- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Beverly, the Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: It's hard to be philosophical when faced with suffering.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Captain, we're beaming over a replacement coil.
- T'Jon: That's great! And that'll fix us up?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Yes, once it's installed.
- T'Jon: Right...
- [pause]
- T'Jon: And how do we do that?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [under his breath, to Riker] What is the matter with these people?
- [Picard has denied the Ornarans the replacement coils for their ships]
- Sobi: If you withhold those coils, you'll be disrupting the stability of both our planets.
- Langor: And interfering with a trade agreement that has lasted for generations. What of your Prime Directive?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: In this situation, the Prime Directive prohibits me from helping you.
- Sobi: That's absurd!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: You did not think so when it worked in your favor.
- T'Jon: Captain, I hope you realize what you've done to us.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Of that you can be sure.
- [last lines]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Mr. La Forge, take us out of orbit.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Destination, sir?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I don't care. Let's just get some distance between us and this system.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Aye, sir. Course 9-7-0 Mark 3-1-8, speed... warp 3.
- Commander William T. Riker: Where will that take us, Mr. La Forge?
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: The Opperline system.
- Commander William T. Riker: An interesting choice. Why?
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Curiosity. We've never been there.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Engage.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: There are some missing pieces to this puzzle.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: What's missing is a little compassion!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: We're losing our professional detachment, Doctor.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Believe me, Beverly, there was only one decision.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: I just hope it was the right one.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And we may never know.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Captain, how long have you been in command of this freighter?
- T'Jon: Seven years. This is my 26th voyage to Brekka.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And you don't know how to align a control coil?
- T'Jon: It's never come up.
- Langor: The Ornarans provide us with the necessities of life, and we provide them with the necessities of living. It is a fair exchange.
- Wesley Crusher: Data, I can understand how this might happen to the Ornarans. What I can't understand is this: Why would anyone *voluntarily* become dependent on a chemical?
- Lt. Commander Data: Voluntary addiction to drugs is a recurrent theme in many cultures. Regrettably, having had no firsthand experience with such dependency, chances are I cannot give you an appropriate response.
- Wesley Crusher: That's all right, Data.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: [jumping in] I believe I can, Wesley. In the first place, nobody *wants* to become dependent. That happens later.
- Wesley Crusher: Still, if people *know* it happens, why do they even start?
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Remember what I told you about life on my home planet? There was so much poverty and violence that, for some, the closest thing to an escape was through drugs.
- Wesley Crusher: How does a chemical substance provide an escape?
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: In the real sense, it can't... but it makes you think it's doing so. You have to understand that drugs - can make you feel good. They put you on top of the world. You're happy, sure of yourself, in control...
- Wesley Crusher: What's the point, though, if you know it's artificial?
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Because it doesn't *seem* artificial until after the drug wears off. Then comes what they call a "crash". You feel just the opposite of the way you did earlier: sad, insecure, like everything's coming down on you and there's nothing that can be done about it.
- Wesley Crusher: [DELETED LINE] Doesn't *that* wear off, too?
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: [DELETED LINE] Ultimately, yes - but the trouble is that a lot of people can't wait for "ultimately". It's got nothing to do with common sense; they simply don't have enough willpower to ride out the crash. So they take more of the drug to cope, to feel the way they did before. The problem with doing that is, your body adapts to the drug as you keep taking it.
- Wesley Crusher: [DELETED LINE; doing the math] ... Meaning you'd need larger and more frequent dosages to get the results you wanted, wouldn't you?
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Indeed. On the other hand, using more of the drug more often also leaves you feeling worse - and for longer - after it wears off. That's how you get trapped. Before you know it, you're taking the drug... not to feel good, but to *keep* from feeling *bad*. At that point, all you care about is getting your next dosage. Nothing else matters.
- Wesley Crusher: I see how it all works, Tasha, but I'm still not sure I understand it. Sorry.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Wesley. Don't be. In fact, let's hope for your sake you never do.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: [on the Ornaran's and Brekkian's natural defensive powers] A natural electrical charge?
- Commander William T. Riker: Formidable.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Yes. And a difficult weapon to confiscate.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Behave yourselves, gentlemen.
- [after separating the fighting Sobi and T'Jon with a phaser]
- Langor: We have thought about this a great deal.
- Sobi: We both feel deeply about what is happening on Ornara.
- Langor: And although it is going to cause hardship to us, and to our people, we have decided to give the Felicium to them.
- Sobi: They can pay whenever they are able.
- Langor: We don't want to be the ones responsible for their suffering.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [to Beverly] There goes the other shoe. They know.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: What do they know?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: They know the Ornarans no longer have the plague. They know that Felicium is no longer a medicine; so, of course, they are willing to GIVE this shipment, because they don't want to take the chance that the Ornarans will lose their addiction. They don't want to lose their only customers.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: How would they have known all of that unless the plague had once infected their planet as well?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: They were infected. They used the Felicium to cure themselves, but somehow they're ancestors realized that it was a narcotic.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: [getting angry] They broke the cycle of addiction and never told the Ornarans. They let them continue to believe that without the Felicium they would die.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Oh, I think it's worse then that.
- [to Sobi and Langor]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: My guess is that this... "refining process" of which you are so proud...
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: ...is only to increase the potency of the Felicium and tighten your grip.
- Sobi: [realizing the game is up] What are you going to do?
- Langor: Are you going to tell them?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: No. I'm bound by the rules of the United Federation of Planets which orders me not to interfere with other worlds, other cultures. If I were to tell them any of this, I'd violate that Prime Directive.
- Sobi: But you are talking to us about it.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: This is information you already know, and so nothing is changed.
- Langor: If you can't interfere, then... you are going to allow the Ornarans to have the Felicium?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [neutral] Yes, I am.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: No! Don't do it! Jean-Luc, this is not a symbiotic relationship! This is exploitation, pure and simple! The Brekkians have caused all of this suffering and hardship only to make their pitiful lives easier! And all of it based on a lie! No! Deny them this shipment! It is the least we can do!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: From the moment they agreed to give them the Felicium, my hands were tied.
- Langor: [smugly] You are absolutely right, Captain. It's not your business.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: [the crew are trying to rescue a freighter from burning up in a planet's atmosphere] Captain, the tractor beam is available... if you want it?
- Commander William T. Riker: At least we could pull them out of orbit before they enter the atmosphere.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [to the viewscreen] Freighter, we're going to lock on the tractor beam and pull you out of orbit.
- T'Jon: Hey, that... that's great.
- [Picard can't quite hide his bemusement with Captain T'Jon's cavalier attitude in this crisis situation]
- Lt. Worf: [the Enterprise tractor beam tries and fails to grab onto the freighter] Captain, the freighter's orbit continues to deteriorate.
- Lieutenant Tasha Yar: The solar flares are interfering with the tractor beam, Captain. I can't lock on.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Captain T'Jon, we are unable to attach the tractor beam because of the intense solar activity.
- T'Jon: [disinterested as ever] I understand. Thanks for trying.
- Lt. Commander Data: [to the Brekkians] Fascinating. Your society dedicated exclusively to the production of a single product.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: A product for which you have no use but which the Ornarans can not live without.
- [Crusher enters Picard's ready room in a fury]
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: I may not know felicium's full effect on Ornarian physiology, but I know how to interpret physical reactions!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Are the Ornarans recovering?
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: T'Jon and Romas are feeling fine. In fact, *too* fine. Felicium's a narcotic!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Then T'Jon, and Romas, and everyone on their world...
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: Is a drug addict.
- [first lines]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [over the ship's address system] All hands, this is the Captain. As you may know, the sun in the Delos system is undergoing large-scale magnetic field changes, producing violent, gigantic flares. Now, we shall be studying this star at close range. Even though we shall be running with full deflectors, the closeness of this event and its severity are going to create problems.