Anij was a Ba'ku female who was over three hundred years old and one of the leading members of the Ba'ku, along with Sojef and Tournel, who left their star system in 2066 after advancements in technology threatened to create weapons that would destroy all life.
Anij and the others settled on a ringed planet in sector 441 within an area of space that would eventually be called the "Briar Patch" where the environmental difficulties of the region would keep them isolated from space travelers and their technology. The environmental difficulties of the region were due to the metaphasic radiation concentrated in the rings of the planet they had settled, which also began to regenerate their genetic structure, providing a fountain of youth. As time passed, Anij and the other Ba'ku began to develop their mental abilities and demonstrated the ability to alter their reality, whereby time seemed to slow. Because of the effects of the genetic regeneration, Anij had not seen a bald man in over three hundred years.
In 2275, Ro'tin and Gal'na, whom Anij had helped bathe along with his mother as a child, along with other Ba'ku who were fascinated by the technological ways of the "offlanders" (anyone who did not reject technology as the Ba'ku had) attempted to take over the Ba'ku settlement. However, they were not successful and following their failure, Sojef exiled them from the village. This group of disillusioned Ba'ku would eventually become the Son'a.
In 2375, the Son'a collaborated with the United Federation of Planets to forcibly relocate the Ba'ku from their world. Lieutenant Commander Data, who had been assigned to what appeared to be a standard duck blind observation mission, discovered a cloaked Federation holoship due to neutrino emissions coming from the Ba'ku lake. He was subsequently attacked by the Son'a, who did not wish him to learn the true intent of their mission. Damaged by the Son'a's weapons, Data's fail-safe system was activated and his moral and ethical subroutines took over his cognitive functions. As a result, he retaliated against the Son'a and Starfleet officers, revealing their presence to the Ba'ku and taking them hostage. Anij, Sojef, and Tournel attempted to repair Data's positronic matrix but were unable to do so. After Data was taken into custody by Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Lieutenant Commander Worf, Anij, Sojef, and Tournel released the Starfleet and Son'a officers to the USS Enterprise-E crew. Picard attempted to explain their presence there without violating the Prime Directive as much as possible, but Anij informed him that the Ba'ku were already warp capable but chose not to employ it as warp drives would only take them away from their world. The captain subsequently apologized for their intrusion but still wished to explain why Data had malfunctioned.
"Why would they duplicate this village… except to deceive the Ba'ku?"
He and Data rediscovered the holoship cloaked in the Ba'ku lake; Anij traveled with them via a boat to investigate the ship, despite Sojef's reservations and Picard's warning. Upon boarding the holoship, Anij, Picard, and Data discovered it to be running a holographic simulation of the Ba'ku village, although Anij was uncertain as to why anyone would want to duplicate the village. Picard correctly theorized that the intent was for the Federation and the Son'a to deceive the Ba'ku in order to move them off the planet by transporting the villagers while they were sleeping to the holoship and then relocating them to a similar planet without their knowledge. The trio soon came under attack by a Son'a officer who had eluded Data's capture of the Starfleet and Son'a crews. Picard shoved Anij out of the holoship into the lake to protect her from the Son'a weapon, but Anij nearly drowned as she did not know how to swim. Picard and Data jumped in the lake after her and effected a rescue by virtue of Data's emergency flotation capabilities.
"I wonder if you're aware of the trust you engender, Jean-Luc Picard?"
Anij and Picard began to express a mutual interest in each other, to the point that Anij began to trust Picard, despite the fact that he was an offlander and that it was unusual for someone, from her perspective, to engender such trust being so young. Once Admiral Dougherty confirmed to Picard their plans to remove the Ba'ku from the planet, Picard resigned his status as a Starfleet captain and took up arms against the Son'a and the Federation with Anij by his side. They planned a mass exodus of the Ba'ku village into the mountainous regions nearby where the heavy kelbonite deposits would not allow Son'a transporters to beam them off the surface. When the Son'a began to send down drones armed with isolinear tags to transport the Ba'ku off the surface, Anij and Picard led them into a series of caves where the drones could not follow and the Son'a weapons could not destroy their transport inhibitors and force field projectors. The Son'a began to open fire on the caves to drive the Ba'ku out, causing a cave-in that severely injured Anij. Picard was able to utilize Anij's sense of altered reality in order to keep her alive long enough for Dr. Beverly Crusher to stabilize her condition.
"Don't let go of this moment."
Forced out of the caves into the open, the Enterprise crew had no choice but to engage the drones with their weapons and destroy them before they could be beamed up. Unfortunately, one of the drones was able to tag Anij and Picard before it could be destroyed by Data. Held hostage aboard Ru'afo's flagship, Anij and Sojef confirmed Dr. Crusher's tricorder readings on an injured Son'a officer – that the Son'a and the Ba'ku were the same race.
Following the defeat of Ru'afo and the destruction of the Son'a collector, Anij wondered what she would do without Picard by her side. Although he wished he could stay, Picard informed her that because of the threats from the Borg and the Dominion, he could not abandon the Federation he swore to protect in such perilous times, although he told her he had 318 days of shore leave coming and he intended to use them. (Star Trek: Insurrection)
Anij was played by actress Donna Murphy.
In a character description that was written by Michael Piller and was used by Casting Directors Junie Lowry-Johnson and Ron Surma to seek a performer to play the role, Anij was described thus: "A beautiful, charismatic woman of quiet strength, about 40 years old, healthy, trim and in the prime of life. She takes a special pride of taking contrary positions to the status quo of her people, who are known as the Ba’ku […] She is suspicious and antagonistic to Picard when he arrives on her world, but ultimately falls in love with him as he defends her people facing overwhelming odds against a terrible conspiracy that will destroy them. She has special powers of inner awareness that will help change Picard's life." (Fade In: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection [page number? • edit])
She was voiced by Janice Lynde in the video game Star Trek: Hidden Evil.