Aggressive - Adversarial

[Limbo]

QUARK: 

Hello? Anyone there? 

BASHIR: (in the Infirmary) 

It is corporeal. 

QUARK: 

Doctor? What are you doing in here? 

DAX: (in Quark's) 

A physical entity 

KIRA: (Promenade) 

Not another one. 

QUARK: 

I get it. You're the wormhole aliens. 

Or would you rather be called the Prophets? 

I never could figure that one out. 

ROM: (quarters) 

Did The Sisko send you?

 

QUARK: What? Sisko? What does he have to do with anything? 

SISKO: (office) The Sisko taught us about corporeal lifeforms. 

KIRA: (Promenade) About linguistic communication. 

BASHIR: (Infirmary) 

And linear time. 

QUARK: 

I know all about it. He's quite a guy. But I'm not here to talk about Sisko. 

MAIHAR'DU: (corridor) 

 Then why are you here? 

QUARK: 

I'm here to talk about the Nagus. 

EMI: (quarters) 

The Nagus? 

QUARK: 

The other Ferengi who visited you. The one who brought the Orb. 

EMI:

 We are aware of the Zek. 

QUARK: 

He came to see you, to ask for help. He wanted to learn about the future. 

SISKO: (office) 

The Zek wanted to know the outcome of the game before it was played. 

QUARK:

 That's right. So what went wrong? 

ROM: (quarters) 

At first we did not understand the Zek's request. The Sisko said that corporeal beings value their linear existence. 

DAX: (Quark's)

 The Zek wanted to understand events outside the restrictions of linear time. 

QUARK: 

He wanted to see the future so he could gain by it. 

BASHIR: (Infirmary) 

Yes. The Zek explained the value of gain. 

How more is preferable to less. 

QUARK: 

He taught you about profit. 

KIRA: (Promenade) 

We found the concept aggressive. 

SISKO: (office) 

Adversarial. 

EMI: (quarters) 

Dangerous. 

We could not comprehend how any species could lead such a barren existence. 

QUARK: 

It has its advantages. 

MAIHAR'DU: (corridor) 

We don't agree. 

We found the Zek's adversarial nature invasive, threatening. 

SISKO: (office) 

We examined your species' history, the totality of your existence. 

We discovered that you have not always been as you are now. 

QUARK: 

We haven't? 

KIRA: (Promenade) 

There was a time when your peoples' acquiring nature was not so pronounced. 

QUARK: 

Wait a second. Are you telling me that you somehow de-evolved the Nagus? 

BASHIR: 

We restored the Zek to an earlier, less adversarial state of existence.

 

QUARK: 

You can't do that. The Nagus is the financial leader of billions of Ferengi. 

I demand that you re-evolve him immediately. 

DAX: (Quark's) 

This one is adversarial too. 

BASHIR: 

Aggressive. Intrusive. 

SISKO: 

We should do to this one what we did with the other. Restore it to a purer existence. 

ROM: 

Counteract its adversarial nature. 

QUARK: 

Wait. Let's not be hasty. There's nothing wrong with acquiring profit. 

MAIHAR'DU: 

That is what the Zek said. 

QUARK: 

And he was right. Look, I don't know how you people live, but all of us corporeal, linear whatevers have certain things in common, and one of those things is the need to improve ourselves. Our ambition to improve ourselves motivates everything we do. Without ambition, without, dare I say it, greed, people would lie around all day doing nothing. They wouldn't work, they wouldn't bathe, they wouldn't even eat. They'd starve to death. Is that what you want? Are you so isolated and detached that you would sit back and allow the extinction of every corporeal being in the galaxy? 

SISKO: 

Your argument is specious. 

Changing you will not result in the termination of all corporeal existence. 

QUARK: 

All right, so maybe I exaggerated a little. 

EMI: 

We should alter this one and return it to its own people. 

ROM: 

Agreed. It is best to avoid contact with this species. 

QUARK: 

Wait. If you don't want to have any more contact with the Ferengi, that's fine with me. But by altering me, you won't be avoiding contact, you'll be encouraging it. My people are very inquisitive, and if you change me, they're going to want to know what happened. And they're going to come here to find out. Just as I came to find out what happened to Zek. 

DAX: 

That is linear. 

QUARK: 

And potentially very annoying to you. 

But on the other hand, if you leave me alone, and you put the Nagus back the way he was when you met him, I guarantee you you'll never have to talk with another Ferengi again. 

So what do you say? 

KIRA: 

Linguistic communication is tiresome. 

QUARK: 

My point exactly. Which is why I think you should send me back 

(Flash!)