Guinan! Don't leave the Earth just yet. I know you're done with listening, but you're not done with humanity. Change always comes later than we think it should.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
Excuse me, are you a friend of Guinan's?
WWatcher
Absolutely not. [Watcher turns around, revealing that she greatly resembles Laris]
Laris!
You can't do it. And you know it. Oh, sure, you played the game for a while. But nothing was at stake, and the only challenge was fooling everybody into thinking you had the nerve. But now, it's real, and the fear's choking you. Oh, here's the truth: you can't do it. People are gonna die, and now your fear, your doubt, is the loudest voice in your head. [Q snaps his fingers, nothing happens] That's unexpected. And most unfortunate.
Alone... but not lonely. Silence so loud. Voices... carried everywhere on invisible strings. [Lights on La Sirena flicker and the Borg Queen opens her eyes] Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
CComputer
Voice pattern not authorized.
Hmm. [imitates Jurati's voice] Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
CComputer
Voice pattern not authorized.
[imitates Picard's voice] Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
CComputer
Voice pattern not authorized.
[imitates Rios's voice] Computer, intercept local cellular tower frequencies.
CComputer
Channel open.
Tell me about the others. Can they be trusted?
Oh, no question. We've been through thick and thin together. There is no better bunch of...
[Raffi and Rios carry an unconscious policeman off the ship]
Rios, you're twisting his back.
It's okay.
Is that your crew? The people carrying a dead cop out the door?
Oh, I... I'm sure he's not dead. [Nervous laugh]
Do you have the cure? The real cure? Not something that wears off. Because if you do, I am a hostage to you, sir.
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.
Picard! [Picard stops, and stares at Adam Soong] Adam Soong. [pause, Adam Soong shakes his head] I believe we have a friend in common. A Mr. Q.
He's not a friend.
That's what he said about you.
Listen to me: have nothing to do with him!
I have no interest in being part of some... whatever this is. So do yourself a favor: walk away. I can't allow Renee to complete this mission. Stay away from her.
I could say the same to you.
I don't have a choice.
You really don't understand who you're dealing with.
[signals to a Europa Mission board memeber] Neither do you.
EMEuropa Mission board member
Dr. Soong! Thank you for the generous donation to the Europa Mission. I'm in shock! Welcome to the board! Anything we can do for you? Our VIP tour?
Actually, there is something. That gentleman... [Soong turns away from Picard]
Sometimes those who shine the brightest feel the sting of fear and melancholy in ways that others can never understand.
RPRenée Picard
Sometimes, fear is a friendly reminder you're not ready for something.
No! Fear is fear. It doesn't speak in riddles. Fear means you're smart. You understand the risks.
I thought Agnes had purged all the Borg programs from the ship after the crash.
Landing.
I wanted to understand how she broke into the system, so I call up the last occurence of Borg code being introduced into the computer.
You haven't touched your coffee. You never don't touch your coffee.
This is what came up. [Seven shows Raffi security footage of Agnes implanting Borg code] That is definitely Borg code she's implanting. We have to find her, now.
You? You summoned me?
GGuinan
You must be Q. Took your damn time.
You are that multi-celled, sanctimonious, droning shrew known as Guinan. Right... It's the 21st century. Our paths have yet to cross.
GGuinan
I thought the Summoning didn't work.
"Summoning"? The Summoning is a sacred ritual. Not a chat, by which you bipeds exchange the nauseating minutia of your pathetic lives!
GGuinan
When the Ritual stalled, I sensed something. Emptiness and fear. I thought it was me, but it wasn't! I feel it on you! [Q steps back, and Guinan realises] You're dying!
Another quality I sincerely loathe about your species: empathy.
GGuinan
I knew you could kill each other, but otherwise, aren't you-?
Immortal? So I believed. But now, for the first time as I look across the temporal horizon, the darkness... 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. Oh, 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?
GGuinan
That's why you walked in here today? Why you're using humans as your game pieces?
[snaps his fingers, nothing happens] You see that? I'm honestly trying to vaporise you at this moment.
GGuinan
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?
GGuinan
Why bring him to the past?
I did not bring him to the past. He did that on his own. There are many forms of time travel.
GGuinan
But he's trapped here!
[angrily] The trap is immaterial! It's the escape that counts! [Q and Guinan stare at each other] I'll see you when I see you. Unfortunately. [Q goes to leave.] Humans... they're all trapped in the past.
I won't let you take this ship.
There you are. I could still sense you in there. Still feel you chattering about.
Do you know what it feels like to put my hands on my friend's throat, and not be able to do a God-damn thing about it?
A bit like hanging limbless. Powerless.
I've been poking around in that trash-dump of a mind - wow, by the way - because I had to know why. Billions of species... planets... and, still, you always needed more.
Perfection takes time, dear.
This was never about perfection, or evolution, or any of that bullshit. It was never enough because you're just like me: lonely.
To share your own crude colloquialism: bullshit.
Then why haven't you killed me? Stop. Stop! You take this ship, you let Soong win, in 400 years, the Confederation wipes out your entire collective.
So myopically linear. You see the branch but not the tree. We know of the Confederation's threat now, and we will prepare. Time... is on our side.
YPYvette Picard
Stars. Yes, yes. Did you know that space is so vast, so infinite, it takes billions of years for that tiny pinprick of light to make that lonely journey from its star to our eyes? The brilliance you see in the night sky, Jean-Luc, that exquisite light, it's just an echo, really, of a star that has long since faded. Like me. When you remember me, Jean-Luc, promise... promise me you will ignore the coldness of a dying star, and remember instead her light and the infinite love she so very much had for you.
Agnes Jurati (as Borg Queen): I have absorbed millions of languages, and there are a few common words among them. Love, certainly. Hope and fear. And one more common still. Futility. [grunts] Species thrive without love. Kingdoms conquer without fear. But it is the imperfect nature of all organic things to fight an unwinnable battle against an undefeatable foe. Death.
I'm no stranger to lost lab rats. To catch one, you don't follow it through the maze. You force it to the surface.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Star Trek: Picard pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.