[Hugh narrating] Previously on Star Trek: Picard...
[Soji] The disordered are Romulans.
The only Romulans ever assimilated, as far as I know.
-Hugh? -Welcome.
I'm looking for someone.
-Doctor Soji Asha. -Can you take me to her now?
[Picard] I believe she's close to discovering who she really is.
[Soji] I had the dream again last night.
[Narek] If I can get her to tell me about her dreams.
The information is all in there.
Including the location of their homeworld.
I'm pushing the door now, and I'm stepping inside.
[Narek] What do you see?
[Soji gasps]
[Soji] I see two red moons, dark as blood. And lightning. So much lightning.
Well done, little brother.
You found home.
-[Soji] Narek! -She's been activated.
[grunting]
-Soji? -Do you know what's happening to me?
I do. Come.
They are in some serious trouble.
[Picard] This thing can take us to a safer place.
[Hugh] A spatial trajector.
We have to go now.
[Picard] Let's set a rendezvous.
Rendezvous? Where are you going?
Nepenthe. Meet us there.
Where's the kid?
[groans]
Elnor, I told you to stay on the ship.
I'll stay behind to cover your escape.
Come.
Trust me.
[opera music playing]
Oh!
[music stops]
Hi.
Doctor Jurati, Commodore Oh. Director of Starfleet Security.
I'd like to talk to you about your two recent visits with Admiral Picard.
Def-- Definitely. Sure.
During your first meeting, you discussed his belief
that he interacted with a synthetic life-form.
The work and whereabouts of Doctor Bruce Maddox.
And fractal neuronic cloning.
You have me under surveillance?
Following that meeting, you transferred 300 gigabytes
of material relevant to Doctor Maddox
to your personal access display device,
data which, presumably, you provided the admiral
in the course of your second meeting at his residence in La Barre, France.
I take your silence to be confirmation.
What else did you and he discuss the second time?
Um...
The works of Asimov. [chuckles]
I told him I was sorry.
Oh. What for?
Not sorry "for," sorry "that."
Sorry that I didn't get a chance to meet...
the synthetic life-form.
That would have been the culmination of a lifelong dream.
-I'm sorry. Am I in trouble? -Not at all.
I'm here because we need your help.
Admiral Picard notified Starfleet that he intends to travel off-world
in search of Bruce Maddox and a functioning synthetic life-form.
We'd like you to accompany him.
[chuckles]
Off-world? Um, I've never--
If it's just my expertise you need, maybe--
We need far more than just your expertise, I'm afraid.
Let me show you what will happen if synthetic life is allowed to exist.
Oh, okay, but--
[echoing] My mind to your mind.
My thoughts to your thoughts.
[screams]
[screams, gasps]
[retching]
[Jurati gasping]
[panting]
[gasps]
What do you need me to do?
First, take this.
It will allow us to track you.
It must be chewed.
[crunching]
What I'm going to ask you to do will require terrible sacrifice.
-[Rios] Get us back online, Raffi! -I'm trying, I'm trying.
The tractor beam has completely scrambled our systems.
[Rios] Well, try harder, goddamn it.
I blame you for this.
Me? How is this my fault?
"Chris, baby, he's an old man. How far is he gonna get?"
Now Picard's en route to a planet that's days away at maximum warp.
Don't ask me how. And I'm tractor-locked to a Borg Cube full of Romulans!
[groans] Damn it!
Can't you hack the traffic control system?
-Raffi! -I'm trying!
The underlying code's all freaky Borg machine language.
Just ask them to let us go!
They don't want us. They want her.
I mean, wherever Picard took her, they'll hunt her down and destroy her.
Just tell them we want to go home.
[Narissa] Where have you hidden Picard and the synth?
[prisoner gasps, grunts]
I said, tell me where I can find Picard and your little protégé.
We know you led them into sub-sector 11 and that only you returned.
The bodies of four heavily armed guards were afterward found in sub-sector 11,
and that will definitely be my second question.
But for now, please answer the first.
They're gone.
And what was their destination?
I strongly advise you do not say you don't know.
I'm bored.
[in Romulan] Kill them all.
No...
[weapons power up]
-I hate this vile Cube. -[crying]
It's obscene.
As are you and your...
[crying continues]
"xBs."
But that isn't why these things died.
They died because of you.
[gasps]
Because you helped Picard and the synthetic escape.
Because you ruined years of patient work
by dozens of operatives across hundreds of star systems.
Because you may have doomed a trillion souls across half the galaxy.
I would kill you too, but you're Federation...
and you're protected by that asinine treaty.
[grunts]
[panting, sobbing]
[chuckles]
-[beeps] -Are you ready?
Leaving now. Signal lock's strong.
[Narissa] Then I'll let our guest go.
[Holomatrix] Systems back online.
Ship stabilizers reactivated. Engine status, normal.
[laughs]
-You did it! -Wasn't me.
It has to be a trick.
Maybe.
[computer beeps]
They still have to catch me.
[beeping continues]
What about Elnor?
[sighs]
[comm beeps]
Your friends. They're worried.
[comm beeps]
[Rios on comm] Hermano, it's time to go.
Go without me. This will not happen again.
[Elnor on comm] My help is needed here.
[sighs]
Everybody here thinks you're crazy.
And brave.
Adios, kid.
[birds chirping]
[gasping]
You might want to point that thing at my head.
Uh, my heart is solid duritanium.
You said this was a safe place.
Are we safe here, Kestra?
Your mom and dad about?
[Kestra] Is he your grandpa?
[Soji] No.
Your dad?
[Soji] I don't know him at all.
He told me he was a friend of the man he called my father.
But you don't believe him?
I don't believe anyone.
What's that?
It's called a compass. It finds north.
I got it from my friend Captain Crandall over at Infinity Lake. [chuckles]
He's even older than Picard.
So... do you believe me?
Have you told me any lies yet?
Well, kinda. I mean, this is just a costume.
It's, like-- like a game my brother made up.
Yeah, I'm not really a Viveen, Wild Girl of the Woods.
You had me fooled.
My arrows are real, though.
But I would never shoot you, because I'm a pacifist, but I could.
I'll keep that in mind.
Also, this compass is broken.
[sniffles]
Who was her father?
Well, I imagine that you've heard of Commander Data.
Whoa.
You're an android?
Soji, no. It's all right. No, no. Easy. Easy.
I know it must be very hard.
Everything you believed in. Your memories, your identity.
My dreams, my body, my parents, my sister, all of it was fake.
No, no. Not Dahj. No, Dahj was real.
I am so sorry.
[sighs]
Your sister is dead.
She was murdered by those people who nearly killed you.
Whatever.
[sniffles]
None of this is real. Just get on with the mind game.
[Kestra] Mom! Dad!
So, who are these people?
We were...
They're old friends.
Come on.
[sighs]
Mom!
[chuckles]
[Deanna] Mm. [kisses]
[sighs] You're in trouble.
How bad?
Bad enough.
I'm fine.
I'm fine. Really.
And I am very, very glad to see your face.
Welcome.
This is Commander Deanna Troi.
Doctor Soji Asha.
Just Soji.
Long story.
[jazz music playing]
[Kestra] Dad.
-What? -[Kestra] Come out here!
Stop yelling!
[Kestra] It's Jean-Luc Picard.
-Pause music. -[computer beeps, music stops]
Say again.
[Picard] Hello, Will.
Oh! Oh, man.
[grunts]
Oh.
You need a place to hide out?
[sighs]
-Shields up. Perimeter scans to max. -[computer beeps]
We've had a little trouble around here lately with the Kzinti.
Best to run anti-cloaking scans too.
-Romulans? -Mm-hmm.
-Initiate anti-cloaking scans. -[computer beeps]
That time you were flying off to Romulus to plan the great supernova rescue,
do you remember what I said?
"So, you want to be ass-deep in Romulans for the rest of your life?"
I believe I also reminded you of Newton's Fourth Law of Thermodynamics.
-"No good deed goes unpunished." -Right.
I told Kestra to show your friend how to find the shower.
-Thank you. -She's a friend?
Soji. She appears fully human.
Her face, her voice, her body language, all express clear emotion.
The poor thing seems traumatized.
-Mm. -But?
I sense nothing. I can't read her.
I think I'm in over my head.
When I left Earth, I had a plan. I had a ship. I even had a crew, of sorts.
Now I've lost them all.
My plan turns out to be, well, half a plan, at best,
and the girl's life is still in danger.
It sounds like you need a new plan.
Yeah.
-One that starts with a nap. -Oh.
You're exhausted.
You can lie down in Thad's room and rest while Will makes us dinner.
Pizza, in the wood-fired oven. Tomato and basil from our garden.
Behold, a Wild Girl of the Woods.
[speaking Viveen]
Nicely done.
You cut out the venom sacks?
Nope, I left them in, so we can all spew black bile and die.
Pizza with tomato, basil, and nonvenomous bunnicorn sausage.
Sounds wonderful. Thank you.
Stay as long as you need. Whatever it is.
We can handle it.
Of course. Absolutely.
Do you play the violin?
No.
Do you like Sherlock Holmes?
I guess so.
Can you run super-fast and jump really high
and, um, bend steel with your hands?
Turns out, yes, I can.
Weird.
Tell me about it.
[Kestra] So, okay, you have blood.
-Do you have spit? -I do.
Mucus?
Yes, I have mucus. [chuckles]
Data did not have mucus.
You know a lot about Data.
My parents served with him in Starfleet until he died.
A long time ago on a ship called the Enterprise.
Picard was the captain.
My dad said he was the greatest Starfleet captain ever.
Seems weird to make an android with mucus and saliva, but...
I guess Data would do it like that.
[sighs]
I don't see how this Data could be my father.
I mean, if I was made, it was probably about three years ago.
Wait, why would Data want to make an android with mucus and saliva?
Well, he was always trying to be more human.
He could do all these amazing things, but all he ever really wanted to do
was, like, have dreams and tell jokes and, like, learn how to ballroom dance.
Are you like that?
Actually, until you said the word "android" back there,
I was still clinging to the idea that I was human.
Oh.
Are you okay?
No, no, no. Don't cry. I think you're amazing.
[sighs, sniffles]
Because I have mucus?
And because you're three years old, so I get to be the boss of you.
[chuckles]
[sighs]
Deanna, the language that Kestra was speaking--
Viveen. Spoken by the Wild Girls of the Woods.
You know, the first time that I met Thad...
he was speaking some sort of invented language.
He couldn't have been more than five.
[chuckles]
That was the second time actually.
Oh, Lord.
A long time ago.
Last week would have been his 18th birthday.
[sighs] We're fine. Really.
Kestra still aches for him.
But with every day, the ache fades a little bit more.
But seeing that happen must be a different ache for you.
It's wonderful to see you, Jean-Luc. I'm so grateful you came to us.
Now, I didn't just come here in the hope of refuge.
-I also wanted to-- -I know.
We're not going to stay.
Uh, I'm not gonna put all of you in danger.
The minute that I get the next move sorted, Soji and I will be gone.
Don't be silly. You heard Will. Stay as long as you like.
It's just that, if something were to happen to Kestra...
Of course. Deanna, I understand.
[chuckles]
I'm not as brave as I used to be, Jean-Luc.
Then you're getting wiser.
[chuckles]
[alert blaring]
[Raffi sighs] Damn it. I told you, Chris.
-What does it mean? -It means somebody's tailing us.
Must be since we left the Cube.
He's good. Keeping just at or beyond the limit of Sirena's scanners.
[Raffi] What kind of somebody?
[Rios] Small. Fast. A scout ship.
[Raffi] Romulan, probably. One of those little snake ships they got.
[Rios] Snakeheads. Double sub-thrusters. Massive firepower for their size.
Can you shake him?
Take a seat.
[computer beeps]
Agnes. Take a seat, honey.
You okay?
Hold tight.
[computer beeps]
Now what?
Now we just wait till he-- Whoosh! Overshoots us.
[sighs]
At the rate he was traveling, he'll be light-years away
before he figures out we're not in front of him anymore.
Then I just lay in an alternate course for Nepenthe, in case he doubles back.
[computer beeps]
I'm sorry, I wanna be the fun crew member
who says "Let's hide in that comet,"
and it turns out to be a giant gormagander or something.
But can I ask a maybe dumb question?
Do you guys actually wanna go to Nepenthe?
This isn't an outing, honey.
[chuckling] No, I know--
We're going to Nepenthe to pick up Picard. And the synth chick.
Wow.
I remember you the night we left Earth.
Standing there in your cute little blue coat.
So excited about going out into space and meeting a real live sentient synth,
like you've always dreamed of.
But it seems like the closer we get to finding her, the less you wanna be there.
I just wanna go home. Okay?
I want you to turn this ship around, point it at the Earth and push play.
Picard can look after himself, and somebody else can find that fucking synth.
Why does it have to be me?
[gasps]
I got a paying client, Agnes. You just came along for the ride.
[Raffi sighs]
And now, you come along for a ride with Auntie Raffi.
She's gonna hook you up with whatever you need. Okay?
Is it cake?
You bet it's cake.
[Riker] You get some rest?
[Picard] Oh, I tried.
I'm worried about my pilot, that...
he didn't make it.
What have you gotten yourself into, Jean-Luc? Can you tell me?
No.
I never wanted you to get involved in any of this, Will.
Coming here was a desperate impulse.
I regret it already.
Copy that.
I'll stick to making pizza.
I was just thinking how great it would be if ignorance of danger
was all it took to keep it away from the people we love.
That's not what I was saying.
Smell that.
-Antarean basil. -Mm.
Grows like weeds around here. Everything does.
The soil has regenerative powers, which is why we came here, of course.
Wild Girl of the Woods!
-I'm taking her to see the garden. -[Riker] Ah.
[Kestra speaking Viveen]
[Soji speaking Viveen]
She read Thad's Viveen dictionary. All of it in, like, two minutes.
[Riker] Two minutes? That thing's 300 pages long.
Hmm.
We haven't met, Soji. I'm Kestra's dad, Will.
-Hello, Will. -Hi.
Commander Riker and I served together on the USS Enterprise.
And you were the greatest captain ever, I heard.
"The greatest captain ever"? Where'd you get that nonsense?
[chuckling] From you.
From me? [chuckles] I must have been drinking at the time.
Could you tell your mom we could use some more tomatoes?
Nice to meet you.
Speaking of drinking, may I?
-Please. -Thank you.
So I'm just gonna speculate and say out loud what I've been saying in my brain.
You don't have to tell me anything. How's that sound?
You're worried about cloaks. That says Romulans.
And the level of anxiety and fear for our safety...
tells me Tal Shiar.
Next, you're not the one that's on the run. It's her.
But why?
What has poor Soji done to incur their wrath?
Could it have anything to do with the fact that she's clearly an android?
And not just any android.
I recognize that head tilt... anywhere.
The kid's got Data in her DNA.
And that's why you're here. How am I doing?
Not bad... for a pizza chef.
[chuckles]
Now I understand why you wanted to keep it a secret.
Classic Picard arrogance.
You get to make the decisions about who gets to take the chances and who doesn't.
And who's in the loop and who's out of the loop.
And, naturally, it always ends up with you.
-Will-- -Uh, that's fine.
On the bridge of your starship, Captain.
But now you're dealing with a teenager, more or less.
That can be an extremely humbling experience.
Frankly...
I'm not sure you're up to it.
Perhaps I'm not.
There you go. Baby steps.
-Baby steps. -[glasses clink]
Have you ever seen a real tomato?
I've never had any food that didn't come from a replicator.
Try one.
Like this?
Take a bite.
[chuckles]
-Mm. -Good?
It tastes so...
real.
Real is so much better.
Kestra, take those tomatoes to Daddy. And then set the table for dinner, please.
[speaking Harpanthi]
That wasn't Viveen.
Harpanthi. Spoken by the Mind Witches of the Southern Ice.
I never managed to learn much Viveen.
How many languages did Thad invent?
Eleven. Twelve if you count Pahlplah, the language of butterflies.
But it doesn't have words, only wingbeats.
I love that.
Thad was born and raised on starships.
From the time he was very little,
he was fascinated by the idea that people had homeworlds.
Betazed. Earth.
He wanted a homeworld of his own, so he invented one.
Ardani. It means "home."
Ardani.
When Thad got sick, we came here to Nepenthe.
He loved it here. This became his homeworld.
What did he have?
Mandaxic neurosclerosis. It's a silicon-based virus.
It's very rare and, in theory, completely curable.
You just have to culture the infected cells
in an active positronic matrix.
But by the time Thad came down with MN, there were no active positronic matrices,
and no one was allowed to develop new ones.
Because of the synth ban.
So, you see, Soji, real isn't always better.
Kestra told you.
She told me this is all very new to you. That you're very new.
That's just a guess. I really don't know anything at all.
Except that, for some reason, the Romulans are very interested
in figuring out where I came from.
Where I was made.
Well, one Romulan, Narek.
He got me to believe that he cared about me.
I thought he even loved me.
I trusted him, but it was all a mind game.
He was trying to trick me into remembering information he needed.
And then he tried to kill me.
It must be very hard to feel that you can trust anyone now.
You think?
This way that you're being right now, all sensitive and caring...
that makes me trust you less.
I don't trust you or Kestra. I definitely don't trust Picard.
This whole thing, if it's even really happening,
how do I know it's not another game?
That it isn't real? Like my childhood. Like my parents.
You bring me to this beautiful place,
surround me with warm, friendly people and good food, and--
Torture you? Destroy you? Yeah, you're right.
All this is an elaborate plot. I wouldn't trust any of us if I were you.
-[Picard grunts] -Oh, hey! Hey!
[chuckles]
All you had to say is "dinner is served."
You all right?
She could have broken me in half.
I suppose I should be encouraged that she held back.
-Baby steps. -Yes, sir.
This isn't something a ship's counselor is supposed to say, but you had it coming.
Easy there, imzadi.
Do you have any idea what that young woman's been through?
What she's going through now? What the Romulans did to her?
To you, the idea that all this could be
some kind of subterfuge or simulation is preposterous.
But to her, it would be more of the same.
You know you're real. But she has no reason to believe that.
She has no reason to believe that she herself is real.
Her capacity to trust was a flaw in her programming.
She's been manipulated, tortured. Her very consciousness has been violated.
[Kestra] Dad.
What I need to be--
You need to be Jean-Luc Picard.
Compassionate, patient, curious.
And one other thing.
Useful.
Let us help you, Jean-Luc.
Pretend that our dinner table is the ready room of the Enterprise.
[chuckles]
We'll find a way forward. Together.
Cancel red alert.
Burnt tomato.
Dinner is served.
We're going back to the Queencell?
I'd forgotten the immense power hidden there.
Or maybe I was afraid I'd be tempted to use it.
But now, I promise to defend and protect the xBs.
I failed them all. I've been a fool.
We are gonna take this Cube away from them forever.
That sounds like a treaty violation to me.
Did you really think you weren't being watched?
And not just a treaty violation.
Open insurrection.
I'm grateful.
I'm authorized to kill you now.
[in Romulan] Please, friends. Choose to live.
[in Romulan] I admit...
...I was not expecting this.
-[Elnor grunts] -[guard groans]
[in Romulan] This is not how Zhat Vash fight Qowat Milat.
[groans]
[in Romulan] If that's what you are.
[groans]
To activate the Queencell you'll need an xB.
[gasps]
How's this for a lost cause?
I was that much of a hopeful fool again for a minute.
[gasps]
Thanks for that.
[exhales]
[replicator humming]
There you go, honey.
Need some more milk?
-Yes, please. -Okay.
Chocolate?
That's probably overdoing it.
Hmm. No such thing on Planet Raffi.
[replicator beeps, hums]
-Here you go. -Thank you.
Thank you for being so kind to me.
You're a good person.
Mm.
Well, thank you.
But I'm more like the wreckage of a good person.
In an emergency, you can slap together a temporary good person
out of the pieces, but--
Oh, Agnes, are we looking at an emergency here?
[sobs]
Is it Chris?
No. No.
Oh. Agnes, I'm such an idiot.
It's Bruce Maddox.
To see him after so long. And right away to have to lose hi--
What's wrong?
-Our little shadow is back. -Are you sure it's the same guy?
-Identical warp signature. -How is that possible?
Unclear. I'm gonna try something different. See if I can--
[retching]
-[Raffi] Oh. -Is that blood?
Red velvet.
[gasps, coughs]
[groans] Ugh.
Hello.
-[coughs] -We've got a hospitality emergency here.
You're okay. You're okay. One more. You're okay.
My Wild Girl of the Woods. Extra bunnicorn sausage.
Thank you.
Soji, welcome to our home.
-[Soji] Thank you. -[Riker] Guests get two.
[comm beeps]
-[Riker] Imzadi? -[Deanna] One, please.
[Kestra] Do you like pizza?
-[Soji] I do like pizza. Yes. -[Kestra] Good.
Still no contact with Rios.
Hmm.
If he doesn't show, I'm going to need another ship.
Well, you might be able to find one over at Infinity Lake spaceport,
if you're willing to wait.
There is a weekly passenger service, but independent operators are rare.
Well, there's Captain Crandall. He's been everywhere from Q'onoS to Tyken's Rift.
So he says.
And he has a ship, the Inside Straight. Only it's kinda broken.
And so is Rupert Crandall.
Anyway, even if he weren't,
where are you planning on pointing this starship of yours?
Home.
Narek, the Tal Shiar agent on the Artifact,
he showed me a traditional meditation practice called the Zhal Makh.
He made me think he was just helping me,
but he was using it to pull information out of me I didn't even know I knew.
Well, did he get the information?
I was so stupid. Yes, he got it.
-[sighs] -And what was it?
[Picard] When I met your sister,
she had just been activated by the Romulans' first attempt on her life.
Until then, like you, she believed she was human.
After the attack, she discovered that she possessed
extraordinary defensive capabilities, like you.
Soji, listen to the timbre of my voice.
Feel the fluctuations of my heart rate.
Note the dilation of my pupils.
Soji, you can trust me.
Do you believe him?
I know he thinks he isn't lying.
But that doesn't mean I believe him.
-I've known this man for 35 years, Soji. -Will.
I want-- We want...
to help you to get back to that home.
Why?
Because you were created out of a remnant of a friend, Commander Data.
Our very dear friend.
-And one hell of an officer. -[Picard] Mm-hmm.
He gave his life to save mine.
But that's not the main reason.
Before your sister came to me,
I was haunted by my past...
and marking time.
Wasting my life.
But now, I'm alive, and I have a mission,
which means there's not a hell of a chance that you or anyone else can stop me.
When I did the Zhal Makh...
Narek took me deep into a memory of my childhood.
That's what I thought it was anyway.
And he had me look up through a window in what I thought was my childhood home,
and he asked me what I saw.
And I told him I saw two red moons and a sky full of lightning.
He knew you were synthetic
and that your childhood memories were implanted.
He was looking for an implanted memory of a real place.
And when I told him about the lightning and the moons...
he said, "You found home."
And that's when he tried to kill me.
-Thoughts? -Maddox.
He left Earth right after the ban. No one was able to find him for 14 years.
Maybe he went to this planet with the two red moons.
And resumed his work creating synthetic life-forms.
Soji, you have a homeworld.
I have a homeworld. My Ardani.
Picard, I want to go there.
Yes, we will.
But first we have to identify and locate the planet.
Well, I don't want to spoil the mood, but you may need more than that.
The Romulans have a head start, and they probably know where they're going.
And given what they did to you and to your sister,
your homeworld is in terrible danger.
You may want to contact Starfleet, Jean-Luc.
Probably. But before that I have to find out where the hell we're going.
It's in the Vayt sector. The Ghulion system.
The planet doesn't have a name, only a number.
I asked Captain Crandall.
This is silly. I'm fine.
I ate a slice of cake the size of a Borg Cube.
And then I had another one. And then I started on number three. [chuckles]
[sighs]
Okay, listen. Really I brought you here 'cause I need to talk to you.
Chris, you don't need to say anything. You and I--
I managed to shake our shadow again,
but if he keeps finding us, I think I might know why.
What if Raffi's being tracked? Think about it.
Remember how mysterious she was acting before we got to Freecloud?
Her whole "goodbye forever" routine?
And then she comes right back.
No explanation. What was that about? Where did she go?
-Who did she see? -No.
I know. I hate to think Raffi would betray us like that, endanger our lives.
Maybe somebody... Romulans...
placed a tracker on her without her knowing.
It's not Raffi.
So, what, it's you? [chuckles]
You've been stuck on La Sirena since we left Earth.
[Raffi] Rios!
Shit! He's back!
[alert blaring]
[gasps]
[panting]
[beeping]
[beeps, humming]
[Holomatrix] Uranium hydride synthesized.
Warning, depending on species, there may be neurotoxic effects.
[sighs]
You can do this.
[beeps, hisses]
[groans]
[choking]
What is the nature of your-- Oh, bloody hell.
[gasps, choking]
[computer beeps]
[alert blaring]
[shouts in Romulan]
Raffi, I have one more thought about finding this guy.
But I do not think you're gonna like it very much.
[chuckles] Why? Does it involve shooting me out of an air lock?
I really hope not.
[comm beeps]
[EMH] Captain Rios, would you please come to sickbay?
Is it Agnes? Is she still having stomach trouble?
At the moment I'm more concerned with the fact that she's in a coma.
[alarm blaring]
[chattering]
[blaring continues]
[device beeps]
[Picard] They only came within comms range late last night.
Well, have your pilot send his transponder codes,
and I'll make sure that Orbital Control doesn't give him any trouble.
Oh, thank you, Will.
You were worried about them.
I was.
So, what are they like, this new crew of yours?
[chuckling] Well, I would have to say they are decidedly motley.
There's been nothing but drama since we left Earth orbit.
And, I'm told, it's been continuing since I saw them last.
They-- They seem to be carrying more baggage than all of you ever did.
But then, I'm not the one to talk.
Mm.
-Which reminds me. -[comm beeps]
Rios. ETA?
Same as the last two times you asked me. Rios, out.
-[comm beeps] -[chuckles]
He can be a little testy sometimes.
Well, that's, that's one word for it.
[chuckles]
Do you ever think about shipping out again?
Well, I am still on active reserve,
but it would have to be a very good reason.
[chuckles]
Jean-Luc...
You've done more than your fair share of planet saving in your day.
And nobody would blame you if you just stayed home
and let other people look after the galaxy for a while.
Especially given your...
your condition.
I mean, nobody but me, that is.
I never thought you had any business retiring in the first place.
And you were right.
[sighs]
[Picard] Beautiful.
Thank you, Will.
What for?
Oh. [scoffs] For so many things.
But today, for not trying to talk me out of all this.
Believe me, I know better.
That, my friend...
was always a losing proposition.
Hi.
So... I'm gonna miss you.
I'm gonna miss you too.
I-- [sighs] I don't totally get it.
But I do know something really bad happened to you.
Something really bad happened to me too.
And what helped me through it was my mom and my dad.
You don't have a mom and a dad. But you have Captain Picard.
I don't have Picard.
But you could if you wanted to, is all I'm saying.
And-- And he could have you.
And you could both have each other.
I'll think about it.
Wait. Wait. W-W-Wait.
You just have to pretend it works.
[comm beeps]
Two to beam up.