Mary McCusker

Guinan: [while the Enterprise is concealed inside a nebula, Picard is touring the ship the night before they engage a Borg vessel, and he's now taking a look around Ten-Forward] Trouble sleeping?

Capt. Picard: [surprised by Guinan's presence] It's something of a tradition, Guinan. A Captain touring the ship before a battle.

Guinan: Oh, before a hopeless battle, if I remember the tradition correctly.

Capt. Picard: Not necessarily. Nelson toured the HMS Victory before Trafalgar.

Guinan: Yes, but Nelson never returned from Trafalgar, did he?

Capt. Picard: No, but the battle was won.

Guinan: Do you expect this battle to be won?

Capt. Picard: We may yet prevail. That's a... a conceit, but it's a healthy one. I wonder if the Emperor Honorious watching the Visigoths coming over the Seventh Hill truly realised that the Roman Empire was about to fall? This is just another page in history, isn't it? Will this be the end of our civilisation? Turn the page.

Guinan: [smiles] This isn't the end.

Capt. Picard: You say that with remarkable assuredness.

Guinan: With experience. When the Borg destroyed my world, my people were scattered throughout the universe. We survived... as will humanity survive. As long as there's a handful of you to keep the spirit alive, you will prevail... even if it takes a millennium.

Amanda Rogers: [Amanda Rogers, an intern aboard the Enterprise, has just discovered she's a member of the Q Continuum, and unless she agrees to live among her own kind, Q has orders to kill her] Kill me? But why?

Capt. Picard: They're not convinced that you are fully Q, and they are also responsible for your parents' death.

Amanda Rogers: My parents?

[Picard nods]

Amanda Rogers: But what right do they have?

[looking around Picard's Ready Room]

Amanda Rogers: Q, answer me! Are you afraid to face me?

Q: [Q materialises where Amanda was sitting a moment ago] She's such a plucky little thing now, isn't she?

[to Amanda]

Q: I really do enjoy you, you know?

Capt. Picard: Amanda's question deserves an answer, Q. You've made yourself judge, and jury, and if necessary... executioner. By what right have you appointed yourself to this position?

Q: Superior morality.

Capt. Picard: Oh, yes. I recall how you used your superior morality when we first encountered you. You put us on trial for the crimes of humanity.

Q: The jury's still out on that, Picard. Make no mistake.

Capt. Picard: Your arrogant pretence at being the moral guardians of the universe strikes me as being hollow, Q. I see no evidence that you are guided by a superior moral code or any code whatsoever. You may be nearly omnipotent and I don't deny that your parlour tricks are very impressive. But morality... I don't see it! I don't acknowledge it, Q! I would put human morality against the Q's any day. And perhaps that's the reason that we fascinate you so, because our puny behaviour shows you a glimmer of the one thing that evades your omnipotence... a moral center. And if so, I can think of no crueler irony than that you should destroy this young woman, whose only crime... is that she's too human.

Q: [amused] Jean-Luc, sometimes I think the only reason I come here is to listen to these wonderful speeches of yours.