Guinan and Picard are being interrogated by Agent Wells of the FBI. He accuses them of being alien saboteurs of the Europa Mission, whose launch is only hours away. Raffi and Seven continue to follow Jurati's trail of destruction. They find a dead man that she apparently attempted to link with in vain. Seven recognizes that she also ripped open a cell phone because she needs the lithium ions in the battery for her nanoprobes. Raffi and Seven arrive at a parking lot where several car batteries have been opened. Jurati attacks but does not kill them. Q appears to Kore in her AR glasses and announces a delivery. She finds a packet in the airlock of her sealed environment, containing a tubule labeled "Freedom" - the serum to heal her condition. Guinan is taken to another room of the FBI basement where Q appears to her. She recognizes that he is dying. Q mentions that "it's the escape that counts" and that humans "are all trapped in the past", which does not make sense to her. But as she contacts Picard telepathically, she relays the latter message, upon which Picard gets Wells to talk about a childhood experience, an encounter with Vulcans that frightened him and that made him want to find aliens ever since. He also tells the agent the truth about himself and his mission. Wells agrees to release Picard and Guinan, even though this costs him his job as he would have to admit that he faked the evidence about the suspects being possible aliens. Rios attempts to activate the transporter but it is offline, so the away team is stuck. Raffi and Seven know from of the smartphones's search history that Jurati is headed for Soong. The scientist is heartbroken because Kore has left him after taking the serum. Jurati appears and promises that he will be famous and powerful if only he prevents Renée Picard from going on the Europa Mission where she would make a discovery that would render his work obsolete. He arranges a meeting with a group of mercenaries, upon which she begins to assimilate them.

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