tomorrow.
Let me ask you a question:
Have you ever experienced
a perfect moment in time?
When time seemed to stop, and you
could almost live in that moment?
Seeing my home planet from space,
for the first time.
Yes, exactly.
Nothing more complicated
than perception.
You explore the universe.
We discovered that a single moment
in time can be a universe in itself.
Full of powerful forces.
Most people aren't aware enough
of the nowto even notice.
I wish I could spare
a few centuries to learn.
It took us centuries to learn that
it doesn't have to take that long.
There's one thing
I don't understand.
In 300 years,
you never learned to swim?
I haven't got around to it yet.
I wonder if you're aware
of the trust you engender.
- It's unusual ...
- For an offlander?
For someone so young.
- Geordi?
- Captain.
There wasn't anything wrong
with my implants.
There was something right
with my eyes.
Dr Crusher found that the cells
around my optic nerve had ...
... started to regenerate.
It may not last.
And if it doesn't ...
... I just wanted, before we go ...
You know, I've never seen a sunrise.
At least not the way you see them.
Come.
Am I to understand
that you're not releasing my men?
We found the holoship.
- Let the captain and me ...
- No!
This entire mission has been one
Federation blunder after another.
Return my men, or this alliance will
end with your ship's destruction.
You're looking well, Jean-Luc.
Rested.
I won't let you move them. I will
take this to the Federation Council.
I'm acting on their orders.
To abandon our prime directive?
These people are not indigenous.
They're not meant to be immortal.
We'll be restoring them
to their natural evolution.
Who the hell are we to determine
the course of evolution?
There are 600 people there.
The regenerative properties of
this radiation could help billions.
The Son'a can collect metaphasic
particles from the planet's rings.
- The planet is in Federation space.
- Our planet, their technology.
A technology we can't duplicate.
You know what that makes us?
- Partners.
- Our partners are petty thugs.
On Earth, petroleum once turned
petty thugs into world leaders.
Warp drive created a Romulan empire.
We can handle the Son'a.
We probably said the same
about the Romulans.
Lifespans will be doubled. An entire
new medical science will evolve.
Your chief engineer has the use
of his eyes for the first time.
Will you take that away from him?
With the whole Briar Patch, why
does it have to be this one planet?
The concentration in the rings
makes it work.
They'll inject something into
the rings and start a reaction.
- The planet will be uninhabitable.
- Delay them, let us study it.
Our best scientific minds
can't find any other way to do this.
The Son'a can establish a separate
colony on the planet until we do.
It would take ten years' exposure
to reverse their condition.
Some of them
won't survive that long.
Besides, who would want to live
in the Briar Patch?
The Ba'ku.
We are betraying the principles upon
which the Federation was founded.
It's an attack upon its very soul.
And it will destroy the Ba'ku.
Cultures have been destroyed in
every forced relocation in history.
Jean-Luc,
we're only moving 600 people.
How many people does it take
before it becomes wrong?
1,000?
50,000?
A million?
How many people does it take?
You'll proceed to the Goren system,
and release the Son'a officers.
File whatever protests you wish to.
By the time you do,
this will all be done.
Gallatin!
The righteous Starfleet captain
finally released you.
- Any problems on the surface?
- No, sir.
But it wasn't easy being among them.
Just don't forget
what they did to us.
We'll have them rounded up
in a day or two.
We needn't bother
with a holoship anymore.
Get the holding cells ready.
I'm going to miss these little
flesh-stretching sessions of ours.
Re-routing the transport grid
to avoid