[Spacecraft]

RENÉE: Houston, this is Shango. I'm reading a 1202 alarm up here.
CAPCOM [OC]: Standby. We're getting word of a Russian satellite collision. Orbital debris heading your way.

[Apartment]

PICARD: Where are we?
TALLINN: My apartment. Better place for a chitchat if you get disagreeable.
PICARD: Laris, how did you get here?
TALLINN: Laris. There's that name again.
PICARD: Did Q do this?
TALLINN: What's a Q?
PICARD: You don't know, do you?
LARIS [memory]: Is that what you really want?
PICARD: You're not Laris.
TALLINN: No. My name is Tallinn. Pleasure to meet you.

[Spacecraft]

RENÉE: Houston, I'm gonna try an engine burn. See if I can't nudge this bucket of bolts out of the way.
CAPCOM [OC]: Negative, Shango. Counter thrusters are offline.
RENÉE: What?
CAPCOM [OC]: Brace position.

[Apartment]

PICARD: I've been sent from a future time.
TALLINN: Yeah, well, I don't like time travelers, whoever you are.
PICARD: My name is Jean-Luc Picard.

[Spacecraft]

CAPCOM [OC]: Impact. Three. Two. One. Boom. You're dead.
(Simulation ends.)
RENÉE: Why is everything stuck today?
CAPCOM [OC]: Take a deep breath. It's okay. Launch is in three days. It's just some jitters.

[Apartment]

TALLINN: Like others in my profession, I have a singular purpose. I have devoted my entire being to protecting one individual, a single string in a grand tapestry to which I'm not privy.
PICARD: There is a divergence coming. Something that alters the future I'm from. It's possible either you, or the person you are protecting, is of great importance to that future.
TALLINN: Interesting. Because that person, Jean-Luc Picard, is apparently your ancestor.

[La Sirena]

QUEEN: Alone, but not lonely. Silence so loud. Voices carried everywhere on invisible strings. Hmm. Mmm. Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
COMPUTER: Voice pattern not authorised.
QUEEN: Mmm. (as Agnes) Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
COMPUTER: Voice pattern not authorised.
QUEEN: (as Picard) Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
COMPUTER: Voice pattern not authorised.
QUEEN: (as Rios) Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
COMPUTER: Channel open.
FRENCH OPERATOR [OC]: Would you like to place a call?
QUEEN: Yes, I would. The La Barre, France, constabulary, please.
GENDARME [OC]: National Police.
QUEEN: Help! A woman is being attacked. There are screams coming from the Picard vineyard! Come quickly!
GENDARME [OC]: Stay in place. An officer is on the way.

[Countryside]

RAFFI: I got him. About a minute in that direction. We can have Jurati lock on and transport him out of there.
SEVEN: If we beam him out in front of a dozen eyewitnesses, who knows what effect teleportation might have on the 21st century.
RAFFI: Er, time travel rules? We're about to lose Rios forever. What the hell is wrong with you?
SEVEN: We'll get him out, alive, in a way that doesn't screw up the timeline even more than it already... Give me the tricorder. You're being too careless.
RAFFI: And you're being too goddamn careful.
SEVEN: Raffi, please.
RAFFI: 400 metres out.
SEVEN: Look, I get it. You're angry about Elnor, about Gabe.
RAFFI: Don't.
SEVEN: I know you. You need a target. You want to set your feet and fight.
RAFFI: And all you want to do is run away.
SEVEN: That's right.
(EMP pulse from the tricorder stops the Homeland Security ICE bus.)
SEVEN: Because something that's not moving is vulnerable.

[Bus]

MORRIS: Nobody move! Back in your seats and stay there.
DRIVER: 735 requesting immediate back-up.
RIOS: Pedro, right? You and the others be ready. Be ready, guys. Move fast.
MORRIS: Shut up.
RIOS: Maybe we all get home today.
PEDRO: Don't try anything stupid.
RIOS: I think my friends have taken care of that.
MORRIS: I said shut up.
(Morris unlocks the cage and comes back to the prisoners. Rios disarms him as Raffi stuns the driver. Pedro knocks Morris out.)
RIOS: Whew.
RIOS: This is a very bumpy century, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
SEVEN: Somebody's gonna start missing this bus at some point.
RIOS: We need to get them out of here, fast.
(They cut the prisoners' plastic tie restraints.)

[Countryside]

RAFFI: Come on. Go, go, go. Go. You're here. Elnor?
YOUNG MAN: Ma'am, are you all right?
RAFFI: Yeah, of course, of course I am. Go, go, go.
SEVEN: So, now what?
RAFFI: Er, it's like you said. We're vulnerable. We need to keep moving.
SEVEN: I've got your back, you've got mine, right?
RIOS: Pedro.
PEDRO: Nice work.
RIOS: That's a good hit. Va te bien?
PEDRO: Si.
RIOS: ?fuerte?
PEDRO: Vamos.
SEVEN: Rios, let's go.

[Apartment]

PICARD: You say this is your profession?
TALLINN: I was chosen for service as a Supervisor.
PICARD: Supervisors. Kirk's Enterprise crossed paths with a human called Gary... Gary Seven. He, too, was recruited by superior beings as an agent who would, in your words, protect the tapestry of history.
TALLINN: And sometimes that means protecting a single thread.
PICARD: Tell me about Renée. All our futures depend on it.

[Consulting room]

THERAPIST: Let's visualise. I want you to be kinder to yourself, Renée.

[Apartment]

TALLINN: You should know that I abide by one rule. I watch, but I'm never seen. I've never met Renée. She taught herself to be an expert sailor. Learned in the south of France, where she grew up. That was by age ten. By age 11, it was chess, fluid dynamics, and Cantonese. University at 16. Then a couple of years as a test pilot. Those were nail-biters. NASA couldn't wait to get their hands on her.
PICARD: She sounds remarkable.
TALLINN: She is. That's... not to say that she doesn't have her struggles. There's a melancholy. Sometimes anxiety, sometimes depression. It's a shame, for a mind that can burn so brightly.
PICARD: Depression in a human can be debilitating. She's... maybe lucky to survive.
TALLINN: That's the problem. I'm not sure she is surviving it.

[Consulting room]

RENÉE: I'd say to myself, are you ready for this, or are you gonna choke when they need you? Because lives depend on it.

[Apartment]

TALLINN: The Europa Mission launches in three days.
PICARD: The Europa Mission was a pioneering space flight in my history.
TALLINN: Quite frankly, I'm not sure she'll be on it.
PICARD: What do you mean?
RENÉE [holo]: I'd be brutally honest.
TALLINN: This is a therapy session. Mandatory psych evaluation for the Europa Mission.
PICARD: And you monitor it? This is private.
TALLINN: Is it? Here's the relevant part.
RENÉE [holo]: It feels like... nothing matters. I start going numb, and that scares me. I don't know if it's my gut, or... just plain fear.
THERAPIST [OC]: Fear does not have to be your enemy, Renée. Fear can be your friend, telling you that, perhaps... you are not ready.
PICARD: Stop. He's talking her out of it. Why? Something's off here. I need an angle on the doctor.
(Tallinn obliges.)
PICARD: That's not a therapist. That's Q! He's using Renée to change the future.

[Presentation]

(To a board.)
SOONG: To understand the true potential of the human genome is to envision a future free from disease. Imagine, if you will, I am a god. And as I look down at humanity, I see them at a crossroads. Will they evolve toward enlightenment, or will there be a divergence into darkness?

[Sterile room]

KORE: How'd it go, Dad? Shit. That bad, huh? You didn't do the humanity is at a crossroads thing?
SOONG: I did. Didn't take. Kore, my child, if I could encapsulate all the knowledge I've gained through the years from life experience and careful study into a single pearl of wisdom for you, it would be this. People are idiots.

[Presentation]

SOONG: Picture a world free of genetic defects. If I had the power to nudge us in the right direction, isn't that my responsibility?

[Sterile room]

SOONG: Someday soon, you'll get to step into the outside world and meet some morons up close. I promise.
KORE: How soon?
SOONG: Oh, I'm almost there.

[Presentation]

SOONG: So what if we discovered that precious key to unlocking our perfection. How far are you willing to go?

[Sterile room]

(Soong takes a blood sample from Kore.)
KORE: When I can finally go outside, I want to learn to swim. I want to see nothing but sunlight hitting the pool. Breathe the ocean air.
SOONG: I'll do anything to make that happen.
(But later, his computer says his proposed cure has a 99.83% chance of killing her.)

[Presentation]

WERNER: Doctor Soong, you were running genetic experiments with a privatized military organization, Spearhead Operations, on soldiers.
SOONG: Ex-soldiers.
WERNER: Unmonitored, unregulated, illegal experimentation.
SOONG: For a greater good. You don't understand. This genetic defect means the smallest speck of dust will ruin my daughter's respiratory system. UV light from the sun turns her blood to poison. She's confined to a room. She has no life.
WERNER: Adam. Breaking the Shenzhen Convention has serious consequences.
SOONG: I'm doing this for our children.
WERNER: We have no choice but to revoke your licence and your funding. You are not to engage in any further research relating to genetics.

[Sterile room]

(Words come up on a computer screen - I can help.)
SOONG: What?
(Pages, diagrams flash, then Check your 3D printer :-) )
SOONG: What the hell? Q?
(An etched calling card with phone number 323-634-5667 - a real answering machine apparently.)

[Chateau Picard]

(A gendarme is searching the building, his radio crackling with other French messages.)
LECLERC: Leclerc to Despatch, following up on the vineyard call. No activity. The house looks abandoned, but I'm checking it out.
RADIO: D'accord.
LECLERC: I hate the countryside.
(He is about to light up a cigarette when he notices something outside, and walks past Agnes sleeping on a sofa.)

[La Sirena]

LECLERC: This can't be real.
QUEEN [OC]: Help me.
LECLERC: Are you hurt? Alone?
QUEEN [OC]: Hurry.
LECLERC: Merde. Hello?
QUEEN [OC]: They're coming back soon.
LECLERC: I hear you.
QUEEN [OC]: I can't see you. Follow my voice.
(He finds her, and falls backwards.)
QUEEN: My hero. Nicotine addiction. I can help you with that.
LECLERC: No! No!
(An assimilation tubule snakes out.)

[Restaurant]

Q: Doctor Soong, I presume?
SOONG: Hacking into my network was a cute little trick. So was teasing me with data that was mysteriously specific to the exact problem I'm trying to solve.
Q: Oh, well, thank you, I worked hard on that.
SOONG: Do you have any idea how many crackpots contact me about my work? I get everything from basement-dwelling Nazis to rich heiresses who want me to clone their fucking cats. Let me be clear, that's not what I do, so don't waste my time.
Q: Oh, I wouldn't think of it. Seems I have, er, taken Time for granted of late, and now she's threatening to abandon me.
SOONG: See, right there, crackpot talk. I'll be leaving now.
Q: Er, Doctor Soong, in 17 seconds, you're going to take a seat. How do I know? You drove an hour to meet a total stranger, not for mystery or intellectual curiosity, but because you're a father, and you're desperate. There. 17 seconds, right on the tick. Ha.
SOONG: If you know that much about me, you know I'll kill you if I think you're a threat.
Q: Yes, and that's what I like about you.
SOONG: Who the hell are you?
Q: I am the evolution of stardust. I'm the gentle flutter of a butterfly. I am Death, destroyer of worlds. And I'm also a big fan of your work. And a visionary who knows how important you are to the future of this planet.
SOONG: What do you want?
Q: This meeting is about what you want. What I want will come later. She doesn't have much time, does she?
SOONG: That's none of your concern.
Q: What a sad, sad irony. A geneticist whose daughter has an incurable genetic disease. Sunlight burns like fire. Air turns to acid.
SOONG: Nothing... nothing is incurable.
Q: Well, you have neither the time nor the funding to prove that theory, but... you do have this.
(A small vial of turquoise stuff.)
Q: Analyze it. If you like what you see, give me a call. Then maybe you can help me with something that I might want.

[Apartment]

TALLINN: If Q is so all-powerful, why not just snap his fingers and make the Europa Mission ship disappear?
PICARD: I don't know.
TALLINN: Or even Renée herself?
PICARD: I don't know. But if he's trying to change the timeline by manipulating Renée, then he's robbing her of the destiny you were sworn to protect.
TALLINN: Okay. Tomorrow, she goes into pre-launch quarantine. Once she does, it's... pretty impossible to back out.
PICARD: So, we need simply to stop her from quitting for... next 15 hours. I don't suppose you've any sedatives?
TALLINN: We can't do that. She has to go to the gala tonight.
PICARD: What gala?
TALLINN: It's a... a big party before all the astronauts go in quarantine. Attendance is mandatory. Lots of press. Meeting donors.
PICARD: So, we attend this gala, we cover Renée, we monitor her state of mind, and isolate her from potential threats. We should rendezvous with my crew. They may have gear on the ship.
TALLINN: I think you're mistaking me for someone who takes orders from you.
PICARD: I know you protected her for 24 years, but you need to be strategic about this. We need to help each other. We're stronger together.

[Chateau Picard]

QUEEN [OC]: Agnes. Agnes, I have a surprise for you. Agnes!
(Agnes wakes.)
QUEEN [OC]: I don't want to start without you.
(Agnes takes the shotgun from over the fireplace.)

[La Sirena]

QUEEN: Agnes. Agnes, it doesn't have to be like this. You and I, at odds.
AGNES: What did you do?
(The Queen has Leclerc in a stranglehold.)
QUEEN: I'm helping you.
AGNES: Bullshit.
QUEEN: All right, I'm helping us.
LECLERC: Please... don't.
QUEEN: Be quiet, darling. This doesn't concern you.
AGNES: Let him go.
QUEEN: I could take his body. I need it, but it's you I want.
AGNES: I said let him go.
QUEEN: You're alone, Agnes. In every timeline, every permutation, in every reality of this universe, you are utterly alone.
AGNES: Stop talking.
QUEEN: That is your fate. Forever invisible. But I could change all that. Imagine being loved, completely. Every thought and whisper cherished and shared. With our minds joined as one, we could be more. I am the only one in the entire universe that has ever truly seen you.
AGNES: This has to end.
QUEEN: Have it your way, Agnes. I'm getting out of here. If not with you, then with him.
(The shotgun fires.)

[Sterile lab]

(Computer says - 100% effective.)
SOONG: It can't be. It's stable. How did... how did he do this?

[Outside - under UV shield]

KORE: What's in it?
SOONG: Food colouring, water, a genetic stabiliser.
KORE: How did you find a breakthrough?
SOONG: A colleague of mine inspired me to try something new. I've injected myself already. It's perfectly harmless.
KORE: Dad. I trust you.
(She injects herself.)
SOONG: Go slowly.
KORE: Obviously.
(He removes the UV shield. Nothing adverse happens. They laugh and embrace. She tries swimming for the first time.)
KORE: I almost got the hang of it. It's just floating in motion. Was my mother a good swimmer?
SOONG: Like a duck. Like a mermaid. I think you'll find there's any number of things for which you're a decade or two behind the ball. Just be patient with yourself.
KORE: Patience implies time.
SOONG: Can we just not think for an afternoon?
KORE: That doesn't sound like you at all. I thought you'd be running around the lab by now, having me help you dissect and analyze every step that went into this.
SOONG: Don't be silly. I just want to take the win for once.
KORE: Dad, who is this colleague? Ah!
SOONG: Kore? Kore? Oh, no. No, no, no, no.
(He reactivates the UV shield.)

[La Sirena]

(Seven, Raffi and Rios are beamed on board.)
RIOS: Agnes.
AGNES: No, it's... it's not my blood. But... I think I just killed our only way home.
(In sickbay.)
AGNES: I had to do it. She was killing him. He's all right now. I repaired most of the internal organs.
RAFFI: Most?
AGNES: Yeah, his spleen's in a box over there. I hated shooting her. Organic tissue at the base of the cerebellum. That's all it took. She's as vulnerable as we are.
SEVEN: There are a few billion souls who might disagree with you there.
AGNES: I gave him something to erase the memory, but we need to get him to his car.
(Tallinn and Picard arrive via her 'door'.)
TALLINN: Tell me about the others. Can they be trusted?
PICARD: Oh, no question. We've been through thick and thin together. There is no better bunch of...
RAFFI: Rios, you're twisting his back.
RIOS: It's okay.
TALLINN: Is that your crew? The people carrying a dead cop out the door.
PICARD: Oh, I... I'm sure he's not dead. There's got to be some explanation. Come.

[Sterile lab]

SOONG: Do you have the cure? The real cure? Not something that wears off. Because if you do, I am a hostage to you, sir.
Q: We're all hostages to what we love. The only way to truly be free is to love nothing. And how meaningless would that be? I have what she needs.
SOONG: What do you need?
Q: I have discovered of late that I have certain limitations. So I want you to remove an obstacle, for us. Does the name Picard mean anything to you?

[Chateau Picard]

RAFFI: I know you said it was complicated, but are we gonna talk about your new...
PICARD: Not now.
RAFFI: No, but she looks exactly like...
PICARD: I'm aware.
RAFFI: Well, doesn't that make you feel a little, kind of creep...
PICARD: Yes.
RAFFI: Good talk.
Q [holo]: What would it look like if you were to leave the mission? Let's visualise.
SEVEN: What is Q playing at?
PICARD: Well, there is now a very real danger of Renée Picard backing out of this mission, and I think what we experienced firsthand was the consequences of that.
SEVEN: The other timeline. So no Europa mission, no Renée, no hope. Everyone hates everyone.
RIOS: You're saying this great aunt of yours is single-handedly responsible for preventing our future from becoming a xenophobic tyranny? How?
PICARD: I don't know. The history of this time period is wildly incomplete. The century leading up to First Contact was just rife with chaos. All that's known about Renée is she discovered a microorganism on Io that she believed was sentient, and convinced the mission commander to bring it back to Earth.
RAFFI: And none of that'll matter if Q is able to get to Renée and break the timeline.
RIOS: Okay, so, we just need to make sure Renée gets on that ship.
PICARD: We are going to monitor her every single move at this gala, assess the threats and guide her.
TALLINN: With an invisible hand. We don't reveal ourselves or make contact.
PICARD: It might feel like Q is playing with us, but he is unpredictable, and a threat. Renée will be out in the open.
TALLINN: We have another problem. We weren't invited.
RIOS: Can't we transport in?

[Gala]

TALLINN [OC]: Well, it's not that simple. This is a maximum security function. Each guest is issued a radio frequency invite...
RENÉE: Hi, there.
TALLINN: ..that corresponds to a database of their entire life history. My technology can force one person through, but only temporarily. Once inside, facial recognition takes over. So even if we could materialize six people in the middle of the dance floor, we'd be busted immediately.

[Chateau Picard]

TALLINN: We can't transport in if we're not in the database.
AGNES: So we hack the database. It'll take me two seconds. I took Intro to Antique Coding in school. I'll finally get to use it.
TALLIN: You can't reach it remotely. They've physically isolated the database from the network.
AGNES: Yes, yeah. Air gapping. It's primitive but effective. That was in my class.
RAFFI: So we can't hack it until we get inside.
PICARD: Precisely. Jurati will go in first, infiltrate security and inject our IDs into the system.
RIOS: You're sending in the roboticist? Not the ex-spy or the Ranger.
AGNES: Yeah, all right, we get it.
PICARD: Jurati has all the skills we need. And I have a plan.

[Gala]

(Agnes' ID as Holly Visser glitches on the screen.)
SECURITY: Ma'am, can I see another form of ID, please?
(She holds up a driver's licence. Inside, on the balcony above the band playing a jazz version of Fly Me To The Moon.)
AGNES: I've got eyes on Renée.
(They are showing the Apollo 11 launch on a big screen.)
JACK KING [OC]: Five, four, three, two, one, zero. All engine running. Lift-off. We have a lift-off.
CAPCOM [memory]: Go again, Shango. Main engine cutoff unresponsive. Let's roll it again, Picard.
PICARD [OC]: Jurati?
AGNES: Almost there. Hang tight. Jamming the signal. I don't have much time.

[Surveillance room]

WOMAN: Something's up with the red dress by the central fountain. And be aware, she's talking to herself. I think we have a party crasher.

[Gala]

(A security guard intercepts Agnes.)
AGNES: Oh. Hello.

[Surveillance room]

WOMAN: Why is she cuffed?
MAN: She's a trespasser. Ramsey said to get her prints.
WOMAN: She's probably from Newport Beach. We're gonna get sued.
AGNES: It worked.

[Gala]

AGNES [OC]: I'm inside the surveillance room.
PICARD: Excellent.

[Surveillance room]

PICARD [OC]: Waiting for your signal.
QUEEN [OC]: Once I am gone, you are alone.

[La Sirena memory]

(Agnes has just discharged the shotgun.)
AGNES: Ah! What is this feeling? What's happening to me? What is that?
QUEEN: Me. Inside you. I'm part of you. You didn't think you could let me into your brain without feeling some sort...
AGNES: No. No.
QUEEN: Do you like that gnawing nothingness? Because it's never leaving. Together, we could be so much... more.
AGNES: We are nothing together.
QUEEN: You need me to get home. You... need me, Agnes. How will you survive without me?
(She touches Agnes' neck and injects assimilation tubules.)

[Surveillance room]

QUEEN: Captured on purpose. Clever little plan.
PICARD [OC]: Jurati?