head start, so they begin their sweeps.
While the search carries on, Pressman has a drink with Riker in Ten Forward. There's the usual catching up banter over Riker's beard and Pressman's interest in the fact that Riker has lightened up since his stint on the Pegasus. Then Riker gets to the nub of what's been on his mind and asks Pressman directly if he thinks they'll really find the Pegasus and if "the experiment" will still be aboard it. Pressman is optimistic but Riker confesses some guilt wondering if they did the right thing back then or if they should've gone about things differently. Pressman's conscience doesn't bother him at all and he even expresses hope of trying the experiment again if it's found. This surprises Riker. He's also alarmed to learn that some top level security people know about it and are on board with this plan. Pressman leaves him with a casual mention of the fact that Will is under orders from another admiral to not speak about any of these things to anyone including Picard. We then see Picard and Pressman talking. Picard tells him that he picked Will as his first officer because of an incident on his record in which he didn't blindly obey his captain, but instead kept him aboard their ship because he thought it was the right thing to do. Pressman counters expressing that trusting the captain's judgement unquestioningly is more important and that's how Riker was 12 years ago when he needed him the most. You can see Picard doesn't care for Pressman's assessment. Riker's mood continues to be gloomy as he sees Crusher after becoming injured while sparring with Worf. He seems to have a little too much regret for the mistake that landed him in sickbay. Crusher can't see hes having deeper trouble, (how obtuse everyone suddenly is in this episode!) but the audience can tell he's talking about another mistake made in the past on the Pegasus. Later on the bridge they find an asteroid with a strong subspace resonance signature coming from underneath its surface. They speculate on whether it could be the Pegasus and if it could've crash landed in a fissure while the Romulans track their movements. Riker pipes up right away in favor of destroying the asteroid but Pressman backs him off wanting better options for salvaging the ship within. Data and Geordi find a way to mask the resonance signature so the Romulans can't see it and manage to pull it off only moments before they get over there to start scanning. The Romulans appear to find nothing and move away while Picard arranges for them to casually wander back to this asteroid the following day. Pressman takes Riker aside to put him in check for suggesting that they destroy the ship. He notes how Riker has changed, particularly in the area of loyalty and duty but also tries to build him up again by reminding him of how he'd counted on him in the past and is sure he can count on him now.
Riker reports to Picard with their recent scanning analyses. Picard is holding a report that tells of a mutiny that happened aboard the Pegasus 12 years ago that required further investigation but was buried instead. It was classified so he had to call in some important favors to get it and he wants answers from Will. Riker explains the events as though reading them from the report itself. He says that the first officer thought that Pressman was endangering the ship and attempted to take command. When Picard wants to know what Riker thought, he tells him of how, at only a year out of the academy, he still had words like "duty" and "honor" drilled into his head so he picked up a phaser and defended his captain at all cost. They fought all the way to the escape pod and shortly after they jettisoned the Pegasus exploded. Picard can see that Will is strained and is not satisfied with his story. Will tries to redirect him to Pressman, but Picard is angry at Will for withholding the entire truth. He makes his disappointment known (even the audience feels guilty when Picard is let down with a person!) and tells Riker that he expects him not to let Admiral Pressman endanger this ship. He then calls the vice admiral from the beginning and asks for a delay until he can sort out the mystery, but she denies his request. So, after leading the Romulans away they back track to the asteroid and determine that the Pegasus is definitely in there and that her warp core is in tact. Beaming things out would be difficult due to gravitational fields so Pressman orders that they take the Enterprise into a fissure to get closer over Picard's objections and threats to abort if it becomes dangerous. When they get inside they're shocked and appalled to see the Pegasus sticking out of the solid rock with part of it embedded inside the rock itself. Pressman quickly shuts down their speculation on how its even possible and asks them if they can get into Engineering to retrieve "sensitive equipment." The section they need is outside the rock and they arrange to fix the life support in it so that they can transport over. Pressman overrules Picard's idea of taking a full away team insisting that he and Riker go alone. They beam over and Riker is saddened to see rock sticking out of the walls and well preserved bodies all over the floor. Pressman goes straight to a panel to remove a piece of equipment. He's thrilled and genuinely doesn't understand why Will is unenthusiastic. Will tells him that he's going to put his foot down and stop him from starting the experiments again. Pressman blames the crew of the Pegasus for the accident claiming that they were trying to shut down an experiment that they didn't understand. Then he basically tells Riker to go pound sand since he's under orders not to talk about it anyway. The ship shakes while they're arguing so they beam back over to the Enterprise quickly. When they get back they learn that the Romulans have sealed them inside the asteroid.
The Romulan Commander hails them, swears that it was just an accident, and offers to take the entire asteroid back to Romulus to get them out. Picard is not amused. They can't cut their way out with phasers for fear of causing a cave in of the fissure. Finally Riker suggests a solution and reveals what the experiment was that they'd been alluding to during the entire episode. He tells them that the piece of equipment in Pressman's quarters is a prototype for a Federation cloaking device. Picard notes that the treaty they made with the Romulans had forbidden the Federation from pursuing that technology. I always assumed it was something like that since good countries in real life are always putting themselves at a disadvantage to prove that they're the good guys, but I had no idea up until now. They'd never made it an official part of the story until this episode and there were other theories in the past suggesting that cloaking technology was harmful to Federation ships and stuff like that. Anyway, Pressman tries to pull rank and take command of the ship from Picard but nobody follows him. Instead they run with Will's idea of using the cloak after learning that it is also a phasing device that will allow them to pass through the asteroid which explains how it got in there to begin with. It's a concept they first employed in The Next Phase and it's always wonderful to see the writers building on concepts like this. Picard puts Data and Geordi on it and they discover it has the potential to ignite plasma relays causing an explosion which is what Will suspected happened 12 years ago when the ship cloaked and drifted into the asteroid in its phased state. Eight hours later they're ready to try it. The Enterprise cloaks in the asteroid and begins to move through it in a phased state. On the view screen you can see the rock walls melting around them as they pass through slowly and tensely. The exit the asteroid to see the Warbird parked right next to them. Pressman demands that Picard not decloak but he does anyway. He tells the Romulans to leave and that their government will be contacted shortly.
He then orders that Pressman be put under arrest, but Riker must also be put under arrest too since he was complicit in this cover up. Pressman isn't discouraged and he's lead away bragging about how many powerful friends he has with Picard quietly pondering aloud that he'll need them to get out of this. He then goes to visit Will in his cell to talk about the coming inquiry and court martial of Pressman and several others. He's confident that Will's record since his time on the Pegasus will make up for his involvement as a green young ensign back then.
It ends on that note and we must assume that Riker's record does make the difference since he's back like nothing happened in the next episode whereas Wesley didn't have a 12 year career to counteract his actions in The First Duty so his aftermath was much more disagreeable. This is an excellent episode with a lot of good acting and a solid story that sprinkles in just the right amount of humor to break the tensions. It's a more realistic scenario of what a corrupt admiral would obsess over rather than the scenarios in The Offspring, The Drumhead, and Too Short A Season.Very nicely written and executed. Four and a half stars.
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