"Children of Time" Line-by-Line

[Athena28]

SISKO: Why would he do that?

 

[BlueStuff]

DAX: So we'd think his plan was going to work. It's not. There was never going to be a duplicate Defiant. Just one. And Yedrin wanted to make sure it went back in time.

 

[Athena28]

SISKO: So that history would repeat itself.

 

[Orac]

Dax: If I hadn't realised what he had done, we would have ended up stranded here and Kira would have died.

 

[BlueStuff]

[Meeting hall]

DAX: You betrayed us. You betrayed me! You call yourself Yedrin Dax, but I don't recognise you.

 

[Enterprise1981]

YEDRIN: Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?

 

[BlueStuff]

SISKO: What do you think?

 

[Enterprise1981]

YEDRIN: Damn it, Ben! If you don't take the Defiant back in time, the eight thousand people on this planet will cease to exist.

 

[BlueStuff]

SISKO: You think I don't care?! Oh, come on, you know me better than that. What am I supposed to do, recreate the accident and deliberately maroon my crew?

 

[Orac]

Yedrin: It's what would have happened. Who's to say it's not what's supposed to happen?

 

[BlueStuff]

SISKO: I'm not going to stand here and argue philosophy with you. I have a duty to protect my people.

 

[Athena28]

YEDRIN: Look around you, Benjamin. Think of the things that you've seen since you got here. This is what your crew and their descendents will build if you let history play itself out. I'm not saying that it won't be hard at first, but they will have good lives here. Happy lives.

 

[BlueStuff]

DAX: What about Kira? If we don't get her back to the station, she'll die.

 

[Athena28]

YEDRIN: Is one life too much to ask if it saves 8000?

 

[BlueStuff]

SISKO: Who are you to decide who lives or dies? Who are you to make that call?

 

[Enterprise1981]

YEDRIN: I have to make that call because I'm responsible for what happened here! Jadzia knows what I'm talking about. She's the one who insisted that the Defiant investigate this planet. You know as well as I do that you should have been more careful. You should have seen that the barrier was unstable when you scanned it.

 

[BlueStuff]

DAX: But I didn't. I was so bent on making some great discovery that I missed it.

 

[Enterprise1981]

YEDRIN: And because of you, because of me, Kira died and forty eight people were stranded here. You don't know what it was like to live with that. For years, Benjamin, every time I looked at you all I could think of was Jake and how because of me, he would never see his father again. Eventually I had to accept the fact there was nothing I could do to change things. I couldn't bring Kira back. All I could do was look to the future, Benjamin, and make sure that we survived here no matter what. This community is my responsibility. For two centuries, I have watched it grow into something to be proud of. For generations these people have worked to make a life for themselves here. They deserve a chance to hang on to it.

 

[BlueStuff]

SISKO: I'm not denying that. I wish there was a way we could help you, but my people have the right to go home to their families. And I will not ask Kira to sacrifice her life for eight thousand people, for eight million. No one has the right to ask that. I'm sorry, old man, but there is nothing I can do.

 

[Enterprise1981]

[Town square]

(Evening, and children are playing catch nearby.)

KIRA: Look at them. They have no idea what's going to happen.