Broken Pieces (episode)

When devastating truths behind the Mars attack are revealed, Picard realizes just how far many will go to preserve secrets stretching back generations, all while La Sirena crew grapples with secrets and revelations of their own. Narissa directs her guards to capture Elnor, setting off an unexpected chain of events on the Borg cube.
== Summary ==
=== Teaser ===
It is 2385. Commodore Oh addresses a gathering of Romulan agents of the Zhat Vash, including Narissa and her aunt Ramdha, on Aia, the "Grief World". She reminds them of the Admonition left behind by their forebears on this world, and shows them the absolute devastation caused by artificial lifeforms in the past, warning them that these images may cause them to go mad. As Oh warned, the others are overwhelmed by the images, some committing suicide with their disruptors, others bashing their own skulls in with rocks or trying to gouge out their eyes. Narissa, though shaken, seems unaffected, and tells Oh that "we have to stop them", and asks Oh how and where they can begin. "On the world the Humans call Mars," Oh replies. Narissa goes over to assist her aunt, who is the only other person still alive, telling her they had work to do.
In the present of 2399, aboard the , Narissa speaks to Ramdha, now an xB and comatose from her interaction with Soji Asha, commenting that Dr. Kabath has said that there was no medical reason for her condition. Speaking gently and fondly, Narissa believes she is merely malingering and adds that she was never entirely sane to begin with. She remarks it was "folly" that Ramdha took her and Narek in after the death of their parents, and "sheer madness" to submit herself to Admonishment, although she admires the "panache" with which Ramdha lost her mind, breaking a Borg cube by the sheer force of her despair. She darkly remarks that the Borg chose the wrong Zhat Vash ship to target, and regrets it wasn't the ship she was on instead, sparing her aunt of assimilation; she jokes she would have made a better drone anyway. She continues that Narek has found the "synethetics' nest", and will be joining him on the hunt as soon as she shuts down this "house of horrors", and Ramdha could join them if she woke up, gently kissing her forehead. She contacts one of her agents, Centurion Tarent, asking if he'd found "the freak"; Tarent confirms he has, having tracked him to Hugh's office.
Deep inside the cube, hearing footsteps, Elnor draws his blade; despite being disoriented by a stun grenade, he is able to hold his own for a time, until he is overwhelmed and held in place by the Romulan guards. Just then, some of the guards are felled by phaser blasts, while Elnor dispatches the rest. Seven of Nine then enters, asking where Hugh is, and wondering what was going on aboard the cube. Without a word, Elnor hugs her, relieved to see her. Seven assures him that it is going to be all right.
=== Act One ===
Aboard La Sirena, Jean-Luc Picard introduces Soji to Cristóbal Rios after they materialize on the transporter pad. Rios is frozen looking at Soji and appears to be disoriented. Picard snaps Rios out of his disorientation and tells him to set a course for the nearest starbase, Deep Space 12, and to get him a secure comm channel to Starfleet Command, much to the surprise of both Soji and Raffi Musiker. Rios finally says he will set a course for DS12, but after that, Picard was on his own. Soji is wrong-footed, as Picard had told her he was taking her home. Picard says he will, but given the nature of their enemy, they couldn't get there without support, and tells her she has no choice but to trust him; he understands that would make her angry, and admits that he would be as well in that position, as he begins to take her to a cabin. Musiker, however, is less keen on having her aboard, remarking they already had one "adorable little homicidal double agent" onboard thanks to Picard, telling him "how big a fool" he was. Picard apologizes for Musiker's open rudeness and prepares to lead her away when Musiker draws a phaser, raging that Picard had built "this whole giant fantasy of rescue and sacrifice and redemption" all due to a single neuron. Picard angrily tells Musiker to either lower the phaser, or to shoot him; reluctantly, she does the former, then says that Agnes Jurati is probably a Romulan spy as she had a tracking isotope in her blood, and that Jurati killed Bruce Maddox.
In La Sirenas sickbay, the EMH explains to Picard that Jurati injected herself with noranium hydride, which canceled out the viridium tracker already present in her system; when she did, Musiker adds, they lost the Tal Shiar ship shadowing them. The EMH explains that Maddox's injuries had not been fatal, and that Jurati deactivated him before shutting down the hematic microrepair treatment that was stabilizing Maddox's condition. Musiker reminds Picard she had been skeptical about bringing Jurati along in the first place, and questions whether he knows what Soji was really like… or if Soji knew herself. When he is unable to answer, she leaves to inform Rios that they had been right about Jurati and adds that she hopes it feels better to rub his face in this.
Picard sends his report in to Starfleet C-in-C Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy, telling her that while she may have thought he was being a "desperate old man, quixotic, paranoid, possibly senile" (which the admiral elects to leave at "quixotic"), he remarks that "the windmills have turned out to be giants" after all. He asks for a squadron to travel to the Vayt sector to rescue beings who had as much life and liberty as they, or Data, had, and saying if she thought it was not a job for Starfleet, she was a "waste of space". Clancy bluntly quiets Picard by demanding that he "shut the fuck up" and informs him that a squadron was en route to rendezvous with him at DS12 and to stay put until they arrive. When the transmission with Clancy ends, Picard slaps his hands together with satisfaction after hearing this.
On the bridge, Musiker begins explaining her concerns to who she thinks is Rios, when she realizes that "Rios" is in fact one of his holographic crew – in this case, "Enoch", the Irish-accented navigator, who says that Rios set the course for DS12 before activating the holograms and shutting himself up in his quarters. While getting nowhere trying to talk about Soji, who he refers to as "Jana", inspired by his request that she should ask him about astronavigation instead, Musiker shows Enoch a design she kept picking up the Romulans drawing over and over again from her surveilence of the cube, which he identifies as an effort to draw an octonary, a planetary system with eight stars. For reference, he shows her the system Nu Scorpii, a septenary planetary system which alone are extremely rare. He consults his archives and finds apocryphal references in ancient Romulan star atlases to such a system, which does not appear in any modern Romulan astral charts. The gravitational mechanics of an octonary system would have to be incredibly complex. Musiker gets to thinking that perhaps the Conclave of Eight, which she believes to be behind the attack on Mars, was not a reference to the number of people involved as she had thought, but to the place where they met.
Aboard the Artifact, Narissa finds the guards onboard killed by Elnor and Seven, and the comm chip from the Fenris Rangers. While looking at it, she notes that it is not hard to figure out which Ranger is currently aboard the cube. Inside the queencell, Seven asks Elnor why he didn't go with Picard and Soji; Elnor replies that Picard released him from his pledge, and that he had found a cause even more lost than his. When he asks about how the queencell worked, Seven says she can either explain, or steal the cube. Her Borg implants allow her to bring the cube online, causing it to start regenerating. Narissa tells her guards to get rid of all the Borg still in stasis, while she handles the xBs.
=== Act Two ===
Having breakfast together in La Sirenas mess hall, Picard notices Soji is more toying with her food rather than eating it, and asks if she has a preference. Soji replies she honestly doesn't know, and tells him he didn't understand this "vacuum" inside her, where she didn't know if it was her speaking or her instruction set. Picard admits he doesn't, but tells her that while she may think she does not have a past anymore, he feels she still does, that she has "a story waiting to be claimed". Soji recognizes that he's referring to Data, among other things, and asks about him. Picard tells her of his bravery and curiosity, "a child's wisdom, unclouded by habit or bias", and how he'd make his crewmates laugh, except, Picard chuckles, when he was actually trying to do so. He admits to feeling a certain love for him in a way, but remarks that Data's capacity to reciprocate that feeling, or express emotion at all, was limited, something he supposed that he and Data had in common. Soji asks how he thinks Data would see him now; Picard expresses the hope that Data would remember him as someone who believed in him and in his potential, celebrating his success and counseling him if he fell short, offering help, and knowing when to stay out of his way when he didn't need it. Soji thinks on this, before remarking with certainty that Data loved him after all and readily begins eating.
Still looking for Rios, Musiker encounters another of his holograms, "Ian", the Emergency Engineering Hologram, who speaks with a Scottish accent and greets her as "lassie". Before asking not to be called "lassie" again, Musiker asks if he's seen Rios, to which Ian replies he hasn't, as he's still hiding in his cabin, remarking that seeing Soji likely brought up "unwelcome memories". Musiker then asks what the likelihood of an octonary star system occurring naturally would be, which Ian believes would be "close to nil", which would mean it would have to be constructed somehow… but why? Ian thinks it might be showing off, but Musiker, still working on her theory, wonders if perhaps it was meant to be a warning. Getting closer to finding what she thinks is the truth, Musiker admits she finds the feeling "absolutely terrifying". Going to her quarters, Musiker tries to order a glass of wine when yet another Rios hologram, "Mister Hospitality", activates, reminding her that she disabled alcohol service from her quarters two days before, and completely locked herself out of overriding the system. Dejected, Musiker notes that he might as well just shoot her in the head. When she asks about Rios, he tells her that he could use someone to talk to who didn't look exactly like him (albeit "better groomed"), adding that Rios had opted for the self-scan option for the ship's holographic systems when he acquired La Sirena, so they were all more or less based on him, albeit with a few "careless" deletions later on.
In his own cabin, an intoxicated Rios opens his old chest from the , taking out his old Starfleet uniform and other keepsakes, angrily telling Musiker to "piss off" when she tries to have a talk with him. Inside a repurposed cigar box amongst his old combadge and collected uniform pips (from ensign and all the way up to commander) was a photograph of himself with his former captain, Alonzo Vandermeer, and a drawing of Rios… with someone who looks remarkably like Soji. He quietly gasps out a sob.
Back on the Artifact, Seven consults the cube's systems, seeing those Borg that Hugh reclaimed, while thousands more remained in stasis. Elnor suggests waking them up, but Seven knows they would be useless without the voice of the Borg Collective. However, she could activate and link their transceivers to create a sort of "mini-collective" on the cube, taking control of them to use against the Romulan troops. Seven is reluctant, as that would mean essentially assimilating them again, leaving them with no free will. Elnor naively suggests Seven simply release them after they win, but Seven tells him they might not want to be released… and she may not want to release them.
=== Act Three ===
In Picard's holodeck study, Musiker assembles Rios' holographic crew, believing that somewhere under the "absurd spectacle" before her are five "broken pieces" of Rios himself, like they each got dealt a "hole card", and asks them to turn them over. She tells Ian that he had referred to Soji as "Jana", that he recognized her. Mister Hospitality believes that it had something to do with Captain Vandermeer on the Ibn Majid. Emmet, the Emergency Tactical Hologram, actually falls "asleep" during the discussion, although when asked what happened to Vandermeer, he mimicks putting a phaser in his mouth and pulling the trigger, indicating the captain committed suicide. When she attempts to find out why, the holograms mention the Ibn Majids logs were classified, and they seem to know why, but are unable to pinpoint it.
In La Sirenas sickbay, Jurati regains consciousness to find Picard looking down at her, and asks if it worked. Picard confirms that she neutralized the viridium tracker before telling her they were en route to Deep Space 12, and upon arrival, she will surrender herself to the authorities for the murder of Bruce Maddox. He then asks her why she killed Maddox, her mentor and lover. Jurati says that she "had to", revealing that Commodore Oh had come to her before they left Earth and performed a mind meld to plant "poison" in her mind, as well as a psychic block to keep her from talking about it. She then asks Picard if he believed in hell, admitting she didn't until she saw what Oh showed her, and now thinks about suicide every day to "comfort" herself. Picard asks if Oh's vision was a memory she lived through; Jurati says it happened "thousands of centuries" ago, and that they were on the threshold: they had to destroy all possibility of synthetic life or "hell would come again". When Picard asks about the threshold, Soji enters and says that it refers to the coming of Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer… her.
Rios has fallen asleep in his quarters right where he sat against the foot of his bed, listening to Billie Holiday's "Solitude", when Musiker hacks the doorlock, enters and replicates him a cup of black coffee. Seating herself beside him, she asks him about Captain Vandermeer. Rios says he used to pretend Vandermeer was his father, calling him "Pops" in his head and almost saying it aloud on occasion, but never guessed he would be a cold blooded murderer. 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. They shook hands and had a meal together, but a few hours later Vandermeer killed them both with his phaser in Rios' presence. Vandermeer told Rios that he had received a "black flag directive" straight from Starfleet Security, and if Vandermeer disobeyed, Starfleet would destroy the Ibn Majid with all hands. Rios strongly confronted his captain, who then, as Rios recalls with wracked emotion, put the phaser into his own mouth and pulled the trigger… and then Rios covered everything up, just as Vandermeer was ordered to do, to protect the crew. He beamed the bodies into space, deleted the transporter logs, and told the fleet that Vandermeer had essentially committed suicide for no reason. Six months later, Rios was discharged from Starfleet, officially for post-traumatic dysphoria. He shows her the drawing that Beautiful Flower made of Rios and Jana while he'd been talking with them, the latter of whom looks exactly like Soji; Musiker realizes they were synths. Fortunately, Vandermeer apparently also had told Rios who gave him the order to murder the synths and is able to tell Musiker when she asks: Commodore Oh.
At the same time Rios is talking with Musiker, Jurati talks with Soji, asking about simple things – whether she eats, sleeps, what she does when she's sad. She remarks on the constellation of three beauty marks on Soji's right cheek, which she calls "artistry", and how Data's creator Noonien Soong had thought of himself an artist but never himself would have considered such features; Soji also adds that she has a mole on her chest and a crooked pinky toe. Jurati raves about how Soji was a technological work of art, but Soji asks her if she thinks she's a person. She knows Commodore Oh has told Jurati to kill her too, but that she does not intend to allow her the opportunity. Jurati tells her that, now that she's met Soji in person, she would never – ever – take that opportunity.
Aboard the Artifact, Narissa begins shooting down xBs in the reclamation lab. Looking at the thousands of drones still in stasis, she asks Tarent if they scared him; the centurion admits he would be a fool if they didn't, but Narissa warns that something far worse was coming if she failed. In the queencell, Elnor and Seven watch the lifesigns begin to fade. Mouth set in a grim line, Seven links herself into the cube's systems, creating her "mini-collective"; in response, Narissa orders the drones vented into space.
=== Act Four ===
Aboard La Sirena, Soji gently escorts Jurati out of sickbay, where the others are waiting in the mess hall. Jurati says she is "done murdering people", and will turn herself in when they arrive at DS12. She confesses they were the closest she'd had to a crew, and apologizes for having to "fucking ruin it." Rios orders a plate of French fries and a cup of peppermint ice cream to dip them in for Soji, remembering from his earlier experience with Jana; she is surprised that he knew she loves doing that, to which he gives her quiet smile. Musiker explains what she has learned: Some two to three hundred thousand years earlier, eight suns were brought together with a planet in the center, which the Romulans called the "Admonition", as a warning against allowing synthetic life to evolve. Crossing a certain point of synthetic evolution would cause something terrible to show up, which Rios equates to a nightmare version of the Vulcans making first contact with Earth after Zefram Cochrane's warp drive flight in the Phoenix. The Romulans took this warning seriously, creating the Zhat Vash. When Noonien Soong started creating his androids, the Zhat Vash sent Oh, a half-Vulcan/half-Romulan, as their mole 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 "a situation so terrifying" that the Federation's only response was to ban synths: the attack on Mars. 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 they now know of because of Soji.
Soji angrily pounds the table which dents it, and excusing herself, storms off to the bridge, bringing La Sirenas engines online, sealing the bridge area off with a force field, and deactivating the holographic crew: she is taking the ship to her home planet. She has located the nearest node of the Borg transwarp conduit network nine hours away at top speed, not sure of how she knows, but she surmizes that she picked it up while on the Artifact. After hearing the truth of what the Zhat Vash conspiracy has wrought, she suddenly seems to know a lot of things. Rios begins to sing a song in Spanish, "Arroz con leche" – a lullaby his mother taught him, which acts as an override code, allowing him to take back control of the ship. Picard suggests that since they've done it Maddox's way and his way up to that point, perhaps they should try to do things Soji's way, and hope they were not too late. He sits down in the captain's chair before he admits he has no idea how the holographic displays works. Rios scolds Soji for planning to just fly into a transwarp conduit without setting up a structural integrity field or a chroniton field, "gravimetric shear be damned", and reminds her that La Sirena is his ship. She then asks him to take her home, for Jana's sake. He relents, and takes the helm from his captain's chair.
Aboard the Artifact, Narissa is informed that all of the Borg drones have been jettisoned, and that the fleet is prepared to travel to the synthetics' homeworld, before she is ambushed by a group of xBs, who take down Tarent and manage to overpower her; however, she beams to safety as the Romulan ships begin going to warp. Speaking for the "mini-collective", Seven intones that the cube was theirs again. Elnor warily asks if Seven intends to assimilate him now, to which the cube's collective replies that "Annika still has work to do" before disconnecting from her.
As La Sirena travels at warp to the transwarp conduit, Picard remembers standing night watch as an ensign on the bridge of the , thinking he was the only one awake in all that emptiness, forgetting until right then how much he'd loved it. He tells Rios that he knew Vandermeer slightly, by second-hand account, who had been first officer to a former classmate of his from Starfleet Academy: Rios already knows of whom Picard speaks of, Captain Marta Batanides. At Picard's surprise he clarifies that didn't know her himself but feels as if he did, as she was "a legend" to Vandermeer.
Picard asks if Vandermeer knew Beautiful Flower and Jana were synthetic. Rios believes he had to, and that Vandermeer must have thought because of that, he could live with killing them. Picard knew Vandermeer slightly but always thought him a good man; Rios agrees he was, and that he hates the idea that Vandermeer died believing Starfleet had betrayed him, had betrayed itself. Picard replies that Starfleet did indeed do both things, long before Oh gave Vandermeer the order; the ban itself was the betrayal. The Zhat Vash had set the trap, and Starfleet could have sidestepped it but instead had chosen to react in fear. Rios, however, confesses that he's wary: it had taken Soji all of five minutes to hack his ship, and now they were en route to potentially a whole planet of others like her. Musiker had said the Romulans called Soji "the Destroyer"; what if they were right? Picard agrees that they were right about what had happened in the past as it is recorded history, but the future was theirs to write, and they had powerful tools to write it with: openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity, while the Zhat Vash only had secrecy and fear. Picard is about to tell Rios that fear is the great destroyer not Soji when she arrives on the bridge and reports that they had arrived at the transwarp conduit. She then takes out Kestra's compass, looking at it for a moment before Rios takes them in… followed by a Romulan scout ship.
== Memorable quotes ==
"The Collective picked the wrong Tal Shiar ship to assimilate that day. They ought to have picked mine. I'd have made a much better Borg than you."
:- Narissa, to her comatose aunt, Ramdha
"Now you put that away, or be prepared to use it on me!"
:- Picard, to Raffi Musiker, as she aims a phaser at Soji
"She injected herself with a hydrogen compound. She was trying to destabilize the viridium tracker already present in her system."
"And as soon as she did, we shook our Tal Shiar tail. Fact, not theory."
:- La Sirenas EMH and Raffi Musiker
"That's a hell of a report."
"And you thought I was a desperate old man. Quixotic, paranoid, possibly senile…"
"Let's just leave it at quixotic."
"And now the windmills have turned out to be giants."
:- Clancy and Picard
"Admiral Picard, with all due respect, and at long last, shut the fuck up!"
:- Admiral Clancy, when Picard preemptively asserts that if she were to say his current mission is not a job for Starfleet then she would be a "waste of space"
"Did he tell you why he got so freaked out by that girl?"
"No, but he said if I kept smiling at him, he would punch me in the face."
:- Musiker and La Sirenas ENH
"Why didn't you go with him?"
"Picard released me. I found a cause even more lost than his."
:- Seven and Elnor
"What the hell is going on?"
"The cube, it seems to be… I would almost say it's regenerating."
"We have to get rid of every Borg still held in stasis immediately. Can they be gassed? Electrocuted?"
"We can blow the seals and jettison them directly into space."
"Oh, I like that. See to it."
:- Narissa and Tarent
"Tell me about Data. What was he like?"
"Well, Data was… brave. Curious. Very gentle. He had a child's wisdom, unclouded by habit or bias. He made us all laugh, except when he was trying to make us laugh."
:- Soji Asha and Picard
"If I could see you with his eyes, what would I see?"
"How would I know that?"
"What do you hope I would see? How do you wish he would remember you?"
"You mean, if he'd survived me, rather than the other way around. I hope he would remember Jean-Luc Picard as someone who believed in him, who believed in his potential, celebrated his successes, counseled him when he fell short, helped him if he needed help, and if he didn't need it, got out of his way. Words to that effect."
:- Soji and Picard
"He loved you."
:- Soji, to Picard, about Data
"What is the nature of your hospitality emergency?"
"I need a glass of red wine."
"You disabled alcohol service from your quarters two days ago."
"Well, re-instate it. Override."
"Locked yourself out of override, and out of meta-override."
"Well then shoot me in the head."
:- La Sirenas EHH and Musiker
"Do you believe in hell? Yeah, neither did I, until I saw it. Now, I think about suicide every day. That's how I comfort myself."
:- Agnes Jurati
"Do you sleep?"
"Every night."
"You sleep every night… My God. Do you eat?"
"When I'm hungry."
"What do you do when you're sad?"
"Cry."
"Thirsty?"
"Drink."
"You drink when you're thirsty. That is so beautiful."
:- Jurati and Soji, when they finally meet
"I'm afraid I broke your gun."
:- Narissa, to a Zhat Vash agent, after slaughtering xBs with his disruptor
"Do they frighten you?"
"I'd be a fool if they didn't."
"Something far worse is coming, Centurion... if I fail in my work."
:- Narissa and Tarent, about the Borg
"We are Borg."
:- "Queen" Seven of Nine
"Actually… I don't know how to work this."
:- Picard, after attempting to lay in a course on La Sirena
"They are gone. It is over. The cube is ours again."
"So... are you going to assimilate me now?"
"... Annika still has work to do."
:- "Queen" Seven of Nine and Elnor
"You know, I remember standing the night watch as a young ensign on the bridge of the Reliant feeling I was the only one awake in all that… emptiness, all that silence. I'd forgotten until just now, how much I loved it."
:- Picard
"I hate that he died thinking it was really Starfleet that betrayed him. Betrayed itself."
"But Starfleet did betray him. We did betray ourselves. Long before Oh gave Vandermeer that order. The ban itself was a betrayal. Oh the Zhat Vash, they set the trap, but we could merely have sidestepped it. Instead, we gave way to fear."
"It took her all of five minutes to hack my ship, Picard, and now, maybe there's a whole planet of them. Raffi said the Romulans called her 'the Destroyer'. What if they're right?"
"They may be right about what happened 200,000 years ago. The past is written, but the future is left for us to write, and we have powerful tools, Rios: openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy, and fear, and fear is the great destroyer, Rios."
:- Rios and Picard
== Background information ==
=== Title ===
* : Title publicly revealed. 
=== Cast and characters ===
* Harry Treadaway (Narek) is not credited in the opening titles, and does not appear in this episode.
* This episode features the first appearance of Ian the Emergency Engineering Hologram, who speaks with a Scottish accent, which is most likely a reference to Montgomery Scott.
* This is the only episode to show all five of La Sirenas emergency holograms onscreen at the same time.
* This episode firmly establishes in dialog that Oh is of both Vulcan and Romulan descent.
=== Production ===
* The selection of books in Captain Rios' quarters are real-world works on the topic of existentialism. Among them are , , and by Søren Kierkegaard; (L'Étranger) by Albert Camus; and The Tragic Sense of Life by Miguel de Unamuno, which previously appeared in .
* Further, Rios listens to Billie Holiday's "Solitude", and sings the lullaby "Arroz con leche".
=== Continuity ===
* Picard mentions Marta Batanides, a classmate that was featured in . As he referred to her in past tense, it is implied that she was deceased by 2399.
* A viridium tracker was also used by Spock to track Kirk in .
=== Reception ===
* 
=== Video and DVD releases ===
* Released on PIC Season 1 Blu-ray and PIC Season 1 DVD.
== Links and references ==
=== Starring ===
* Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard
* Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati
* Isa Briones as Soji Asha
* Evan Evagora as Elnor
* Michelle Hurd as Raffaela Musiker
;With
* Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios / Emil / Emmet / Enoch / Ian / Mister Hospitality
=== Special guest star ===
* Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
=== Guest starring ===
* Peyton List as Narissa
* Ann Magnuson as Kirsten Clancy
* Tamlyn Tomita as Oh
* Rebecca Wisocky as Ramdha
* Derek Webster as Tarent
=== Co-starring ===
* Jane Hae Kim as Tal Shiar Female #1
* Kendra Munger as Tal Shiar Female #2
=== Uncredited co-stars ===
* Jimmy Chimarios as xB
* Natalie Diaz as Zhat Vash member
* Alyma Dorsey as Romulan guard
* Akihiro Haga as Romulan guard
* Morgan Eliza Hill as Zhat Vash member
* Jennifer Lee as Zhat Vash member
* Cort Rogers as Romulan guard
* Vincent Teixeira as Alonzo Vandermeer 
* Unknown performers as
** Three Zhat Vash members
** Romulan guard
=== Stand-ins ===
* John Funk as stand-in for Patrick Stewart
=== References ===
200,000-300,000 years ago; 2380s; 2390; Abyssus; admiral (fleet admiral); Admonition; Aia; Aia natives; alcohol; Alfred A. Knopf; algorithm; ambassador; "Arroz con leche"; art (drawing); ; Artifact Borg drones; artist; ; assimilation; astronavigation; aunt; bacon; ; Beautiful Flower; Beautiful Flower's ship; beauty mark; black flag directive; blood; Borg; Borg Collective; Borg cube; Borg drone; Borg hull drone; Borg Queen; Borg Reclamation Project; Borg sphere; box (cigar box); brother; ; cabin; ; captain (rank); (title); Casebook on Existentialism; centurion; ; chroniton field; circle; ; coffee; colonel; combadge (comm pin); commander (lieutenant commander); commodore; ; Conclave of Eight; conspiracy theory; constellation; Coppelius; ; Data; Death in the Afternoon; Deep Space 12; ; diplomatic mission; director; discharge; doctor; Dominican Republic; double agent; earpiece; Earth; Eightfold Stars; electrocution; Emergency Engineering Hologram; Emergency Hospitality Hologram; Emergency Medical Hologram (aka EMH); Emergency Navigational Hologram (aka ENH); Emergency Tactical Hologram; emotion; ; evolution; family; father; fear; Fear and Trembling; Federation; Fenris Rangers; Fenris Rangers beacon; fetus; first contact; force field; foremother; fox; french fries; fuck; fucking; giants; gravimetric shear; Greenwich Pensioner; hell; hematic microrepair unit; Hippocratic coding; ; holo-communicator; Hugh; hybrid; hydrogen compound; ; ice cream; Jana; Kabath; Kierkegaard; La Sirena; light year; lullaby; ; Mars; Medusan; mermaid; mind meld; mole (medical condition); (occupation); mouth; murder; Narek; Narek and Narissa's parents; Narissa's ship; neuron (positronic neuron); night watch; ; Nu Scorpii; octonary star system; office; override (meta-override); paper book; peppermint; peppermint stick; phaser (type 2 phaser); photograph; pinky toe; "piss off"; post-traumatic dysphoria; psychic block; Qowat Milat (qalankhkai); quarters (cabin); queencell; "Quezh"; ; ; red wine; ; replicator; riddle; Rios' mother; Romeo y Julieta; Romulan; Romulan disruptor pistol; Romulan language; (unnamed); Romulan workbee; Scots language; scrambled eggs; Seb-Cheneb; septenary star system; Shaenor; Shaenor personnel; ; sister; snakehead (Narek's snakehead); "Solitude" (song); (vinyl record); song; ; Spanish language; Spanos; spy; squadron; star; starbase; star chart (aka star atlas); Starfleet; Starfleet Academy; Starfleet Command; Starfleet insignia; Starfleet Security; Starfleet uniform (late 2390s); Starfleet uniform (mid 2380s); stasis; statuette; storehouse; ; structural integrity field; subspace link; suicide; Suvannamaccha; Surak and Existentialism; synthetic lifeform; Tal Shiar; tan qalanq; temperature; ; transceiver; transporter log; transwarp conduit; transwarp conduit network; transwarp conduit node; Vayt sector; Vayt system; vinyl record; viridium tracker; Vulcan; Vulcan language; Walkman; warp drive; windmills; xB; Yridian tea; Zhat Vash
==== Meta references ====
; intertitle
=== External links ===
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es:Broken Pieces
fr:Broken Pieces (épisode)
pl:Broken Pieces