Though Star Trek: Picard picks up years after The Next Generation, much of the new series concerns relations with the Romulans, a race that has appeared in various series as one of the Federation's longstanding enemies. The animosity between the two peoples is at the forefront of Picard's second and third episodes, "Maps and Legends" and "The End is the Beginning," and we learn a little more about who's hunting Dahj, Soji, and Jean-Luc Picard: the Tal Shiar.
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Now Playing: Star Trek: Picard Episode 3 "The End Is the Beginning" Breakdown & Easter Eggs
But as we learn in Star Trek: Picard, just because there's no Romulan Star Empire anymore (it's apparently the Romulan Free State now), that doesn't mean the old Romulan militaristic ways are gone. Apparently, some old Romulan institutions are still operational--like the Tal Shiar. For years, as we saw on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Tal Shiar were a formidable and feared organization. It's roughly the equivalent of the Romulan KGB, a powerful, ruthless, clandestine intelligence agency charged with maintaining the security of the empire. The Tal Shiar would place spies in other governments throughout the galaxy, including the Federation, while also surveilling its own people and making perceived enemies and dissidents disappear.
The Tal Shiar only answered to the highest levels of the Romulan government, and therefore could pretty much do whatever they wanted. Like real Cold War adversaries, they constantly operated in the shadows, and paranoia about the Tal Shiar helped the Romulan government control its citizens. On Star Trek: Picard, Jean-Luc's friends who live and work with him on his vineyard, Laris and Zhaban, are both former Tal Shiar operatives, as we learn in Episode 2.
Laris does give some information about the Zhat Vash, though. First, they're guarding a secret so important and profound that they will kill anyone to keep it. Second, they hate artificial intelligence and consider it to be an abomination.
So we don't know much about what the Zhat Vash are up to, but in Episode 2, we learn they have operatives in both Starfleet and the Romulan government operating on the decommissioned Borg Cube known as the Artifact. They're the folks who attacked Dahj on Earth. On the Artifact, Zhat Vash operative Narek is attempting to get close to Soji, apparently in hopes of getting information out of her. It seems the Zhat Vash think there are more androids like Dahj and Soji and are hoping to learn their location--likely to kill them all.
We still have a whole lot of questions about the Zhat Vash that haven't been answered yet--specifically, what their big secret is, and why they hate androids so much they'd risk exposing themselves, or dragging the new Romulan Free State into a war with the Federation. One thing is for sure, though: the Zhat Vash's influence goes deep, and while the Romulan people might have been weakened and scattered by the events 14 years ago, their agencies, like the Tal Shiar and the Zhat Vash, are still just as fearsome as ever.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot's parent company.