At the close of last season, Worf resigned his Starfleet commission to join the Council Klingon army as civil war divided his people. Despite his sympathy for Worf, Picard refused to involve the U.S.S. Enterprise in the internal Klingon struggle. Yet fearing that the Romulans are secretly supporting the subversive Duras family in hopes of destroying the Klingon alliance with the Federation, Picard convinces the head of Starfleet to initiate a blockade against the Romulan Empire. He immediately assigns his crew members to posts on Starfleet ships and dispatches the fleet to the Romulan-Klingon border, where they hope to prevent the flow of supplies and equipment from the Romulans to the Duras family.
