Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Nepenthe'
17. Law Abiding Romulan
On the Artifact, Narissa is harassing Hugh and – oh my God no, don't hurt him.
She kills several XBs just to show how serious she is about finding out where Hugh hid Picard and Hugh's protege, Soji. Among the former drones Narissa has executed is what appears to be a Hirogen, a hunter species native to the Delta Quadrant and antagonists from Star Trek: Voyager’a fourth season. Assimilated Hirogen were seen in the Voyager episode "Infinite Regress".
Narissa pulls out Shinzon's knife from Star Trek Nemesis and holds it to Hugh's throat, but stops short of killing him. Shockingly, she won't kill Hugh because he (unlike the other XBs) has Federation citizenship and there's a treaty. We never found out what species Hugh came from or how he was assimilated, but his involvement with Starfleet and their dealings with the Borg going back almost 30 years sort of explains how he could achieve Federation citizenship.
His status as a protected citizen is also juxtaposed against the refugee status of the other XBs, as described in "The Impossible Box".
Thankfully, Narissa won't harm a Federation citizen, so crisis averted, Hugh's gonna be okay everyone.