- We've just begun to.
- I suppose you're 75.
- No, I'm 12.
The radiation won't affect him
until he reaches maturity.
What you have here is more valuable
than gold-pressed latinum.
That's the reason someone may be
trying to take your world from you.
The android was right.
If it wasn't for Data, it's probable
that you would be relocated by now.
The moment we pick up a weapon
we become one of them.
- We lose everything we are.
- It may not come to that.
The architects of this conspiracy
want to keep it a secret.
Not only from you,
but from my people, as well.
I don't intend to let them.
We've always known that to survive
we had to remain apart.
Many of the young people want
to know more about the offland.
They're attracted to stories
of a faster pace of life.
Most of my people would
sell their souls to slow life down.
But not you?
There are days.
You don't live up to your reputation
as an offlander.
In defence of offlanders,
there are many more people like me.
Who wouldn't be tempted
by the promise of perpetual youth?
You give me more credit than
I deserve. Of course I'm tempted.
But some of the darkest chapters
in the history of my world -
- involve the forced relocation
of one people to satisfy another.
I had hoped that we had learned
from our mistakes, -
- but it seems
that some of us haven't.
- Extraordinary craftsmanship.
- It's the work of students.
They're almost ready
to become apprentices.
In 30 or 40 years
some of them will become artisans.
Apprenticing for 30 years ...
Did your people's mental discipline
develop here?
More questions.
Always the explorer.
- If you stay, that will change.
- Will it?
You stop reviewing the past,
stop planning for 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