I'm going to guess that this will be a longer Short Trek and that this may be allegorical but perhaps just showing at the beginning before we get into the bulk of the story. Or, its completely allegorical and I'm fine with that. Do we know that PStew is supposed to be in it for sure?
The other Romulans in Picard don't have ridges, so I don't think she's Romulan. Glad they've re-retconned that ridiculous TNG retcon.
So essentially the Alien equals the Romulan Empire and the Human represents the Federation. They have numerous skirmishes attacking each other but doing no lasting damage until eventually they become close allies. So where do the BORG come in? Will that be represented by a class-bully that the two of them have to join forces to defeat?
It's worth noting that IMDB lists one cast member for CoM -- Dalien World playing "Starfleet security officer". So, unless there's a lot of SF security at this private school, the trailer footage may have little to do with the short. Or Maybe Picard is telling 7 a bedtime story so she doesn't have nightmares!... Also, I gather this was filmed in Toronto, and not LA with the rest of the Picard stuff. World's other credits are mostly Toronto-based, and the library the girls are in looks like Robart's at U-Toronto.
I dunno, it seems cray-cray to me to suppose we're seeing not only footage, but characters which won't be seen in the short at all. I can't think of any case where that's ever been done - where an "allegorical" trailer with live-action footage has been filmed, and then something else is finally shown. Particularly because CBS seems to want to do these shorts on the cheap (which is why they redress sets whenever possible). My best guess is still that one or both of the girls here is an ex-borg. Maybe the weird low-tech environment is some sort of holodeck, and they're actually on the Borg cube? Maybe this is where Dahj grew up, even if she's not one of the two kids in the short?
I'm not seeing where they put any great expense into this teaser. A bit of alien makeup for one quick shot. Evidently shot at an actual modern library and they didn't bother trying to disguise it.
For some reason the Romulan Ridge discussions always make me think of this... They need to come out with a new commercial featuring Romulans saying that now.
Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, and so on not knowing from Cogley or the Martian Declarations? I can't see that.
On the catwalk in the Borg cube, The guard on the left appears to have a bumpy head. And while not TNG style, the Romulans escorting Picard out of that building seem to have pronounced brows like the ones in ST09. It looks like they’re going for all 3 of the forehead styles used in the franchise.
The one who says "Be the captain they remember", the one who says "she's the end of all", and one of the guards dragging Picard out of a building have V-shaped ridges