[narrator] Previously on Star Trek: Discovery:
The new president of the Federation, Laira Rillak.
I'm T'Rina, President of Ni'Var.
Gray?
We'll find a way to help you be truly seen.
By everyone.
You're thinking of Discovery again.
I am.
My heart is here, but yours can be here and out there.
Nanosecond this is over, I'm on the first ship home.
Nalas, when's the last time you were back?
Too long.
[Booker] Put Kwejian on the deep-space array.
- [Burnham] What? - [Booker] My ship was hit by something.
- The gravitational distortion. - [Booker] They're gone.
They're all gone.
[wind whistling]
[birds squawking]
[trilling]
[video rewinding]
[eerie music playing]
[explosion]
[Burnham] Book.
Book.
[Leto laughing]
[Burnham] Book.
Book.
[ship powering up]
I'm here.
Whatever you need.
[comm chimes]
[Bryce] Captain, your guest is waiting in the Ready Room.
I need some time, Bryce.
You should go.
- No, I... - I need you to go.
[pensive music playing]
Okay.
I'll check on you later.
[video rewinding]
[Burnham] Saru.
You're here.
- Captain. - Oh...
Thank you for coming so quickly.
It is an unspeakable tragedy.
Any survivors at all?
Right now we only know of Book.
The Federation is trying to locate any Kwejian that were off-world.
How is he?
He hasn't left his ship in two days.
He's obsessing over every detail.
Trying to find, I don't know, evidence as to what may have caused it.
And I've been trying to get him to talk.
Or cry. Anything.
He's in so much pain.
I don't know how to reach him.
Well...
If loss has taught us anything,
it is that each of us must sit with pain in our own way.
And you?
How are you doing?
I've been conducting post-mission analyses
to figure out what I could've done differently.
Lieutenant Aloka, Ensign Neville, Commander Nalas.
Those losses are on me.
It sounds like you may also be obsessing.
Yeah, maybe so.
That's beautiful.
It's the Kelpien symbol for community?
Community and service.
It signifies my status as a council member in my village.
Must have been hard to leave.
I have made arrangements to stay in touch with Su'Kal
and continue serving as a council member in absentia.
Starfleet is where I am needed now.
Yes, I heard you were offered the command of the U.S.S. Sojourner.
Congratulations.
I told Admiral Vance I would gladly return to the chair one day.
This is not that time.
Our mentor, Philippa Georgiou,
knew the value of another set of trusted eyes,
especially in times of crisis.
I asked you to be those eyes for me when I became captain.
Now it would be my honor,
and indeed my privilege,
to do the same for you as your Number One, if you'll have me.
I will take that, old friend.
[Stamets] Five light-years across.
That's the size of the gravitational anomaly
that hit Kwejian and the space station.
Five light-years?
That's massive.
We couldn't believe it either.
But we've been analyzing data for the past 48 hours. Math doesn't lie.
What exactly is this anomaly?
We're not certain.
We know it's there, we know it's moving,
but we can't quite get a handle on what it is.
Our current theory is that it's a roving binary black hole.
We believe the two black holes are merging,
creating gravitational waves in the process.
Huge ones.
Why was Kwejian destroyed and the station wasn't?
A gravitational wave's impact
depends on where the object is relative to the source.
The closer the object, the greater the damage.
How did no one see it coming?
[Tilly] Unless matter is actively falling into it, they're undetectable.
[Stamets] We've been running simulations to test our theory.
They mirror fairly accurately what happened to Kwejian.
Go on.
Continue.
[Stamets] A planet couldn't possibly withstand
that kind of impact.
Are there records of it happening before?
We haven't found anything in any database.
- Where's it headed? - Current data is limited.
Our mathematical models have it entering the Riscot system.
Let's begin evacuations right away.
We should warn the areas surrounding it.
An anomaly this size could fling debris beyond five light-years.
[man] Where's it going after?
- Where'd it come from? - Any indication that it'll stop?
To get answers, we need more data.
We have to get out there, scan this thing up close.
Once you have the data,
I offer the services of the Ni'Var Science Institute.
We may not be Federation members,
but a crisis such as this requires all to contribute.
Thank you, President T'Rina.
It would also be prudent to prepare ourselves for civil unrest.
This news may reawaken post-Burn fears.
We are at a fragile time.
Openness and a unified strategy will be critical.
[Rillak] Which is precisely why you're all here.
Federation, non-Federation,
this anomaly threatens us all equally.
We must all work together.
Discovery will leave for the anomaly immediately.
[comm chimes]
[woman] All crew, report to stations, please.
All crew, report to stations.
- Yes, lieutenant? - Sorry.
Sorry, just... I was...
Sorry, I keep making it more weird.
I'm just gonna say it. You...
Did you get taller?
Not that I'm aware of.
Oh. Oh, okay. I don't know if Kelpiens grow later in life, but...
You do... You seem taller.
Do I?
Yeah.
Maybe you just have more swagger going on or something.
It's a compliment.
Then I thank you.
I'm really glad you're back.
I missed you too.
And I am very sorry for what you went through
on the space station.
Thank you.
[comm chimes]
[man] Security briefing on Deck 7 in five minutes.
When I think about...
Nalas, and Kwejian, all those people...
How life is just a blink, huh?
It is one heartbeat in the entire lifespan of the universe.
I just don't really think I understood that before.
How we choose to spend our moments in the short time that we have matters.
Welcome back, captain.
Thank you, but, please,
call me Saru.
How about Mr. Saru?
That would be...
acceptable.
Commander Bryce, open a ship-wide channel.
Aye, captain.
Ready.
Discovery.
Today we seek to understand a threat like none our galaxy has faced before.
We know the cost of its destructive power all too well.
We lost colleagues,
friends,
and Kwejian.
Countless lives.
Histories, futures.
We won't let their deaths be in vain.
We are going to make damn sure nothing like this happens again.
Not on our watch.
Black alert.
[Bryce] Aye, captain.
Commander Detmer, jump us in, but keep a safe distance.
[Detmer] Aye, captain.
We've reached the coordinates.
Yellow alert on-screen.
Commander Owosekun, apply a polarizing spectrographic filter.
Aye, captain.
[dramatic music playing]
[theme music playing]
[dramatic music playing]
Tilly, get Commander Stamets.
- Detmer, how are we? - Safely in the Green Zone.
Matching the anomaly's speed to maintain relative distance.
Any strain on the ship?
Subspace gravitational waves are present, but not the patterns we expected.
- Very odd. - [Burnham] That's not the only thing.
"Binary black hole" means we should see two of them.
[Stamets] Curiouser and curiouser.
- Scientific observation, please? - Apologies, captain.
It's just not what I was expecting to see either.
There's an accretion cloud made of gas and dust,
and large amounts of dark matter, surrounding a gravity well.
A black hole makes sense...
But the gravitational Doppler shift from our scans is way off.
Meaning?
Meaning, I have no idea what we're looking at.
It's bizarre.
And that is a scientific observation.
- What else are scans telling us? - Not much.
Scans can't penetrate the outer edge of the accretion cloud.
Can we boost power to them?
I tried. Scans aren't viable unless we get closer.
[Burnham] How close?
Past the outer edge of dust and into the accretion cloud.
That's in the Yellow Zone. Discovery would be at serious risk.
We have to know what we're dealing with.
Mr. Saru?
We could send DOTS with sensors attached, but the gravitational distortions
would make it difficult to communicate with them.
Also too small. Not enough mass to penetrate the dust.
My ship can do it. Enough mass to get in, not so much that I'll be in trouble.
My ship can change shape to compensate for the torque.
As long as I'm not inside too long.
The science holds.
Detmer, get ready.
Stamets, with her, to conduct the scans.
[Booker] Captain.
[pensive music playing]
Can we talk?
Detmer doesn't know how to morph my ship.
Whoever goes in has to be clear-headed.
- I'm not? - How could you be after everything?
- That's for me to judge. - And me.
- As captain of this ship. - Pretend you're in my place.
You'd fight like hell to go on this mission.
Hugh would say no.
- And he would be right. - That thing destroyed my home.
- I know you want to do something. - I'm the best pilot for this.
It's not that simple.
I don't need your permission. I'm not Starfleet.
I'm not under your command.
If you go and you're not ready...
you endanger everyone on this ship.
I know you don't want to put more lives at risk.
Getting this data is our best chance to save lives.
We can warn others, give them time to evacuate.
I'm going, Michael.
I'm flying straight at that thing.
If you want to stop me, throw me in the brig, or shoot me out of the sky.
I'm going.
It's everything I'd imagined.
I can't believe I get to start my life again.
I could become a host again.
Finish my training to be a Guardian.
- I could... - Anything.
I mean, you can do anything.
Yeah.
But with everything that's happened...
Something not right with the body?
He's feeling guilty about being happy right now.
You know.
Life goes on, Gray.
It has to. For all of us.
The artisan did a beautiful job with the body. Used the Soong Method.
Named for the 24th-century cyberneticist who developed it.
This is 800-year-old technology?
Maybe I should get a synth body when I die too. We could live forever.
Well, not likely, but the process was attempted a number of times
after Dr. Soong first used it on a Starfleet admiral.
Picard was his name.
But the success rate was so low that eventually people stopped trying.
What, should we be worried?
Gray's consciousness already survived transfer to a new host once.
Seems to be a good sign.
But we should ask Guardian Xi once the body is ready.
When I incorporate,
will the body age and die, like I would have before?
Uh, he's asking if this body will get old.
You know, like, gray hair, the long, scraggly nose hairs,
the pot belly and all.
So not what I said.
It will age in the same way, for better or for worse.
Can we get rid of the mole?
I thought you stopped hating that.
I just asked because...
Transitioning, it's like I had bigger things to think about.
But if I get another chance to remake my body, then...
why not get rid of all the things that aren't totally me, you know?
He wants to lose the mole.
Oh, well, that's why we're here. To make last-minute adjustments.
[gentle music playing]
[door chimes]
Come.
Oh.
You added a holo.
Helps to get away sometimes.
Is this Ni'Var?
Cliffs of Surak.
That's Lake Yuron.
It looks the same as it did when I was a child,
when this was Vulcan.
I used to run away.
Used to run away here when I was getting used to my parents being gone.
You wished to speak with me about Mr. Booker?
- Take me home, Zora. - [Zora] Yes, captain.
The computer is now Zora?
- Picked the name herself. - Oh.
Please.
Book plans to fly to the anomaly with or without my permission.
That would be deleterious to your relationship.
The captain in me knows that he's the right choice.
He knows it too.
But...
I've seen him...
not sleeping, not eating.
Mr. Booker's expertise with his ship
does make him supremely well-suited for this task.
More so than Commander Detmer, despite her considerable skills.
His planet was destroyed.
Well, billions more lives will be at risk
until we understand the anomaly well enough to predict its path.
- So you think I should let him go? - As do you, I believe, yeah.
But your personal feelings complicate your decision.
What if he takes unnecessary risks?
I wonder, then,
if added safety measures would be helpful to all involved.
I have some ideas, if that would be helpful.
Have I mentioned I am glad you're back?
I believe you have.
You wanna send the only two people who can operate the spore drive together
into the accretion cloud of an unknown astrophysical entity?
You might as well blow me out an airlock.
Oh.
Too soon? Probably too soon.
But still, it's madness.
Yes, which is why you'll be going as a holo.
Oh. Well, in that case...
Your body will be here the entire time.
The anomaly creates enormous distortions. We might not maintain a holo signal.
Right, which is why we'll be using a tether
to help Book's ship maintain proximity to Discovery.
And if we have to, we'll use it to pull him out.
[pensive music playing]
I want you on the bridge, listening in on comms.
Let me know if you have any concern.
Yes, captain.
"Blow me out an airlock"?
It was humor.
Neural link. You'll feel everything on Book's ship as if you were there.
If you remove this transmitter, you'll be back here...
What's wrong?
I wouldn't know what to say to Book on a good day.
When you lost me, what did you want people to say?
It's not nearly the same thing.
Grief is grief.
Everyone moves through it differently. Let Book guide you.
Are you sure?
Things have been seriously awkward with him
since he jumped Discovery to the dilithium planet.
Just trust your instincts.
You should know not to say that to me.
You're better than you think.
[Stamets] Book, hi.
Uh... Sorry, I'm still getting used to this new tech.
We're leaving soon. Get ready.
It's so smooth.
I thought I'd be able to tell the difference, but...
Wait for us to crash. Then we'll see.
Right.
So, um, I've been meaning to ask you.
When you're using the spore drive interface,
do you ever feel cramps in your hands?
Or, uh, tingles in your arms?
No?
Okay.
Hey, girl.
I wouldn't do that.
Holos freak her out. She can't smell you.
Come on, darling.
Let's get you secured.
[Stamets] Look. Uh...
I get it.
We're not friends.
But I know you've been through a lot, so...
if there's anything I can do to help...
Maybe stop talking. That'd be a good start.
Excuse me?
I don't need a tether. I don't need a minder.
I'm here for the data. You wouldn't know what to look for.
Fine.
I fly, you scan.
[Burnham] Owosekun, how's it looking?
Gravitational fluctuations remain within safe parameters.
Book, we're good to go.
Detmer, bring us as close as we can safely get.
- He'll take his ship in from there. - Aye, captain.
[dramatic music playing]
Rhys?
Tether's holding, captain.
Keep an eye out for micro-strains. Any sign he's failing, we pull him out.
Aye, captain.
[Booker] Approaching the dust layer.
You good, Book?
Yup.
Going deeper in.
You said "dust layer." Pretty large chunks in here.
It did just pass through a planetary system.
I'm sorry.
Can your shields handle this?
Holding steady so far.
[Leto laughing]
[Stamets] Hey, are you okay?
Don't ask me that again.
Through the outer layer. Stamets has started scanning.
- [alarm trilling] - [Burnham] Tilly?
We're about to be hit by a subspace gravitational wave.
- [man] Gravity generator malfunction. - Status report.
- I can't reach my station. - Zora.
[Zora] Artificial gravity generators unable to compensate for extreme...
How long will it last?
[Zora] It will pass in...
Now.
Is everybody okay?
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Red alert.
Let's find out why it did.
Where'd it come from? Did we get pulled into the Yellow Zone?
No, we're at a safe distance.
- How's the tether? - Holding steady.
- Damage report? - Port nacelle needs repairing.
Power failure in Engineering. Hull integrity at 55 percent.
Discovery will not survive much more.
- Your chin. - [Burnham] Get Adira up here.
Figure out what happened, and if it'll happen again.
[Tilly] Aye, captain.
- I need to finish. - Make it fast.
What's the status on those scans?
Going slow, but I'm getting a ton of data.
Can't you make it go steadier?
You're kidding, right? I'm working magic.
Well, then magically keep it steady.
Damn it, I lost navigation.
We're pulling you out.
No. We need this data. We need answers.
No, Book...
I could really use the time.
How much time?
Uh...
Let's call it ten minutes.
We will do our best.
I need to know if fluctuations will happen again.
[Tilly] On it.
You have a cracked rib.
Gravitational fluctuations have exceeded all parameters.
Something's changed. We need to figure out what.
I'm working on a new predictive algorithm, but data's so limited.
Did you include analysis for every metric data from the station
in your calculations?
I've done this before. Don't check my work.
Don't do that. We've all done this before. We still double- and triple-check.
Make sure you included the irregular gravitational strain.
Please. Thank you.
Sorry, I'm Stamets-ing right now.
We're under a lot of pressure.
And what happened on that station was...
You know Adira is trying to impress you, right?
They look up to you.
I adjusted the numbers to account for the gravimetric variant.
We have a problem.
Captain, good news, we know when the next disturbance will hit.
- Bad news, it's in two seconds. - Everybody, brace.
[grunts]
Damage report.
Injuries on multiple decks.
Structural and power failures on Decks 14 through 16.
Another one, and the gravity generators will give out.
If the hull doesn't open before it.
- You okay? - Yeah.
Tilly, how much longer?
Four minutes. Then a minute and a half. Then 40 seconds.
- Why so irregular? - We don't know.
- Get back to it. - Aye, captain.
We have to pull Book out.
Or release the tether, and allow them to continue.
- He doesn't have navigation. - Without data, we have nothing.
Discovery has to pull back. Where are you with scans?
I need five more minutes.
Make it three.
I'd be lucky to get it in five.
What if we come back?
It'll take a week to fix this ship.
Can you do your analysis with what you have?
I won't know until I can get into the data.
And in the meantime,
this thing will just be roaming around.
And who knows how much more damage it can do?
[laughing]
[Stamets] Book?
Hey, Book.
What's going on? They're talking about pulling us out.
Yeah, that's not happening. We're not leaving without the data.
You have to release the tether.
Does it sound like he's thinking clearly?
In these circumstances,
it's impossible to distinguish between stress and emotional instability.
[Booker] Michael.
We can do this.
Rhys, let him go.
Aye, captain.
Detmer, pull us back.
Aye, captain.
[suspenseful music playing]
Book's flying blind.
Without the tether, we need another way to get him out
before his ship fails completely.
Start thinking.
[all] Aye, captain.
Three more minutes for the scans.
You said that three minutes ago.
Watch it.
What is that?
Is that the boson energy transfer unit?
That's the one.
[computer] Warning. Power failure. Engines at 70 percent.
We're losing engines.
- Grab a phase discriminator. - Where?
- Over there. - You say that like it's obvious.
Pretend like your life depends on it like mine does.
I was told to follow your lead, that you'd let me know what you needed.
- What are you talking about? - [computer] Engines at 60 percent.
I'm talking about me trying to be sensitive,
and you, being you.
You've spoken to me more today than in the past five months.
That's not true.
You found out I could run the spore drive. Your ego got bruised. You blamed me.
Nothing to do with it.
What is it, then?
You remind me of how helpless I was.
When I look at you, all I can see is how close I got
to losing everything again.
You were the one who saved my family.
I wasn't able to do anything, and I hate that feeling.
[computer] Engines at 30 percent.
Data scan complete.
Go. Pull off the neurotransmitter. Get back to Discovery. Start analyzing.
- I can't. - What?
The distortions that keep interfering with my holo?
I haven't been able to send any data back.
It lives here on this ship, and nowhere else.
We've got something.
This is what the subspace gravitational waves look like where Book is.
Whatever is making them hit us harder, they hit him harder too.
Yikes, right?
But we think, in theory,
Book could catch one of these waves and sort of ride it out.
Mr. Booker's engines are losing power. How could he even attempt that?
Newtonian mechanics.
Basic application of fluid dynamics.
I used to kitesurf the biggest breaks on Manark IV.
Same basic idea.
If Book accelerated into the distortion, buoyancy would take care of the rest.
Without navigational sensors, he can't gauge the right angle.
- He can't just feel it. - Maybe there's a way he can.
Tilly, can you turn the holo rendering into programmable matter?
Oh, you bet.
Uh... Why would I?
You want me to do what?
Like kitesurfing.
If you hit it at just the right angle, it will carry your ship out.
I'm flying blind.
I'll tell you when. You just have to follow my mark exactly.
Got it.
[computer] Engines at 20 percent.
- Think that repair will hold? - It's barely stitched together.
It could blow anytime.
Glad I asked.
On my mark.
Get ready.
Now.
- Are you sure? - Go.
- [suspenseful music playing] - [engine powering up]
What happened? Book?
[Booker] I missed it.
Damn.
Listen, another will come.
It'll be tight, but there is enough power to the engine to give it one more shot.
You get to try again.
That's something.
We'll try this again.
It's over.
It's not.
Pull off the transmitter.
No.
You're not even here.
No one's here.
I'm here.
We're all here.
[Burnham] Another distortion will come in less than two minutes.
Are you ready?
Book? You there?
Book?
Book, we don't have a lot of time.
Captain, I think he may need a little more help with this one.
Perhaps now is an appropriate time for you to set aside the captain
in favor of the partner.
Bryce, open a private channel.
Hey, Book.
It's just us now.
You and me.
And I need you to listen to me.
You couldn't have saved them.
There is nothing you could've done. You couldn't have known.
The birds.
The way they took to the sky...
I should have sensed it.
No.
This isn't your fault.
I should've taken them with me.
Kyheem.
Leto.
I failed, Michael.
I failed them.
I know it feels that way.
But you didn't.
You didn't fail them.
And I won't fail you.
Now or ever. I am with you.
The entire crew is with you.
We'll do everything in our power to make sure you make it back safely.
But I need you to trust me right now.
Please.
Just close your eyes.
Listen to my voice.
Stay with us.
Stay with me.
I'll tell you when to go.
When I do, I need you to gun it with whatever you have left.
Another distortion wave is coming.
Just ride it out.
Get ready.
Open your eyes.
Now.
[dramatic music playing]
Any sign?
[Owosekun] Not yet.
[Booker] I'm free. I'm clear.
Transmitting scan data now.
It's time to come home.
And well done, Commander Bryce.
May we all cultivate such lifesaving hobbies.
Thank you, Mr. Saru.
[crew cheering]
- Nice work, you. - Oh.
Really good work.
Thanks.
[Booker] Cut it close there, for sure.
This data should be a gold mine.
Don't look at me.
That was all you.
I just drove this thing.
[soft music playing]
Thank you.
For saving my family.
I'm gonna figure this thing out for you.
Whatever it takes.
I promise.
You know, I do get arm tingles in the spore drive.
Yeah.
Weirdest thing.
I'm gonna take this off now.
Welcome back.
[man on PA] Lieutenant Callahan, report to Engineering.
Hey. Hi, sorry. Um...
I just wanted to thank you for your advice with Adira.
It can be hard for them to let others see past how bright they are.
Yeah.
You have a very light touch with people. I really admire that.
You do too.
Usually.
Yeah, I think you were right about me feeling pressure.
Um... Not about the station, but...
I mean, don't get me wrong, that was just unbelievably shitty, but...
But this is something bigger?
Yeah, like things just don't feel the same way that they used to.
Like, I don't know, something's off,
or, um, I'm off.
Uh...
I was hoping that we could talk about it sometime.
Like, "talk" talk.
Like, uh, professionally.
Of course.
Whatever it is, we'll figure it out together.
Thanks.
Okay. [chuckles] That wasn't so hard.
Just a little awkward.
Not... But not hard.
- You did good. - Thank you.
I'm gonna go dig into that data.
- All right. - All right.
- Go save the world. - Oh, I will.
- You were kind of a big deal today. - Oh, my God.
You know that?
Your algorithms are mathematical works of art.
Thank you.
I guess I, um, made waves.
Okay, no. [chuckles]
What is it?
You got to see your body today,
which is huge, and I'm so happy that you get to incorporate soon.
I hear a "but."
It's okay.
You can tell me.
Nalas.
Everything that happened.
You know, the suddenness of it,
and just the whole awful thing,
um, reminded me of what happened to you.
It's just been on my mind.
I didn't wanna bring it up on such a joyful day, so I'm really sorry.
I don't even know how to begin to talk about this.
You just did.
You're really good at this, you know?
The being there for people.
You always have been.
Everyone's gotta have their thing.
Yeah, and you're gonna make a great Guardian someday.
Hey.
Hell of a day.
Brilliant flying.
You were right.
I wasn't ready.
But you did it.
And you trusted me.
Thank you for that.
I keep seeing him.
Leto.
I don't know if he knew.
If I ever let him know how much I loved him.
You know, for so many years...
I told myself I didn't need family.
Didn't need Kwejian.
But then I found my brother again...
the nephew I didn't even know I had.
And when I looked at Leto...
I saw a new beginning.
For all of us.
We could give him a future...
where there was a home...
and family...
and love.
And nothing he couldn't do.
I'm sorry.
They're gone, Michael.
[Tilly] Mr. Saru?
Has the data from Mr. Booker's ship shed new light on the nature of this threat?
Not yet. We still have an Everest-sized mountain of data to analyze.
Oh. Uh...
Earth mountain. It's very big.
Doesn't matter.
Point being, I did find something.
The reason the distortions got worse, even though Discovery held its position.
So this is the anomaly when we arrived.
And this is it after we left.
It changed direction?
What could've caused that?
There is nothing in my understanding of astrophysics that can explain it.
But we gathered this data in order to predict its path.
Are you saying we cannot do that?
No, sir, we can't.
Could go anywhere at any time,
and we may not have any kind of warning at all.
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