Tin Man

"Well, you know, they send you Galaxy Class boys out here to the far reaches. Me, I'm just hauling my butt back and forth between Starbases."

"He was at the university on Betazed when I studied psychology there."

"Oh, I see. He was a colleague of yours."

"No. He was a patient"

"The people who've studied the transmissions think it's a starship. And they're sure it's alive."

"The more unusual a life form is, the better he likes it. His personnel file shows that he's gravitated toward assignments that isolate him from other humanoids."

"Since there is no known natural phenomenon capable of travel at warp velocities, there are but two possibilities. Either it is a sensor malfunction, another ship is following us covertly."

"Beautiful creatures, the Chandrans. Their minds are glacial. They have a lovely three day ritual for saying hello. Peaceful, untroubled people."

"Well, except for your friend Data. I like him. He's restful."

"I believe your impression of Data is probably unique."

"Think of it, Dee... this intelligence that swims naked through space like a fish in the sea. Totally alien, mysterious, not like us at all. Ancient. And alone. So lonely, for so long."

"Captain, Gomtuu knows that the star will go nova soon. That's why it's here... it wants to die. There was an explosion in space. Radiation penetrating the outer layers. The crew. Oh, the crew died. Such loss. Empty pain... hollowness..."

"Tam, when you reached out to the alien, to warn it, did you give any thought to this vessel? To the danger, however inadvertent, that creature might pose to our crew? Or did you simply react out of instinct?"

"Is that the purpose of existence? To care for someone?"

"Through joining, they have been healed. Grief has been transmuted to joy. Loneliness to belonging."