TNG: First Contact (episode)

[Madner Kami]

The secretary is very, very jaded. No fucks to be given.

I suddenly envision Janine Melnitz sitting in that secretary's chair.

[pilight]

It kind of works that some time have gone by between him beaming down and walking into that office. That way the seeming security lapse could be argued to not be a lapse, because they'd have had time to frisk him down and whatnot to make sure he isn't a security threat before walking into the office.

That still doesn't really fit with Picard trying to minimize the number of Malcorians who saw him.

[TheLibrarian]

You can take issue with how Starfleet conducts first contact scenarios in this episode, but it still feels as well planned as the D-Day landings compared to the most recent episode of The Orville ("All the World is Birthday Cake"). The lack of any kind of recon put them on the Jonathan "just give them directions to our house" Archer level of idiocy.

[Nealithi]

Now this is just a thought. But it would not take much for Picard with the transporter to bypass most in building security. Yale walks from her lab to near where she needs to go. Picard beams into a broom closet with a cloak and local hat. Yale leads him into secretary's office and asks to enter. Secretary is likely not part of security and anyone this deep into the building must be vetted by now. Or there would be alarms going off about intruders. Main office and secretary's office has a small vestibule to keep noise between the two to a minimum. Yale goes in first while Picard chucks his flimsy disguise for maximum effect.

As to how much alien information there is? We have an unknown patient shows up badly injured in a hospital and the staff say he was a bizarre alien. But there are no records. The woman that wanted to sleep with Riker for him being an alien? Would be seen as a screwball. Toss in a high ranking government official is hospitalized at the same time the FTL project is scrapped and the minister directing the project disappears? If all this was woven together when the episode aired and till today. The conspiracy theory would be thrown out. Even if the guy who tried to frame Riker for shooting him comes out with it. His lack of injuries but need to be hospitalized can be spun as a mental breakdown. Thus the leak can cover itself by those that don't want to believe or demand incontrovertible proof.

[Yukaphile]

Here's some headcanon. Maybe Yale told the secretary to let her in with a friend who was waiting elsewhere, and Picard just beamed in after the fact? Somewhere in between the holding office and the Chancellor's office.