[narrator] Previously on Star Trek: Discovery:
My captain.
My friend.
Gone.
[man] It is our ruling that the defendant be stripped of rank
and hereby sentenced to imprisonment for life.
The only other female Michael I ever heard of was the mutineer.
You're not her, are you?
The Michael Burnham on my ship.
-[grunts] -[gasps]
Eight thousand one hundred and eighty-six.
I would like to extend an official invitation to you to join the Discovery.
We are creating a new way to fly.
An organic propulsion system.
Hold tight.
You're in Ilari. The moons of Andoria.
All those planets, all those places, and you're home like it never happened.
[Burnham] What could do this to a dozen Klingons?
-[snarling] -[Klingon grunts]
[Burnham] Run.
[Landry] Set phasers to kill!
[man yells]
[Lorca] So, is our new guest settled in?
[growling]
[Landry] Snug as a bug in a rug.
[L'Rell in Klingon] The Federation ships are hiding.
They pose no threat.
[in Klingon] Open your hearts to the one who delivered this great day.
[all in Klingon] T'Kuvma the Unforgettable!
You helped start a war. Don't you wanna help me end it?
[thunder crashing]
[computer beeps]
[computer] Burnham, Michael.
Temporary assignment to science division,
U.S.S. Discovery .
Rank: None.
Uniform synthesis is complete.
Computer, cancel mirror.
You look smart.
It's a lot less scary than your convict suit.
Like a clean slate, right? [chuckles]
It's not quite as easy as that.
-[case beeping] -Oh, this was sent for you.
You were in the shower when the, um, ping went off. That's how--
I was fully clothed, so, I thought, well, I'll save you a trip to the depot.
-Tilly. -Yes. Less. Less extraneous words.
-[case beeps] -It's not gonna shut up till you open it.
-[beeps] -[computer] Burnham, Michael.
Do you accept the last will and testament of Captain Philippa Georgiou?
I'm sorry, I didn't know.
[man over PA] Michael Burnham to the bridge.
[case beeps]
[Burnham] I'll see you in engineering.
[chattering]
[door beeps]
[doors slide shut]
Bridge. Direct.
[turbolift humming]
As first officer, I take pride in knowing every name
and assignment on the crew manifest.
You were to be on the prison transport shuttle
that left yesterday.
Captain Lorca offered me an opportunity.
I can tell by your threat ganglia that you weren't consulted.
The captain keeps his own counsel.
Had he inquired,
I'd have suggested the duty roster lacked any opening for a mutineer.
"A valuable asset."
-That's what you called me. -I was speaking hypothetically.
Politely.
And as someone who was certain I would never see you again.
You can tell your threat ganglia to relax.
I'm only here to help.
My ganglia remain unconvinced.
[alarm wailing]
[Lorca] Scanners. Expedite my targeting sweep. Multi-spectrum.
-Laterals included. -[woman] Aye, sir.
Scanners confirm two Klingon Birds-of-Prey.
-Targets heading away at offset vectors. -Main phasers to full.
-Take 'em out before they know we're here. -Charging.
-Vectors received. -We've been located and scanned.
Keep the warp engines topped hot. Landry, we're waiting.
Solution calculated. Firing main phasers.
First target destroyed.
-Second Bird-of-Prey still in. -[Lorca] Take it out!
-They're firing torpedoes. -Shields to max.
-Diverting power. -Commander.
We're all dead.
Very nice.
Very polite.
Discovery is now the only Starfleet ship
with a displacement-activated spore hub drive.
Which means, when it's up and running,
we will be able to materialize anywhere in the known universe.
Behind enemy lines, above the Klingon homeworld.
Anywhere.
But we will be alone.
We will not have backup.
There's just us.
And we get one chance...
to get it right.
We'll do better next time, sir.
It would be hard to do worse.
Mr. Saru, run the simulation again. And again.
-Burnham, with me. -[Saru] You heard the captain.
Computer, reload simulation.
[computer] Working.
[Lorca] We're the tip of the spear in a science vessel
filled with wide-eyed explorers.
-You know what they need us to do? -[Burnham] They need us to win.
[Lorca] They need us to survive, Burnham.
Wanna know how you're gonna help me do that?
I'm happy to assist Lieutenant Stamets
-with the refinement of the spore drive. -Said the xenoanthropologist.
I also studied quantum mechanics at the Vulcan Science Academy, sir.
I know. But I'm gonna put you to better use.
These are some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy.
I study war.
And this is where I hone my craft.
I try to learn from the best.
Here.
Now this I think you'll find uniquely interesting.
You've met once before.
[creature growling]
-[roars] -[exhales]
It has a natural aversion to light.
Same as me.
Why would you keep something so dangerous onboard your own ship?
That thing killed a dozen Klingons on the Glenn,
and there's not a scratch on it from their bat'leths.
If we're gonna win this thing,
if we're gonna have a chance of saving the Federation
and everyone in it,
we need the best weapons available.
So, what material is in a claw
that can shred the hull of a ship?
What's a hide made of that can withstand
the firepower of a phaser set to kill?
I need you to find out.
And weaponize it.
[theme music playing]
[men arguing indistinctly in Klingon]
[in Klingon] T'Kuvma, my lord,
it has been six months since your ship was disabled and the war began.
We are left behind, in disrepair.
Your followers are hungry.
Help me guide them to nourishment.
[in Klingon] You are an artist now?
This is the orbit of every object
we have scavenged through in the debris field.
There are no Birds-of-Prey that we require to restart our engines.
-There is one ship. -We will not have this discussion again--
The Shenzhou is within range.
It may have been abandoned,
but it still has an intact dilithium-processing unit.
This is the very ship that felled T'Kuvma.
To fuse its technology with our own would be blasphemy.
You had no such outrage when we ate its captain.
I saw your smile when you picked the meat
from her smooth skull.
As T'Kuvma perished in my arms...
I swore to keep his fire lit.
To resist assimilation.
To lead his followers.
But now they slowly die of hunger on this ghost ship.
His legacy dies with them.
I cannot allow it.
What good is purity
if it leads only to death?
My father was T'Kuvma's blood kin,
but my mother was House Mókai...
the watcher clan, the deceivers, the weavers of lies.
When I was a child,
she gave me a bat'leth
and told me to cleave my own heart.
To choose one house over the other.
Instead...
I built a bridge to serve both.
Now it is your turn to build,
to go into that graveyard
and bring back the Shenzhou's processing unit
for the good of your people.
You must go to that ship.
[computer] Scans indicate a diet likely based on foraging for vegetation
or other passive means of obtaining nutrition.
[doors open]
Lorca thought you and I would make a good team.
Your science. My tactics.
Together we can deal with Lorca's little monster.
How do you know it's a monster, Commander?
Because I've seen what it's capable of.
So have you.
Let's call it Ripper.
That's what it looks like.
That's what it does.
Your Ripper...
appears to share some natural traits with the Tardigrade species,
a docile creature that lives in the waters of the Earth.
A micro-animal capable of surviving extreme heat and subfreezing temperatures.
Did you say "microscopic"?
-In our case, somehow, macroscopic. -Huh.
How did it get on the Glenn?
All the recent logs were corrupted.
But the Glenn's captain made an earlier entry
that security detected a stowaway.
There was no hull breach.
And no unregistered microbiota in the transporter's pattern buffer.
But this was found rummaging around in the lower cargo decks.
We need to find something Lorca can use on this thing.
Poison sacs, pain inducers, rage glands.
You judge the creature by its appearance.
And by one single incident from its past.
Nothing in its biology suggests it would attack,
except in self-defense.
Commander...
this creature is an unknown alien.
It can only be what it is... and not what you want it to be.
It's amazing how much I hate Vulcan proverbs.
You're new here,
so let me share a piece of wisdom.
Lorca isn't interested in what you are.
He's interested in what you can do for him.
And if he needs us to make that thing useful in his war effort...
that's what we're gonna do.
[Ripper snarling]
[panel beeping]
-[sighs] -[tribble purrs]
Admiral Cornwell.
I didn't realize you were eating, Captain.
Excuse the breach of protocol.
We just received a distress signal from the planetoid Corvan 2,
-a mining colony-- -Near the Aneto system. I know it.
-Sending it through now. -We're under Klingon attack.
[distorted] Our patrol ships have been destroyed.
Our magnetic shields are degrading under bombardment.
They will fail in six hours.
-[child] Daddy! -Find cover!
-[woman] I can't find Andy! -We need immediate evacuation.
-[woman screams] -We need immediate evacu--
Corvan 2 generates 40 percent of the Federation's dilithium.
If the pipeline's cut off, that's half the fleet grounded.
The Klingons ambushed the blockade that was protecting the colony,
and now the closest Federation ship is 84 hours away.
Yours is the only ship in the fleet with a chance of getting there on time.
Is the Discovery ready to jump?
I told you we'd be ready when you called, and we are.
Discovery's made dozens of small jumps with no issues.
We can make it the full distance.
You have no doubts?
None.
-No way we'll be ready to jump that far. -Told me you knew why the Glenn failed.
The Glenn crashed into an undetectable Hawking radiation firewall
when it exited from a mycelial plane.
As a result, all the biologicals onboard spun out.
You can prevent that from happening again, right?
-[Stamets] Yes. -So what's the problem?
Captain, as I've explained to you, every time we try a long jump,
we lose navigational stability.
Remember? Jumping is probabilistic.
The longer the jump, the more possible outcomes.
I get it. It's trial and error. Let's try something.
We lack the processing power to make the requisite number
-of calculations to hold a course. -What were they doing that we're not?
We took this tech from Straal's lab on the Glenn.
It was an augmentation to their navigation system.
I've incorporated it into our drive unit.
But it won't load completely.
To function optimally,
it would appear to require some kind of supercomputer.
-Must've missed that on the Glenn. -Sir...
being chased by a lethal monster
in a death trap surrounded by Klingon bodies is distracting,
but, no, I would've noticed an extra supercomputer.
That's just me.
What's that thing?
That thing is what we took off the Glenn. It interacts with the spore drive somehow,
but I think it's missing a part. I can't get it to activate.
[Saru clears throat]
In exactly five hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds,
the Klingons will take Corvan 2.
Captain, this can't be rushed.
You listen to me, Mr. Stamets.
They need us. Now.
There are some things I could try to extend the jump range.
Get it done.
You're welcome.
[in Klingon] Kol.
What is the reason for your welcome visit?
[Kol in Klingon] The last time I was here,
on the eve of the war,
I hurled disrespect.
Now I come with humility.
T'Kuvma teaches that in a united Klingon Empire,
no one kneels but our foe.
Wise words.
But words don't win wars.
Your house's ship has what no one else has:
cloaking technology
that can crush Starfleet.
We need you back in the fight.
We have scavenged the dead vessels floating around us in the graveyard
left by our battle with Starfleet.
Six months since that fight, we are almost operational again.
But we still lack a dilithium processor.
We are almost out of food, too.
But as T'Kuvma taught us...
what belongs to House T'Kuvma...
belongs to House Kor.
May the words of your messiah, our messiah,
also sustain us.
Remain Klingon!
[all] Remain Klingon!
[Stamets] Captain, be advised, the spore drive is online and primed.
[Lorca] Primed? Can you control where we're going or not?
[Stamets] It's possible, maybe even likely, but--
[Lorca] Done. Open shipwide communication.
[man] Yes, Captain.
Attention all personnel. Stealth protocol.
Run silent. Black alert.
-[alarm sounding] -[computer] Black alert. Black alert.
[Lorca over PA] All crew to battle stations.
Be ready for whatever's on the other side of that jump.
-Disengage shields. -Shields are offline, standing by.
[Stamets] Loading spores into the drive.
-Drive? -Excess energy cavitation initiated.
[Ripper roaring]
Tactical. Reroute all available power from impulse over to phasers.
-Weps are double hot. -Engineering?
Spore drive is online.
Plot destination for Corvan 2.
At your pleasure, Captain.
[exhales] Go.
[Saru] Sensors indicate external temperature of--
They went offline. It's too hot.
That is not Corvan 2.
-No, sir, it is not. -[Detmer] Stuck in a gravity well
of an O-type star. Collision is imminent.
[Lorca] Collision is not an option.
Shields up. Full reverse.
[Ripper roars]
Wrong off-ramp, Lieutenant Stamets?
My nav buffer overloaded. I couldn't hold the plotting.
[grunts] Ah!
[Detmer] Rear thrusters engaging.
We are... clear of the gravitational well.
Re-engage warp drive.
-Get us the hell out of Dodge, Mr. Saru. -Aye-aye, Captain.
This had better be good.
-Lorca's on the warpath. -Look.
The moment the spore drive came online, the creature's central nervous system
showed micro-patterns of activity in the frontopolar cortex.
You said it hates light. Maybe it didn't wanna crash into the sun.
It reacted before we jumped.
I saw it cry out in distress.
It's more likely a connection to the spore drive itself.
Don't see how that's relevant to Ripper's aggression.
It may not be,
but it helps us understand its motives and behavior.
Understanding how it feels was not our mission.
Captain needs to know how it fights and kills.
Lorca told me to keep you on track.
That your curiosity might lead you astray.
We're not letting him down.
Hold still or you'll wind up looking like a Tellarite.
[door opens]
How's the patient, Dr. Culber?
Well, I took care of the skull fractures first.
Another millimeter, the palatine bone would've pierced his cortex.
The frontal lobe is overrated.
It only contains memory and emotional expression.
It's completely unnecessary.
Well, I'll save it.
Just in case you might wanna have a feeling one day.
[Lorca] Gentlemen. Every starship, Klingon or Federation,
runs on dilithium crystals.
If we can't protect Corvan, the war is lost.
So, can you fix the lieutenant's inability
to get our ship to go where it's supposed to go?
I warned you, Captain.
Time is an essential component of good science.
Discovery is no longer a science vessel.
-It's a warship. -That is not the mission I signed on for.
-I'm not a soldier. -Well, then get off.
-Leave the ship. -If I go, I'm taking everything with me.
My spores, my drive.
This entire ship was designed around my scientific specialty.
Everything on this ship is the property of Starfleet.
How do you wanna be remembered in history?
Alongside the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, Zefram Cochrane?
Or as a failed fungus expert?
A selfish little man
who put the survival of his own ego before the lives of others.
-Are you done? -Well, you have some blood on your face.
And your hands, Lieutenant. Get back to work. Fix the problem.
[doors slide shut]
Uh, computer, open a shipwide hail.
[computer] Working.
Confirmed. Broadcasting shipwide.
Computer, play the audio transmissions from Corvan 2.
-[background shouts] -[man] This is my last message.
Another round of bombs just struck.
-Zaphod is dead. -[sighs]
Our bunker is collapsing.
[girl] Mommy, Mommy, wake up.
-Wake up. -[woman] Please.
Save my children.
Anyone. Help them.
[man] We've lost Mine Four and Mine Seven.
-[screaming in background] -Two hundred and ten souls.
All gone. Particulate venting is offline.
My team can't breathe.
I don't know if anyone is listening to this,
but if you are...
-goodbye. -[shrieking screams, silence]
We're doing this.
Computer, release a localized oneirogenic penthrane mist
into the containment pen.
-Wait, wait. Why are you sedating it? -I'm gonna lop off its claw
so you can figure out what makes this thing so good at killing Klingons.
I do not think that's a good idea.
We have no idea what effect sedation may have on it.
And we've seen how it responds to aggression.
[computer] Sedation protocol complete.
Computer, open containment pen.
[phaser powering up]
[roaring]
-[Landry shrieking] -Computer, lights to maximum.
-[Landry screams] -[roars]
Computer, seal containment pen.
Emergency transport. Sickbay.
Find a use for that creature.
Don't let her death be in vain.
[doors slide open, shut]
[ship shuddering, creaking]
[computer in Klingon] Atmosphere pressurization complete.
[computer in English] Crew manifest accessed.
[in Klingon] L'Rell.
There is nothing worth taking on this deck,
or in the captain's ready room.
[L'Rell] I have located the dilithium processor.
The coupling unit is covered in crystal residue.
Unplugging the processor could cause an explosion.
One sudden move and we join the Black Fleet.
I will free it.
L'Rell, we do not always view things the same way...
but I have come to know you
as one who is astute.
More astute than I.
Thank you, my lord.
Why do you call me that?
T'Kuvma made you his successor.
Surely you doubted his choice.
T'Kuvma barely knew me,
while you served at his side for years.
T'Kuvma saw something in you.
A purity of devotion.
I do not want the mantle of leadership.
Standing behind you, I am free to move.
Able to be your enforcer, defender, campaigner.
I am fortunate to have you.
Shall we uncouple?
Thank T'Kuvma.
With this, our ship will fly.
[door beeps]
-Door. -[doors slide open]
[doors slide shut]
I received your message.
What is it you so urgently need my help with?
I've been thinking about the way I treated you on the Shenzhou.
At times...
I was very unfair.
You often undermined me, dismissed my opinions out of hand.
You wouldn't be wrong to call me out for being selfish.
But I can't help notice that your threat ganglia are quiet now.
[Ripper growling]
Fascinating.
[Ripper growling]
You're trying to gauge my response to that thing in the pen.
Commander Landry was about to attack the creature.
And I believe her death was...
an act of self-defense on its part.
And now, based on your lack of threat response,
I'm ready to submit that the creature's primary drive is not aggressive.
It's not a predator.
You have not changed an iota, Burnham.
Your contrite words were insincere.
They were necessary.
I was wrong to question your place on the crew.
You will fit in perfectly with Captain Lorca.
[doors slide open]
[Ripper snarls]
Why were you on the Glenn ?
[low growling breaths]
What were you looking for?
Spores are the thing the Discovery and Glenn had in common.
Stamets would kill me if he knew I was bringing these.
You should probably go. I appreciate you taking the risk,
but this could be dangerous.
Unless we get the drive online, we're not gonna make it to Corvan 2.
All those people are gonna die.
And I can't help them.
I can help you.
Stay back. Keep still.
[sighs]
I brought you something...
I think you might like.
If you don't, well...
they can blame whatever happens on my curiosity.
Computer, open containment pen.
[low growling breaths]
[Ripper sniffing]
Hello.
These are Tilly's tricorder images from our mission on the Glenn. Look.
The doors to the engineering room were blown outward.
The shatter pattern of the reaction cube, the destruction,
like something inside was going crazy.
A very big something.
Then there's excess shielding surrounding the room.
It's as if the crew was trying to keep something in.
What's your hypothesis?
That Straal was holding that thing in his lab?
Captain's log said they found the creature in their lower decks.
I remember you chided Straal about not growing his own like you do.
You were talking about mushrooms.
They didn't have a forest on the Glenn like Discovery has.
If they stored mushrooms dry,
it would have to be in tremendous quantities.
In their lower stores. Right there.
Where the creature first appeared.
It entered the ship in pursuit of the mushrooms.
Their spores, actually.
This ship's spore drive travels on a network of mycelium
that's spread across the entire galaxy. We just can't control where we go.
But maybe the Tardigrade can.
Straal said he found a way to solve the navigation problem.
You said his modifications needed a supercomputer, right?
What if its name is Ripper?
The phaser will only piss him off.
Think of it as a placebo for my skepticism.
Energize.
[Stamets] My God, you're right.
Look how it interacts with the spores.
It's as if they're communicating.
My tricorder is detecting energy transfer.
Some form of symbiosis.
It is talking to them.
That hardly seems fair.
I always wanted to converse with my mushrooms.
[chuckles]
Not just converse.
Maybe even tell them where to go.
If we can figure out how to interact with that tech from the Glenn,
we may be looking at our new navigator.
[man shouts in Klingon]
[shouting in Klingon]
[in Klingon] What is this?
[in Klingon] Provisions. From my ship.
I provided some,
and your crew fell in line behind me.
The price of loyalty is low for those who are starving.
You've failed.
You are as useless as you are ugly, son of none.
T'Kuvma anointed me.
I am the Torchbearer.
And for that privilege,
you allowed a human to extinguish his light.
The star of Kahless was lit by T'Kuvma.
The great houses are now together as one.
Only until we defeat the Federation.
Then we will divide again.
But your strange ship,
her crew, and cloaking technology
will now serve me.
I would sooner die.
[growling]
It is yours, my lord.
[grunts]
-[indistinct chatter in Klingon] -[Kol laughing]
Kill him.
I know a more fitting fate.
Dump him in the grave of our enemy.
[Lorca] Let's try this again. Corvan 2. Black alert.
[computer] Black alert.
Mr. Stamets, are you ready?
[computer] Black alert.
Stand by, Captain.
Energize.
We just transported the Tardigrade into the reaction cube.
-The tech from the Glenn is activating. -[Ripper squeals]
This is every charted star system.
The Tardigrade is holding all these coordinates in its head.
Course is set for Corvan 2. We're ready to jump, sir.
Is anybody not ready?
[exhaling]
Go.
[screaming]
-Help! -[screams continue]
Take cover!
[woman] Hold on!
-It's okay. -[man] Evacuate!
[screams]
Targets one and two destroyed.
-Full stop. -Captain?
Initiating full stop, Captain.
-Multiple Klingon vessels converging. -Diverting nonessential power to shields.
Birds at 1000 kilometers and closing.
-Their phasers are locked. -Hold tight, everybody.
-Steady. -Shields holding at 80 percent.
Seventy-five. Sixty-five.
Engineering?
Spore drive is primed, Captain.
[roars]
On my order.
Birds-of-Prey closing in at 500 kilometers.
Shields at 30 percent.
Coordinates input.
[moaning]
Twenty.
-Captain. -Lieutenant Stamets advises
-that the ship is ready to jump. -I need them closer. Wait.
Let's send our Klingon friends a message they won't forget.
And...
go.
[clamoring]
Who saved us?
[chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[moaning]
[computer] Commander Michael Burnham. Vulcan Science Academy commencement, 2249.
-Recipient, Vulcan Science-- -[growls]
[in Klingon] T'Kuvma, my lord.
They left me here to die
in the nest of the vermin who took your life.
My faith tells me this is not the end.
[flagship's engines powering up]
My faith tells me this is not the end!
[L'Rell] Voq.
[growling]
[panting]
You renounced me.
To save your life.
It won't be long before Kol realizes I'm gone.
We need to go after them. Make House T'Kuvma whole again.
They belong to Kol.
Now we must strategize on a grander scale.
In order to convince the 24 houses to follow T'Kuvma's teachings,
you must win this war.
Prove to all you are the one true Torchbearer.
You speak as if you have a way.
I do.
I've stolen a raider, and will take you to the home of the Mókai.
I will leave you with the matriarchs,
who will expose you to things you never knew possible.
But it comes at a cost.
What must I sacrifice?
Everything.
[Ripper grunting]
Computer, open containment pen.
[Ripper moans]
Hey.
You feeling better?
I brought you the good stuff.
[groaning, snuffling]
I'm sorry.
-Hi. -[case beeps]
Long night, huh?
-[case beeps] -Everybody's talking about what you did.
You helped save many on that colony.
Seems like you're gonna have another reputation to get used to.
[case beeps]
-[case beeps] -It's probably none of my business, but...
my mother used to say, um...
That's not true. My mother never really said anything to me
unless she was criticizing my hair.
[case beeps]
But you...
I don't know, I just think...
if it made its way across the galaxy to find you,
you should open it.
And you shouldn't be afraid to open it.
Because I watched you tame the most incredible creature,
and, well...
you're not afraid of anything.
[stammers] That's none of my business. Right?
[doors slide shut]
[case beeps]
[computer] Identity confirmed: Burnham, Michael.
Do you accept the last will and testament
of Captain Philippa Georgiou?
I accept.
Hello, Michael.
I hope that wherever this finds you, you are well.
I imagine you have your own command now.
The captain of your own ship.
I have always tried to show you by example.
The best way to know yourself
is to know others.
You are curious, an explorer.
So I am leaving you my most beloved possession,
handed down through my family for centuries.
My hope is that you will use it to continue to investigate
the mysteries of the universe,
both inside and out.
And keep your eyes and heart open.
Always.
Goodbye, Michael.
And good luck.
Know that I am as proud of you as if you were my own daughter.
Take good care.
But more importantly,
take good care of those in your care.
[theme music playing]