Previously on Star Trek: Picard...
I think I'll steer the ship for a while.
No. Wait. I-- I'm in control.
Not anymore.
A Borg Queen loose in Los Angeles.
She's not the Borg Queen. Don't say that.
Nanoprobes multiply, Queen gets stronger. Less and less Jurati.
We're witnessing the birth of a new queen.
We're supposed to save the future, but we might have just doomed it.
- My life's work. - You're scaring me.
I let myself believe you were the one.
You'd make it.
Why don't I remember this?
Or any of these?
This one will be the last.
I will do anything to make sure she survives.
Kore.
Dad, what did you do?
He's saying it's about me, but it's deeply urgent to him.
That's unexpected.
You can't really want me to summon a Q.
It didn't... work.
We're closed.
One drink and I'm out of your hair. Please.
We could all use a dash of extra with all this ordinary.
- What is this? - Law enforcement.
I'm gonna need you two to come with me.
Ah, finally.
Uh, it's, uh, Wells, isn't it? I--
Uh, don't worry. It's just an interview.
I don't like the word "interrogation."
All right. Let's see...
Question one, are you an extraterrestrial life-form?
I can truly say... I am not.
W-What are you writing?
Well, you're laughing, so I'm making note that your species has humor.
This is absurd.
Look, we have cooperated and now we'd like to leave.
You can leave as soon as you tell me about your plans
to sabotage the Europa Mission.
And there it is.
This guy's buckets of crazy.
This is super off-the-books.
We're in a basement with a bunch of broken filing cabinets.
That camera's not even plugged in.
You're right.
This is super off-the-books.
In fact, no one even knows you're here
in this FBI field office basement.
And things do tend to disappear down here.
Hopes, dreams...
as of today, aliens.
We tracked Jurati to a dive bar.
- Okay, I'm coming to you. - No!
No, you gotta stay on La Sirena.
- Are you out of your mind? - Ricardo!
There's a Borg Queen loose in LA.
You think I don't know how bad this could go?
It's 2024.
People have trouble with revolving doors. They can't handle a Borg Queen.
She's more than a Borg Queen. Agnes is in there.
Maybe.
You need to go through every operating system
and make sure she didn't Borgify anything else.
And figure out a way to contain her majesty once we find her. Out.
Abnormal life signs, but they're too far away or diminished to pinpoint.
So she's anywhere in a 15-block radius?
That's not good enough.
You're gonna have to Borg up, lady.
No cranial implant equals no Borg proximity transceiver.
- I can't track her. - I meant analog.
You are her, loose with legs.
What do you do?
I don't know, Raffi. I'm not Borg.
But you are Seven.
And who is that exactly to you?
You know what? Never mind.
- Hey, can I ask about your window? - You a cop?
You don't wanna talk to the police?
I've seen how they deal with nutcases. Not exactly delicate.
That's why I want to find her before the police do. She's not well.
No shit.
She's my sister.
We're trying to get her into a facility. If you could help...
She left here with a guy. Big, red beard.
Which way?
- She went that way, turned the corner. - Thanks.
- How's that for analog? - I--
Believe me, we would be thrilled to see the rocket safely launch tomorrow.
Uh-huh.
I got a lady friend with the city,
shoots me an e-mail any time something odd pops up on the CCTV.
Like when someone shimmers into existence on a downtown street.
Dropped your image into our database
and, uh, boom!
One of six known trespassers at the Europa Gala.
I put this all together, I think,
why would aliens crash a gala for a space mission?
You don't seem like the kind of guy they send in to break terrorists.
Not getting FBI's-top-interrogator vibes.
Something else put you in that chair?
Tell me, Agent Wells...
what makes you the man for this job?
Think of me as just a good old-fashioned dedicated civil servant.
Work a lot. Don't sleep.
Comes in all wrinkled, with your huge mug of coffee.
I'm a bartender, I've seen your kind before.
This is personal.
That's, uh, quite a bruise on your hand, sir.
Looks like it's from an IV.
I was dehydrated.
After all, I'm only human.
You certainly are.
Thank you, folks. That'll be all for now.
Uh--
If he believes that we are tampering with the Europa Mission,
then Q has no need to stop Renée from boarding the ship at all.
The authorities will just simply scrub the whole launch.
And we will have broken the future on our own.
Frustration got the better of me.
I know now...
this one will be the last.
I need to get in there.
Aspectus, extrapolate 2D video to 3D environment.
What are you hiding, Dad?
Patience, mon petit.
Who the hell are you?
A friend, a firestarter, a simulacra,
a living program planted here when I hacked into your father's system.
Waiting for you to arrive at this very moment.
So close to the answers you seek.
I'm sorry the others didn't make it.
Looks like you were the strongest of the bunch.
That's a human genome.
What was he-- I--
Am I-- Am I an experiment?
He created you then locked you in a prison.
I'm sending you the key.
Are you brave enough to use it?
Delivery available in environment safe airlock.
People are so easy when they trust you.
I knew exactly what to say to that guy. It's like his face was a map.
No wonder I'm president.
It doesn't mean Jurati's not in there somewhere, trying to fight.
Well, if she is, she's losing.
I'd want nothing.
In her shoes, I'd want nothing except...
that connection.
If you've felt it, it's hard to think of anything, except getting it back.
It's good. Good. Just-- Uh, all right, just-- just keep going.
She hasn't been able to assimilate, or we'd know.
She can't have what she wants,
so she tried to recreate that feeling of connection one-on-one.
Hmm. Why kill him?
Because it didn't work.
She didn't feel anything one-on-one. It wasn't enough.
She grew frustrated. Angry.
Took it out on what couldn't satisfy her.
Wow. I mean, that's incredibly spot-on--
Can you not?
That I can access her, it's not impressive.
Wha-- N--
You could just be a little less happy that I'm defective.
Okay, I'm-- I'm gonna try not to take you personally now--
You manipulate.
Everyone has to be exactly where Raffi wants them to.
You think we don't see it, but we all do.
This is probably his phone.
What's in cell phone batteries?
Um. Uh, here. Um...
Lithium ions.
They're a stabilizing metal.
High energy storage--
Whoa, hey, you all right?
When you're assimilated, the Borg inject you with stabilizing metals,
so your body can handle nanoprobes.
I can still remember the smell. I was six.
I can taste it. Now.
If we can't contain her, are we gonna have to kill Jurati?
Jurati!
Agnes, stop!
No! No!
The thing is, obsession's only obsession until it pays off.
Then it's diligence.
Sorry. What?
IV bruise.
Clearly you wouldn't have gone to a hospital.
So, I got to thinking, "Clinic. Clinic? Where have I heard that recently?"
You know who else went to a clinic?
Your buddy.
He was arrested during a Homeland Security raid there.
He also made this, uh... completely innocuous statement.
Would you mind reading it out loud?
"I'm stuck back in a particularly primitive past
trying to correct the timeline with a ragtag group of misfits,
including one cybernetic queen
that I'm fairly certain is just in it
to wipe out all of humanity with her old cohort--
A crusty old admiral who, if I understand it correctly,
is now a flesh and blood robot."
Well, clearly, he has been subjected to barbaric interrogation techniques.
So, a couple of things.
"Wiping out humanity"?
Be good to circle back to that.
And... I just had said clinic searched.
How long do you think it's gonna be
before my guys figure out this technology's not from Earth?
Hmm?
Ma'am, if you wouldn't mind accompanying my colleague down the hall?
I'm gonna focus on your uncle.
This is Spaceman Sonic to Planet Mars.
You can run, but you can't hide.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
Launch missiles!
Hey, no.
Are you sure this is okay?
Oh, he can't hurt anything.
Ship's in diagnostic mode for another hour,
rooting around for any stowaway Borg subroutines.
You guys hungry?
- Anything you want. - Anything?
- Four cakes! - Ricardo!
Oh.
- Mmm. - What's your life like together?
Chaos.
The effect of which will surely screw him up in a potpourri of ways.
I work so much,
when I get home, I just let him stay up in my bed watching TV.
He's a nut.
He loves cooking shows.
I had a different upbringing.
Boundaried.
Reserved.
Not perfect, but I'm not bad.
He's a nine-year-old who's obsessed with plants. You're--
I think you're doing well.
How about you?
I'll never see you again.
I would like to have more in my memory bank
than all the times I saved your ass.
I'd like to think we saved each other.
Pretend we're married--
Whoa, woman--
we used to spend every second together.
Now it feels like a business partnership.
We talk but don't talk.
Then we get stuck. Literally.
Driving to see family for Christmas and break down.
We're stuck in a shitty motel.
We go to a bar and hang out...
for the first time in so long.
I've been thinking about having an affair with...
...my friend from work.
Is this... you being romantic?
At this bar you tell me something about yourself.
I've known you for ten years, and it just-- It brings me to tears.
I never knew that.
That's what I want you to tell me now, before you fly away.
A fundamental, deepest truth that, in another life,
it took me a decade to learn about you.
That, um...
The moment I fell for you, I--
Mom...
my tummy hurts.
Your fault.
Details.
What are your intentions regarding the Europa Mission?
None, I assure you.
I'm not naive.
I know I'm outbrained.
You found Earth, speak the language.
Clearly, you're eons more advanced.
But listen to me, everyone has pain receptors.
Your alien tech?
Paperwork's been filed, other people know now.
So, talking to me is as good as it gets.
Boys up the line arrive, they get their answers another way.
Then they cut you into pieces, shove you under a microscope
and the gist of your existence will be redacted report and rumor.
They are coming.
And to them, you're nothing but a pig in a jar.
This way, sir.
You?
You summoned me?
You must be Q.
Took your damn time.
And you are that multicelled, sanctimonious,
droning shrew known as Guinan.
Right, it's the 21st century.
Our paths have yet to cross.
I thought the summoning didn't work.
"Summoning"?
The summoning is a sacred ritual.
Not a chat by which you bipeds
exchange the nauseating minutiae of your pathetic lives.
When the ritual stalled, I felt something.
Emptiness and fear.
I thought it was me, but it wasn't.
I feel it on you.
You're dying.
Another quality I sincerely loathe about your species.
Empathy.
I know you could kill each other, but otherwise aren't you--
Immortal?
So I believed.
Yet now, for the first time
as I look across the temporal horizon, it darkens.
You think I'm dying?
I prefer to believe that I am on the threshold of the unknowable.
When I first felt it, I thought to myself, "This is good. This is new."
Infinite life, after all, has its drawbacks.
And so, I prepared myself to be enveloped in the warm glow of meaning.
Well, that moment has yet to come.
Not even a glimmer.
Dying stars burn brighter as they spin towards extinction.
I, on the other hand, seem to be simply disappearing...
into nothing.
Why do you think it took me so long to get here?
That's why you walked in here today?
Why you're using humans as your game pieces?
You see that?
I'm honestly trying to vaporize you at this moment.
This thing you're doing to Picard,
it's how you're hoping to find meaning in your life?
I now have a lifetime.
Can a single act redeem a lifetime?
Why bring him to the past?
I did not bring him into the past. He did that on his own.
There are many forms of time travel.
But he's trapped here.
A trap is immaterial!
It's the escape that counts.
See you when I see you, unfortunately.
Humans.
They're all trapped in the past.
Hey.
Last night, uh...
Was all your talk of fixing me a lie?
Because no matter what, I was never going to leave this house, was I?
Like Persephone, Persephassa,
Despoina, Proserpina.
Like Kore.
Different names for the same girl.
Daughter of Zeus.
Father of the gods.
My creator.
Explain your experiment, Doctor Soong.
Technically...
you were created through somatic nuclear cell transfer
and gestated in a proprietary medium.
How many before me?
Lives of the first dozen were measured in hours.
The next few in days.
Your predecessor almost made it to her fourth birthday.
And then came you.
I did everything.
Sacrificed everything for you.
You should've died before you were six.
But when you didn't, when you continued to live despite defects.
To thrive.
I couldn't help but hope.
And with hope, came success.
I mean, look at you.
"Success"?
Not love?
Oh-- Of course I love you.
Stop! You don't! You love your work!
You told me stories of a mother!
It made you happy.
It wasn't real!
"Real"?
Reality is a construct of simpleminded fools
who can't function in the absence of boundaries.
"Real."
Anyone can procreate.
You exist because I willed it.
'Course I-- Of course I love my work.
That doesn't mean I don't love you.
I want you to look inside, Dad.
If I walk out that door right now, what are you afraid of losing?
Me or your legacy?
Kore, stop! You'll...
The grass feels nice.
Freedom...
from you.
You don't get to walk away from me.
You don't exist without me.
No. You follow me, I call the cops.
You know, maybe it's you who doesn't exist without me.
- Raffi, let me see your neck. - No. No, I'm good. I'm all right. Come on.
Oh, she's-- She went over there.
Ooh.
Nah, I'm-- I'm almost all right. I just...
She could've killed me, easily.
I know.
Mercy is not a Borg quality.
No.
It's a Jurati quality.
She's still in there somewhere.
And she saved your life.
So, what next?
She kick-started her endorphins. Ate a bunch of batteries.
She'll use the metals in her body to create primitive nanoprobes
- that gives her the ability to assimilate. - Then what?
I don't know. With imperfect metals comes imperfect assimilation.
This is a means to an end to some short-term plan.
- Plans require resources. So... - Right. So...
Whatever she needs, how does she find it?
She has no tech, or it would've shown up on our scanners.
Unless it's not our tech.
Maybe she used that guy's cell phone.
Can we jump the battery with our tricorder?
You know, when you said I manipulate people--
- I'm sorry. I was-- - I do.
I do.
It's contradictory that you are in need of Seven staying on Earth,
and fixing her ship so she can leave.
Uh, I wouldn't say "in need."
My sense is you're doing this to appear less wanting,
but it is in fact quite transparent.
Okay, just-- You know? Shh. Mm-mmm.
See this? This is supposed to be a lesson on deflector-shield maintenance.
So you don't fail Basic Tactical Engineering.
You're gonna have to take that class if you want into the Security Program.
I wouldn't make a good security officer. I've never been covert.
I prefer a more straightforward vocation.
There's honor in truth.
Oh, yes. That's right.
"Choose to live."
You and honor.
Get a new thing.
You and undercutting anything real with nihilistic
and self-protecting humor, get a new thing.
O-O-Okay, you're getting good with those comebacks.
Don't worry, we'll take care of all your classes.
Zani contacted me. They need me on Vashti.
I could delay Starfleet for a year.
It will bring me much honor to repay duty to the Qowat Milat.
That's...
Wow.
I thought you wanted to follow in my footsteps.
We had a plan.
Vashti is-- I mean, it's-- It's not really you anymore. Is it?
I mean, it's so not the young man I see in front of me.
But-- But you know what?
If that's what you wanna do. I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure it'll be fine. Right, you know?
I don't know.
Hey, it's your life.
I'm the reason Elnor stayed at the Academy.
I couldn't lose him too.
He stayed... for me.
And then he died in my arms.
Raff...
Search history.
What could she be looking for there?
Whatever she needs.
I assume a lecture on the futility of resistance
is not going to be necessary?
Am I dreaming?
Or is this a nightmare?
Ultimately, that's up to you.
Why were you at the gala?
Look, the launch is in 19 hours.
If you don't give me something now, I'll call mission control myself--
Picard.
All humans are stuck in the past.
Stuck.
All humans are stuck in the past.
Stuck in the past.
What the hell's happening here?
Stuck in the past.
I know a haunted man when I see one.
The things we hold on to.
The pieces of emotional shrapnel
that drive us all our lives.
What is it for you?
What is your moment?
What am I to you?
Perhaps an exchange...
of truths.
You...
You're the thing I waited my whole life to come face-to-face with.
The thing in the night.
You're the monster in the dark.
Maggie!
Maggie! Here, pup!
Ma--
He grabbed me.
His whole hand was gonna pull my eyeballs out.
His fingers were going into--
Through my skin and then...
I don't know. They vanished.
Just like you.
And at that moment, I knew I wouldn't walk the earth like other people.
Because if they were there then, they'd be back.
And here you are.
Show me what he did with his hand.
His-- His hand? He-- He wouldn't let go.
Like he was pushing into my head.
Are you certain that it wasn't like this?
He wasn't a monster.
He was a-- a Vulcan.
And he wasn't trying to kill you,
he was trying to mind-meld.
Trying to erase your memory, so you wouldn't be haunted like this.
Clearly, it failed.
And now, for my truth.
I am human.
But I am from the future.
The 25th century to be precise.
And I am here to save Earth.
To save the entire galaxy, in fact.
But to do so, it seems I need your help.
Transporter sub-routine booting.
What's wrong?
Error. Transporter offline.
Did I break it?
No, no, no. Someone else.
Hey, let's go find your mom.
Go on ahead, be right there.
Rios to Raffi.
We got big problems.
Still no Picard?
Q was talking about you, but he was talking about all of you.
It's what's special about humans.
Yeah.
Our inability to escape the past.
The opposite.
When something inside you is broken, it stays with you.
You live in the past until you're able to reconcile it,
even if it's painful.
You do the work because you want to evolve.
I almost forgot how unique that is in the galaxy.
Any idea what Q meant
when he said it was about the escape, not the trap?
Like I said, he seemed crazy.
And dying.
How long till the launch?
I'm sensitive to the space-time continuum.
I'm not a clock.
Whole life built around this job.
Still, knew I'd get the ax one day.
You've been fired? Why?
Man who cried alien and was wrong once again.
But paperwork was filed?
Oh. I lied.
I knew if I gave them proof, uh,
they'd sideline me, send you to a military site.
I wanted to be the one who proved it.
At least I thought I did.
Kind of a waste of a life though.
Maybe not.
My species, we believe in an ebb and flow to things.
That our destinies run apart and together,
and that time is not what we think it is.
And that some moments are meant to happen, even at great cost.
Perhaps you had to be that boy...
So I could be this man here letting you go?
Something to think about.
You two should get moving.
I never thought I'd say this, but I...
...almost can't wait to meet you.
Your primitive satellites are excruciatingly slow.
What do you want?
A faster satellite.
You're quite famous in a version of where I come from,
but your potential is wavering.
Who else has more to gain or lose right now than Adam Soong?
Nothing more to lose, I'm afraid.
Only a legacy.
He took everything.
You'll get over it.
You're currently at a fork in the proverbial road. Two futures.
One leads to you bringing humanity back from the edge of extinction.
They will call you the father of the future.
Your statues will grace capitols.
Or you die alone,
no glory,
forgotten in a pool of your own 90-proof vomit.
Oh, uh-- How do I guarantee that other path?
Renée Picard either boards a spaceship
and makes a discovery that renders your work obsolete or doesn't.
If she doesn't, I've seen the result.
Earth in your time finds itself in ecological free fall.
The man they turn to is you.
If only you're given the opportunity.
You lose a daughter, but become godfather to a world.
Any moral tethers I should know of?
I can get us into Mission Control.
First thing's first.
There's a man who will stand in your way as he now stands in mine.
Picard?
Very good.
Here's the arrangement.
Goddamn it, Picard. Where have you been?
- Um-- - Never mind.
Rios says the transporter's jammed.
The interrupt code is Borg.
Jurati?
I can get you face-to-face with him in a matter of minutes.
I can also provide you with appropriate means to dispose of him.
She's with Soong.
And we know where she's heading.
There's only one reason Jurati would want to take over the transporter.
What do you need from me?
Your records indicate you have access to the raw ingredients I require.
Once I have the ship, you can have your legacy.
The Queen is coming for La Sirena.
She wants a 400-year jump-start on assimilating the galaxy.
We have to defend that ship if we are to make our way home.
We'll use Tallinn's transporter. Let's go.
Good luck.
And you, my friend.
She'll be assimilation ready. Be sure of that.
So if she's coming for the ship, she's not coming alone.
Thank you, General.
They look perfectly adequate.
Spearhead Operations.
All of them are ex-special forces, best of the best.
So, someone gonna tell us what the hell you want with us?
Don't worry. It only stings for a moment.
Who's in the mood to add a little of their biological
and technological distinctiveness to our own?