Star Trek: Picard

Previously on "Star Trek: Picard"...

I want you to reinstate me.

I will need a small reconnaissance ship

with a minimal crew.

You think you could just waltz back in here and be entrusted

with taking men and women into space?

I have reason to believe that the Tal Shiar is merely a mask

worn by another far older cabal,

the Zhat Vash.

Admiral Clancy just called.

Jean-Luc Picard was trying to persuade her

to let him go after Dr. Bruce Maddox.

I want you to stay on mission.

I've put my best man on it.

Nice of you to knock.

Commodore Oh

is quite distressed.

I'm still confident that my approach,

which you approved, is the only sound approach.

Are we allowed

to be sleeping together, or is that a secret?

Very much the latter.

How likely is the Collective

to reestablish a link to your Borg?

Well, they're former Borg.

And we're not releasing them,

we're reclaiming them.

There's really no danger.

I have to go. Go? Where? Go how?

You need help, you need protection.

Yeah.

You need someone who hates you

and has nothing to lose.

Raffi, it's Jean-Luc.

Please, don't hang up.

I need a ship.

There isn't anything you could say

that I want to hear.

Secret Romulan assassins are operating on Earth.

Goddamn it.

They give you a hard time? They start with the ships?

Straight out, just as you predicted.

You were ready,

with the inventories from Beta Antares and Eridani A,

which shut them up.

So they hit you with manpower. Mm-hmm.

But you had the reserve rosters

I got from Tanaka in personnel.

I laid it all out.

By using reserve duty officers and mothballed ships,

we could maintain the evacuation,

though to a severely reduced level.

Not if we use synthetic labor.

All synthetic life-forms are banned,

throughout the Federation, effective immediately.

All active units are dismantled and

all research is halted.

Well, that's crazy.

It makes no sense.

Synths don't just wake up one morning and turn homicidal.

They said it was a fatal code error

in the operating system.

That's bullshit.

S--

Something's off about this whole business, JL.

It doesn't add up.

I smell the Tal Shiar.

Tal Shiar.

Raffi, why would the Romulans attack a fleet

built expressly to rescue them?

I can't answer that.

Yet.

But I do know that there are billions of people out there

in the Beta Quadrant that are in the burst radius of a supernova.

It's not their fault that a bunch of A500s

went rogue on Mars.

You're absolutely right.

Mars is burning.

Tens of thousands are dead.

And nobody is thinking, nobody is listening.

They're just reacting.

Wait a minute.

What happened in there, JL?

They said that our plan was "unfeasible."

Half of them never wanted to rescue the Romulans

in the first place.

And the rest are...

are just... frightened.

I never dreamed that Starfleet would give in

to intolerance and fear.

What happened in there?

I said that either

they accept the revised evacuation plan...

or my resignation.

Are you serious?

Well...

what did they say?

Jean-Luc?

They accepted my resignation.

I...

Hell with them.

We'll figure it out. We'll find a way.

To mount a multi-world evacuation

of tens of millions of Romulans without Starfleet's support?

There has to be something.

Some last,

desperate, wild solution, JL.

That's what you do.

My resignation was

the last, desperate, wild solution.

I never believed that they would...

accept it.

Of course you wouldn't.

Now what?

You're gonna go back to your château and

write your memoirs?

I can't do this without you, JL.

Oh.

The CNC wants to see me.

That's great.

That's great.

You tender your resignation,

and my ass gets fired.

Raffi?

A synthetic girl.

There were two of them.

One of them is already dead.

I only hope that I'm in time to save the other one.

Raffi,

I need a ship and a pilot,

and I have to find Bruce Maddox.

Wow.

I don't even know what to say.

Yeah. It's a lot to take in.

I mean, the obvious way to go would be,

"You have some goddamn nerve."

But I gather you... you already heard that

from your buddy Clancy, right?

Pro tip for future reference.

On your next top-secret,

unauthorized, synthetic girl rescue mission,

try not tellin the CNC of Starfleet

exactly what you're planning on doing.

I don't remember you being such a chatterbox back in the day.

I mean...

I saw your interview.

An unmitigated disaster.

Yeah.

I saw you,

sitting back in your very fine château.

Those big oak beams,

heirloom furniture.

Yeah, I-I'd show you around my estate,

but it's more of a hovel, so that would just be, you know,

humiliating.

But my entire life for the past 14 years has been

one long slide into humiliation.

And rage.

Also a fair amount of snakeleaf-induced paranoia,

so... some things never change.

Mmm.

Hmm.

Might have been nice to hear from you

a time or two in there, JL, not because you think

I know an off-the-books pilot with an unregistered starship.

Just...

...to say hi.

See how I was doing.

I know. I...Because I was not doing good.

I lost my security clearance.

I lost...

Don't, Raffi.

No, don't. Just don't touch me.

Raffi.

Raffi.

I really don't know what to say, Dr. Asha.

Your work here has always been excellent,

but speaking to a Nameless in his own language?

Outstanding.

You taught me that even a few words

in the mother tongue can be soothing.

Even in an unconscious state.

There is no more despised people in the galaxy than the xBs.

People either see us as property to be exploited

or as a hazard to be warehoused.

Our hosts,

the Romulans, have a more expansive vision.

They see us as both.

I hate it.

You're different.

Thank you.

I've decided to let you have your interview with Ramdha.

Oh, my God, really?

You've been pestering me about it for a long time.

After today, I'm inclined to grant your request.

Tell me, why?

How much do you know about Ramdha

before she was assimilated?

Have you read her Romulan dossier?

Of course not.