Who gave them the right to decide whether or not I should be here, whether or not I might have something to contribute?
Perhaps another time.
Which means that, in some fashion, I am going to be the cause of the destruction of humanity.
Negative, sir.
I have given you the facts, Captain: the entire magnetic field in this solar system simply blinked. The planet below — the mass of which we’re measuring — attained zero gravity.
BASHIR: Some of these people are mentally ill. They need proper medical treatment.
SISKO: I know, but they’re not going to get it. Not now anyway.
BASHIR: What? What is it?
SISKO: That calendar over there. It says August 30, 2024.
BASHIR: I’m not sure I understand.
SISKO: You ever hear of the Bell Riots?
BASHIR: Vaguely.
SISKO: It was one of the most violent civil disturbances in American history, and it happened right here. San Francisco, Sanctuary District A, the first week of September, 2024.
BASHIR: That’s only a few days from now.
SISKO: Which means if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll be caught right in the middle of it.
BASHIR: Just how bad are these riots going to be, Commander?
SISKO: Bad. The Sanctuary residents will take over the District. Some of the guards will be taken hostage. The government will send in troops to restore order. Hundreds of Sanctuary residents will be killed.
BASHIR: Hundreds? And there’s nothing we can do to prevent it. Starfleet’s temporal displacement policy may sound good in the classroom, but to know that hundreds of people are going to die and to not be able to do a thing to save them
SISKO: I sympathise, Doctor, but if it will make you feel any better, the Riots will be one of the watershed events of the twenty first century. Gabriel Bell will see to that.
BASHIR: Bell?
SISKO: The man they named the Riots after. He is one of the Sanctuary residents who will be guarding the hostages. The government troops will storm this place based on rumours that the hostages have been killed. It turns out that the hostages were never harmed, because of Gabriel Bell. In the end, Bell sacrifices his own life to save them. He’ll become a national hero. Outrage over his death, and the death of the other residents, will change public opinion about the Sanctuaries. They’ll be torn down and the United States will finally begin correcting the social problems it had struggled with for over a hundred years.
BASHIR: And all of this is going to happen in the next few days.
SISKO: Which means if we warn these people about what’s coming, if we try to help them in any way, we risk altering a pivotal moment in history. And we can’t let that happen.
I can’t be concerned about that right now; I have a company to run, and a whole world full of people waiting for me to make their lives a little bit better.
While the exact classification of this space entity eludes us, we believe it to be peaceful, in search of a home.
CHANG: “Dr. McCoy, would you be so good as to tell us - what is your current medical status?”
MCCOY: “Aside from a touch of arthritis, I’d say pretty good.”
RANDOM KLINGON IN THE AUDIENCE: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Shame on you. Shame on you. How neatly you rationalize your capabilities. How can you just casually accept your role in murder?
You are not Fek’lhr!
Without me, there would be no laptops! No internet! No barcode readers!
I’ve only seen snow twice in my life.
Oh, right; I forgot. But you said “secret agent,” and nobody says “secret agent.” And you do that a lot: you get things not quite right, like you don’t belong here…
Our futures look different.
A lot’s happened to me since I was you.
I’m from Iowa. I only work in space.
“That was the mission where James Kirk was killed.”
Look at the math of it, is all I’m saying.
UFO in orbit; laser pistols; people vanishing; I’ve seen every episode of Mission Impossible.