Star Trek: Picard

Season 2, Episode 3

Assimilation

Transcript

s02e03 - Assimilation script

detail

Previously on "Star Trek: Picard"...

What the hell is that?

An unknown entity wants to join the Federation and will only talk to you about it.

Legion: Picard.

Utern: Energy spiking across the board.

Something's coming through.

Yes, Admiral. That ship is Borg.

That's new.

Seven of Nine: She's assimilating the ship.

Jurati: Not just our ship, the entire fleet.

Activate auto-destruct sequence!

Picard, zero-zero-zero-destruct-zero.

Q: Mon capitaine.

You're a bit older than I imagined.

Let me catch up.

Q...

Where is the Stargazer and her crew?

I intervened.

Q went back in time and changed the present.

Happy Eradication Day, dear.

I'm the president of a xenophobic authoritarian regime.

You're also married.

What did Q do in the past?

A single change.

What was it? When was it?

2024, in Los Angeles.

There's someone there to help-- a watcher.

If we want to save the future, then we have to repair the past.

What do we do?

A slingshot maneuver at warp to generate a temporal fissure.

Kirk's Enterprise did it on more than one occasion.

But they had Spock.

And we have her.

What the hell are you doing?

Picard: Rios, we need her to go back in time.

Time travel is not a way to make me feel better.

Raffi: They're on to us.

Rios!

Computer: Incoming ships on intercept course.

( grunts )

No!

Elnor!

Uh-uh.

♪ ♪

Throw your phasers. All of you.

Now!

( Elnor groaning )

Uh-uh!

I thought a safe galaxy was a human galaxy.

Why the concern?

You should have seen what that one did to my security team.

( groaning )

How dare you.

You are interrupting a classified operation.

I order you to stand down at once.

Or what, dear?

Oh, I had my doubts, but as the day wore on, I no longer saw my Annika.

♪ ♪

You are making a grave mistake.

Am I?

Tell me, what's my full name?

Don't you touch her!

Get back!

Who are you?

( grunting )

( panting )

Elnor!

Everything's gonna be all right, Elnor.

I'm sorry I couldn't help you.

No. No.

Picard: We need to go.

Raffi, get him to sickbay.

Rios, get us out of this damned place.

( groaning )

( monitors beeping rapidly )

No medical tricoder.

( softly ) Goddamn it.

There's not even a trauma kit.

I can't find anything on this goddamn ship!

Dermaline pads, they'll stop the bleeding until the skin can regenerate.

( loud crash )

( groans )

( alarms blaring )

I need more hands up here!

Go.

I got it.

It's okay.

You're gonna be just fine, okay?

Incoming.

How is he?

This is the only kind of life you understand.

Shall we see what else has been lost in the wake of your fear?

Q...

( alarms blaring )

Doctor, how much longer?

A warp-slingshot through a solar flare without incinerating is very iffy, so I don't want to hear...

Hurry up.

That.

( grunts )

Seven, target the forward ship, starboard nacelle.

Target locked.

Hold, hold. Hold...

Fire!

Good shot.

Bastards. They're still coming!

Rios: ( in distance ) That was a near miss...

Computer: Shield strength at 44%.

Rios: Hold on!

( gasps )

( panting )

Allow me.

Calculating temporal trajectory.

Initiating tachyon-splinter radiation burst.

Neutralizing threats.

Whoa.

What the...

Admiral?

I'm no longer in command of this ship.

Move backward to go forward.

Shatter to mend.

The past is now.

♪ ♪

Hang on. She jumped us to warp.

Warp six.

Seven now.

!¡Está loco!Warp eight.

Warp nine!

Hey. Hold on, baby.

It's okay. I got you.

Rios: 9.2.

9.5!

( whirring accelerates )

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

( whooshing )

Did we succeed?

Chronometer's shot. No easy way to know.

Look for context clues.

I see no moon colony.

Fossil fuel pollution, early ozone deterioration, no radioactive fallout.

I-I'm guessing we're pretty close to when we want to be.

Welcome to the Earth of the 21st century.

♪ ♪

( loud blast )

( rapid beeping )

Nav controls are off-line.

Shields are fried.

We're caught in Earth's gravity. I can't stop her.

We're losing power across the board.

Reroute blast shield control.

Forward blast shields non responsive.

I'm locked out of my own goddamn ship!

Diverting emergency backup power.

If I can trigger her recovery protocols, we might get back some manual control.

I've regained 37% nav control.

Is that enough to land?

More like a... targeted crash.

Jurati: In Los Angeles?

We can't crash a spaceship into one of the most populated cities of the period.

You got any better ideas?

Yes.

Give me nav control.

Where are you taking us?

Home.

( rumbling )

( hissing, crackling )

Status.

Everyone all right?

I-I think so.

Rios: This can't be right.

Both primary and reserve power are draining.

Checking.

Raffi: ( over comm ) We need power in the sickbay!

Now!

The biobed is the only thing keeping Elnor alive!

Goddamn it!

I'm stronger than you think.

Oh, yeah?

Prove it.

Can't.

Busy at the moment with...

( groans ) organs.

( chuckling )

Was that... was that your first joke?

( coughing )

( groans )

We need power!

Hang on, Raffi! We're working on it, I swear.

The Queen is diverting the power.

Picard: The time warp must've drained her.

She's siphoning power to save her own life.

Rios: We've got nothing up there!

Shut her down.

Agnes, shut her down!

We got to try and detach her.

Get these off. ( grunts )

Forget it. This is taking too long.

No, Rios! We need her alive.

( grunting )

( breathing heavily )

My medallion.

What?

The nuns gave it to me.

Get it for me, please.

It's in my pocket.

Okay.

It brings me comfort, knowing I earned it even in this reality.

Oh, it's-it's beautiful.

"Sem n'hak kon."

"Now is the only moment."

( softly ) "Now is the only moment."

( gasps )

♪ ♪

( breathing shakily )

( sobbing )

♪ ♪

( exhales )

( sighs )

Picard: If we fail here, we fail Elnor.

And everyone in our home world.

Therefore, despite the fact that it's against every impulse that we feel inside us... we have to press on.

We have to mend the time line.

We have to...

You should've let Rios kill her.

The Queen is the only known link that we have with the fissure in time.

And we are helpless until she is revived...

You're kidding me?

You want to wait around and nurse her back to life?

Raffi, I know what you are feeling...

I promise you don't.

'Cause what I'm feeling right now is intense... sharp... disappointment in leadership.

Let's put aside the fact that we chose the goddamn Borg Queen over Elnor for just a second.

Why has all of history been changed?

Because of Q.

That's why.

For decades you've played games with whatever Q is.

No, no?

'Cause that's what the two of you do, right?

You joust.

You screw around with people's lives for sport.

No, Raffi.

That's what he does.

Okay.

The Queen says that there is someone who can help us.

In this time, here in Los Angeles.

She called this individual a watcher.

You're saying if we find them, we can undo this nightmare of-- what'd they call it-- the-the Confederation?

Will it bring Elnor back?

It's impossible to determine whether we're existing outside a temporal causality loop.

Jurati.

We fix time... does it bring Elnor back?

I... I don't know.

Well, I'm going with it brings him back, and I'm not waiting around for that thing.

If the watcher is our only lead, then it's probably some alien species that doesn't belong here, using tech, probably leaving a subspace signal, meaning...

We can track it.

It may not want to be found.

You know, I don't really care much.

I'm coming for it.

She's too emotional.

Too much could go wrong.

I'll go with her.

Me too.

You can't bring that with you.

This?

Yeah.

Why not?

Because we're 400 years in the past.

You have to look out for butterflies.

If you lose that, Q won't be the only one breaking the time line.

I'll be careful.

No, uh, y-you're like the kid who needs the string around his mittens.

Please. But the point is...

No phasers.

It goes beyond phasers.

Don't draw attention to yourself.

No hospitals. No authorities.

No security checkpoints.

Anything that can scan you-- it can find the ID implants and vaccination chips from a future that doesn't exist yet.

I understand.

Admiral?

While you search, Dr. Jurati and I will try and revive the Borg Queen.

Are you certain you want to do that?

She is the only one who can tell us why we need the watcher and perhaps give us a location.

Rios: S-So, to be clear... wake a queen that could kill us all, beam from a ship with no power, and find a watcher who may or may not exist.

That's it, Rios.

Let's go to work.

Yes, sir.

She's still in there somewhere.

No activity in her reticular activating system, but this is her communication center.

Looks like she's trying to talk but can't wake up to speak.

When I was Locutus, when I was a member of the Borg, they rarely spoke audibly.

But a thought would be shared instantly with every Borg.

Perhaps...

She is talking.

But nobody can hear because she's not connected.

I might be able to draw power from environmental controls, use the ship as an interface.

Repair her enough to get her out of this recovery mode she's locked in.

This should have accessed her central core system-- her-her self, I guess-- but I can't get in.

Did you have access when you were part of the collective?

Yes.

I felt an intense euphoria but no sense of my existence, just her.

So, in theory, as Locutus, you could fix her from the inside.

No. She knows my mind.

Total assimilation can take hours for a newcomer, but me, she'd take in seconds.

But not me.

Absolutely not.

She doesn't know me, and she's only operating at eight percent.

How euphoric can eight percent be?

I-I just need to get in there, fix her, and you pull me out before I'm fully assimilated.

I would be able to restore power to the ship and restore her.

Look, you said it yourself, we need her to know what we have to do here.

We fail without her.

No.

Seven of Nine: Finally managed to reroute power from life support to the transporters.

But at the moment, they're... sub-computational.

I believe the technical term is "for sh¡t."

But we should have enough power to squeeze out a one-way ticket.

We could've used that power earlier.

Rotational compensation will be off, though.

We should land near each other, but...

We go in ten.

Raff, slow down, we're not even sure where to go yet.

Markridge Industrial Tower.

I did some digging.

In 2024, it's the highest point in Los Angeles.

We can run a complete scan of any alien signals from there.

♪ ♪

Seven of Nine: Look for anything that'll work in this period.

Do I still look like a fascist bastard?

Fascist, no. bastard...

Touché.

I'm gonna go check on the transporter.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

From Jurati.

She can use them to beam us back.

Raff...

We can keep in contact with each other locally, but without a subspace relay, not so much with the ship.

Raffi, you've lost someone...

I've also calibrated the tricorder to locate any anomalies.

If you want to talk...

You know, what I want is to try to figure out how to fix the time line and not talk about how it felt to watch him die.

( crackling )

It's only a partial assimilation.

Halfway to hell is still not a recommended destination.

But I'll have you.

My conscious mind will be inside working to fix her.

My subconscious-- my-my-my fear, my emotions-- everything the Borg have no use for will stay here with you.

So, y-you know, sorry, ahead of time.

Agnes, there are too many...

As long as that part of me remains separate, I'll still be me.

You can monitor the progress of my repairs on the screen up there, and-and once it reaches 100%, you yank me out.

The longer you're inside her, the stronger she becomes.

If I start to slip away, you just pull the tubule out.

The whole procedure shuts down.

How will I know you're in trouble?

You'll be talking to my subconscious the entire time.

If anything goes bad, you'll be the first to hear about it, that and... how much I still miss my grade school cat.

Picard: Good luck, everyone.

Remember, you're here to find the watcher, but be careful.

Don't interfere.

Everything we do here has consequences.

Jurati: I'll get you as close as I can to Markridge Tower.

Bye, guys.

Guess it's my turn, huh?

Yes. ( sighs )

( sighs ) Agnes...

I'll be fine, mister.

I know you'll take care of...

♪ ♪

( "California Dreaming'" by Freischwimmer playing )

♪ All the leaves are brown♪
♪ And the sky is gray♪
♪ I went for a walk♪
♪ On a winter's day♪
♪ I'd be safe and warm♪
♪ If I was in L.A.♪
♪ California dreamin'♪
♪ Such a winter's day♪
♪ Stopped into a church...♪

Whoa. Are you a superhero?

♪ Well, I got down on my knees...♪

Can you keep my secret?

♪ You know, the preacher likes the cold♪
♪ He knows I'm gonna stay.♪

Oh, oh, whoa!

( groans )

( door buzzes, lock clicks )

What happened?

No idea.

Found him on the sidewalk like this. No ID.

He wouldn't let me call the cops or take him to the E.R.

You guys help with this kind of stuff, right?

No hospital. Please, please, no hospital.

Seven? Rios? Do you copy?

Your wallet. Now.

Oh, ha, money. Right. Okay, yeah. no.

Wow, though.

Lady, I'm gonna hurt you.

( sighs )

Seriously?

We just got here and you're already making friends.

Well, I don't see you contributing to the apocalypse fund.

Plus, he started it.

Wonderful ambassador, up against the backdrop of hope meets hopelessness.

You're killing it, 2024.

You know, I've never been able to understand how a society could exist with so many contradictions and not collapse sooner than it did.

Wh... Uh, why... why do you look so relaxed?

You're never relaxed.

We should find Rios.

I was able to track your combadge, but I couldn't find his.

Hmm.

He's probably already on his way.

Come on. I'm not pinning my hopes on Picard waking Her Highness.

Picard: Agnes?

Can you hear me?

Picard.

So many warm feelings.

Admiration, respect.

Sometimes I want to disobey you just for spite, but that's 'cause I wish you were my dad.

I see we're diving into the deep end.

I'm looking at her.

She's looking at me.

( stilted chuckle )

Eh, she found the humor room.

Knock, knock, don't bother.

Just full of mirrors for useful deflection.

The Queen is making her way through your mind.

You can push back.

I can feel her peering through doorways.

I can hear rattling.

At first, she is only an observer.

But while you are trying to find her control centers, she will be looking for a way into...

My emotions.

She's found anger.

Whatever feelings she is accessing, it is perfectly...

Normal?

Why don't you tell me about normal, you pretentious prick.

Why don't you tell me about feelings and the last time you had one.

Oh, you pretend to have feelings to avoid having feelings, so how awful must it be to feel what you f...

New room.

She's rattling at the door of sadness.

I hate this one.

Dark.

What if... what if I never come out?

You will.

I'm so alone.

And sometimes, it's just... too much, too heavy, to push through.

And then a thought occurs.

I could just stop trying.

I could lie down, stop fighting, let it take me, like sleeping to death.

Stay with me, Agnes.

I can't...

I can't find my way back.

She's getting stronger now.

No longer just observing.

Listen to my voice.

Hold onto yourself, Agnes.

I am Agnes.

I am... Sub-routine failing.

Intrusive presence detected.

Eradicate. Assimilate.

Agnes, remember, you're there for a purpose.

You are to waken the Queen.

Do not let go of yourself, or you will be assimilated.

( alerts beeping )

Agnes.

Agnes, stay with me.

( gasps ) The more I repair her, the stronger she... we become.

Locutus, it has been so long since I've felt anything so intense as this one's longing.

Picard, I'm almost there.

I'm pulling you out.

No, I can see so much. ( gasps )

The watcher, 15...

Don't!

Whose hand is this?

Mine. Mine!

Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine!

Mine. Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

♪ ♪

Raffi: Uh...

Come on. The higher we go, the more I can amplify the signal.

Hey. You two can't be in here.

It's not open to the public.

Uh, so sorry.

Um, my girlfriend and I were looking to capture an image.

Take a picture, she means.

Seven of Nine: Right, and, um...

You had a colleague, um, tall, round?

Kevin?

Yes.

Yes. Kevin.

He let us up there on our first date, and we just got engaged.

( chuckles )

And, uh, we wanted to recreate the cellular photograph.

Just called a picture.

And you seem like someone with sufficient power and authority to break a rule.

I mean, you can't let Kevin be funner than you.

Ew. ( chuckles )

( chuckles )

Kevin is not funner than me.

( both laugh )

Make it fast.

Thank you.

( door opens )

Strangers don't usually like me.

( door closes )

You and 2024 should get a room.

( sharp inhale ) Ow.

Hmm. You looked tougher.

I can take care of myself.

If I could trouble you for some supplies, I'll be...

I'll be on my way.

Really?

You think you can walk out of here?

Show me.

Fine.

Here I go.

Walking out of here.

Am I doing it?

You know, when the room spins and you don't, that means you have a concussion.

But I'm no doctor.

What?

I'm kidding. I am a doctor.

That joke never works.

Yeah, I-I really need to go.

Relax. Hey.

I'm not gonna charge you, and I'm not gonna report you.

But if you want to be a classical guitarist, I need to fix your hand.

It's dislocated.

I never said anything about classical guitar.

No, but you should start.

I'm getting that vibe from you, and I'm always right about people.

( sighs )

What is this place?

My clinic.

We try to help patients without gouging their wallets.

And sometimes, we help the "no hospital, no police, no papers" crowd.

What's your name?

I'm Teresa.

Chris. Cristóbal.

Cristóbal.

What is your happiest childhood memory?

I see what you're doing-- concussion-- uh, my head's fine, Doctor.

( chuckles ) Humor me.

( scoffs softly )

It's got to be...

My mother, she worked in an academy that... uh, that trained pilots.

They had this amazing simulator there.

So, one day, I sneak out-- I was about eight--

I'm having the time of my life until alarms go off.

( chuckles )

I thought I broke this damn thing.

Turns out I had. I broke the highest score of any cadet in history.

So I climb out, and admirals and captains are there.

( chuckles )

Jaws on the floor, seeing this eight-year-old kid.

And my mom... ( laughs ) she's looking at me, like, pretending to be angry, but I knew she was proud.

And she said... Aah!

( sharp inhale )

Cool story.

Now let me bandage you up, and you can rest until the room stops spinning, okay?

Uh-huh.

By the way, we're washing your weird clothes, so try not to bleed on my scrubs.

Thanks for the tenderness, doctor.

♪ ♪

Oh, sh¡t.

( tricoder beeping )

It's beginning.

Not yet.

Tricorder's still attuning to the latent frequencies.

I mean the future. Out there.

Fire poisons the sky.

Trees gone, water dry.

Soon, no food, no breathable air.

Maybe the future we saw starts right here.

Not if we can help it.

Look, whatever the watcher is, if it's using any future tech, we should be able to... Oh, hang on, hang on.

Look, look. I-I got some...

No. Now it's gone.

Th-There was some kind of a-a blip near MacArthur Park.

It's gone now.

Interference?

Uh, I don't know, it could be.

( chirping )

It's back?

Oh.

No, uh, but it's Rios's combadge.

It's not far from here.

It must be on the fritz. Look at that.

What is that? Is that Morse?

Rios: Psst, hey, kid.

( sighs )

That thing's not a toy, and it's mine, so, come on.

Finders keepers.

Didn't your parents ever teach you that stealing's bad?

They're dead.

Oh. Kid, I'm so sorry. I...

Gotcha!

It's just me and mom.

Dad remarried.

Not cool.

You could give me something.

What?

For the badge.

You got to give me something, or else you're just stealing.

And you just said stealing's bad.

It's only logical.

Logic, okay, what do you want?

You little Vulcan.

Do you know what Vulcans are?

They're like you. They can be really annoying sometimes.

What's this?

( chewing ) Mmm!

Real peanut butter.

Mmm! So good.

Oh, it's real good. Damn.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you want some?

We could trade.

Like-like my badge for, um... the whole plate?

Deal?

Deal.

I'd say he was gonna give it to you anyway, and you just got played.

Were you...?

Whoa.

Okay.

He's your son?

Forget the guitar, you're a genius.

Well, he's... he's a fighter.

Don't know where he gets it.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to figure out where he gets it from.

You know, I'm a genius.

May I?

Put your shirt on first, and I'll keep this up front, you know, so I know you won't steal anything.

I guess that seems fair.

Hello, Locutus.

I had the strangest dream.

You were there, small companion.

You appear to be more lucid.

Yes.

We've arrived before the divergence in the time lines. It helps my... clarity of vision.

You said there was someone here who could help us understand the change in time-- a, uh, a watcher.

If you want to access my innermost thoughts, Locutus, you're going to have to put something on the table.

Something that hurts you to lose.

We lost someone dear to us because of you.

Is this how you negotiate?

What do you want?

Let's see-- legs, for starters.

A chorus of thoughts to drown the gnawing silence.

But from you, right now...

I'll settle for your ship.

Feeling better?

Okay.

( Teresa laughs )

( tires screeching )

( speaks Spanish )

sh¡t, Gabi. The door!

sh¡t.

What's going on?

Immigration raid. Come on, let's go. Let's go.

What, but...

Go, go, go, go. Come on.

Patients out back, like we planned.

( banging on door )

Man: Federal officers!

Immigration! Open up!

Here, I'll take him.

I'll take him. You sure you'll be okay?

Yeah, I'll buy us a few minutes. Go, go, go!

( loud banging )

Man: Open the door!

It's a simple exchange, Locutus.

Give me this ship and I will give you the location of the watcher-- the only one here who can help you find the change in time.

No.

I'm not going to negotiate with you.

So you would sacrifice the future of countless others for your own?

( sighs )

Jurati: Picard?

Doctor, are you all right?

Your plan worked.

Power has been restored, along with the Queen.

However... same leopard, same spots.

No need to keep her activated, then.

Agreed.

( scoffs )

Idle human threats.

You won't deactivate me because of your deeply flawed inability not to hope in the face of hopelessness.

I hold information you need.

You, against all odds, hope I'll relent.

Therefore, you won't deactivate me.

And with each passing second, the mathematical probability that I get your ship grows.

In the end, you'll sacrifice your lives for the future of the many.

So, in the interest of efficiency, shall we just fast forward?

What exactly is the information you hold?

The location of the watcher and when the temporal divergence occurs.

Hmm.

Are you sure about that?

What did you do?

Where is it?

You...

Stole it.

Computer, dictate the file logged "sh¡t I stole from the Borg Queen."

Computer: 3-4-dot-0-4-8-8 North No one takes from me, my dear.

1-1-8-dot-2-5

1-8 West.

Coordinates.

To find the watcher.

Ah, well done.

I suppose even higher, cybernetic lifeforms can get sloppy with where they leave secrets lying around.

But there's more, isn't there?

When it happens.

I can alm... I can almost feel it.

( Jurati chuckles )

It'll come to me.

What you have just done here is more difficult and vastly more dangerous than you realize.

And what is that?

You've impressed me.

Come. I think you should be as far away from her as possible.

She knows more.

Yeah, in due time.

Man: Federal officers! Open up!

( banging on door )

Man: Open up! I'm not asking again!

What do you think you're doing breaking my door like that?

Miss, you need to calm down.

Teresa: It's "doctor." State your business.

Damn butterflies.

Officer: We're here to search the premises...

Teresa: Or have you guys just given up on that?

Are you the owner of this establishment?

Yes.

I'm also a U.S. citizen who knows her rights.

Hey, Doc. The patients have been discharged, but I got a-a bleeder that needs your help back here, ASAP.

Look, you guys want to trash the place, go ahead, but I've got a 13-year-old with a compound fracture. I'm trying to save his leg.

So, Doc, come on. Let's go.

Hold it!

That looks awfully new.

Like what you'd get if you were a patient.

ID. Now.

I'm-I'm sorry, are-are you my boss or something?

I feel like I missed something here.

( groans )

Hey!

You're under arrest.

Obstruction of justice. Both of you.

I don't know if you're brave or stupid.

Officer: Let me guess.

No UHC card, no ID.

I'm gonna go with stupid.

( groans )

Let's take 'em in.

( combadge chirps )

Picard: Rios, come in.

Are you there?

Rios, do you read me?

Rios!

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