Alynna Nechayev Alynna Nechayev was a Human Starfleet flag officer during the late - 24th century . She spent much of the 2360s and early 2370s dealing with issues near the Cardassian border . ( ; ) Personal life . Nechayev had a particular fondness for Bularian canapé s , though she thought them fattening . ( ) Career . Nechayev was a significant figure in Starfleet ' s dealings with the Cardassian Union and a fierce advocate of Federation security . She was Captain Jean - Luc Picard ' s direct superior , but her working relationship with him was poor . In 2369 , while serving as a Vice Admiral , she ordered Picard to relinquish command of the to Captain Edward Jellico , the latter having experience with Cardassians in the past and having worked to establish the original armistice of the Federation - Cardassian War . She assigned Picard to a special operation to infiltrate a Cardassian installation on Celtris III . After Jellico ' s negotiations with Gul Lemec worsened , she authorized his actions against the Cardassian warships in the McAllister C - 5 Nebula , at the risk of provoking open war and abandoning Picard . ( ) Later that year , Nechayev paid another visit to the " Enterprise " - D . Nechayev believed that Picard was too soft - handed in his dealings with Federation adversaries . She cited in particular his refusal to use Hugh as a carrier to introduce an invasive program into the Borg Collective . When she commanded the Starfleet task forces assembled in response to the Borg attack , she ordered Picard to deploy the program should another opportunity avail itself . ( ) Nechayev was promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral in the year 2370 , during which time she paid a third visit to the " Enterprise " - D . Picard tried making amends by contacting the Admiral ' s aide Commander Wrightwell to find about her fondness of Bularian canapés , which he then offered her in an attempt to help her feel welcome aboard the " Enterprise " . However , his objections to her order removing the Native American colonists from the Dorvan V colony in the Demilitarized Zone left tension between the two . ( ) During this year , she also played a role in the Federation - Cardassian Treaty , and subsequently oversaw Starfleet ' s response to the Maquis insurrection following Gul Dukat ' s kidnapping . Though she understood , and sympathized with , the Maquis position , she was committed to preserving the Federation ' s peace with the Cardassians despite Central Command arming their colonists covertly . As part of her efforts , she requested Ro Laren ' s participation in an undercover mission to infiltrate the Maquis – but this backfired on her when Ro joined the Maquis instead . ( ; ) Nechayev was used in a simulation performed by the Vorta Borath to investigate possible reactions of Benjamin Sisko , Jadzia Dax , Miles O ' Brien , Julian Bashir and Sub - Commander T ' Rul to an increased Dominion presence in the Alpha Quadrant in 2371 . In this simulation , Nechayev informed Sisko that Deep Space 9 was being handed over to the Dominion , an agreement to which the Bajoran s strongly objected . ( ) Later that year , when the crew of Deep Space 9 had recovered a Jem ' Hadar youth , and Odo opted to return him to the Dominion rather than to hand them over to the incoming , Sisko justified the change of plans by stating that while Admiral Nechayev would not have liked it , " " I would ' ve had to kill the boy to keep him here . " " ( ) Memorable quotes . " " Admiral , with all due respect , it ' s not necessary to give Captain Jellico command of the " Enterprise " just to conduct a negotiation . " " < br > " " I disagree . The " Enterprise " will be in a dangerous situation and I want someone on the bridge who has a great deal of experience with the Cardassians . No offense , commander , but that ' s not you . " " < br > " " Your priority is to safeguard the lives of Federation citizens , not to wrestle with your conscience . " " < br > " " Granted , but to go to them now after twenty years later and ask them to leave what is now their home . " " < br > " " I made that same argument with the Federation Council . But it took three years to negotiate this treaty . Some concessions had to be made , and this is one of them . " " < br > " " Evek manages to make the Cardassians sound like helpless sheep being preyed on by Federation wolves . " " < br > " " The Maquis are a bunch of irresponsible hotheads . " " Appendices . Background information . Nechayev was played by Natalia Nogulich . She wore the rank insignia of a vice admiral in all of her appearances . According to the final draft for " Chain of Command , Part I " , the pronunciation for Alynna was " al - EE - ah - na " . In the first draft script she was called Vice - Admiral Cooper . There were two spellings for her last name . The first spelling of her last name , Nechayev ( ) , was found in the scripts for " Chain of Command , Part I " , " Descent , Part I " , " Preemptive Strike " , , and the . The second spelling of her last name , Necheyev ( ) , was found in the scripts for " Journey ' s End " , " The Maquis , Part II " , " The Search , Part II " , and " Fascination " . In her first on - screen appearance , the script for " Chain of Command , Part I " describes Nechayev as , " " a tall graceful woman in her late fifties , with a dark complexion . She charges into the room , her every movement emphasizing urgency . " " This would put her birth year at some point during the 2310s . In an interview with SubspaceCommunique . com , Nogulich revealed she was given the part of Nechayev after interviewing for two different roles on " Star Trek : The Next Generation " . Though she was unsuccessful in the auditions , the producers were impressed by her work and later offered her the role of Nechayev . As Nogulich recalled , " " They liked my work , they seemed interested in me , but they said I wasn ' t quite right for that particular role , or whatever it was . " [ . . . ] " And then I went in the second time for something else , and it also wasn ' t a complete fit . But again , they were clearly interested in having me be , you know . . . when they ask you back to audition more than once , it ' s a sign that they ' re appreciative of your work . " [ . . . ] " So anyway , finally , the third time , my agent said , you know , you ' re going for this role which will probably recur and it ' s a very strong part . . . and they had actually gotten feedback about me from the other roles , I was too strong for whatever the other roles were . So this one is a really strong character and you can go for it and they seem to think it ' s a good match for you . So , I really dug my teeth in for the audition and worked very hard on it , and went in very prepared . It just felt great when I did it . It felt like I nailed it and indeed , what was a day later , or later that day , I ' m not sure , I got the call from my agent that I was going to do it . And then I ended up doing another , and another , and another . " " Nogulich came to believe that , had " The Next Generation " gone into another season , her character would have been developed even more with Picard so that their relationship was less adversarial . Looking back on playing Nechayev , she recalled , " " It was a perfect fit . I mean , I have a Slavic background , she had a Slavic name . I do tend to play strong characters . I ' m a character actor and that was a good fit . " " When playing Nechayev , Nogulich was influenced by the experiences of her family , many of whom had served in the military . She drew particular influence from her father , who had served in World War II and taken part in the Normandy invasion , and her grandfather , a Medal of Honor recipient in his own right . " " So having this background of , you know , military , " " Nogulich explained , " " I did look to that , what I had learned and observed from stories from them , and then . . . I realized what she was saying and realized this woman , Nechayev , was passionate about principle . She really believed in what she was saying was the absolute best thing for the Federation . And I got from her , like most leaders , she had to make hard decisions that were not popular . She couldn ' t afford to be the humanitarian that Picard was . She couldn ' t afford to say , ' well yeah , maybe the Borg are people too and we should be nice to them ' , you know . They were our enemies and she needed to the be the one who said , ' next time , you have an opportunity to destroy them , you will do it ' . " [ . . . ] " So , I guess when you ask me who historically . . . I really look to my dad and my grandfather . " " In a 2013 interview with Ellis Martin , Nogulich recalled a US Marine approaching her during the Official " Star Trek " Convention in Las Vegas and telling her of generals who watched her performance as Nechayev in order to get an idea of how to speak to their subordinates . Though she was flattered by the comment , Nogulich commented , " " It all goes back to the writing , I have to bow my head to that . Because they wrote a great character . And they wrote worthy conflict between me and Captain Picard . And also between me and Captain Sisko - Avery Brooks . " [ . . . ] " And perhaps it was fueled by the fact I was a woman , I don ' t know . " " Writer Ronald D . Moore decided to utilize Nechayev as a recurring character due to both continuity of the Maquis arc , and as a reflection on Nogulich ' s work . In " Journey ' s End " , Moore initially wrote about Nechayev as resisting Picard ' s overtures of détente , but he later agreed with Michael Piller that Picard could actually get through to her . ( " " , p . 291 ) Director David Livingston later mirrored these remarks , commenting , " " You want to have the opportunity for crossover and continuity . It ' s fun to do that with a character when you find somebody that ' s good in the part , like Evek and Admiral Nechayev . The audience enjoys it . " " ( " " , p . 134 ) In a scene cut from , Lwaxana Troi mentions that Nechayev was a friend of hers , considering her " " the sister she never had . " " Apocrypha . The Pocket TNG novel " The Genesis Wave , Book 3 " gives her year of birth during the mid - 2300s . In the first book of the series , Nechayev is appointed lead Starfleet officer in the Genesis Wave Crisis , personally overseeing the evacuation of many planets . With the crew of the USS " Enterprise " , she is able to prevent the wave from striking Earth . However , her face was temporarily disfigured when she is on a planet hit by the wave . Although protected she is given newly mutagenic soil which heals her burns and saves her life , giving an almost two - face effect on her appearance . Nechayev later undergoes surgery to restore her face to normal . In the " " comic " An Inconvenient Truth " , Nechayev enters Starfleet Academy determined to prove herself . Years later , Academy groundskeeper Boothby describes her as having " " a chip on her shoulder the size of Jupiter , so ready to prove a beautiful woman could be a starship captain . " " Later in the story , Nechayev becomes involved in a conspiracy within Starfleet , which had been using discoveries from the logs of Starfleet vessels to create weapons and forward a political agenda in the Alpha Quadrant . However , she is not totally compliant with the conspiracy - while she promised to " handle Picard , " she saves his when an assassin within the conspiracy tries to kill him , and in the process beams the Captain into the conspirator ' s base of operations . Nechayev also appears in the Pocket DS9 novel " Day of the Vipers " , which states that , by 2328 , Nechayev was a lieutenant in Starfleet Intelligence . That year , based on intelligence from Bajoran dissident Keeve Falor , she traveled to Bajor disguised as a Bajoran under the name Nechen Alla , to investigate claims that the Cardassian Union was planning to occupy the planet . With her partner Gwen Jones , she was able to discover evidence of these plans , but upon returning with the intelligence to the USS " Gettysburg " , learned Starfleet intended to treat the matter as an internal political affair . Nechayev later informed Bajoran refugee Darrah Mace that she would do all she could to help the Bajorans resist the Cardassians . According to the Pocket TNG novel " Rogue Saucer " , by 2342 , Nechayev had achieved the rank of Commander and was assigned to lead a small team on the Ganymede colony . This is contradicted in the novel " A Time to Be Born " , which states Nechayev had already achieved the rank of Rear Admiral by 2341 . In this story , Nechayev meets with Data , who was hoping to join Starfleet and allowes him to skip the Academy entrance exams and to move to an accelerated track with credit for individual study . While in " A Time to Heal " , Admiral Nechayev is one of five Starfleet admirals who , along with Captain Jean - Luc Picard and Ambassador Lagan Serra , decide the fate of Federation President Min Zife after the disastrous Tezwan affair in 2379 . Furthermore , in " Rogue Saucer " , Admiral Nechayev orders Captain Picard to test a new " Galaxy " - class saucer section while the " Enterprise " s saucer section undergoes repairs . She accompanies the " Enterprise " crew during these tests and later confronts the Maquis when they attempted to hijack the saucer section , subsequently crash landing it in the ocean of a nearby planet where it is destroyed . The " " novel " House of Cards " states that , by the early 2360s , Nechayev had attained the rank of Vice Admiral and oversaw operations at Starfleet Intelligence . In 2370 , she assigns Mackenzie Calhoun to do undercover work on the frontier , after Calhoun resigns from Starfleet . She continues to give him new assignments , but after a few years , becomes worried that he is becoming corrupted by the nature of his work . In 2373 , Nechayev controls key aspects of Starfleet ' s response to the collapse of the Thallonian Empire . After being convinced by Captain Picard , Commander Riker , and Ambassador Spock , she decides that the best course of action is to send a Starfleet vessel , the " Excalibur " , into Sector 221 - G to observe the situation and offer humanitarian assistance . She asks Picard to retrieve Mackenzie Calhoun from his operative work to command the " Excalibur " . This is followed up in the " Double Helix " novel " Double or Nothing " , in which Nechayev , monitoring the Double Helix incident , installs Commander Riker as the field captain of the " Excalibur " , pulling Captain Calhoun from the ship and sending him on another mission related to the Double Helix through her connections at Starfleet Intelligence . She later appears in the " " book " Dawn of the Eagles " , when she is contacted by Elias Vaughn regarding a Cardassian informant , Gaten Russol , who wants to give information about the occupation of Bajor . She reassigns Vaughn to Starbase 375 so that he could make contact with Russol , but gather only information relating to the Federation and not discuss Bajor . This takes place in the year 2365 . The " Strange New Worlds II " short story " Seventh Heaven " reveals that Nechayev ' s orders to destroy the Borg at the next available opportunity were disseminated to all Starfleet commanders . In the " The Brave and the Bold , Book Two " novella " The Third Artifact " , Nechayev becomes a point - person for issues arising between Federation expatriates and Cardassian forces in the early 2370s . In the " Invasion ! " novel " Time ' s Enemy " , Nechayev participates in a subspace conference with Admirals Judith Hayman , Hajime Shoji and Kirshbaum , Captain Benjamin Sisko and Professor T ' Kreng of the Vulcan Science Academy about a possible Fury invasion . The other purpose of the discussion is the discovery of the USS " Defiant " frozen in Earth ' s Oort cloud . Nechayev suggestes that the present " Defiant " be kept in drydock at Deep Space 9 until the future version disappears . This story takes place in 2371 . Nechayev briefly appears in the " Deep Space Nine " novel " Hollow Men " , in which she engages in a heated debate on the Dominion War with Tomas Roeder in a Federation News Service broadcast , and according to the Pocket TNG novel " Before Dishonor " , she witnesses the destruction of Pluto by a Borg supercube from Starfleet Command on Earth . In " Greater than the Sum " , Nechayev informs the crew of the " Enterprise " that a Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant has begun in early - 2381 . This story is continued in the " " novels " Gods of Night " , " Mere Mortals " , and " Lost Souls " , in which Nechayev plays a prominent role . The " SCE " eBook " " states that when Nechayev reached the rank of Captain , she was given command of the USS " Boudicca " . Her first officer on that ship was Commander David Gold . In the follow - up book " The Future Begins " , a displaced Captain Montgomery Scott encounters Admiral Nechayev on the pleasure planet Risa in 2375 . Nechayev is also available as a commanding officer in the Federation campaign of " " and has a card in the " Star Trek Customizable Card Game " .