Shelby and Riker are dismissed, and Hanson volunteers Shelby as Riker’s replacement. Picard seems puzzled – she doesn’t even have a beard – until Hanson explains that Riker has been offered command of the USS Melbourne and strongly suggests to Picard that Riker give him a push into finally accepting his own command. Meanwhile, Riker and Shelby get hostile as she informs him she’s after his job, and he realises he’s facing a problem he can’t solve by having sex with it.

With an away mission planned for the following morning, Riker, Data, La Forge, Troi, Worf, Wesley and Shelby all play a game of Poker. Shelby wins the game after confronting Riker on his bluff. IT’S A METAPHOR. The following morning he arrives at the scheduled hour to find that Shelby left without him, and they continue to argue. But they also get the information they need: this was definitely the Borg.

When Riker reports the findings to Picard, the Captain asks why he’s still on the Enterprise, then orders him to reconsider his command. This rattles Riker a little, and he drags Troi to Ten Forward to whine about his career while she looks massively disinterested. She eventually asks him what he actually wants, but he doesn’t have an answer. She then charges him for the out-of-hours counselling (presumably).

In Engineering, Shelby, Data, La Forge and Crusher are trying to figure out how to shut down a Borg cube. They’re close to a solution, but Riker insists they all need sleep despite Shelby’s protestations. When reports come in that another ship has encountered a probable Borg cube (it was reportedly cube-shaped and full of Borg) the Enterprise speeds off to meet it, employing the tactical move known as “light brigading”.

When they encounter the Borg, they fire all of the Enterprise’s weapons but it doesn’t make a dent. The Borg demand Picard’s surrender, but he refuses and the Borg attack. When the Enterprise is caught in a Borg tractor beam, Shelby puts theory into practise and helps them escape. They then go and hide in a nebula while the Borg cube waits outside for them to emerge. “Good. At least they’re not hurting anyone else.” Says Picard, like this was his plan all along.