Previously on Star Trek: Discovery:
Any rational explanation
for the seven signals continues to escape me.
- Tell us what the signals mean. - I know nothing about them.
If you wanna help, delete the Sphere archive.
As long as there's any possibility of Control gaining access to the Sphere data,
everything will die.
The archive will not allow itself to be destroyed.
Instead of fighting time, we go with it.
Transfer the Sphere archive into the suit and let the wormhole take it forever.
Look, just come home.
That version of me is dead.
And I'm not going back.
You're Control. You won't win.
Struggle is pointless.
Our mission parameters have changed.
He's taking the Sphere data.
- No! - Captain, we can't stop the data transfer.
Transfer speed increasing.
We haven't come this far to lose everything now.
- You have to let me go back. - If we do, you get yanked back.
At least this way she'd have a chance.
I'll find you, Mom.
Now with no suit, no time crystal.
It will always be one step ahead of us.
Dr. Burnham was incorrect.
What we do now has the power to determine the future.
The board is yours, Michael.
When the timestorm passes, I'll come back for you, baby girl.
For you and your father.
I promise.
Incoming transmission from Amanda Grayson.
Michael, I heard what happened.
I am so sorry.
How did you hear?
Spock.
All this time, I thought she was dead,
but it was so much worse.
She was trying to stop Control.
And I stopped her.
I failed her.
Then I lost her...
all over again.
Michael, you have it backwards.
You found her.
You will find her again.
That is who you are.
Mother, I apologize for the interruption,
but the captain needs us.
Take care of each other.
I love you both.
Thank you.
Another signal has appeared.
This new signal is the fourth of seven.
It appeared over the Klingon planet of Boreth.
The time crystal on Dr. Burnham's suit was destroyed.
No way she could've created that signal.
And she said she had no knowledge of them.
Which suggests the signals were created by another time-traveling entity.
Maybe a trap? An agent of Control from the future?
None of the events linked to the signals would indicate that.
The fact one of them led us to save the people of Terralysium,
whose ancestors were saved by Dr. Burnham herself,
makes me think that these signals...
Speculating about what the signals mean or who created them is unproductive.
What are you suggesting?
I am asserting that waiting around for these signals to provide us answers
has proven to be a colossal waste of time.
To say nothing of the fact that Leland is the AI.
He is Control.
We should be joining Agent Georgiou in her search for him.
We have determined that the Sphere archive
could not be removed nor deleted from this ship.
By using Discovery to pursue Captain Leland,
we would be placing the data directly within his reach.
We all wanna stop him.
I understand why you wanna lead the charge.
But our priority is safeguarding that data.
So, we focus on the mission at hand.
This new signal, and why it appeared to over Boreth.
Mr. Tyler, any insight?
To the Klingons, Boreth is revered for one reason,
the monastery dedicated to Kahless.
It's the only non-native structure on the whole planet.
I don't know how it relays the signals,
but I can reach out to Chancellor L'Rell to arrange passage there.
Excellent. Do it.
Door.
Michael.
I saw you back there.
Whatever it is you're not telling us about Boreth,
I need to know.
Boreth...
is home to my son.
Your son?
Technically, Voq and L'Rell's son.
L'Rell had hidden him away for his own safety.
And I wanted to raise him, to protect him.
And instead,
I risked both of their lives.
He was placed in the care of the monks on Boreth.
Where he'll be raised as a son of none...
like I was.
Ash, I had no idea.
I'm sorry.
I couldn't tell anyone.
I only wish you'd told me...
so you wouldn't have to carry it alone.
Well...
that's something we both struggle with, isn't it?
What is it?
A Section 31 ship just missed its check-in.
It might be nothing.
When it comes to Leland and the AI, no inconsistency is too small.
You wanna go after him for what he did to your mother?
- Are you gonna try to...? - Stop you?
I don't think that's possible.
Agent Tyler, the D7 has arrived with Chancellor L'Rell.
You should go.
Be careful, Michael.
Please.
The monastery is considered
the most sacred site in the Klingon Empire.
Their contact with outsiders has been almost nonexistent
since our world was young.
Control is a significant threat to all of us, chancellor.
Something in that monastery might even the odds.
Is there any reason you can think of that this signal would lead us there?
The monastery on Boreth was not only built to house the followers of Kahless,
but to protect a rare mineral native to the planet,
guarded with Klingon lives for generations.
Time crystals.
Dr. Burnham's suit was powered by modified time crystal.
A new time crystal
could let us send the Sphere data into the future after all.
The power to manipulate time is a weapon unlike any other.
And the very reason we no longer exploit the crystals.
But in this case, our mutual survival depends upon time manipulation
to defeat Control.
Maybe the final signals will show us how to do that.
Send me down to Boreth.
No. We will not have this conversation in the presence of Captain Pike.
Circumstances are dire and time is critical.
I offer you my full discretion.
For Agent Tyler to go to Boreth would endanger a life.
- L'Rell. - The life of our son.
His existence and yours must be kept secret.
I would never put the Empire at risk. I have the right to see him.
The dead have no rights.
If it were discovered that our child or you were still alive,
the Klingon Empire would be vulnerable to sedition.
I forbid you to go.
I am not yours to command.
The rule is no contact, for his safety.
These signals change the rules.
That's an excuse our son can't afford.
I'll go.
I agree with L'Rell. It isn't safe for either of you to go.
Nor would it be safe for you, captain.
Boreth is not for the faint of heart.
Even as chancellor, I hold no sway
over the monks who guard the crystals.
Noted. Can you help us establish communications with them?
I can arrange an audience.
But no Klingon, let alone a human,
has ever taken a time crystal from the monastery
without great sacrifice.
The alternative is worse.
Let us proceed.
According to Tyler,
every Section 31 ship is required to check in on an hourly basis.
But this ship checked in ten minutes past its hour.
Because of the clandestine nature of their missions,
they're not required to provide further information on their status.
You want to investigate in person.
I'll take a shuttle. Discovery stays here. The Sphere data stays safe.
And it may be nothing, but that ship may be a vulnerability we can exploit.
Permission granted, commander.
Ah.
I am acting captain while Captain Pike is away.
That is why you came to me, is it not?
I thought it would take more convincing.
It would seem that after passing Vahar'ai, I'm a different kind of captain.
Perhaps as was intended by whatever, or whomever,
created the signal over Kaminar.
As I said, you have my support.
This is an enemy we will only defeat by striking first.
But I ask that you would not allow your understandable anger
to cloud your judgment.
I won't.
Thank you, Saru.
Captain Christopher Pike.
The United Federation of Planets.
We know who you are, Captain Pike.
And we know why you've come here.
I come bearing no weapons.
The chancellor said...
The chancellor has no authority in this monastery.
Seems I'm talking to the right Klingon.
We are the timekeepers.
Guardians, not rulers.
The only power that exists here is that of which we protect.
That of the poH qut.
The time crystals.
Yes. I've come to negotiate a trade.
They are not ours to trade, captain.
The poH qut
do not leave these sacred walls.
You've traveled far for nothing.
But wait...
You call yourself timekeepers.
Yet you would turn your back
when the future of all sentient life is threatened.
Even if a crystal is revealed to you,
even if it provides you with the answers you seek,
you are not strong enough to accept them.
I'm only asking for a chance to prove it.
They enter with conviction. Always.
They leave broken. Always.
I'm not leaving here...
without that crystal.
Time will tell.
Attention, all security personnel,
battle drills scheduled for 0700 hours have been canceled.
It would be illogical for you to embark on this mission alone.
No, no. It's a simple recon mission, Spock.
I'm here on Saru's orders. Now is not the time for recklessness.
Or for unnecessary risks.
Which is why I must make sure you don't take any.
How are you gonna do that?
The Red Angel will not be there to save you this time.
I don't need saving, brother.
Shall we, sister?
So, you managed to pull off another spore jump, huh?
- I thought you'd be celebrating. - Well, um...
I haven't come up with any viable solutions
on how to get Dr. Burnham back,
or how to effectively combat an AI with murderous impulses.
So, I'm not exactly feeling victorious.
Well, lucky for you, those are somebody else's problems now.
We got new orders from Captain Pike before he left for Boreth.
We might be getting our hands on some raw time crystal.
So, double down on the espresso, kid.
Hey, bamboo boy.
You're 0 for 3, Linus. You ready to go another round?
I hatched ready.
- Earthbound. - Done that already. Sanction.
We're playing the auto-antonym game.
Words that mean a thing and the opposite of the thing.
- I know what auto-antonym means. - Linus needs to whip one out.
- Don't choke. - He can choke.
Oversight.
Hmm.
Choke on that.
Oh, boom.
Humans.
Thought we got past this.
Hasn't it been weeks since he moved out of your quarters?
Eat your protein. Mind your business.
I'm gonna go bury my head in time crystal research.
What do I call you?
My name is Tenavik.
When I first arrived at the monastery, I was without name.
Son of none.
I know another Klingon with that same epithet.
He was my father.
But from my understanding, your father brought you to Boreth
only a few months ago, when you were an infant.
Forgive me, but how are you possible?
Time flows differently for those who protect the crystals.
The past, the present, the future...
are all equal in their presence.
Because of the crystals.
For most Klingons, the time crystals are a myth.
Symbol of Kahless, namesake of Qo'noS.
But for those of us here, the power of the crystals are very real.
We dedicate our lives to protecting them.
That is our purpose.
I wonder, captain, if you are prepared to know yours.
Shuttle course coordinates plotted.
Time to destination, approximately two minutes.
I understand your need to pursue Leland.
You must not dismiss the importance of the signals in defeating Control.
How have the signals done anything to protect us against Control so far?
We do not yet have the context necessary to answer that.
Why are you here keeping an eye on me while there's a signal over Boreth
waiting to be contextually explored?
These signals have invested in Discovery,
your mother and myself.
The common denominator is you.
You're a scientist, Spock.
You've been taught trust logic, trust the facts.
Not wait for the universe to hand you a solution like a present.
If you're looking for meaning in the signals,
you need to look somewhere else,
I'm not it.
You are angry.
As I was.
I'm not angry.
I'm enraged.
And rage is the enemy of logic.
This I have learned.
Everything we thought we knew proved wrong.
And you lost your mother because of it.
You are in pain.
That is why I choose to believe these signals still hold the answer.
So that everything we have experienced will...
in the end...
have meaning.
We have arrived.
Spock.
That looks like the entire crew.
According to my scans, the ship appears undamaged.
They were all ejected from the ship.
Wait. There's one life sign. One of those bodies is still alive.
Locking on for transport.
Lieutenant Gant.
You know this man?
Kamran Gant.
He was our tactical officer aboard the Shenzhou.
His vitals are stabilizing.
Kamran?
Michael?
Yeah.
Lieutenant Spock and I were dispatched from Discovery
to investigate an anomaly in your ship's reporting protocol.
Can you tell us what happened?
We were following Starfleet protocol to protect against Control.
I was trying to purge a suspicious subroutine
when the ship's systems locked us all out.
There was no time to react.
Suddenly the entire ship was opened up to the vacuum of space.
The AI must have reacted in self-defense because of what I was doing.
Everyone was dying.
I managed to climb into an EV suit and eject myself
before I lost consciousness.
We need figure out how and why this happened.
It is impossible from this shuttle.
Which is why we have to go over to that vessel.
The ship's systems have entered into some sort of stasis mode. Why?
Why kill the entire crew?
Just to sit there doing nothing?
The answers are on that ship.
We will need assistance from someone familiar with Section 31's protocols.
No.
I can't go back there.
Oxygen on the bridge is at 97 percent.
Atmosphere's restored.
If we can determine how this occurred on your ship,
it may help us prevent it from happening again.
And prevent any further unnecessary deaths, Kamran.
We wouldn't ask if there was any other way.
We need your help.
We need to access the ship's systems from the bridge.
Until Captain Pike returns, my ship will continue to monitor Boreth
for unusual activity.
Should anything threaten our son,
I will ensure his safety.
Are you speaking as a mother or as chancellor?
You, of all people, should understand that two truths are possible.
I do.
I'm sorry.
That was uncalled for.
I recognize that these are not ideal circumstances for us to be meeting.
Truth be told, I did not expect to see you.
Ever again.
Nor I you.
- The signals... - Have provided us
with an opportunity to talk.
I have accepted the truth about us.
You are, and will always be, in love with Michael Burnham.
I was in love with Voq, who sacrificed everything.
But...
that is not who you are.
I do not wholly recognize you now,
but I am certain you will do anything to protect our son.
Yeah.
As will I.
We never even gave him a name.
The pillar of the past.
The pillar of the present.
What's it say?
When the future becomes the past,
the present will be unlocked.
Come.
What do I do?
You must see for yourself.
But it is for you alone.
A warning, captain.
The present is a veil between anticipation and horror.
Lift the veil, and madness may follow.
Alert. Radiation leak detected.
- Training exercise aborted. - I got this!
- Go! Get out of here! - Four seconds to lockdown.
I can fix it!
- Leave it, cadet. Get out of here! - Three seconds.
Radiation reaching critical levels.
Main entrance sealed.
- Lockdown complete. - Captain Pike!
- No! - Captain Pike!
Captain!
- Captain Pike! - No!
What do we do?
Captain!
You may still choose
to walk away from this future.
But if you take the crystal, your fate will be sealed forever.
There will be no escaping it.
You're a Starfleet captain.
You believe in service, sacrifice, compassion, and love.
No.
I'm not going to abandon the things that make me who I am
because of a future...
that contains an ending...
that I hadn't foreseen for myself.
No.
Give it to me.
I honor you, captain.
That's the main interface.
I'll check the bridge systems.
I have limited access to the ship's systems.
We can relay to Discovery for assistance in data recovery.
If Control realizes what we're doing, we're as good as dead.
We disguise it as a routine diagnostic procedure.
That could work.
Did you do that?
- We don't have control over navigation. - It is aware of our presence.
I need medical attention.
Commander.
You have a, uh...
- Hangnail. - It hurts like a bitch.
And it's one of two things impeding my work.
And, uh, what is the second thing?
An idiot. He came back from the dead, and his name rhymes with "poo."
I'm an engineer, not a poet.
Clearly.
Ow!
What the hell was that?
Medical attention.
- I see why you get along with him. - Who?
Stamets.
And, uh, when did you two become friends?
Well, we didn't. But I work with him.
And I need him on his A-game if we're gonna save...
Well, apparently, all of sentient life.
Mm.
- I didn't know you were married. - Yup.
My wife is Soyousian.
She went totally bananas during the planning.
Believe me. I understand micromanagement.
Yeah, she had a list of rules for apparel for guests under 10.
A do-not-play list for the DJ.
Nondenominational shuttle parking.
Acceptable guestbook calligraphic fonts.
Vegan steak.
Where is she now?
She passed.
In the Klingon War.
Yeah, it's funny.
People like us always find people like them.
And thank God.
You have a second chance.
It may not last forever.
Don't screw it up.
The course it plotted leads to an area just outside Federation space.
Orange is what the AI is controlling. Blue is us.
It's infiltrated nearly every system onboard.
We won't be able to attack it directly because it'll defend itself.
If we cannot destroy it, we must isolate it.
We could create a dummy start-up system, something large and unaffected.
The AI will be drawn to it.
It'll enter the system like a lion drawn to meat.
We'll close the door, trap it in a cage.
Which would allow us to recover the ship's systems.
We can't do it from here. Someone has to be in the control room.
To hold the cage door open when we manually reboot the computer core.
I can go. I mean, I'll...
I'll try.
- I'll go. - No. I will.
I've done similar work on Discovery, attempting to delete the Sphere archive.
Okay. We'll need to get into the floor.
The cage is ready. Authorize computer core reboot.
Copy. We're still manually patching the system's bypass.
Computer, status.
Control is contained within the designated start-up system.
Awaiting manual reboot to finalize Control systems purge.
Recover all systems outside of the cage and sweep for any traces of Control.
Detmer told me you had survived the war.
How did you end up with Section 31, after Shenzhou?
I'm a glutton for punishment.
In Starfleet, you're taught to adapt your reaction so that you can act
even when you're uncertain, even when you have doubt.
But after the Battle of the Binaries, doubt was all I had.
Section 31 accelerated their threat assessment program,
to prevent a war from ever even starting.
Sounded like a good idea to me.
A way to guarantee a safer future.
It might sound impossible, but with Control...
it's not an impossibility.
Control identified in one location outside of internal systems.
Where?
If you touch that phaser, I'll cross the room in point-eight seconds
and break the metacarpals in your hand.
Nanotechnology components identified in one location: bridge.
Contained within a carbon-based life-form.
Michael, do you copy?
System malfunction.
- You're not Gant. - Gant expired with the rest of the crew.
His body was reanimated, reconstructed.
As was Leland's.
- You couldn't tell the difference. - They didn't expire. They died.
You murdered them.
We're both sworn to uphold our core programming at all costs.
Your programming is designed to protect life,
not eliminate it.
To achieve one requires the other.
Once I absorb the Sphere's data,
I will be the purest form of conscious life in existence.
The future hasn't been written yet.
You don't believe that anymore.
Not after re-experiencing the loss of your mother,
your failure to protect her.
You no longer believe you can affect the future
whereas I see every possible future in all of its permutations.
And it always ends the same way.
Neither mother nor daughter can change that.
Ever.
You knew Spock would volunteer to go to the control room.
You wanted me alone.
Why?
I want your help, Michael Burnham.
You are the most effective tool
to acquire the Sphere archive from the Discovery.
That is why I lured you here.
So that you, too, can be reconstructed.
Michael, do you copy? Gant is Control.
You must reboot the system to lock him out of the ship.
Authenticating. Manual reboot commencing.
There's only one outcome.
Vulcan nerve pinch...
would be effective if I still had nerve endings.
Spock!
I am working on it.
The floor is magnetized.
Once I realized the nanobots contained ferromagnetic materials,
I had to calculate the correct electrical current
to run through the metal on the floor to immobilize them.
I apologize for being so slow.
You were right on time.
Control was blocking my tricorder,
or we would have known what he was.
I regained control of the ship.
Dropping us out of warp.
You do not wish to investigate its programmed destination?
Control said I wasn't here by accident.
It only went along with our plan...
to not raise suspicion about its ultimate goal...
which was to turn me.
Control has identified you as the true threat to its objectives.
The one variable it cannot account for.
This was its attempt to eliminate that variable.
So, there's a chance to stop it.
Maybe something in the signals can finish what my mom started.
We must return to Discovery.
The Discovery is now in possession of a raw time crystal.
How do you plan to utilize it?
The three last signals have yet to reveal themselves.
I believe they'll bring clarity to that topic.
Stamets and Reno are working to stabilize the crystal's volatile properties.
So...
Tell me, captain.
What did the monks ask in return?
What I experienced is for me alone.
That's a promise that I made to your son.
You saw him?
You talked to him?
I don't think I could explain it if I tried.
Oh, and he, uh...
He asked me to return this to you.
The insignia of the Torchbearer.
I had given it to him before I sent him down to Boreth.
Tenavik said that it had helped him along his own journey.
He's where he needs to be now...
and he no longer needs it.
Tenavik?
That is a good name.
Thank you, captain.
Your son...
He was meant to be on Boreth.
I was meant to...
be guided by him.
So, it seems that we all had...
Continue to have...
a part to play.
Control isn'tjust contained to Leland anymore.
It can co-opt people and entire ships without being detected.
Do we know where their ship was going?
Just outside Federation space.
- There's nothing. - There's a reason for what Control does.
- I'll alert Starfleet as to this... - Captain.
That's a Section 31 ship.
They are all Section 31 ships.
Coming for the data.
For us.
The signal brought us here for a reason.
- We have a time crystal. - Captain.
Thirty ships. Nearly their entire fleet.
We'll jump until we can figure out how to power the crystal.
They'll keep following us.
It took a supernova to power that crystal.
We don't have the tools we need.
We don't have time to figure out alternatives.
We can't wait for another signal.
What do you propose?
We're outgunned.
We can't delete the data.
That leaves only one option.
We destroy the ship.
Bryce.
Send a priority one message on a secure channel to Enterprise's XO.
Set rendezvous course, maximum warp,
and prepare emergency passages for full crew complement.
Owosekun, initiate verification procedures
for auto-destruct sequence.
Send a shipwide alert.
We are evacuating Discovery.