[narrator] Previously on Star Trek: Discovery:
- This is not our universe. - [Burnham] We are in a parallel universe.
Governed by the Terran Empire, ruled by a faceless emperor
with absolute authority.
Most places and ships from our universe exist here.
Same goes for people.
We could meet another version of ourselves?
Stamets is nonresponsive.
[Culber] He can't get into the reaction cube.
He's contained for his own safety. His adrenals are spiking.
- [in Klingon] Speak your name. - Voq.
Son of none.
[Tyler] Closing in on the cockpit.
[screaming]
It happened again, flashes of memory. Worse this time.
The Klingons transformed you.
- Into what? - You're not you.
[neck cracks]
We're not the first ship to find ourselves here.
U.S.S. Defiant. We find out how it did make it over, could be our way home.
Captain Burnham will be returning to the Shenzhou with me as bounty.
[Tyler] Whatever you do...
[grunting and shouting]
whatever this place makes you do...
whatever happens to you, or me...
however we change, I am here to protect you.
[electricity crackling]
Harrington to Engineering,
I'm still working on that electrical malfunction on Deck 12.
[man on comm] Acknowledged. Deck 11, Section 6 is reporting the same problem.
- Think I've got that bulkhead operational. - Understood.
Make sure manual controls are routed to emergency operational systems.
- [Stamets] The forest. - Hold on a minute.
[Stamets] The forest.
The forest.
The forest is dark, but I can see him through the trees.
The trees.
[Burnham] I can't rest here.
Not really.
My eyes open...
and it's like waking from the worst nightmare I could imagine.
Even the light...
is different.
The cosmos has lost its brilliance.
And everywhere I turn...
there's fear.
[door opens]
Captain.
I have come to perform your daily ablutions.
What is your name?
A... A slave has no name.
[Burnham] It's been two days.
But they're already inside my head.
Every moment is a test.
Can you bury your heart?
Can you hide your decency?
Can you continue to pretend to be one of them?
Even as, little by little, it kills the person you really are?
[man speaking indistinctly over PA]
You're all guilty of malicious thoughts against your emperor.
By order of the sovereign Terran Empire, I hereby sentence you to death.
[man] Energizing.
[Burnham] I've continued to study their ways.
Read all that I can.
It's getting easier to pass.
- Which is exactly what I feared the most. - [Tyler] You can never be one of them.
We're all human here.
We all start out with the same drives, the same needs.
Maybe none of us, no matter what world we're from, know...
what darkness is waiting... inside.
Thank you...
for this.
You remind me of everything good.
Of what I want my world to look like.
My first year at the academy,
I was terrified of open space.
I could fly anything, no sweat, but I dreaded putting on that suit.
Until I remembered the tether.
They're mandatory the first few times a cadet goes out in an EV.
They link you back to what you know, what you love...
help you stay strong, even as you head out into that...
terrifying abyss.
And that's you.
You're my tether.
You bring me back.
You did it before we were stranded, and you're still doing it now.
[door opens]
We're done here.
Check on my prisoner.
[door opens]
[door closes]
This looks good, Saru.
I'm gonna call you Saru, in honor of a respected friend.
Yes, captain.
[computer] Incoming transmission from the I.S.S. Discovery.
Captain Tilly, Sylvia.
[sighs]
Computer, accept transmission.
- Is this a secure channel? - Low band, zero traffic.
I'm alone, Tilly.
I have Mr. Saru.
Hang in there, friend.
[Saru] Is your status unchanged?
Yes, sir.
I've accessed the classified files, but the data's too massive to decipher.
The Terran firewall is impenetrable, I can't transmit intel off-ship
without being detected.
An oppressive regime is, by nature, a fearful regime.
I'm afraid you must devise a workaround.
The data concerning the U.S.S. Defiant's entry into this realm
is our last best hope at forming our own plan of escape.
I take it Stamets' condition hasn't improved?
I'm afraid not.
I will find a way.
Oh, uh, one last question, immaterial to the mission.
My kind are few in our universe.
I had hoped...
Have you encountered any Kelpiens onboard?
No, I haven't, Saru.
- I'm sorry. - No. Not at all.
It was merely a personal curiosity.
Stay safe, Michael.
And be wary.
Culber was her friend and colleague.
She deserves to know the truth.
The news of dealing with an intra-vessel homicide
would distract Burnham from her vital mission.
The circumstances surrounding Dr. Culber's death are...
difficult to process.
Even for me.
I hate seeing him like this.
If Stamets killed Culber, he may be a danger
- to all of us. - He only escaped because
the containment field was disabled. Culber probably lowered it.
Who could stand to see the person they love in a cage?
- Perhaps that was his fatal error. - Stamets didn't kill anyone.
Are you suggesting a murderer's running free on our ship?
No, I'm saying that this...
This is not Paul Stamets.
[man speaking indistinctly over PA]
I've analyzed scans of his neurological function.
Hyperactivity of white matter in his brain has increased at an alarming rate.
Redirected blood flow almost exclusively to the frontopolar cortex.
Rendering other segments of the brain nonfunctional.
This wasn't a murder. This was an unfortunate consequence
of an adult mind trying to reach beyond a cloud of confusion.
We are losing him, commander,
and fast.
His health is in the hands of our medical officers.
Medicine isn't working. This is a spore issue.
Which means no one is more qualified to treat him than I am.
Please.
Let me bring him back.
[indistinct chatter over comms]
[woman on comm] I've got a crew on Deck 12...
Incoming hail. Captain Maddox of the Imperial Flagship seeks an audience.
Acknowledge.
Michael Burnham in the flesh.
Then it's true. The emperor will be pleased.
Not as pleased as I am to have reclaimed what's mine.
I'm sure.
The emperor has a mission.
- Your first dip back into the fray. - I'm up for the challenge.
Imperial intelligence uncovered the location of the Fire Wolf.
The Klingon leader of the resistance.
Who's marching witless alien insurgents to their inevitable deaths.
His base is on Harlak. I'm sending you coordinates now.
- Your mission is simple... - Terran General Order Four:
"Any exotic species deemed a threat to the Imperial Supremacy
- will be extinguished without prejudice." - Kill them all. The emperor commands it.
Prep photon torpedoes for launch...
Do not anticipate me, Number One.
- Captain, we have our orders... - No.
I have my orders.
You've all grown soft in my absence.
Think it was easy tracking Lorca, bringing him back here alive?
We could kill the Fire Wolf and his followers,
and lay waste to their operation from above.
Or we could get our hands dirty.
Prep a landing party. I'll infiltrate the rebel base myself.
And return with the intel we need to bury the resistance once and for all.
[shivering] You have to do it.
Give the order. You have to wipe them out.
I can't send hundreds of rebels to their death to save myself.
What about your crew? The Federation?
Our universe. Be a massacre by Klingons.
Sometimes the end justifies... terrible means.
Permission to speak freely, sir?
I fear that your suffering has influenced your judgment.
I will find a way to get what we need to Discovery.
But in the meantime, lives are hanging on my command...
here and at home.
And this rebellion against the Terrans...
it's an unshakeable union of species.
Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites.
It's the closest to a Federation this universe may see.
- What's your point? - That a Klingon leads the alliance.
A Klingon.
They rally behind him.
If we can walk away from this
with the means to successfully negotiate with the Klingon race...
that's real hope for finding peace at home.
Please, sir.
I no longer have my pips, but I'm still Starfleet.
Don't force me to slaughter this coalition of hope.
Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm not...
seeing things clearly.
All right, no landing party.
You insist that you and Tyler beam down alone.
I can't risk your true agenda being exposed.
Hurry back, please.
[man on PA] Navigation tech, report to the shuttlebay for maintenance.
[Tilly] He called me "Captain."
I didn't think much of it at first.
Save that it had a pretty sweet ring to it.
Then we came here to this universe, where I am captain.
You hypothesized that Mr. Stamets began receiving glimpses
of this alternate plane
- that preceded our physical arrival. - Yes. Um...
This... scan represents the Tardigrade's neural activity when he first came to us.
Do you see this?
Micro patterns in the frontopolar cortex.
Some sort of undetermined and seemingly ancillary activity.
Neurons firing nowhere, or so we thought at the time.
This is Stamets today. Micro patterns are a symptom of mycelial travel,
but what we hadn't considered then was that they could also be
a neuronal link.
A kind of internal transdimensional portal to this universe.
Or any dimension accessible via the network.
Now that segment of the brain is consuming all of the organ's resources
to keep the portal open.
[Tilly] We need to restore function to the entire brain. Like this.
And what organism can symbiotically contribute to the health of its host?
Spores.
Stamets is inside the network.
In order to reclaim his neural function, we need to put the network inside him.
Proceed, cadet.
Think about this.
You'll get yourself killed.
Better dead than one of them.
[man speaking indistinctly on PA]
Just follow my lead.
[phasers humming]
[Burnham] Energize.
The rebel encampment is... 500 meters from this point.
[Tyler] Why can't we see anything?
They don't want you to.
[Burnham grunting]
No, no, no. To them, we're the enemy. If we fire, it confirms that.
- They have us pinned down. - I have a plan. Hand me your phaser.
I seek an audience with the one you call the Fire Wolf.
We come in peace.
Against the orders of our emperor, we come to deliver a message. A warning.
With me.
Active camouflage.
This is how the Fire Wolf kept the base secret for nearly two years.
You're the Fire Wolf.
We finally meet.
I am Voq.
Son of none.
My spies told me you were dead.
I must admit, we rejoiced at this news.
The old Michael Burnham is dead.
I'm the new Michael Burnham.
One who's betraying her kind.
Risking her life to save you.
The new Michael Burnham. Are you the Butcher of the Binary Stars?
- There are two sides to every battle. - [Voq] With one order,
you executed thousands of my kind, establishing yourself
as the figurehead of Terran cruelty. Do you deny it?
I cannot.
- It is not who I wanna be. Not anymore. - I'm happy to relieve you...
I understand your urge to fight.
The only way that you can see me, determine my true intentions.
But I do swear to you,
every moment that we square off wastes precious time.
The emperor has discovered your location.
I had orders to enter Harlak's orbit and destroy your base.
[Voq] Try it. The resistance will fight to the death.
We can help each other.
I want something. In return, I'll save your followers
and ensure the longevity of your resistance.
Your emperor would never sanction such an act of mercy.
[Burnham] No. But my emperor will be satisfied
when I strafe Harlak with photon torpedoes...
following the safe evacuation of your people.
I cannot place their lives in human hands. Not without absolute certainty.
Bring out the Prophet.
Master Sarek sees all.
His wisdom pierces minds.
If you truly come in peace, he will find it in your heart.
My mind to your mind.
My thoughts to your thoughts.
My mind to your mind.
My thoughts to your thoughts.
[Amanda] You've proven that you're as accomplished as any Vulcan.
As long as you never forget...
that you're human, too.
[man] To the charge of mutiny,
- how do you plead? - Guilty.
- How can it be? - [Voq] Sarek.
- What do you see? - I see a world...
bursting with potential,
a child molded by wisdom,
and a seemingly impossible depth
of human compassion.
She means us no harm.
If the Prophet deems your motives to be pure,
then even I am not headstrong enough to argue.
Prepare to evacuate. Leave no trace for prying Terran eyes.
Wait. I told you, I wanted something in return.
You have earned that.
You lead this group of vastly different species.
A Klingon,
whose pride of honor is fused with his identity as a warrior,
stands side by side with a Vulcan,
who cannot possibly comprehend his need for aggressive emotional expression.
A willful Andorian looks to you, not with hostility, but with allegiance.
I need to know how.
How have you come to compromise and embrace each other?
The light of Kahless guides me in all things.
[T'Kuvma in Klingon] Kahless.
Together under one creed.
[Burnham] But the light of Kahless demands that you honor your race.
Yet here you are speaking in a foreign language.
Placing your faith in the customs of others.
I am here. I have survived only on the shoulders of my comrades.
[in Klingon] Our purity is a threat to them.
They wish to drag us into the muck where humans,
Vulcans,
Tellarites,
and filthy Andorians mix.
[Voq] The humans seek Klingon extinction.
They have denied our rituals, our language.
That is why I fight.
The Terrans won't stop until all of their enemies are destroyed.
A Terran enemy is a Klingon friend.
[Burnham] You're united by the common adversary,
but does that union not contradict
your drive to defend the Klingon honor at all costs?
Klingons stand together, and strong.
Only with our own houses in order can we invite others in.
[in Klingon] My house is bonded
by a single doctrine:
Remain Klingon.
[in Klingon] Remain Klingon or die!
Tyler, no!
Tyler, stop!
Who are you? How do you speak our forgotten tongue?
[grunting]
No. No.
The darkness of a Terran soul can suppress a Vulcan mind-meld?
No. My guard has attacked you against my orders.
- You dishonor yourselves, even in death. - [Sarek] Wait.
I told you, Burnham meant us no harm.
I stand by that assessment.
[Shukar] Impossible. Her man tried to assassinate the Fire Wolf.
I do not claim to understand his motives, but hers are pure.
She is an outsider.
Like us, she...
seeks escape from this world.
To reclaim hope.
Equality, peace.
It is only in sparing her life
that we, too, will see the fight of another day.
Tell me what needs to be done.
Then be gone.
You have one hour to flee with your lives. My ship waits in Harlak's orbit.
I do need to prove that my mission here was successful.
[wheezes]
Shukar.
The location of each rebel station is within this quadrant.
By the time your crew deciphers our code, we'll render the intel inactionable.
[grunting]
Thank you...
for your wisdom.
I will thank you only after we reach safety.
Burnham to Shenzhou. Two to transport.
Have it analyzed.
It contains data to bring the rebellion to its knees.
Tell Tactical to prep those torpedoes.
I'll give the order to fire weapons at my discretion.
My apologies, captain.
I'll be in quarters.
Tyler, you're with me.
Laser photon emissions are comprised of exotic matter found in the mycelial plane.
When that matter integrates with Stamets' own neural materials,
it should restore cognitive function.
A scientist saved by his own specimens.
The veins and muscles of the universe.
Fungi are the only organism
with the biological aptitude to link death with life.
[computer beeping]
- His heart rate is accelerating. - That is, uh, an expected side effect.
That big brain of his is doing some heavy lifting.
Okay, there. The neural patterns in the temporal lobe are returning to baseline.
It's...
It's working.
Remarkable.
Your comprehension...
of the astromycology
behind Mr. Stamets' findings is...
Well, I'm impressed.
Enough that you'll recommend me for command training?
Enough that if we ever find our way back to a universe
that has a command training program,
I will consider it.
[alarm beeping]
Heart rate is dropping again. He can't sustain this.
We're nearly there. Come on, Stamets.
Redirecting the brain's resources has affected the autonomic nervous system.
[Saru] This is your captain.
- We need assistance in Engineering. - No, no, no.
I'm restarting his heart.
If we disengage him from the network now, we will lose him altogether.
- [EKG flatlining] - [Saru] We already have.
[man] Please stand back.
Please, Saru. Order them to stand down.
Computer, emergency reaction-cube access.
[computer] Access granted.
[woman] Clear.
[zapping noise]
Again.
And again.
[crying]
[Burnham] Tell me the truth.
Right now. What is happening to you?
- [in English] Michael, please. - I have had your back.
I've saved your life.
I've loved you.
You didn't just jeopardize me, you jeopardized our mission.
- Our entire crew back on Discovery. - The captain warned us we'd do things
- out of our nature to survive. - No! We were surviving.
It was under control. And this erratic behavior,
it's not because of this new universe.
I saw it onboard the Klingon flagship.
- Please, stop. - In the worker bee,
when you could barely complete a simple mission.
You said I was your tether.
Ash, I need one, too.
What are you hiding from me?
[screaming]
I feel something for her. L'Rell.
A reverence.
An allegiance.
Maybe an affection.
And when she speaks, I'm forced to listen. And her words...
tell me who I am.
[in Klingon] Whom do we seek?
[in Klingon] Kahless.
She brainwashed you.
- She wanted a spy aboard Discovery. - [in English] No.
More than just mind games.
More than torture!
[screaming]
[Culber] There are masses of scar tissue surrounding all of your organs.
They opened up your limbs. As far as I'm concerned, you're not you.
[neck cracks]
[gasps]
[screaming]
- [Tyler] They reduced a Klingon body - [yelling]
to human.
I don't...
I don't think I'm Ash Tyler.
Not really. Not anymore.
- You're not making sense. - I feel him inside me.
- His thoughts. His pain. His rage. - Who? Who? Who?
I tried to shut her out when L'Rell spoke the call. I resisted by thinking of you.
The one I wanna be human for.
The one I love.
I tried, Michael.
But then I saw him.
Face to face.
Down on that planet.
I couldn't fight it anymore.
I remember now.
I remember it all.
[neck cracks]
We needed to infiltrate your ship.
Learn your secrets.
You would betray your captain to protect your people.
I sacrificed my body and mind to protect mine.
I have the human's face, but inside I remain Klingon.
Klingon?
I remain Voq.
Son of none.
The torchbearer.
No.
You're Ash Tyler.
We'll get back to Discovery.
Sit with Dr. Culber. He's gonna...
Dr. Culber saw past this body, into the heart and mind of a warrior.
Which is why I killed him.
What?
A necessary casualty.
I need to contact Saru.
[phaser humming]
I don't want to use this.
I will.
[yells]
You.
You killed my lord.
Your lord?
T'Kuvma was a beacon.
A messiah to unite us.
Deliver our race to dominance over a submissive galaxy.
I bet the humans hail your bravery.
Did they praise you
after you martyred his name?
You've lost your mind.
[grunting]
You fought like a coward.
Scratched at my eyes.
But did not blind me to the truth.
I didn't testify to that.
It's you.
You were there...
on that bridge.
I remember.
I failed T'Kuvma that day.
[Burnham gasps]
I won't fail him again.
[in Klingon] I end you in T'Kuvma's name.
[grunting]
[gasps]
He made an attempt on her life.
[electricity crackling]
- Captain. - I'm fine.
Understood. I'll alert the transporter room.
His swift execution will send a valuable message to the crew.
I know that you valued his service,
but Terran Law is binding.
Of course.
So ordered, Number One.
I'm so sorry.
I hope wherever you are...
he's with you.
[computer beeping]
[Stamets] Hello, Paul. Ready to get to work?
I so hoped you would find your way.
[woman speaking indistinctly on PA]
[man speaking indistinctly on PA]
[Detmer] Officer Ash Tyler, you are guilty of the attempted murder
of an Imperial Captain.
By order of the sovereign Terran Empire, I hereby sentence you to death.
Your prisoner, captain.
You have anything to say?
[in Klingon] Kahless, give me light to see forever.
[grunts]
Wait.
This one dies by my own hand.
Deliver Lorca to my ready room.
I'd like to soothe the blow of Mr. Tyler's betrayal
with a private interrogation.
[gasping]
[phasers humming]
[in English] She should have let me die...
- with honor. - No.
We are stranded
in a cruel, anarchic world,
but we are still Starfleet.
We still live and die by Federation Law.
No matter how heinous your crimes.
And if she had,
Burnham's mission on Shenzhou would be incomplete.
The Terran Empire's classified data on the U.S.S. Defiant.
Our key to finding a way home.
Lieutenant Ash Tyler, as acting captain of the U.S.S. Discovery,
I hereby remand you to the brig to await tribunal.
[clicking noise]
- We need to leave this place. - Not yet.
In time.
But my mission was successful.
And what if Commander Saru can't isolate the data?
What if the route Defiant took is not available to us?
Where would we run to if we were exposed before the entire Terran fleet?
Look, I know this is hard for you.
I know you'd...
come to care for...
Tyler.
- I can't survive this place alone. - You're not alone, Michael.
We will survive this place.
Together.
[PA chimes]
[Detmer on PA] We're detecting a power signature within orbit.
It seems another vessel is targeting Harlak.
The rebels haven't completed their evacuation.
- Grab Lorca. - [man] Aye, captain.
[Burnham] Who is it?
Why can't we see them?
Hail the commanding officer. Tell them to retreat.
Now!
[man] All decks, brace for impact.
Impulse drive is showing intermittent shorts.
[Januzzi] Incoming transmission. It's the emperor.
Captain Michael Burnham.
You've been away too long.
Though I can't say the same for your prisoner.
I do not appreciate having to warp my way across the quadrant
to clean up your untended mess.
When I give an order,
I do not expect to be ignored.
Don't you bow before your emperor?