"The Inner Light" Line-by-Line

Picard: What launching? What's he talking about?

 

MERIBOR: They're sending up a missile, Father. We're going to watch it.

 

Picard: I'm not going anywhere to watch anything.

 

BATAI JR: Come on, Kamie. Hurry up now. Let's go see the launching.

 

Picard: What launching? What's he talking about?

 

^ (Batai puts a hat on his nephew and they leave)

PICARD: It breaks my heart to look at him.

MERIBOR: Who?

 

Picard: My grandson. It breaks my heart. He deserves a rich and full life and he's not going to get one.

 

MERIBOR: Please come, Father.

 

PICARD: Why didn't I hear anything about a launching?

[Town square]

Everyone is in broad rimmed sunhats and loose clothing.

PICARD: Did everyone know about this except me? I'll be all right sitting here. You go off with the others. Hold onto my grandson, and watch the damned thing go up for all the good it'll do. What is it they're launching?

 

MERIBOR: You know about it, Father. You've already seen it.

 

PICARD: Seen it? What are you talking about? I haven't seen any missile.

 

BATAI: Yes, you have, old friend. Don't you remember?

 

Picard: Batai?!

Batai sits nearby, as young as he was when we first met him.

 

BATAI: You saw it just before you came here. We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future. Someone who could be a teacher. Someone who could tell the others about us.

 

Picard: Oh, it's me, isn't it? I'm the someone. I'm the one it finds. That's what this launching is. A probe that finds me in the future.

 

ELINE: Yes, my love. (Like Batai, she is also young again)

 

PICARD: Eline.

 

ELINE: The rest of us have been gone for a thousand years. If you remember what we were, and how we lived, then we'll have found life again.

 

PICARD: Eline.

A rocket soars into the cloudless blue sky.

 

ELINE: Now we live in you. Tell them of us, my darling.