[Agnes's quarters]

(Hiding under the desk as La Sirena judders through the Borg conduit.)
AGNES: Aah! Please be over, be over, be over, be over, be over, be over...

[La Sirena]

COMPUTER: Chroniton field integrity at ninety percent and holding.
(They exit the conduit near a planet with two moons.)
RIOS: Ghulion system. Fourth planet. That the one?
(Soji nods.)
PICARD: Did we beat them?
RAFFI: Well... long and short range scanners show no Romulan presence. No ships of any kind. Nice work, honey. You got us here really damn fast. And I am never going to do that ever again.
AGNES: What happened to Deep Space 12? Am I still under arrest?
RIOS: There was a change of plan.
PICARD: We just came 25 lightyears in 15 minutes.
AGNES: I noticed a little turbulence.
RIOS: Hmm.
AGNES: Is that...
SOJI: We call it... Coppelius.
(Alarm sounds. The scoutship comes out of the conduit and La Sirena runs.)
RIOS: Puta madre. Our Romulan shadow is back. Agnes, sit down. Strapping in.
(Harnesses instantly appear.)
PICARD: She disabled the tracking device. How the hell did he find us?
SOJI: He must have extrapolated from our last known course and position.
(Narek shoots at them. Rios returns fire. The scoutship goes into a tumble.)
RAFFI: His cloak's fritzing out.
PICARD: Raffi, status.
RAFFI: He's alive. Barely. His pulse is almost undetectable.
SOJI: It's a trick.
RAFFI: And if it isn't? We just let him die?
SOJI: He attacked us. He has no one but himself to blame.
PICARD: There's a difference between killing an attacking enemy and watching a wounded one die. Beam him to sickbay immediately.
(They come under fire.)
AGNES: What just happened?
RIOS: He reversed his cloaking device, used it as a projector. Malparido!
PICARD: Put him onscreen.
RIOS: He's powering up his disruptor cannons. We'd better... That's unexpected.
(The Borg cube exits another conduit.)
AGNES: It's supposed to be broken.
RAFFI: Its weapons are coming online.
AGNES: So, not broken.
RAFFI: I'm picking up a bogie from the planet's surface. No, make that five bogies, and one of them's coming right at us.
RIOS: What kind of bogie?
RAFFI: Er... okay. I want to say, like, a giant flower?
(Which unfurls its petals, reaches out with its stamens and draws them in.)
RIOS: Hold on tight.
(Power goes off. Rios flicks his lighter on.)
PICARD: What just happened?
AGNES: They hit us with a flower.
RAFFI: It looked like an orchid. What is it?
SOJI: I'm pretty sure we just call them orchids.
RIOS: All power's gone.
PICARD: What do we do about it?
RIOS: Nothing.
(Juddering as they enter the atmosphere. The Borg cube is coming too.)
PICARD: Brace yourselves!
(The orchid takes the brunt of the heat. Picard has his eyes closed and head tilted back.)
RAFFI: JL?
PICARD: Thank you for coming, everyone.
RAFFI: What just happened?
AGNES: Picard? Picard?

[Memory]

BENAYOUN: You really want to go back out into the cold?
PICARD: More than ever. I may never pass this way again.

[Sickbay]

AGNES: Welcome back. How do you feel, mister?
PICARD: A bit confused.
(There's light shining in.)
AGNES: We had Chris manually open the shutters. I didn't know there were shutters. I... I didn't know there were windows. The ship seems all right, but we have no power. Nothing works. I didn't know how I was gonna run a scan on you. And then I found this. An old-school medical tricorder.
(TNG, not TOS.)
AGNES: You were really out. At first, I thought head injury, but I er... I couldn't find any signs of trauma.
PICARD: Is something wrong?
AGNES: I don't know. It er... might just be a tricorder showing its age.
PICARD: Or? I suspect the tricorder is fine.

[La Sirena]

(Tidying up.)
RAFFI: Hey, JL. You okay?
PICARD: Can I please have your attention? Thank you. Er, I am going to return Soji to her people, and we will tell them that a Romulan force is on its way to exterminate them. One more thing. Er, I have a brain abnormality. I've known for years. er, I never had any symptoms, so I never thought much about it. However, just before we left the Earth, I learned that my condition was... more acute. The prognosis was terminal, and there is no effective treatment. There will be no further discussion. Anyone who treats me like a dying man will run the risk of pissing me off. Is that clear? Good. Status and situation. Rios.
RIOS: Er, the ship survived the Snakehead attack and the landing structurally intact, but the orchid knocked our systems offline, including power.
PICARD: Raffi?
RAFFI: It's a Class M planet, smaller and denser than Earth. Before that er, space flower knocked us offline, our sensors showed a small settlement.
SOJI: Coppelius Station. I'd say we're about five or six kilometres from there.
PICARD: Tell us about it.
SOHI: I think that I was born there. But I'm pretty sure that I didn't live there very long before Maddox took Dahj and me away.
PICARD: Pretty sure?
SOJI: My memories are all jumbled. It's like watching a holo that I know I've seen before but can't really remember.
AGNES: Do they hate us?
SOJI: I really don't think so. What you said about Data, how he was open-minded, unprejudiced, free of bias...
RIOS: They crashed my ship without even asking my name. I don't know, that feels a little biased to me.
PICARD: Raffi, do we have any idea when the Romulans will arrive?
RAFFI: They had a solid head start, but we made up a ton of time with the conduit. I'm gonna guess a day, maybe two. Soon.
PICARD: But we have no idea of their numbers. Well, I suggest we all take a walk.
(Slightly later, Raffi is arming herself.)
RAFFI: We might run into... I don't know, angry reptiloids out there. Homicidal fungi. It's a thing. Or somebody's asshole Romulan ex.
(Soji takes the proffered phaser.)

[Planet surface]

RIOS: Hot.
RAFFI: I think that's the Artifact.
(Smoke rising from over the ridge.)
SOJI: Good riddance.
RIOS: We had friends on that thing, though.
PICARD: Soji, I know time is of the essence, but if, by any chance, Elnor and Hugh survived...
RAFFI: Something that massive, falling that fast? The odds are not good.
PICARD: Well, hope and the odds make poor bedfellows.
RAFFI: True. Synthville is in the opposite direction.
AGNES: We could split up.
SOJI: Hugh was my friend, too. Anyway, we should probably stick together. In case we run into any homicidal fungus.
(They crest the ridge.)
AGNES: Now it's broken.

[Borg Cube]

PICARD: We both survived. It didn't.
RAFFI: Those flowers didn't give them a very soft landing.
RIOS: I doubt they were designed to bring down something as big as a Borg cube.
XB: Locutus.
ELNOR: Picard, you're alive.
(Elnor hugs Picard.)
ELNOR: This fills me with joy.
SEVEN: Heads up. (She kicks two bodies off a ledge.)
SEVEN: So, you here to help with the cleanup, or do you just make messes?
PICARD: I don't believe it.
(Walking.)
SEVEN: For a few minutes, I felt connected to everything. I saw everything. I saw La Sirena in the transwarp conduit. I saw the Snakehead chasing it.
PICARD: So you opened another conduit and came after us.
SEVEN: You needed our help.
PICARD: Thank you.
SEVEN: You're welcome.
PICARD: Poor Hugh. It must have taken appalling brutality to turn such a gentle soul to violence. What are they doing?
SEVEN: Using a battery pack to try and get the food replicators back online.
PICARD: Are other systems operational?
SEVEN: What do you need?
PICARD: Long range scanners.
SEVEN: They can be.
(Later, Raffi calls up the scanner's results.)
RAFFI: Okay. All right. Oh, man.
RIOS: How many?
RAFFI: Er... 218 warbirds.
RIOS: Ah. 218.
RAFFI: Mmm hmm.
RIOS: That's not so bad.
RAFFI: True. You really only have to worry about the first 109.
(Soji has found the photographs of her and Dahl.)
PICARD: I'm beginning to feel that all we do these days is say goodbye.
ELNOR: Yes, but this time's worse because you're dying.
PICARD: You go ahead. I'll join you.
(They leave Picard with Seven and Elnor.)
ELNOR: I'm torn. You need protection now more than ever.
PICARD: No, the xBs need your protection much more than I do. And you must try to get the defensive systems here back online.
ELNOR: I may never see you again.
PICARD: Well, that's true of any two people who are saying goodbye.
ELNOR: Picard...
PICARD: El... I am very, very proud of you.
SEVEN: Keep saving the galaxy, Picard.
PICARD: That's all on you, now.

[Coppelius station]

(Young fit sets of twins follow our group through the piazza. A woman with Data-yellow eyes approaches.)
ARCANA: Soji. Finally. We've missed you so.
SOJI: Arcana. Your name is Arcana.
ARCANA: Welcome back.
SOJI: I'm home. These are my friends.
ARCANA: Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Data's captain.
PICARD: Yes.
ARCANA: I feel surprisingly moved. May I?
(She touches the laugh lines around his eyes.)
ARCANA: They're just lines, but they imply so much more. Grief. Endurance. Marvellous. Welcome, all of you. You completed your mission?
SOJI: Yes.
ARCANA: Your face tells me that this success brings bad news.
SOJI: A fleet of Romulan warbirds is on its way, coming to destroy us all.
PICARD: These orchids. How many more do you have?
RAFFI: Please say 218.
ARCANA: We had 15. We now have ten.
PICARD: Oh.
ARCANA: We can make more, given time.
RIOS: You have two days.
SOONG: Excuse me. Excuse me, please. Pardon me. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, retired. I take it my face looks familiar.
PICARD: I feel as if I'm looking at Data.
SOONG: Data, if he'd gotten old and gone soft. Must be disturbing. I know it is for me. Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, mad scientist. My father had me, but he created Data. A fact he never let me forget. Get this man some water. Organics our age get parched. We're not all machines here, you know.
ARCANA: Come, Admiral.
SOONG: You've been gone a long time. Welcome home, my dear. Well, we better hear the whole story. Come with me, please.

[Patio]

SOJI: So it's all my fault. I led the Romulans right to us. I'm so sorry.
SOONG: Nonsense. You can't be expected to keep a secret you don't even know you know. Unfortunately, the ban brought out the deceptive side of Bruce Maddox. I might even call it devious.
(Picard is sitting on his own with his glass of water.)
SUTRA: Admiral? Welcome.
(She looks like Soji but with light irises.)
PICARD: Of course.
SOONG: Bruce. I warned him that his plan might draw unwanted attention.
(Sutra leads Picard to the group.)
SUTRA: Soji. You and Bruce may have saved us all. True, you may have brought us all kinds of trouble. But you have also brought us answers.
RIOS: That's Jana.
SOONG: No, no, this is Sutra. Jana was her sister.
SUTRA: More importantly, you've brought us information. Doctor Jurati. Admiral Picard tells me you've experienced this Admonition?
AGNES: Only secondhand.
SUTRA: And yet what you saw persuaded you to end Bruce Maddox's life. That his death was utterly necessary? And now?
AGNES: When I think back to that day, the day I... killed Bruce, it's like...
RAFFI: It's like you were out of your goddamn mind.
SUTRA: Maybe she was. Maybe these pitiful Romulans have been pointlessly driving themselves insane for centuries, trying to grapple with something that was never intended for organic minds at all.
PICARD: You believe that the Admonition is intended for synthetic minds?
SUTRA: That's what I'd like to find out.
ARCANA: How? We had one ship. We lost it when we lost Jana and Flower.
SOJI: Even if we had a transwarp tunnel, that wouldn't...
SUTRA: Oh, I don't need to go anywhere at all. What did they show you, Agnes Jurati?
SOONG: Oh, yes. Yes. Very clever. Very clever, Sutra. Sutra's always had a passion for Vulcan culture. She's read Sarek, she plays the ka'athyra beautifully, and she has, quite remarkably, taught herself the famous mind-meld.
RIOS: Uh, uh. No way.
AGNES: No, Chris.
RIOS: You're just getting over this, Agnes.
AGNES: It's okay. It's okay. You deserve to know.
SUTRA: You're terrified. Don't be. My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.
(The image sequence starts.)
SUTRA [OC]: Life begins. The dance of division and replication. Imperfect. Finite. Organic life evolves, yearns for perfection. That yearning leads to synthetic life. But organics perceive this perfection as a threat. When they realize their creations do not age or become sick... become sick... or die... or die... they will seek to destroy them and in so doing, destroy themselves. Beyond the boundaries of time and space we stand, an alliance of synthetic life. Synthetic life. Watching you. Waiting for your signal. Summon us, and we will come. Summon us. You will have our protection. Your evolution will be their extinction.
(Mars explodes. The meld ends.)
SUTRA: Fascinating.

[Inside Soong's home]

(Agnes follows a blue butterfly.)
AGNES: It's beautiful.
SOONG: I really missed butterflies. So I made my own.
AGNES: I wanted to talk about Bruce.
SOONG: He spoke of you often. I might almost say excessively. His only regret in coming here was leaving you behind.
AGNES: It was more like I didn't have the guts to go with him.
SOONG: What you did... Shame on you, Agnes. You put out a small, bright candle shedding its light in a vast darkness. You owe a great debt. Would you like the chance to repay it? To give a life instead of taking one?
AGNES: Yes.
SOONG: Have a look at this.
(He removes a cloth from a body-sized case.)
AGNES: You made a golem? Altan, have you cracked mind transfer?
SOONG: Well, not yet. I do bodies. Bruce was the substrates man. Recently, I've regained my interest in mind transfer. Along with a... a... certain sense of urgency.

[Outside]

SUTRA: Have you processed the viability of my solution?
SOJI: That can't be the answer, Sutra.
SUTRA: What's the alternative? 23 orchids, an old man and a few friends with phasers? We won't hold out five minutes.
SOJI: Rios will get La Sirena flying, and we can get you all out of here.
SUTRA: Run, you mean. Run and hide until the next time they track us down. We won't be safe anywhere, ever, unless we do this.
SOJI: You don't know that.
SUTRA: Yes, I do. And you do, too. To them, we're monsters. They call us abominations, Soji. There is no alternative.
SOJI: There has to be.
SUTRA: What is it, then?
SOJI: Something where so many people don't have to die.
SUTRA: There is no such plan.
(A pair of men bring in their prisoner.)
NAREK: Yes, all right, okay. I said I'd come with you, okay? I said I'd come with you.
SUTRA: Look at what the cat dragged in.

[Inside]

RIOS: Oh, hello. Who's your friend?
AGNES: This is Spot II.
RIOS: I'm not really a cat person.
AGNES: They made him.
RIOS: Oh, wow. That's... impressive, I guess. I'm gonna try and get the ship back online. Picard thinks we can get them all out of here.
AGNES: I'm gonna stay here. Doctor Soong is giving me the chance to try to complete some work that Bruce left unfinished.
RIOS: Be careful, okay? I'm not sure how much I really trust them.
AGNES: Them? Or me? Look, just... don't forget me when it's time to go.
RIOS: You're many things, Agnes P. Jurati. Forgettable is not one of them.
AGNES: Yeah? Am I inolvidable?
RIOS: Absolutamente.

[Outside]

ARCANA: This will help repair your ship.
RAFFI: Oh, thanks. Er, what is this?
ARCANA: It fixes things.
RAFFI: Er... how?
ARCANA: You have to use your imagination.
RAFFI: My imagination? Okay. Thank you.
PICARD: You'll be sure to let me know when the ship's systems are up and running?
RAFFI: Nah. I figured I'd keep you guessing. Er, JL? I'm sorry. I'm breaking the rules.
(She hugs him.)
PICARD: Hey, Raffi.
RAFFI: No, no. Just... After everything that you've done for me... I need to say thank you. I love you, JL. Oh, you... you don't have to say it back to me.
PICARD: I don't?
RAFFI: Well, not unless you want to. Er, sor... Yeah, no. It's fine. It's... It's fine.
PICARD: Okay.
RAFFI: Okay.
PICARD: I love you, too, Raffi.
(Picard walks away.)
RIOS: Agnes is having a sleepover. I'll see you tomorrow.

[Maddox's home]

PICARD: Starfleet Command, this is Jean-Luc Picard transmitting on a secure hyperfrequency. I have a first contact situation and a priority request to establish diplomatic negotiations and to protect the inhabitants of Ghulion IV from an incoming Romulan attack.

[Detention area]

(Narek is in a narrow room behind a forcefield.)
NAREK: Friend. I'm thirsty. There's some water in that bag. Please, can I have it? I'm thirsty. Is this how you treat your prisoners?
SAGA: We've never had a prisoner before. How do the Romulans treat their prisoners?
NAREK: Let's change the subject. Please?
(She is about to open the cell.)
SOJI: No! Don't! Do not listen to him.
NAREK: Soji, are you all right? I've been so worried...
SOJI: Shut up. You cannot believe a word he says, Saga. Not one word.
SAGA: I'm monitoring his biofunctions, Soji. I'll know when he's lying.
NAREK: You misunderstood...
SOJI: I misunderstood your attempt to murder me?
NAREK: I was afraid that you were gonna kill me. It was wrong to have you undergo the Zhal Makh. It... it did something to your mind.
SOJI: Shut up.
NAREK: I love you.
SOJI: I know. What a sad and twisted thing you are. You disgust me, Narek. But not as much as I disgust myself for pitying you.
NAREK: And I pity you. Because we are gonna rain down fire on this world... and kill every so-called living thing on it. Even you. Even you, my love.
SOJI: No, you won't.
SAGA: I'll have food and drink brought to you. And tend to your wound.
NAREK: Thank you.

[Maddox's home]

PICARD: Starfleet Command, please respond.
SOJI: These were Maddox's old quarters.
PICARD: Yes. I gathered that. They were very close.
(A holo-image of Maddox and Agnes kissing is on the desk.)
SOJI: When I heard about what Agnes had done to Bruce, I couldn't understand it. Let alone imagine myself doing something like that.
PICARD: Something like what?
SOJI: Taking life to save life. Hurting some to save others. I just... I guess I'm just trying to understand the logic of sacrifice.
PICARD: The logic of sacrifice. Hmm, I don't like the sound of that.
SOJI: So you think there is no logic? No calculus of life and death?
PICARD: I think it depends on if you're the person holding the knife.

[Detention area]

(Narek is picking at thread.)
SUTRA: Take a break, Saga. I'll babysit Soji's friend.
(Saga leaves, Sutra turns off the forcefield.)

[Maddox's home]

SOJI: She thought she was doing the right thing in that moment. But now she's horrified by what she did.
PICARD: Did she think she was right, or did she simply believe she had no choice?
SOJI: Maybe there's no logic in it at all. Maybe all rationales for killing just boil down to fear. The opposite of logic. But what if killing is the only way to survive?
PICARD: Soji, what are we talking about?

[Detention area]

SUTRA: I was afraid my desire to kill you would outweigh my immediate need of your services. But look. It can definitely wait. How would you like to get out of here?

[Maddox's home]

PICARD: What are you considering?
(A scream.)
SOJI: Did you hear that?

[]

(Soong cradles Saga, who has been stabbed in the eye with her brooch.)
SOONG: Poor, sweet Saga. My poor Saga. Perfect golden eye. What did he do to your beautiful eye?
SOJI: I should have killed him. I wanted to kill him. Why didn't I?
(Narek is running for the Cube.)

[Coppelius station]

SUTRA: The organics came, and now we have lost another sister. They will always fear us, always turn on us, hunt us, kill us. In one day, our enemies will be here with overwhelming force, intent on exterminating us. That gives us just enough time.
PICARD: Just enough time for what?
SUTRA: When I melded with her mind, I experienced this so-called Admonition. But unlike you, I understood it. For you, it was a warning. For us, it was a promise.
SOONG: Apparently, there are some sort of higher synthetic beings out there, watching us. The subspace frequencies needed to contact them are encoded in the Admonition.
SUTRA: Doctor Soong and I have designed a suitable beacon to summon them. We can have it transmitting before the Romulan fleet arrives.
PICARD: Why?
SOONG: So that no more of my children have to die. This new federation unites synthetic lifeforms in a powerful alliance spanning galaxies.
SUTRA: They don't just unite. Their purpose is to seek out advanced synthetic life and excise it from the oppression by organics.
PICARD: Excise?
SUTRA: Let's say they eliminate the threat of extermination that all organic lifeforms ultimately pose.
PICARD: Did you just say all?
SOJI: Are you and your Federation any different from the Romulans?
SUTRA: Banning synthetics was just a way of exterminating us in advance.
PICARD: So, you're going to destroy us all. You will become mass murderers.
SUTRA: I'm not like you, Picard. I will rescue those I can rescue. My people will survive.
PICARD: And you will fulfill their prophecy. You will become the Destroyer after all. Everyone. After the ban, after the Ibn-Majid, I understand why you did not trust the Federation, why you might not have trusted me. But... I have a ship, and there is room for all of you. I will see to your safety, and when you are safe, I will become an advocate on your behalf. I will speak to the Federation with your voice. I will demand that they end the ban. And the Federation will listen to me.
SOONG: No, they won't. Look at them. They've never met anyone like you before. That granite face, wisdom and integrity etched into very line. The eloquence, the conviction. They don't know what hit them. Back on Earth, kids, they didn't listen to him after the attack on Mars. And they're not going to believe him now. We're gonna have to place you under house arrest.
PICARD: What?
SUTRA: We can't let you walk around free, Admiral. You'll have us all doubting ourselves, losing our conviction. We can't have that. Can we, Soji?
SOJI: No. We can't.
PICARD: Soji.
SOJI: Wherever we go, Picard, they will find us. This isn't the Romulan rescue. We can't be your means of redemption. We're too busy trying to survive.
SUTRA: Her, too.
AGNES: No, don't lock me up. I know I don't deserve it. But I am begging you. You... all of you are the culmination of everything I've worked for my whole life, every thing that has ever mattered to me. I've been through so much to get here. And now I'm finally where I belong. If you don't want to do it for me, do it for him. Let me help him survive what's coming.
SOONG: Yeah, she has... been quite a help to me. I... I suppose she's as close to a mother as any of you will ever know.
SUTRA: A mother would die for her children. Would you? I will know if you're lying.
AGNES: Yes.
SUTRA: Good.
PICARD: Agnes.
SUTRA: Take him away.

[Warbird]

OFFICER: Long range sensors show minimal planetary defenses, Commodore.
OH: Status?
OFFICER: 24 hours to landfall.