Three or four scenarios present themselves here.
1) Gowron was behind it, and was trying to blackpaint Duras. Thus, he used an explosive associated with Romulans, knowing this would reflect badly on Duras' pro-Romulan policies and serve his own pro-Fed ones. And since the device was microscopic, it could be clandestinely inserted into the body of an enemy operative, in a friendly confrontation (<punches opponent's forearm with spike gauntlet that delivers explosive> "If you ever let your shadow fall on me again, I'll disembowel you!" / "You just try and I will rip your head off! <head-bumps opponent> Now, how about a drink? These spineless Feds really know how to build food replicators.").
The fact that the bomb killed nobody of consequence and did not directly alter the proceedings would then be naturally explained, with there never having been any particular aim there other than to have the kaboom and the subsequent damning inquiry.
2) Duras was behind it, as it was one of his men. He wanted to kill Gowron and perhaps frame the Romulans for it; or he thought the explosive couldn't be traced. This presupposes something went wrong. And it's difficult to understand what would have - there's no obvious way for Duras to leave and Gowron to stay and die, and thus no obvious way how that part of the plan could have run afoul.
3) The Romulans were behind it, as it was their explosive. They just wanted a bomb to go off, so that people would die and the Empire would be in chaos. Again, this presupposes something went wrong, as nobody much died. And the bomb being traced is odd: the Romulans wouldn't underestimate the Starfleet NCIS there. Or perhaps they wanted to build up their reputation by willfully establishing themselves as the terror bombers?
4) The Feds were behind this, trying to discredit the Romulans and preempt an alliance between their two enemies. It sounds like a Section 31 operation in that it actually worked just fine, furthering UFP interests. We'd expect that much competence from the organization, or it wouldn't persist after all the previously recorded failures... Although of course SF Intel's Sections 01 through 47 might be equally interested in doing this good deed.
Timo Saloniemi
