History Recap / StarTrekPicardS1E08BrokenPieces

* EyeCam: We see Picard from Jurati's perspective as her eyes flutter open when she wakes up from a coma.
* EyeColorChange: When Seven activates the queencell, her eyes first turn into BlackEyesOfEvil, and then become ElectronicEyes as they begin [[SicklyGreenGlow glowing with green patterns]].

Elnor is indeed there, planning to face his BolivianArmyEnding. He takes out some of the Romulan assailants before being overpowered (and only because he was weakened by a flashbang), but help comes from an unexpected source: [[TheCavalry Seven of Nine]], striding in with a phaser flashing. "Where's Hugh?" she asks, "What is happening on this Cube?", but all Elnor can do is [[TheGlomp hug her in relief]].

-->'''Picard:''' And now the windmills have turned out to be giants.

Elnor is indeed there, planning to face his BolivianArmyEnding. He takes out some of the Romulan assailants, but help comes from an unexpected source: [[TheCavalry Seven of Nine]], striding in with a phaser flashing. "Where's Hugh?" she asks, "What is happening on this Cube?", but all Elnor can do is [[TheGlomp hug her in relief]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Raffi questioning the holograms is played like a group therapy session.

* {{Matriarchy}}: The Zhat Vash is led by women, and it would seem only women are allowed contact with the Admonition.

* OhCrap: Narissa knows she's in ''deep'' trouble when she realizes that about a dozen xBs are about to attack her.

* BinarySuns: Taken UpToEleven with Aia, a planet in an octonary star system. That's ''four'' pairs of binary stars in two pairs orbiting each other with the larger pairs in one large orbit around the planet. It was artificially constructed so that any spacefaring civilization would notice it and investigate, since the odds of such a system forming naturally would be infinitesimal.

* PrecisionFStrike: Fleet Admiral Clancy does the honours again:
-->'''Clancy:''' Admiral Picard, [[WithDueRespect with all due respect]] -- and at long last -- shut the fuck up.

* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Picard's discussion with Rios while en route to the Transwarp Conduit terminus, ending it with the comment that Fear is ultimately the "Great Destroyer".

* BigBrotherIsWatching: Elnor can run, but he cannot hide on the Artifact; one of Narissa's underling is keeping tabs on his position.
* BigDamnHeroes: Seven shows up to rescue Elnor from the Romulans who are about to overpower him.

* BinarySuns: Taken UpToEleven with Aia, a planet in an octonary star system. That's ''four'' pairs of binary stars in two pairs orbiting each other with the larger pairs in one large orbit around the planet. It was artificially constructed so any spacefaring civilizations would notice it and investigate, since the odds of such a system forming naturally would be infinitesimal.

* OminousLatinChanting: When the Zhat Vash initiates prepare to face the Admonition, chanting in a mysterious language (possibly Romulan) can be heard.

Dr. Jurati wakes up. Picard tells her that they are en route to Deep Space 12, where she will surrender to Starfleet for the murder of Bruce Maddox. She agrees. He asks why she did it, and Jurati explains the forced mind-meld Oh performed on her, and the visions of apocalypse she received; according to her, the mind-meld also included subliminal instructions, including that she must keep her status as a DoubleAgent secret. This second-hand Admonition has given her a better understanding of the Zhat Vash methods: they believe that there's a "threshold" beyond which synthetic life should not be allowed to cross. Data, back in the day, did not cross that threshold; But a RidiculouslyHumanRobot like Soji officially meets their definition of an ApocalypseMaiden. It's Soji herself, entering the conversation, who gives the name: "Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer." However, despite her fear, Jurati's curiosity takes over, and she soon realizes that Soji does not deserve to be harmed.

Raffi gets into Rios' quarters and gets him to open up about his classified experiences on the ''Ibn Majid''. Rios says he used to pretend Vandermeer was his father, calling him "Pops" in his head. Rios explains that while patrolling the Vayt sector, the ''ibn Majid'' picked up a small ship of unknown origin with two passengers, and alerted Starfleet of a first contact. They beamed the two beings aboard – the ambassador, Beautiful Flower, and his young aide, Jana. Over dinner, Vandermeer slew them both: he had received a "black flag directive" straight from Starfleet Security, and if Vandermeer disobeyed, Starfleet would destroy the ''ibn Majid'' with all hands. After Vandermeer was DrivenToSuicide, Rios helped with the coverup. Six months later, Rios was discharged from Starfleet, officially for post-traumatic dysphoria. He shows her a picture of Jana, who looks exactly like Soji; Raffi realizes they were synths.

Soji brings Dr. Jurati out of sickbay, and the five crewmembers of the ''La Sirena'' sit down to assemble their puzzle pieces into a coherent story. Rios orders a cup of peppermint ice cream and a plate of French fries for Soji. Musiker explains what she has learned: Some two to three hundred thousand years earlier, eight suns were brought together by artificial means, with a planet in the center: Aia, the Grief World, placed in a location so blatantly artificial that nobody could miss it. The Romulans took the Admonition seriously, creating the ''Zhat Vash''. When Noonian Soong started creating his androids, the ''Zhat Vash'' sent Oh, a half-Vulcan/half-Romulan, to be TheMole in Starfleet, and she eventually rose to head of Starfleet Security, all the while with one mandate: Stop the Federation's research on synthetic lifeforms. To that end, Oh engineered the attack on Mars, resulting in the BanOnAI. In 2390, the ''ibn Majid'' made contact with a pair of emissaries: Beautiful Flower and Jana. Soji knows of Jana, but wonders how; Rios replies it was the same reason he knew she liked to dip French fries in peppermint ice cream. They had come from the world Maddox had fled to after the ban, which the ''Zhat Vash'' have been looking for ever since... a world, Soji realizes, she has just taught them to identify.

Soji storms onto the bridge and begins to hack ''La Sirena'' so that it will take them to the right location. Fortunately, Rios has installed failsafes that can be used to stop her from doing so. However, where force didn't work, persuasion does: Soji formally requests Captain Rios take her home, and he agrees. She plots a course that uses a Borg transwarp conduit to save time. She looks at Kendra's compass as the ship plunges in.

* SadisticChoice: Rios' CO Vandermeer is given a "black flag directive" by Starfleet Security (from Commodore Oh herself) to kill the Ambassador, Beautiful Flower, and his aide, Jana. If he refused, the ''Ibn Majid'' would be destroyed with all hands.

* SeriesContinuityError: The opening {{flashback}} shows Ramdha and the other Zhat Vash initiates facing the Admonition 14 years ago, yet the Borg Cube that assimilated Ramdha and then malfunctioned has been under Romulan control for over 16 years, judging by the sign that mentions 5843 days since the last assimilation. The only explanation would be if those days refer to Romulan days instead of Earth days, which would likely be of a different length.
* ShownTheirWork: The existence of an octonary star system is said to be next to impossible to exist naturally; the most ever seen has been seven, in a septonary system. In real life, humanity knows of two septonary systems, AR Cassiopaiae and Nu Scorpii (which is named in the episode), but we've never found an octonary system, and it is indeed highly unlikely to happen since systems with multiple stars in them tend to break apart into smaller systems.

[[{{Flashback}} Fourteen years ago]], a bunch of Romulan women gather on Aia, the Grief World, at the center of an octonary star system -- yes, a single solar system with eight stars in the center. Cdre. Oh, a half-Romulan half-Vulcan, is explaining to these women that they are about to experience the "Admonition" -- a warning from the {{Precursors}} who lived here on Aia about the RobotWar that wiped them out. "Some of you may GoMadFromTheRevelation," she warns, and indeed some do: one woman [[AteHisGun blows her brains out]] with a disruptor, another smashes her forehead with a rock, a third tears at her face. Only one woman stands stock-still: Narissa Rizzo. After picking up the only other survivor of the Admonition -- her aunt Ramdha, the noted Romulan historian -- she asks Oh what they need to do to stop TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Oh replies that the answer is on the human planet called Mars, and the three ''Zhat Vash'' agents set out to make it so.

In the present, Narissa is talking to the comatose Ramdha aboard the Artifact. She reveals that Ramdha -- or rather, her knowledge of the Admonition -- was what caused the Borg to cut this cube off from the Collective in the first place. She then asks one of her {{Mook}}s if they have tracked down "the freak;" the Mook replies that Elnor has been found in Director Hugh's office.

Elnor is indeed there, planning to face his BolivianArmyEnding. He takes out some of the ''Zhat Vash'' assailants, but help comes from an unexpected source: [[TheCavalry Seven of Nine]], striding in with phasers flashing. "Where's Hugh," she asks, "What the hell is going on here," but all Elnor can do is [[TheGlomp hug her in relief]].

Picard and Soji beam up to ''La Sirena'', and the ship sets course for Deep Space 12. Captain Rios has a clear reaction when Soji comes aboard. He consigns himself to his quarters and refuses to come out. Both he and Raffi are not quite happy to see him, since it was his idea to bring Dr. Jurati aboard, and they believe she killed Bruce Maddox. Now he's done it again, with an even ''more'' MysteriousWaif, and they're both a little skeptical. Raffi asks if Picard [[ArmorPiercingQuestion really knows Soji at all]], and isn't precisely surprised when he can't answer.

Picard pages Adm. Clancy to tell her what he's found. He is triumphant that his hunches were right and calls on her to send a squadron of starships to rendezvous with him at [=DS12=]. He's so excited, in fact, that he won't let her get a word in edgewise -- including the ones where she ''agrees'' with him, and will send the starships, but can't tell him because he won't stop talking. "Admiral Picard, [[WithDueRespect with all due respect]], and at long last, ''shut the fuck up!''" She orders him to hide out at [=DS12=] until TheCavalry arrives. Picard just pumps his fist in triumph, glad that the world is finally going his way.

Raffi goes to hunt down Rios and tell him they were right about Jurati killing Maddox, but can't find him: Every time she runs into him, it's actually one of the Emergency Whatever Holograms. We've met the Hospitality one (American accent), the Medical one (British accent) and the Tactical one (Spanish accent). We've also met the Emergency Navigational Hologram (Irish), "Enoch," whom Raffi meets for the first time (to her exasperation), and she later runs into "Ian," the Engineering one ([[MythologyGag Scottish]] accent). They all look like Rios because, as is standard procedure, they imprinted on his personality when he bought the ship, and all know some things about his personality and history. They refer to Soji as "Jana" and explain that Rios is perturbed by something that happened aboard the ''ibn Majid'' -- you know, the super-secret cover-up that resulted in him washing out of Starfleet? All of this culminates in Raffi gathering all five members of the Standard Emergency Hologram suite, the five [[TitleDrop broken pieces]] of Rios' BackStory, to try and put them together. The Tactical holo puts forward the final detail: that ''ibn Majid'' Capt. Vandermeer AteHisGun.

Picard gets Soji something to eat, and they talk about Data. Picard admits -- twenty years late -- that he loved Data, but also mentions that his ability to express emotion was limited: something the two of them had in common. Soji, looking at it from her father's point of view, comments that Data must have loved him too.

Aboard the Artifact, Seven and Elnor infiltrate the queen's cell. Seven has realized that the best way to retake the Artifact would be to found a small collective right here within the Cube... with her as the Queen. Rizzo, seeing this coming, orders those ex-B still in stasis to be flushed out into space... but as she returns, smugly triumphant, from this task, a number of others overpower her. She barely escapes via emergency beam-out, and Seven returns to the work of restoring the Artifact to spaceworthy status.

Dr. Jurati wakes up. Picard tells her that they are en route to Deep Space 12, where she will surrender to Starfleet for the murder of Bruce Maddox. She agrees. He asks why she did it, and Jurati explains the forced mind-meld Oh performed on her, and the visions of apocalypse she received; according to her, the mind-meld also included subliminal instructions, including that she must keep her status as a DoubleAgent secret. This second-hand Admonition has given her a better understanding of the ''Zhat Vash'' methods: they believe that there's a "threshold" beyond which synthetic life should not be allowed to cross. Data, back in the day, did not cross that threshold; But a RidiculouslyHumanRobot like Soji officially meets their definition of an ApocalypseMaiden. It's Soji herself, entering the conversation, who gives the name: "Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer." However, despite her fear, Jurati's curiosity takes over, and she soon realizes that Soji does not deserve to be harmed.

* BigNo: As a Borg Queen, Seven of Nine shouts a VoiceOfTheLegion "NO!" when the unprocessed Borg are ejected into space. Not only did she lose thousands of drones, she could feel them die because her mind was connected to theirs.

Picard pages Adm. Clancy to tell her what he's found. He is triumphant that his hunches were right and calls on her to send a squadron of starships to rendezvous with him at DS12. He's so excited, in fact, that he won't let her get a word in edgewise -- including the ones where she ''agrees'' with him, and will send the starships, but can't tell him because he won't stop talking. "Admiral Picard, [[WithDueRespect with all due respect]], and at long last, ''shut the fuck up!''" She orders him to hide out at DS12 until TheCavalry arrives. Picard just pumps his fist in triumph, glad that the world is finally going his way.

Aboard ''La Sirena'', Captain Rios has a clear reaction when Soji comes aboard. He consigns himself to his quarters and refuses to come out. Both he and Raffi are not quite happy to see him, since it was his idea to bring Dr. Jurati aboard, and they believe she killed Bruce Maddox. Now he's done it again, with an even ''more'' MysteriousWaif, and they're both a little skeptical. Raffi asks if Picard [[ArmorPiercingQuestion really knows Soji at all]], and isn't precisely surprised when he can't answer.

Dr. Jurati wakes up. Picard tells her that they are en route to Deep Space 12, where she will surrender to Starfleet for the murder of Bruce Maddox. (She agrees.) He asks why she did it, and Jurati explains the forced mind-meld Oh performed on her, and the visions of apocalypse she received. This second-hand Admonition has given her a better understanding of the ''Zhat Vash'' methods: they believe that there's a "threshold" beyond which synthetic life should not be allowed to cross. Data, back in the day, did not cross that threshold; But a RidiculouslyHumanRobot like Soji officially meets their definition of an ApocalypseMaiden. It's Soji herself, entering the conversation, who gives the name: "Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer." However, despite her fear, Jurati's curiosity takes over, and she soon realizes that Soji does not deserve to be harmed.

Raffi goes to hunt down Rios and tell him they were right about Jurati killing Maddox, but can't find him: Every time she runs into him, it's actually one of the Emergency Whatever Holograms. We've met the Hospitality one (American accent), the Medical one (British accent) and the Tactical one (Spanish accent). Now it's the Emergency Navigational Hologram (Irish), "Enoch," and later "Ian," the Engineering one ([[MythologyGag Scottish]] accent). They all look like Rios because, as is standard procedure, they imprinted on his personality when he bought the ship, and all know some things about his personality and history. They refer to Soji as "Jana" and explain that Rios is perturbed by something that happened aboard the ''ibn Majid'' -- you know, the super-secret cover-up that resulted in him washing out of Starfleet? All of this culminates in Raffi gathering all five members of the Standard Emergency Hologram suite, the five [[TitleDrop broken pieces]] of Rios' BackStory, to try and put them together. The Tactical holo puts forward the final detail: that ''ibn Majid'' Capt. Vandermeer AteHisGun.

Dr. Jurati wakes up. Picard tells her that they are en route to Deep Space 12, where she will surrender to Starfleet for the murder of Bruce Maddox. (She agrees.) He asks why she did it, and Jurati explains the forced mind-meld Oh performed on her, and the visions of apocalypse she received. This second-hand Admonition has given her a better understanding of the ''Zhat Vash'' methods: they believe that there's a "threshold" beyond which synthetic life should not be allowed to cross. Data, back in the day, did not cross that threshold; But a RidiculouslyHumanRobot like Soji officially meets their definition of an ApocalypseMaiden. It's Soji herself, entering the conversation, who gives the name: "Seb'cheneb, the Destroyer." However, despite her fear, Jurati's curiosity takes over, and she soon realizes that Soji does not deserve to be harmed.

The conspiracy is revealed to the crew while Seven joins Elnor in liberating the Artifact from the Romulans.

* ZergRush: Under Seven's direction, the xBs swarm Narissa and overpower her through force of numbers, even though Narissa manages to kill at least a dozen of them before they can fully restrain her. She survives only because she's teleported into one of the Romulan ships.

** Soji asks Jurati if she considers her to be a real person. We don't get to see Jurati's answer.

* BigNo: As a Borg Queen, Seven of Nine yells a VoiceOfTheLegion "NO!" when the unprocessed Borg are ejected into space. Not only did she lose thousands of drones, she could feel them die because her mind was connected to theirs.

* EyeColorChange: When Seven activates the Queencell, her eyes first turn into BlackEyesOfEvil, and then become ElectronicEyes as they begin [[SicklyGreenGlow glowing with green patterns]].

* AmbiguousSituation: Queen!Seven declares that "Annika still has work to do," which could either be Seven speaking in the third person, or the Borg Collective releasing her deliberately for some purpose.

** Rios's former captain, Alonzo Vandermeer, blew his own brains out after carrying out Starfleet's orders to kill two people.

* BinarySuns: Taken UpToEleven with Aia, a world in an octonary star system. That's ''four'' pairs of binary stars in two pairs orbiting each other with the larger pairs in one large orbit around the planet. It was artificially constructed so any spacefaring civilizations would notice it and investigate, since the odds of such a system forming naturally would be infinitesimal.

* ContrivedCoincidence: When Raffi recruited Captain Rios, he was just someone she happened to know with a spaceship. But in this episode, it turns out he had actually met Soji's siblings nine years ago, and the reason he was kicked out of Starfleet is because their assassination was part of a Zhat Vash conspiracy. Yet Raffi knew nothing about any of this when she hired him, so it's just a huge coincidence.

* FamedInStory: Narissa realises from the token that Elnor has summoned a Fenris Ranger, and there's only one person that could be coming to deal with trouble on a former Borg cube.

* GodzillaThreshold: Seven could form the Borg on the Cube into a micro-Collective controlled by her, but is reluctant to do so because the feeling of the Collective would be [[DrunkWithPower intoxicating to both them and her]]. When the Romulans start killing them, however, she has no choice but to do so in order to protect them. The unprocessed Borg are vented into space just as she establishes the link, but the surviving xBs rally and overpower the remaining Romulans just as their fleet arrives to gather them for the assault on the android homeworld.
* GoneMadFromTheRevelation: Of the Zhat Vash recruits we see witnessing the Admonition only Narissa and Ramdha survive, the others going mad or committing suicide.
* GunsAkimbo: Narissa exterminates the xBs by shooting them with two disruptors, borrowing one off a minion and then returning it when it malfunctions during the subsequent massacre.

** Rios mentions that he secretly thought of Vandermeer as a father, and came close to calling him 'Pops' several times. He suffered a BrokenPedestal when Vandermeer committed murder, then guilt when his WhatTheHellHero speech caused his surrogate father to commit suicide.

** Once she realizes Seven is on the Cube, Narissa orders a wholesale slaughter of the xBs before Seven can get to them. She's right to worry, too, as Seven comes within a hair's breadth of turning thousands of drones against the Romulans before Narissa has them vented into space.
** Rios points out to Picard that it only took a few seconds for one synthetic lifeform to hack his ship, so perhaps a whole planet of them is indeed to be feared.

* SomeKindOfForcefield: When Soji hijacks his ship, Rios goes to stop her only to be blocked by a forcefield that she's erected on the Bridge.

* FamedInStory: Narissa realises from the token that Elnor has summoned and Fenris Ranger, and there's only one person that could be to deal with trouble on a former Borg cube.

** Rios mentions that he secretly thought of Vandermeer as a father, and came close to calling him 'Pop's several times. He suffered a BrokenPedestal when Vandermeer commits murder, then guilt when his WhatTheHellHero caused his surrogate father to commit suicide.