On the ship, Patakh is on his last Romu-legs. Crusher needs to find a donor for some conveniently irreplicable Romulan bio-chemical to prevent his death, and finds a match in Worf. Unfortunately, Worf isn’t keen, given that his parents were killed by Romulans. All Romulans, apparently. Riker attempts to shame him into it, but that doesn’t work. Crusher makes him visit the patient, but that only makes things worse when Patakh says he’d rather die than take a transfusion from a Klingon. Picard tries to guilt Worf into agreeing to the treatment, but he refuses again. Everyone gets very angry and in the meantime Patakh dies.

Back on the surface, Geordi and his captor bond over a shared hatred of dying alone on some godforsaken rock. After earning his trust the old-fashioned way – saving his life multiple times over – Geordi convinces the Romulan to let him guide them home. But them the planet’s poisonous environment makes him go blind. Impeccable timing.

Working together, Geordi and the Romulan (He’s called Bochra. Apparently.) set off towards the probe using another MacGuyvered instrument as a Neutrino-probe “Geiger Counter” (one wonders how the universal translator explains “Geiger Counter” to a Romulan.)

Meanwhile, Picard is engaged in the kind of heated diplomacy with the Romulan commander Tomalak that makes Russia and the EU look like bezzie mates. Tomalak refuses to explain why their ship was on the planet and assures Picard that it was a one-man vessel. Though eager to avoid war, Picard finds himself staring down a Romulan disruptor when Geordie and Bochra reach the probe and signal the ship.

Picard sweet-talks the Romulans into not shooting them, then beams the pair up from the planet. He then informs Tomalak that he’s unexpectedly found a second crewmen, which Tomalak explains as a mistake on his part. Bochra explains that they saved his life and he’s returned to his ship. Riker wipes his brow, while Picard muses on the dangers of brinkmanship. And come to think of it, we never did find out what the Romulans were doing on Galorndon Core. Yay?