"Time's Arrow" Line-by-Line

RIKER: Yes..

 

DATA: I am simply trying to make an objective assessment.

 

Picard: Data, is this yours?

 

DATA: I believe so, sir.

 

Picard: Could it be Lore?

 

DATA: No, sir. My brother's positronic brain has a type L phase discriminating amplifier. Mine is a type R.

 

PICARD: Type R?

 

DATA: Yes, sir.

 

PICARD: Can you predict how long this has been in the cavern?

 

DATA: Decomposition strongly indicates that life was terminated approximately 500 years ago. That would be consistent with the other artifacts we recovered.

 

RIKER: Your head is not an artifact.

 

DATA: In relative terms, perhaps not. Nevertheless, it seems clear that my life is to end in the late 19th century.

 

RIKER: Not if we can help it.

 

DATA: There is no way anyone can prevent it, sir. At some future date, I will be transported back to nineteenth century Earth, where I will die. It has occurred. It will occur.

 

LAFORGE: Well, I can't tell you exactly who the aliens were, but I have found out a few things. The triolicised rock face tells us we're probably dealing with a species with microcentrum cell membranes. Triolic waves wouldn't harm them. It also might mean they're shape shifters of some kind.

 

RIKER: So they could have appeared on Earth as humans.

 

LAFORGE: I don't think it's anyone we've run into before. Nothing we found matches up with any known lifeforms. What does match up is a cellular fossil which might have been along just for the ride.

 

Picard: A cellular fossil?

 

LAFORGE: A microscopic ciliated lifeform. Not unlike a thousand other single-celled lifeforms you'd find on any planet surface, except this particular one is LB 10445. And LB 10445 is only known to exist on one place. Devidia II; in the Marrab sector.

 

Picard: Number One, lay in a course.