[Aia, the Grief World- 14 years ago]

OH [OC]: Our foremothers came to this system looking for an answer to the riddle of the Eightfold stars. What they found was a storehouse of preserved memories that showed them the grim fate of the civilisation that perished here long ago. We still do not know the name of the mighty race who left behind this object, this Admonition, warning us of the horror and annihilation that came from the skies. When our foremothers first endured the Admonition, we, the Zhat Vash, were born.
(Ten Romulan women stand with their backs to a pool of water that has an energy circle hovering above it.)
OH: For hundreds of years since, we have worked in shadow to prevent a second coming of the Destroyers. It is this dreaded work that you must now carry on. What you are about to experience will drive some of you mad. But those of you who endure will be stronger. Witness the devastation that must be prevented. Endure the Admonition... if you can.
(The women, including Ramdha and Rizzo, turn and walk forward, then plunge their hands into the energy circle. They get flashes of various things, including Data's eyes. The whole experience is painful, then the circle throws them away. One shoots herself in the head, another picks up a rock and smashes it repeatedly into her forehead, faces get gouged, Ramdha tears her hair out. Just Rizzo stands unmoved.)
RIZZO: We have to stop them.
OH: We will.
RIZZO: How? Where do we begin?
OH: On the world the humans call Mars.
RIZZO: Auntie? Auntie.
RAMDHA: No...
RIZZO: We have our work to do.

[Artifact]

(Ramdha is in a coma.)
RIZZO: Doctor Kabath says there's no medical reason for this, Auntie. I do believe you're malingering. You were never entirely sane to begin with, were you? It was folly, taking in Narek and me after our parents died. And sheer madness, submitting yourself for Admonishment. Though when you lost your mind, you certainly did it with panache. Breaking a Borg cube by the sheer force of your despair. The Collective picked the wrong Tal Shiar ship to assimilate that day. They ought to have picked mine. I'd have made a much better Borg than you. Resistance is futile. Narek's located the synthetics' nest. I've dispatched ships. I'll be joining them as soon as I've shut down this house of horrors. If you wake up, you can come along. We have our work to do.
(comms)
RIZZO: Tell me you found the freak.
TARENT [OC]: Yes, Colonel. We tracked him to the office of the former director of the Reclamation Project.

[Hugh's office]

(Elnor hears a door opening and footsteps running. He stands and draws his sword, but is taken aback by a stun grenade. Still he manages to fight the guards, until they get him down and handcuffed, at which point Seven walk in, firing. He gets free again and they finish off the guards.)
SEVEN: Where's Hugh? What is happening on this cube?
(Elnor hugs her.)
SEVEN: All right. I'm here. It's all right.

[La Sirena transporter alcove]

PICARD: (faint) Rios? Rios? Rios, this is Doctor Asha. I need a secure subspace link.
(Rios gasps.)
PICARD: Rios? Hey! Rios!
RIOS: What?
PICARD: I need a secure subspace link to Starfleet Command.
SOJI + RAFFI: What?
PICARD: And what's the nearest starbase?
RIOS: Er, Deep Space 12?
PICARD: Lay in a course. Hey. Lay in a course.
RIOS: I will lay in a course for DS12. But after that, you're on your own, Picard. I'm done.
SOJI: You said you'd take me home.
PICARD: Yes, and I will. But we face a powerful enemy. We can't do it without support. Look, you have no choice but to trust me. And I know, that would make me angry, too, but... I understand. Let me find you a cabin.
RAFFI: Hi. Raffi.
SOJI: Soji.
RAFFI: Soji, I'm sorry, but your new best friend Jean-Luc already brought us one adorable little homicidal double agent.
PICARD: What the hell are you talking about?
RAFFI: I'm talking about how big a fool you really are.
PICARD: Yeah. Come. I'm sorry about her rudeness.
(Raffi grabs a phaser from the rack.)
PICARD: Raffi!
RAFFI: A neuron. That's all you know about her. You built this whole giant fantasy of... of rescue and sacrifice and redemption out of one pissant little neuron.
PICARD: Now you put that away or be prepared to use it on me.
(Raffi lowers the phaser.)
RAFFI: Agnes Jurati had a tracking isotope in her blood. She's a Romulan spy.
PICARD: Fact or theory?
RAFFI: Theory.
PICARD: (to Soji) Come.
RAFFI: We think she killed Bruce Maddox.
PICARD: Who is we?

[Sickbay]

EMH: She injected herself with a hydrogen compound. She was trying to destabilise the viridium tracker already present in her system.
RAFFI: And as soon as she did, we shook our Tal Shiar tail. Fact, not theory.
PICARD: But to say that she's a Tal Shiar agent? Maybe she didn't know about the viridium until you picked up the tail.
RAFFI: Maybe. Or maybe they put her on this ship to kill Bruce Maddox. Right after they got done killing Soji's sister.
PICARD: Tell me about Maddox.
EMH: His injuries need not have been fatal. She deactivated me.
RAFFI: Mmm hmm.
EMH: Then, she turned off the haematic microrepair unit that was stabilising his cardiovascular function.
PICARD: She was in distress.
RAFFI: Oh! I told you it was careless to bring her along. Now you're telling us that we need to trust the synth girl, too? Tell me, JL. What is Soji really like, hmm? Do you know? Does she? Yeah, that's what I thought.
PICARD: Where are you going, Raffi?
RAFFI: To tell Rios I was right about Jurati. I'm gonna see if it feels any better to rub his face in it.

[Holodeck - study]

CLANCY: That's a hell of a report.
PICARD: And you thought I was a desperate old man. Quixotic, paranoid, possibly senile.
CLANCY: Let's just leave it at quixotic.
PICARD: And now the windmills have turned out to be giants.
CLANCY: You want an apology?
PICARD: I want a squadron.
CLANCY: Jean-Luc...
PICARD: Clancy! Out there, in the Vayt System, right now, beings who have as much right to life and liberty as you and I or Commander Data are being hunted down by an enemy who seeks to exterminate them.
CLANCY: Jean-Luc!
PICARD: No! Clancy, if you say this is not a job for Starfleet, then I'm sorry, but you are a waste of space!
CLANCY: Admiral Picard, with all due respect, and at long last, shut the fuck up. I'm sending a squadron to rendezvous with you at DS12. Now, stay put until they get there. Clancy out.

[La Sirena]

(Raffi sees Rios sitting at navigation.)
RAFFI: Hmm. You all right, buddy? You seemed a little, uh, rattled back there.
ENOCH: (Irish holo-navigator) Tell me how I can help you.
RAFFI: The Tal Shiar had a tracker inside your girl Jurati, and it looks like she killed Bruce Maddox.
ENOCH: Well, that's bad news.
RAFFI: Er, yeah. Unless you like giant, all-encompassing, paranoid conspiracy theories. Then it's, you know, kind of awesome. You know, in a horrible way.
ENOCH: In bad situations, it's so important to try and find something positive.
RAFFI: Goddamn it! Which one are you?
ENOCH: Navigation. ENH Call me Enoch.
RAFFI: Where is Rios?
ENOCH: After he laid in the course for Deep Space 12, he activated us holograms and went to his quarters.
RAFFI: Did he tell you why he got so freaked out by that girl?
ENOCH: No, but... huh ..he said if I kept smiling at him, he would punch me in the face. Let me see if I can identify her for you. (eyes glow briefly) Yes! Her name is... Jana.
RAFFI: Hmm. Her name is Soji.
ENOCH: Oh, ask me about astronavigation.
RAFFI: Oh. Er, this, er, this caught my eye while I was surveilling the Cube. All these Romulans sitting around drawing this, over and over. Eight circles, see? Could those be planets?
ENOCH: Looks an attempt to depict an octonary.
RAFFI: A what now?
ENOCH: A planetary system with eight component stars. This is Nu Scorpii, a septenary system, which are extremely rare. But an octonary?
RAFFI: Hmm?
ENOCH: There are accounts of one in some ancient Romulan star atlases, but... they're considered apocryphal. They don't appear in any of their modern charts. The gravitational mechanics would have to be... incredibly complex.
RAFFI: All this time I've been thinking that the Conclave of Eight was eight people who planned the attack on Mars, but maybe the name refers to the place where they met. (kisses Enoch's forehead) You are my favorite holo.

[Hugh's office]

RIZZO: Killed by a phaser. The boy has a confederate.
(She finds the comm-chip.)
RIZZO: Fenris Rangers. And it's not hard to guess which one.

[Queencell]

SEVEN: Why didn't you go with them?
ELNOR: Picard released me. I found a cause even more lost than his. Is this where the Borg Queen lived?
SEVEN: No.
ELNOR: But she used to visit sometimes?
SEVEN: I can explain, or I can steal this Cube.
(Seven expands a hologram of the Cube then removes a portion and manipulates it. The whole area powers up)

[Artifact]

RIZZO: What the hell is going on?
TARENT: The cube, it seems to be... I would almost say it's regenerating.
RIZZO: We have to get rid of every Borg still held in stasis immediately. Can they be gassed? Electrocuted?
TARENT: We can blow the seals and jettison them directly into space.
RIZZO: Oh, I like that. See to it.
TARENT: Yes, Colonel.
RIZZO: I'll get started on the xBs. I'll need this one, too. Come.
(The young Romulan follows her as the Borg Cube rebuilds itself.)

[La Sirena mess hall]

(Soji is toying with her food.)
PICARD: Is it all right?
SOJI: It's good.
PICARD: Is there something you'd prefer?
SOJI: Honestly, I don't know. You don't know what it's like to have this vacuum inside of you, Picard. To have someone ask if you like eggs, and have no idea if the answer is coming from you or your instruction set.
PICARD: You're right. I don't know what that's like. I can only try and imagine it. Your memories, your history, to you, feel like incidents you heard about. Something that happened to someone else.
SOJI: Yes.
PICARD: You feel that you don't have a past anymore.
SOJI: Because I don't.
PICARD: Oh, that's not true. You have a past. You have a story, st waiting to be claimed.
SOJI: You're talking about Data.
PICARD: Among other things, yes.
SOJI: All right. Tell me about Data. What was he like?
PICARD: Well, Data was... brave. Curious. Very gentle. He had a child's wisdom, unclouded by habit or bias. He made us all laugh... except when he was trying to make us laugh.
SOJI: And you loved him.
PICARD: I, er... Yes. In my way.
SOJI: Did he love you?
PICARD: Data's capacity for expressing and processing emotion was limited. I suppose we had that in common.
SOJI: If I could see you with his eyes, with his memories, what would I see?
PICARD: How would I know that?
SOJI: What do you hope I would see? How do you wish he would remember you?
PICARD: You mean, if he had survived me, rather than the other way around. I hope he would remember Jean-Luc Picard as someone who believed in him, who believed in his potential, celebrated his successes, counselled him when he fell short, helped him if he needed help and, if he didn't need it... got out of his way. Words to that effect.
SOJI: He loved you.

[La Sirena Engineering]

RAFFI: Chris? Are you Chris?
IAN: (Scots) No, lassie, I'm the Emergency Engineering Hologram, but I go by Ian.
(Complete with wee woollen cap.)
RAFFI: First of all, I'm gonna ask you never to call me lassie again.
IAN: Duly noted.
RAFFI: Have you seen Rios?
IAN: No. Captain's still hiding out in his cabin.
RAFFI: Hiding out? From what? From Soji?
IAN: I dinna ken for sure, but I wouldna be surprised. Sight of that lassie's bound to stir up unwelcome memories.
RAFFI: And why is that? Where does he know her from?
IAN: I dinna have the faintest notion. I ken it's true, but I dinna ken why.
RAFFI: Mmm. Lot of that going around. Engineering, right? Let me ask you something. What are the chances that an octonary star system would occur naturally?
IAN: Close to... close to nil, I'd say.
RAFFI: Meaning it would have to be built? You'd have to capture eight suns, move them across lightyears of space, and then set them in motion. Why... why would you want to do that?
IAN: Showing off, saying, look what I can do!
RAFFI: Or maybe you had something really important to say, and you wanted to make sure that people were paying attention. Like... if you wanted to leave them a warning. Oh. I'm getting closer, Ian. I can... I can feel it.
IAN: Aye. And how's it feel?
RAFFI: Absolutely terrifying.

[Raffi's quarters]

RAFFI: Burgundy.
(Replicator beeps negative.)
RAFFI: Red wine.
EHH: What is the nature of your hospitality emergency?
RAFFI: I... I need a glass of red wine.
EHH: You disabled alcohol service from your quarters two days ago.
RAFFI: Well, reinstate it. Override.
EHH: You locked yourself out of override and out of meta-override.
RAFFI: Then shoot me in the head. What's with Rios? Should I be worried about him?
EHH: He could use someone to talk to. Someone who doesn't look exactly like him, only better groomed.
RAFFI: How do you know that? Are you all networked directly to Rios?
EHH: When Captain Rios acquired La Sirena, he selected the self-scan option. He claims it was an accident, but he never bothered to revert it, so...
RAFFI: So you're all Rios, overlaid on the five basic installs?
EHH: Not... not... not precisely. He went in later and made some deletions. Careless ones, I must say. Ask me the proper temperature for making Yridian tea. I no longer have any idea. In any case, it's hard to explain, but I am aware, or rather my algorithms allow me to predict with a high degree of confidence, that Captain Rios is in sore need of a confidant, right about now.

[Rios' quarters]

(Rios is listening to piano music, drunk and maudlin. He gets out his old Starfleet uniform and a box.)
RAFFI [OC]: Rios, honey? It's Raffi. I thought you might need some company.
RIOS: Piss off.
RAFFI [OC]: Pissing off.
(In amongst his memorabilia is a photograph of Rios with his late Captain, and a sketch of him with Dahj/Soji or someone else, but identical.)

[Queencell]

(Still manipulating holographic systems.)
SEVEN: These are the ones Hugh reclaimed. Thousands more are still in stasis.
ELNOR: Wake them up.
SEVEN: They'll be useless, lost without the voice of the Collective. I could reactivate and reconnect their transceivers, create a kind of micro-collective of just the Borg on this Cube. Coordinate their movements, deploy them against the Romulan troops.
ELNOR: That sounds amazing. Do that.
SEVEN: Assimilate them. Invade their minds, suppress their identities, enslave them, again?
ELNOR: You can release them when we win.
SEVEN: They won't want to be released, and I... I might not want to release them.

[Holodeck - Study]

RAFFI: Mmm. Maybe this was a mistake.
(She has assembled the 5 holograms.)
RAFFI: All right, somewhere underneath this absurd spectacle I see before me, are five broken pieces of Captain Rios. It's like you each got dealt a hole card. How about you turn them over, hmm?
(The Spanish Tactical hologram is dozing.)
EHH: Sit up.
EMMET: (Spanish)
RAFFI: Oh. Let's start with the girl. Er, Ian, you called her Jana. You said you recognised her.
IAN: I did. I do.
ENOCH: I do too. Yes. Jana, poor thing. It was just so tragic. I... No. Sorry. It's like my knowledge of Medusan astrogation techniques. Totally gone.
EHH: It's something to do with his time on the ibn Majid, with his captain.
IAN: Aye, Captain Alonzo Vandermeer.
RAFFI: Well, what about him? Were they close? Is he alive?
EMH: It's, er... Ah... The information's there, somewhere, I can feel it. But I can't quite get at it.
(Snoring.)
RAFFI: Emmet!
EMMET: What?
(He puts his feet up on the coffee table.)
RAFFI: Ugh. What happened to Vandermeer?
EMMET: (Spanish, then puts fingers into his mouth and pulls a trigger.)
RAFFI: Oh. Well, that's awful. Do we know why?
IAN: It's one of those things ye ken, but ye dinna say.
EHH: Turns out we don't actually ken.
ENOCH: I can feel the answer, or a ghost of it.
EMH: This may violate my Hippocratic coding, but after the whole thing was over, Captain Rios suffered some kind of breakdown.
EMMET: Oy, oy, oy.
EMH: That's why he was discharged.
RAFFI: Er, whole thing? What whole thing? Something happened on the ibn Majid, something that had to do with Vandermeer and a girl named Jana.
ENOCH: Don't bother searching for ship's logs or personnel records on the ibn Majid.
RAFFI: Why?
ENOCH: It was all classified.
RAFFI: Because?
(They all have glowing eyes as they search for information.)
RAFFI: Oh, oh. Come on. One of you knows. What happened on the ibn Majid?
EMMET: One of us knows.
IAN: And he's sae fou as a piper an' awfu aff the fang.
EMH: So true, Ian.
RAFFI: I mean... It's not even a language.

[Sickbay]

(Agnes wakes to see Picard staring at her.)
AGNES: Did it work?
PICARD: You neutralized the viridium, if that's what you mean. We are no longer being tracked by the Tal Shiar. We are now headed for Deep Space 12. When we arrive, you will surrender yourself to the authorities for the murder of Bruce Maddox.
(Agnes nods.)
PICARD: I have been trying to work it out. How you could have done such a thing. He was your mentor, your... lover? (sigh) Why?
AGNES: I had to. When Commodore Oh came to find me that day, she... ..she did something to me. Poisoned me.
PICARD: So the head of Starfleet Security had you ingest a viridium tracker?
AGNES: Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. She put poison in my mind, Picard. She... put her hands on my head and poured in... She put in a psychic block to keep me from talking about it.
PICARD: Ah, you must fight...
AGNES: I don't want to talk about it! Do you believe in hell? Yeah, neither did I, until I saw it. Now I think about suicide every day. That's how I comfort myself.
PICARD: Was this experience, this vision of Oh's, one that she lived through herself?
AGNES: No, no. It happened... thousands of centuries ago because of hubris. Hubris like Bruce's.
PICARD: Because of synthetic life?
AGNES: We're at a threshold. I saw it, Picard. Oh showed me. Unless we act quickly and destroy even the possibility of synthetic life...
PICARD: Hell will come again. And this threshold...
SOJI: Is the coming of Seb Cheneb, the Destroyer. Me.

[Rios's quarters]

(Solitude by Billie Holiday - an LP playing on a deck. Raffi enters without knocking and replicates a cup of coffee for Rios.)
RAFFI: So. Captain Alonzo Vandermeer. That his... Walkman?
RIOS: I used to pretend he was my father. Called him Pops in my head. Couple of times, it almost slipped out. Kind of a surprise when he turned out to be a cold-blooded murderer.
RAFFI: Who... who did he murder?

[Sickbay]

AGNES: Do you sleep?
SOJI: Every night.
AGNES: You sleep every night. My God. Do you eat?
SOJI: When I'm hungry.
AGNES: What do you do when you're sad?
SOJI: Cry.
AGNES: Thirsty?
SOJI: Drink.
AGNES: You drink when you're thirsty. That is so beautiful.

[Rios' quarters]

RIOS: We were way the hell out in the Vayt Sector. Picked up a diplomatic mission. Out of nowhere, tiny ship, unknown design. Two passengers. We scanned them. They checked out. We sent the info to Starfleet and notified them of a first contact. Then we beamed them on board. The ambassador, Beautiful Flower, and his young protégé.
RAFFI: Jana.

[Sickbay]

AGNES: You have a constellation of three beauty marks on your right cheek.
SOJI: Which is a good thing?
AGNES: Which is artistry. Noonien Soong, who made Data, thought of himself as an artist, but... he never gave Data three beauty marks.
SOJI: I also have a mole on my chest, and a crooked pinky toe.
AGNES: You are a wonder. A... technological masterpiece and work of art.
SOJI: Am I a person?

[Rios' quarters]

RIOS: We shake hands. We sit down, have a bite to eat. A few hours later, Alonzo Vandermeer kills them both in cold blood. He takes them both out with two quick pops of a phaser.
RAFFI: Why?

[Sickbay]

SOJI: Am I a person? Not in theory. To you, right now, looking at me, talking to me. Do you consider me to be a person like you?

[Rios' quarters]

RIOS: It was a black flag directive, straight from Starfleet Security. He told me they said if he disobeyed, the ibn Majid would be destroyed with all hands.
RAFFI: What?
RIOS: I went at him hard. Pretty hard. That's when he put the phaser in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
RAFFI: Oh, Chris.
RIOS: Raffi, then... then I covered it up. Like he was supposed to do. So it wouldn't all be for nothing. So they wouldn't blow up the ibn Majid and everyone on it. I beamed the bodies into space, deleted it from the transporter log. Let the whole fleet know that Alonzo Vandermeer had killed himself for no fucking reason at all. Six months later, I was out of Starfleet. They called it, er, post-traumatic dysphoria. But I was just...
RAFFI: Broken. I'm so sorry, babe.
RIOS: When that girl beamed aboard today... I mean, Raffi, it's the same girl. he other one sketched it while we were talking.
RAFFI: They were synths. That's why they had to die. Chris, who gave the order?

[Sickbay]

SOJI: Commodore Oh ordered you to kill me, too. I would never give you the opportunity.
AGNES: Now that I've met you, I would never take it. Never, ever again. Okay?

[Artifact]

(Rizzo marches into the Reclamation lab, killing everyone there.)
RIZZO: I'm afraid I broke your gun. Someone get me another weapon.

[Queencell]

ELNOR: The lights are going out. Are those Borg life signs?

[Artifact]

TANNOY: This is not a protocol drill. If you do not reach evacuation at the alloted time, take immediate shelter to avoid all means of detection.)
RIZZO: Do they frighten you?
TARENT: I'd be a fool if they didn't.
RIZZO: Something far worse is coming, Centurion, if I fail in my work.

[Queencell]

(Tubing comes down and attaches itself to Seven's spine. Her eyes go dark.)
SEVEN: We are Borg.

[Artifact]

SEVEN: (echoes) We are Borg. We are Borg.
(The Borg cells light up.)
RIZZO: Now.
(A corner of the Cube opens and the Borg cells are sucked out into space.)

[Queencell]

SEVEN: No!

[La Sirena]

(Soji helps Agnes walk out of Sickbay into the mess hall.)
AGNES: Well, I'm done murdering people, so that's a good thing. When we get to Deep Space 12, I'm gonna turn myself in.
RIOS: Are you all right?
(The women sit.)
AGNES: I'm sorry. You all are the closest I've come in a long time, maybe ever, to having a... a... crew. Sorry I had to fucking ruin it.
RAFFI: Should we get into it?
(Rios goes to the replicator and comes back with a plate and pink ice cream.)
RIOS: I'm sorry, too. Peppermint, French fries. To me it looks kind of disgusting, but... you love it, right?
SOJI: How did you know?
RAFFI: Oh, we'll get there, honey. Now listen. Two, three hundred thousand years ago, somebody drags eight suns together. They hang a planet in the middle. And on this planet, they place a warning.
AGNES: The Romulans call it the Admonition.
RAFFI: This warning says, don't do what we did. We created synthetic life-forms, and...
AGNES: And they evolved. And it did not go well, at all.
RIOS: Meaning?
PICARD: Apparently, these people believed there was a threshold of synthetic evolution, a dividing line.
RIOS: Like with Zefram Cochrane and warp drive, when you cross that line, somebody shows up.
AGNES: Somebody really bad.
PICARD: The Romulans, it seems, took this Admonition very seriously. They created a group, the Zhat Vash, dedicated to finding and terminating all synthetic life.
RAFFI: So imagine, 30, 40 years ago, Dr. Noonien Soong starts turning out synthetic life that's equal to human beings. Superior, in some ways. The Romulans send in a mole, a half-Romulan Vulcan named Oh. She burrows into Starfleet, rises through the ranks and becomes head of Security. And all the while, she has one mandate. To put a stop to the Federation's research and development of synthetic lifeforms. To this end, she decides to engineer a situation so terrifying that the Federation's only response will be to ban synths forever.
AGNES: The Romulans were behind the attack on Mars.
RAFFI: Yeah. It has a certain ring to it. Am I right?
PICARD: Carry on.
RAFFI: But the Commodore's work wasn't done. Nine years ago, a Starfleet vessel had first contact with a pair of emissaries from a strange new world.
RIOS: One called himself Beautiful Flower. The other one was...
SOJI: Jana. How do I know that?
RIOS: The same way I know you like to dip French fries in peppermint ice cream.
RAFFI: Jana and this Flower came from the world that Bruce Maddox fled to when he left Earth after the ban, bound and determined to carry out his work.
PICARD: And the Zhat Vash have been searching for this world ever since.
SOJI: Which they have now found because of me. (she thumps the table, hard) Excuse me.
(She goes up to the bridge and powers up the engines.)
RIOS: Soji, what are you doing?
(There is a forcefield in place.)
RIOS: Emmet, ayuda. mmet!
SOJI: I deactivated them. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt anybody. I just need to get back home. You'll get your ship back, Rios, the minute we're there.
RIOS: Kid, I understand why you're doing this, but it's not right. We want to help you. You cannot just...
SOJI: How could you possibly understand? Is someone trying to wipe out your family? Do you even have a family?
RIOS: I do not.
RAFFI: What... What is that? Is that some kind of subspace tunnelling?
SOJI: It's a map of the Borg transwarp conduit network. At this speed, we're about nine hours from the nearest node. I don't actually know how I know that. I... I must have picked it up on the cube while I was busy being Doctor Soji Asha. The second I heard the truth about the ban, the Admonition, and what happened to my brother and sister on the ibn Majid, I suddenly seem to know a whole lot of things.
RIOS: Do you know this? ♪ Arroz con leche se quiere casar, Con una viudita de la capital. Que sepa tejer, que sepa bordar. Que ponga la aguja en su campanal. ♪
(He pushes the forcefield aside.)
RIOS: It's a lullaby my mother used to sing to me. She didn't like other people playing with her things, either.
PICARD: She's done it Maddox's way, she's done it my way. Let's try doing it her way, and hope we get there in time to warn them.
(Picard takes the captain's chair, calls up the holocontrols and...)
PICARD: Actually, I don't know how to work this.
(He vacates the chair.)
RIOS: So, your plan is just, fly into a transwarp conduit, don't set up a structural integrity field, no chroniton field, just jump right in, gravimetric shear be damned? Sirena is my goddamn ship, hija.
SOJI: Captain Rios, please take me home. For Jana's sake.
RIOS: I got you.

[Artifact]

TARENT: The fleet has the coordinates for the synthetic home world. They're leaving now.
RIZZO: Have all the Borg been jettisoned?
TARENT: Yes, Colonel. In an hour we'll have the xBs mopped up and be ready to embark...
(Behind her back, 2 xBs kill Tarent.)
RIZZO: And my ship is ready for departure?
(She realises something is wrong.)
RIZZO: Qezh.
(Starts shooting, and is grabbed and forced onto the decking, but manages to be beamed away. The Romulan fleet goes to warp.)

[Queencell]

SEVEN: They are gone. It is over. The cube is ours again.
ELNOR: So, are you gonna assimilate me now?
SEVEN: Annika still has work to do.
(The mini-Collective disconnects Seven.)

[La Sirena]

PICARD: You know, I remember standing the night watch as a young ensign on the bridge of the Reliant, feeling I was the only one awake in all that... emptiness, all that silence. I'd forgotten, until just now how much I loved it. I knew Alonzo Vandermeer slightly. He was first officer to an Academy classmate of mine.
RIOS: Captain Marta Batanides.
PICARD: You knew her?
RIOS: No, but I felt like I did. She was a legend to the old man. My old man, Captain Vandermeer.
PICARD: Hmm. Did he know they were synthetic?
RIOS: I have to believe that he did. He must have thought that, because of that, he'd be able to live with it.
PICARD: I didn't know him well, as I said, but... I felt he was a good man. One of the best that Starfleet had to offer.
RIOS: He was. I er... I hate that he died thinking it was really Starfleet that betrayed him. Betrayed itself.
PICARD: But Starfleet did betray him. We did betray ourselves. ong before Oh gave Vandermeer that order. The ban itself was a betrayal. Oh, the Zhat Vash, they set the trap, but we could merely have sidestepped it. Instead, we gave way to fear.
RIOS: It took her all of five minutes to hack my ship, Picard. And now, maybe there's a whole planet of them. Raffi said the Romulans call her the Destroyer. What if they're right?
PICARD: They may be right about what happened 200,000 years ago. The past is written. But the future is left for us to write, and we have powerful tools, Rios. Openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy and fear. And fear is the great destroyer, Rios, not...
SOJI: We're there.
(They drop out of warp by the node. Soji checks Kestra's compass. It points straight at it. La Sirena enters the conduit, followed by a previously cloaked scoutship that had been waiting nearby.)