I don't own Star Trek.
Time is a Predator.
"You don't need to do this, Soran. ...I'm sure we could find another way of getting you into this Nexus."
"I've spent eighty years looking for another way. Believe me, this is the only one."
"What you're about to do Soran, is no different from when the Borg destroyed your world. They killed millions too, ...including your wife ...and children."
"Nice try. ...You know, there was a time when I wouldn't hurt a fly. Then the Borg came. And they showed me that if there is one constant in this whole universe. ...It's death. ...Afterwards, I began to realise it didn't really matter. We're all going to die sometime. It's just a question of how and when. You will too, Captain. Aren't you beginning to feel time gaining on you? ...It's like a predator. It's stalking you. ...Oh, you can try and outrun it with doctors, medicines, new technologies, but in the end, time is going to hunt you down, ...and make the kill."
"It's our mortality that defines us, Soran. It's part of the truth of our existence."
"What if I told you I've found a new truth."
"The Nexus?"
"Time has no meaning there. The predator has no teeth."
It had been 22 years since his meeting with Soran on Veridian 3 before the destruction of the Enterprise D, and ever since that time Picard had encountered many situations which nearly resulted in his death.
The battle with the Borg Queen in 2063 after the Borg sphere took them back in time to First Contact.
Multiple moments in the Dominion War.
That mess with Ru'afo.
The disaster led to Data sacrificing himself for him.
Over the years since his retirement, Picard had been feeling as if his life were coming to an end as he grew older and older until he finally died, and then came back to life thanks to the artificial body. Picard was not afraid of dying; ever since he had seen himself being stabbed thanks to Q's little favour to show him what his life would have been like had he not been stabbed, Picard had realised the moment defined him, made him buckle down, and embrace each moment of his life instead of wasting all of them pointlessly.
He had no desire to see that change with his new body.
But at the same time, Picard knew Soran was right about time. He could just about see its teeth.
That was why Picard planned on going on, embracing all aspects of life. And he had the time to do it.
