[Bridge]

MORA: Captain, she's still on us.
SHAW: Helm, evasive.

[Shrike]

VADIC: Fire. One more time.

[Sickbay]

ENSIGN: This is your fault.
CRUSHER: Jack, don't. They're gonna need us.

[Bridge]

ESMAR: Sir, we have reports of widespread damage. Shields, weapons.
SHAW: Engineering, take whatever power you need. Prepare to warp.
RIKER: We can't warp away as long as we're inside this thing.
MURA: We're losing visual on the stern.
SHAW: Send somebody down to look out the goddamn back window. Soon as we shake her, we break for the exit.
T'VEEL: Sir, engineering reporting we've taken hits to our warp field coils. We can't outrun them on impulse alone.
RIKER: Nebula interference. Deeper we go, worse it gets for external sensors.
PICARD: If she wanted to destroy us, she could. She's strategic. She knows we're blind. We can't run. She'll peck away at us until we surrender.
RIKER: We need to hide, Captain.
SHAW: Damn it. LaForge, go deeper.

[Shrike]

ALIEN: They're out of sensor range.
ALIEN 2: We've lost them in the nebula.

[Bridge]

MURA: No sign of the Shrike, sir. We've lost contact.
SHAW: And there go the sensors.
RIKER: We've lost her.
PICARD: For now.

[Before - 10 Forward Street]

PICARD: A toast, my friend, to your newborn son.
RIKER: To Thaddeus.
PICARD: And to parenthood. Regarded by many as life's greatest challenge, but I have no doubt your son is in capable hands.
RIKER: Cheers.
PICARD: Because he'll be looked after by the wisest of souls. Someone endowed with great kindness, patience, and unconditional love.
RIKER: I don't know what to say.
PICARD: His mother. Are you all right?
RIKER: Yeah.
PICARD: You said on the call that the delivery was touch-and-go.
RIKER: Well, we were on the Titan, of course. They hailed me from sickbay. "You better get down here, sir, right away". The tone of voice, it was not what you wanted to hear. It took 17 seconds to get down there. The longest turbolift ride of my life. I thought I was losing him, my unborn son. His whole future flashed in front of my eyes.
PICARD: And in that moment, you became a father.
RIKER: That's right. And everything you've read, the books and the poems about fatherhood, goes right out the window the moment you see your kid. He's so... so small and so fragile. You just know that you've got to... got to take care of them at all cost. You'd burn the world to save them.
PICARD: I am so very happy for you, Will.
RIKER: I hope one day you get to have this feeling, too. Nothing like it. Oh, shit.
TROI [on PADD]: Oh, enjoying whiskey and cigars, are we? Well, I haven't brushed my hair in 72 hours, and your son just vomited all over Engineering. Projective vomit. Four feet in the air. They should study him for science.
RIKER: I'm sorry, imzadi. I'll be right there.
TROI [on PADD]: Bring the whiskey.
PICARD: I wish you luck, Captain.
RIKER: Thank you, Admiral.

[Present day - Bridge]

SHAW: Stern, report.
VESCO [OC]: Negative, Captain. Still no sign...
MURA: No visuals of the Shrike.
SHAW: Update from engineering.
LAFORGE: Still working on repairs. They estimate at least two hours before warp will be operational again.
SHAW: What now?
T'VEEN: Energy surge from the nebula, sir. Electrical and biological signatures.
SHAW: Well, that's fun. Anyone else want to throw more weird shit at me? LaForge, Mura, Esmar. You just pulled a 36-hour watch. You're relieved. Get some rest while you can.

[Seven's quarters]

SEVEN: Music off.
LAFORGE: I just wanted to check on you.
SEVEN: I'm charged with insubordination and confined to quarters, but thanks.
LAFORGE: My father is one of the greatest Starfleet engineers that ever lived. People were fine with me following in his footsteps, but the moment I decided to be a pilot... Oh, boy.
SEVEN: This sounds rehearsed.
LAFORGE: People didn't think I belonged, either. "She's here 'cause Starfleet couldn't say no to Geordi LaForge's daughter". One of the few ways my dad and I are alike. We have a hard time making friends. But when we do, we know their value. Shaw may call you insubordinate for helping yours, but my dad wouldn't.
SEVEN: Thank you. Go rest, Ensign.
LAFORGE: Yes, Commander Seven.

[Sickbay]

CRUSHER: Just a couple of cracked ribs, healing up nicely. You will be fine.
OHK: Excuse me.
JACK: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Watch it. She's injured.
CRUSHER: I'm fine. Doctor Ohk, put me to task.
OHK: It would take me longer to explain to you how everything has changed over the last 20 years than do it myself, but thank you.
(Leaves.)
CRUSHER: You are good to go. Just take it easy.
RIKER: Jack, what do you say you and I...
JACK: Nothing she has to say can't be said in front of me.
CRUSHER: It's okay.
(Jack and Riker leave. There is no one else in Sickbay.)
CRUSHER: Two months before I left the Enterprise, do you remember our shore leave on Casperia Prime? The waterfalls? A perfect day on borrowed time. They called you back early. That's how it always was with us. There was always a clock. That day maybe more than any other, because we both knew we were at the end.
PICARD: I didn't. I didn't know I would never see you again, that I would wonder for years what it was that I had done. Having no idea that it was really all about what you had done.
CRUSHER: We ended our relationship.
PICARD: Our romantic relationship. For the... the fifth time.
CRUSHER: Well, I got pregnant that night. I wanted to tell you.
PICARD: Then why didn't you?
CRUSHER: I struggled over telling you. I wanted him to know you, but then refugees from Kalara V, angry about Romulan relocation, kidnapped you and held you for nine days.
PICARD: Oh, so my only window was for nine days?
CRUSHER: Then I tried again, but this time two Reman assassins intercepted the ship in the Donatra sector and held a disruptor to your head.
PICARD: And... and how is that...
CRUSHER: Then only days later, Starfleet asked you to negotiate with the Praetor, and a photon grenade detonates metres from you. And that is when I knew it would be like that forever. It will be what it always was. Attempts on your life.
PICARD: And you never thought if you had told me, it all might have been different?
CRUSHER: Jean-Luc, when the galaxy comes calling for you, you are not put-upon by it, you love it.Don't tell me you would have walked away.
PICARD: Beverly, you made the choice for me. You don't get to condemn people before the fact.
CRUSHER: Over and over, you told me how you never wanted to have a family. That you could never be a father because you were too afraid you'd be like your own.
PICARD: Don't take my past and use it to justify and rationalise your actions. How dare you take my confiding in you about my father, about my fears, and use it to cut me out of the biggest decision of my life. What could have been had I known? Hmm? What might I have been? A father? A husband? I know now I would never have been my father. But I could have learned that 20 years before.
CRUSHER: When Jack was on his way, I was terrified. All I knew was that if you're the son of Jean-Luc Picard, there's a target on your back. I lost my parents, then a husband, then my son Wesley, all to the same stars that own you. As a mother, your whole being is about protecting your child. I... I thought I could protect mine. I didn't know if I could protect yours.

[Corridor]

(Jack is pacing, Riker is smiling.)
JACK: Can you please stop looking at me like that?
RIKER: Like what?
JACK: Like I'm the outcome of some science experiment.
RIKER: Sorry to tell you kid, but you are. I spent two decades in a spaceship watching you get cooked up before you were born. It was subtle at first, but that resemblance to your dad...
JACK: No. No, please, don't. He is not Dad.
RIKER: He is one of the finest men I've ever known.
JACK: Is he? Let's just say that in my time on this universe, I've always found one thing to be true. The bigger the legend, the more disappointing the reality.
RIKER: We're all faulty. Just human.
JACK: I heard he's positronic.
RIKER: He's still the same man.
JACK: It seems accusatory stares are contagious.
RIKER: People have a right to know who or what they're putting their lives on the line for.
JACK: I didn't ask them for that. I never would.
RIKER: I know. But now you've... you've got to own it. The best thing you can do is give them a reason to feel good about it.
JACK: Look, I... I don't know much about you. Sometimes my mother, she'd start telling a story about all of you, and her eyes would... would light up. And then she'd get sad and stop. Have you got a family, Riker?
RIKER: Feel free to call me Captain. And yes, I have a wife and a daughter, and I had a son.

[Sickbay]

PICARD: What do you know about the ship out there?
CRUSHER: Nothing. Jack and I help those in need on worlds Starfleet has forgotten. We've had trouble now and then, but nothing like this.
PICARD: You said, trust no one. Why?
CRUSHER: We were on a supply run to Sarnia Prime and Jack was jumped by Fenris Rangers. Then Klingons boarded us a day later. They were trying to take him. Then went to Starfleet, and still they came for him. Everywhere we go, someone turns on us. You are the only one I can trust.
PICARD: Why do they want Jack?
CRUSHER: I don't think it has anything to do with him. I think it somehow has something to do with you.
PICARD: I know nothing about this Vadic.
CRUSHER: No, neither do we. But that's no bounty hunter ship.That's a warship with Jean-Luc Picard sized enemies behind it.
PICARD: I must get back to the bridge. Jack. His accent.
CRUSHER: He went to school in London. Never shook it. Maybe it's in his DNA.
PICARD: Didn't I deserve a chance? Didn't he deserve a chance to get to know me?
CRUSHER: When he was old enough, I told him who you were and where to find you. I encouraged him to meet with you. He decided not to.

[Corridor]

PICARD: Walk with me, Will.
RIKER: What did Beverly say?
PICARD: It's immaterial.
RIKER: Immaterial? That's your son.
PICARD: Our survival is the only thing that matters. I've placed the crew of this ship under unnecessary danger.All our efforts must be focused here.
RIKER: Jean-Luc, talk to him. Moments with your kids. You never know what you might regret. God knows...
PICARD: Will, it's irreparable. I owe this ship's captain an apology.

[Stern]

VESCO: Bridge, visual contact of the Shrike.

[Bridge]

VESCO [OC]: Bearing 047. 3,000 metres and closing.
SHAW: Battle stations! That's impossible. How the hell did she find us?

[Shrike]

ALIEN 2: Titan is right where it should be.
VADIC: Again.

[Bridge]

(Direct hits to the saucer section.)
SHAW: You. You. You got us into this. You are gonna get us out. Computer, transfer command. Captain William Riker, pro tem. Authorisation Shaw-12-11-Bravo Delta.
COMPUTER: Command transfer authorised.
RIKER: Get him to sickbay.
T'VEEN: Captain, we still have visual. She's right behind us.
RIKER: Admiral, can you roll and not fire a single photon torpedo halfway between us and them? Key the phasers, light it up. The concussion should...
PICARD: Torpedo away.
T'VEEN: It worked, Captain. We may have shaken her.
RIKER: Thank you, Jean-Luc.
PICARD: Will, I think it might be time you called me Number One.

[La Sirena]

REPORTER [OC]: An update on yesterday's devastating attack on a Starfleet recruitment building that left 117 dead. Starfleet intelligence has now confirmed that Lurak t'Luco, a Romulan dissident, is to blame. While authorities would not divulge details on the weapon used in the attack, they say that they are confident that t'Luco was working alone, believing this to be an isolated incident.
(Les Troyens by Berlioz is playing on board. Raffi grabs a gun. By the engines, Worf is doing Mok'bara exercises.)
RAFFI: I don't know who the hell you are, but...
(She is disarmed by a thrown knife.)
WORF: I am Worf, son of Mogh, House of Martok. Son of Sergey, House of Rozhenko. Bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron. I have made some chamomile tea. Do you take sugar?
RAFFI: Worf. You're a legend. Picard, you know, he used to talk about you all the time.You're exactly as I imagined you to be. Also, not so much.
WORF: I have learned of late that one must access calm as much as fire. So I have been, as humans say, working on myself.
RAFFI: You know, the... the last thing I remember, that... that Ferengi was going to kill me.
SNEED [memory]: But I will take your money. And they'll take your head. Aah!
WORF: It is not your time to join the dead.
RAFFI: You... You are my handler? You're Starfleet?
WORF: My concerns align with theirs. Think of me as... a subcontractor. There is something coming. Some kind of attack.
RAFFI: There was an attack. The recruitment centre, using stolen weaponry from Daystrom.
WORF: I fear that was only the beginning of something much bigger.
RAFFI: That's what I told you! So why would you order me to disengage when I'm obviously right?
WORF: Because I thought you would get yourself killed, or nearly so. And I, too, was obviously right. Withdrawals, from the narcotic you ingested in your eye before I saved your life.
RAFFI: You blew my cover.
WORF: You had already accomplished that.
RAFFI: Why do I do this? My life, my family, my sobriety. What is wrong with me?
WORF: You almost died on a mission that everyone told you you should not work.
RAFFI: Yeah, thanks. Pile it on. I've heard worse from bigger legends than you.
WORF: You have the heart of a warrior, and the instincts. There is something coming. I have known it for a while. You have served me well.
RAFFI: Ah, Ah. Wait. Where... where is all this past tense coming from? Because I am not done here and I do not need a babysitter. I've been undercover for months. I have my finger on the pulse.
WORF: Raffaela, I know who paid the Ferengi to lie. A human by the name of Titus Rikka. Multiple criminal underworld contacts. You and I will track this individual together. And then we will find out who stole those weapons, learn the next phase of their plan... and stop them.
RAFFI: Cool.

[Bridge]

PICARD: Vadic should be as blind as we are. It might give us a tactical advantage.
RIKER: No, we should continue to evade until warp is operational. She's finding us anyway.
LAFORGE: Engineering is now estimating just under 20 minutes, sir.
PICARD: So, only defensive strategy.
RIKER: Given our limits, and what we've seen of her capabilities, yes.
PICARD: But given the likelihood that we are forced to re-engage...
RIKER: This isn't the Enterprise. What I've seen, the difference between the Titan and the Shrike, the only option we really have is to hide. Of course, I'm... I'm open to your input.
PICARD: Thank you, Captain.
RIKER: LaForge, keep us squirrelly and hidden long enough to buy us time.
LAFORGE: Yes, Captain.

[Sickbay]

CRUSHER: Almost there. We're gonna get you scanned. Here we go.
JACK: Hey, look at me. Look at me. You're gonna be okay. All right? You may have lost a bit of blood, but here's some good news. We got plenty. So you're gonna be absolutely fine, I promise.
CREW: Thank you.
JACK: Okay?
CREW: Yeah.
JACK: Let's get you over this way.
OHK: Captain? Captain, stay with me. Captain.
CRUSHER: What can I do to help?
OHK: Just help with the others.
CRUSHER: They're fine. They're stable. I don't like what I'm seeing here. Shaw, are you having trouble breathing? Does this hurt? What about this? Now? He's bleeding internally.
OHK: No, I ran the imaging scan.
CRUSHER: Imaging doesn't always pick up delayed bleeding from concussive injuries. We need to work on this. Jack! Get him on his side. Go.
SHAW: How.. how is she finding us?
JACK: I'm so sorry, sir. I never meant for any of this to happen.
SHAW: How does she keep finding us?
(Jack looks at the trail of blood Shaw has left.)

[Bridge]

RIKER: Stern, report.
VESCO [OC]: Still no sign of her.
RIKER: Warp status?
LAFORGE: Less than ten, sir.
RIKER: Science, have you been tracking these energy pulses?
T'VEEN: Yes, sir. I'm reading both electrical and biological signatures. I don't believe that this is a nebula, but some kind of unknown anomaly. There's been nothing like it ever reported by Starfleet.
PICARD: So, going straight through it is not a recommended option?
T'VEEN: Definitely not, sir.
RIKER: Are you suggesting we turn back?
T'VEEN: Logic suggests it would be unwise to go any deeper.
RIKER: LaForge, change course. Inform Engineering however long it takes to get us outside this nebula is exactly how much time they have to be ready to warp.

[Corridor]

RIKER [OC]: All hands, remain at battle stations and prepare for maximum warp. We'll attempt to outrun the Shrike.
JACK: I have to get to the bridge. I need to speak with them.
GUARD: We're at red alert. Turn around.

[Bridge]

LAFORGE: Sir, I estimate we're moments away from approaching the outer edge. Engineering says warp is a go.
RIKER: Set course for the nearest starbase. Comms, ready an emergency SOS, then prepare to go to warp.
T'VEEN: Effects of the nebula dissipating.
RIKER: Soon as we're clear, LaForge.
MURA: Scanners are coming on line. Sir, she's on us.

[Shrike]

VADIC: Ready the device.
ALIEN: Ready to deploy.

[Bridge]

MURA: Their weapon system's... My God. They're giving off energy readings like... like nothing I've ever seen before.

[Shrike]

VADIC: Fire!

[Bridge]

(A wormhole opens in front of them.)
RIKER: What the hell is that?
LAFORGE: Sir, we're going right through. She's pulled us deeper into the nebula.
MURA: Some kind of portal weapon, sir. Dimensional folding, interspatial singularity.
RIKER: LaForge, punch it. Try it again.

[Shrike]

ALIEN: The device is armed. Ready for your command.
VADIC: Again.

[Bridge]

LAFORGE: Sir, she's pulled us back in again.
RIKER: Damn it.
PICARD: Will, she's corralling us, holding us in the air so that she or that energy surge can cripple us until we're defenseless. Now is the time to fight.
RIKER: Turn us around, take us back in.

[M'talas Prime]

RAFFI: I told you to stay back.
WORF [OC]: It is not in my nature to stay back. Also, you look conspicuous in that hood.
RAFFI: Says the Klingon in warrior gear.
WORF: It is not warrior gear. It is casual.
RAFFI: Seriously, where do you wear that? To a Tuesday beheading?
WORF: I'm glad to see that you are feeling better.
RAFFI: I'm not. I just bring it when the moment calls.
WORF: It is calling. Behind you! Rafaella, we have been discovered. He is getting away.
RAFFI: Which way?
WORF [OC]: On your right.
RAFFI: I see him.
WORF [OC]: Take the alley. By the stall, now.
RAFFI: I'm losing him!
(Worf grabs him, lifts him high then thumps him down.)
WORF: Beheadings are on Wednesdays.

[Bridge]

LAFORGE: Sir, I can't shake her. The Shrike keeps pushing us deeper.
PICARD: We're running out of chances here, Captain.
RIKER: I am well aware.

[Seven's quarters]

SEVEN: What are you doing here?
JACK: We need a word.
GUARD: Hey, you...
JACK: You were a Fenris Ranger, right?
SEVEN: I don't have time for this.
JACK: Blood in the water. Come on, oldest trick in the book. Blood in the water. That's how the Shrike keeps finding us. Somehow, we're leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Now, you know there's any numberof things that can do this. Invisible, subtle, and easily detectable by enemy ships. There's no need for long-range sensors, only a...
SEVEN: Mass spectrometer. Verterium. It insulates the warp coils.
JACK: Yes! Yes, that's... that's it. That's what I'm saying. We have a leak.
SEVEN: We have to be sure. Come with me.
GUARD: Sorry, Commander, the captain's orders still stand. You're confined to quarters and I can't allow you to leave.
JACK: Yeah, the thing about that is...
(Punches his lights out.)
SEVEN: You're insane.

[Control room]

SEVEN: Oh. Gas leak. Smells like verterium. Here. It's poisonous in gaseous form. Exposure will kill you.
(Gas masks on.)
JACK: Well, the way things have been going lately, it might need to join the queue.
SEVEN: Someone deactivated atmospheric diagnostics. The ship's computer can't detect the leak.
JACK: Looks like short-range phaser fire to me.
SEVEN: It's not damage, it's sabotage. There's still a lot in this room and the tube. I'm gonna check another chamber. Stay here. We need to know how long it'll take to clear the system.

[Bridge]

SEVEN [OC]: Hansen to bridge. We know how the Shrike's been following us. We're leaking verterium. Someone did this on purpose.
PICARD: We have a saboteur.
T'VEEN: Captain, we're getting too close to the centre of this nebula, and by quick estimate, a strong, sizeable inner gravitational well. If we get pulled into it...
RIKER: You heard her, LaForge.
LAFORGE: Aye, Captain.
PICARD: Will, if this was sabotage, we can use it to our own advantage.
RIKER: As a diversion.
PICARD: Yes. Stop the leak, create a dead end to the Shrike's trail.
RIKER: Pivot hard, race out of here.
PICARD: No. Use it to set a trap. Instead of fleeing, we end the trail and reposition behind the Shrike. We'll have her dead to rights.
RIKER: It makes tactical sense but, no, you said it earlier we can no longer risk the lives of this crew. As soon as the leak is fixed, we're gonna make a final run for it. Tell Engineering to prepare for warp again.
PICARD: This leak gives us only one advantage. She doesn't know that we know that we're being tracked.
RIKER: I understand. You're amped up, you have a son on board and it's affecting...
PICARD: Will, why?!
RIKER: I'm taking this ship and her crew home.

[Control room]

JACK: You can't be in here. There's a leak.
(Foster knocks Jack's gasmask off and throws him around.)
COMPUTER: Warning. Dangerous level of verterium exposure. Oxygen required immediately. Warning. Dangerous level of verterium exposure. Oxygen required immediately.
(Jack's punch makes Foster's face wibble and reform. Foster knocks him out.)
COMPUTER: Warning. Dangerous level of verterium exposure.
SEVEN [OC]: Jack, I shut off the leak, but it'll take a minute to dissipate. Coming back to you now.
COMPUTER: Dangerous level of verterium exposure.
SEVEN [OC]: Jack?
COMPUTER: Warning. Dangerous level of verterium exposure.
SEVEN [OC]: Jack!
COMPUTER: Oxygen required immediately. Warning.
SEVEN [OC]: Jack!

[La Sirena]

RAFFI: I'm having a real hard time balancing the whole work/life thing. And then you decided to help get 117 people killed. I'm gonna start pulling off your fingernails, just to make me feel better. Why are you already sweating?
WORF: Raffaela. You may keep your fingernails. We know that those deaths were not your fault.
RAFFI: Oh, hell no. He is not getting off that easy. Have you ever seen how far a Klingon warrior can shove a sword up someone's...
WORF: I do not do that anymore. I am wiser now. I was once like her. Maybe you, too. Irrational, violent. Things change with perspective.
RAFFI: Oh, my God.
WORF: There is no righteous cause. No good, no evil. You believe in your fight. And take it from someone who has fought many. Your anger is your enemy. We are all the same.
RAFFI: I think I feel my chamomile tea coming back up.
WORF: A fight is rarely worth dying for. I have no ill will towards you. Just tell us what we want to know.
RAFFI: Who broke into Daystrom? Withdrawal's a bitch. The headaches pounding your skull. Your skin feels like it's been doused with acid. You know, after a while, some people coming off that stuff, they beg for death. Trust me. I know. No one knows you're here. You don't leave until we know what you know.

[Control room]

SEVEN: (vision) Connect the branches.
SEVEN: Jack! Jack, wake up, wake up. Come on, get up, get up. Let's go.

[Corridor]

SEVEN: Seven to the bridge. Picard, Jack's injured.

[Bridge]

SEVEN [OC]: I'm taking him to sickbay.
RIKER: Go.

[Sickbay]

CRUSHER: What happened to him?
SEVEN: Verterium gas exposure.
CRUSHER: Oh, my God. Oh, he's fading.

[Turbolift]

PICARD: Sickbay.

[Sickbay]

CRUSHER: Come on, Jack. Jack, breathe.
(Administers CPR and shocks as Picard arrives.)
CRUSHER: That's it, baby. That's it, that's it.

[La Sirena]

RAFFI: Goddamn it! You better start giving me answers right now. Who stole weapons from Daystrom?
RIKKA: Romulans.
RAFFI: Bullshit! This wasn't the Romulans. I swear, I will let you die in agony unless you tell me who broke into Daystrom.
RIKKA: I did!
WORF: Who with?
RIKKA: Like-minded souls. Enemies of the Federation.
RAFFI: Why blame the Romulans?
RIKKA: Because it was never about the portal weapon. We just wanted to keep Starfleet spinning.
WORF: It was misdirection from the very beginning, to distract us from...
RAFFI: Something else being stolen from Daystrom. Something more dangerous. Something more valuable.
RIKKA: That's all I know! Now let me go.
RAFFI: Okay, so that's not withdrawal.
WORF: Tell me, how long have you been away from the Great Link?

[Bridge]

RIKER: He's stable?
PICARD: Yes. Will, we cannot run any longer. We must engage and protect this ship.
RIKER: I am protecting this ship by avoiding its destruction.
PICARD: I understand this instinct to be fearful of loss.
RIKER: Fearful of loss? You are out of line.
PICARD: We cannot allow it to make us weak.
RIKER: Sit down, Admiral.
PICARD: Will, how many times must your strategy fail before you change it? It's not working!
RIKER: Sit down, Admiral. I'm the captain of this ship.
MURA: Sir, for a moment I think I detected the Shrike. Wherever she is, she's close.

[La Sirena]

WORF: You wanted us to release you before you gave away your true self. I know your kind. After a while it becomes too difficult to maintain your solid shape. What my partner mistook as withdrawal was merely your need to regenerate in liquid form.
RIKKA: It's too late, Klingon. Human. Solids. Your worlds are on the verge of destruction. Soon your Federation will crumble.
RAFFI: What is happening?
RIKKA: Aah!
(Turns to liquid.)
WORF: He is a Changeling.
RAFFI: Don't let it get away.
(Worf phasers it.)

[Sickbay]

JACK: I was attacked. His face... it moved. As a Changeling would.

[Corridor]

(As Foster sets an explosive.)
WORF [OC]: In the past, the Changelings were a powerful enemy of the Federation, united in purpose. But when the Dominion war ended, there was a schism. A terror1st faction broke away, unwilling to accept defeat. I was contacted by a close friend within the Link, a man of honour. He informed me of this rogue group.

[La Sirena]

WORF: But if Starfleet were to acknowledge their existence...
RAFFI: We would be reigniting the Dominion war.
WORF: They can look and sound like anyone, any species.
RAFFI: What is it they want... a second war?
WORF: No. I believe they may be planning another attack, and Starfleet could be the target.
RAFFI: What could be so big that they would use a portal weapon like that as just a distraction?
WORF: Perhaps it is as you said. To draw attention from something else that was stolen.
RAFFI: The real weapon.
WORF: We should get to Daystrom Station. It may be our only hope for answers. You and I, Raffaela, are now partners.

[Bridge]

T'VEEN: Sir, the leak is gone. The Shrike's trail is cold.
RIKER: Great. Let's get us out of here. LaForge, prepare for warp.
SEVEN [OC]: Sir, Jack was ambushed. He thinks it was a Changeling.
T'VEEN: Sir, we have just had an explosion. Warp energy is falling to zero, Captain. We lost a power conduit. We are unable to go to warp.
PICARD: Will, turn the ship around and fight.
RIKER: We'll lose.
PICARD: We're out of options, Captain. We fight or we die.
RIKER: Bridge, prepare to attack. LaForge, arc us around for a rear assault.
LAFORGE: Coming around.
MURA: If the Shrike followed the trail, we should be coming up right behind her.
PICARD: She's already turned. Will, now!
RIKER: Fire everything we've got!
(Shrike sends the torpedoes into a wormhole.)
PICARD: No.
(And back out behind them.)
LAFORGE: Engines down. Ship not responding.
MURA: The Shrike, it's retreating.
T'VEEN: We're sinking, Captain, towards the gravity well.
LAFORGE: I have no control. We're heading right for it.
PICARD: Will...
RIKER: Remove yourself from the bridge. You've just killed us all.