Release date: April 18, 2024
On the way to the next clue, the U.S.S. Discovery is sabotaged by a mysterious weapon, leaving Captain Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets as the only crew members who can possibly save the ship in time.
* * *
Got the latinum?
A bag?
What is this, amateur hour?
You’re supposed to stack it so it’s easier to count.
It’s all we could do last-minute.
Yeah.
This’ll cover the original cost, but, uh, the price of the item has gone up. Consider it an expensive…
[coughing]
Expensive lesson in how to do business.
See, we heard you might try something like this, so we came prepared.
We soaked the latinum in Fop’yano poison.
The kind that you sold to the Emerald Chain to use on people like me.
Consider it an expensive lesson in how not to do business.
L’AK: Moll.
What if that doesn’t work?
It will.
And once we’re ahead of Discovery, we can get the next clue and the next.
We’ve got this.
I just feel like sometimes the walls are closing in on us, you know?
[grunting, gasping]
We are gonna find the Progenitors’ tech.
And no more bounty on our heads.
No more looking over our shoulders.
No more running.
We’ll be free.
Free sounds good.
We should go.
Discovery won’t be at Trill much longer.
GRAY [on comms]: I’m really happy we can stay friends, Adira.
ADIRA: Me too. I’d miss you too much otherwise.
So, I’ll see you in a few months when I graduate to the next level of training?
Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it.
Great.
Talk soon. Bye.
Bye.
STAMETS [on comms]: Adira, could you re-adjust the deuterium manifold on Deck Nine?
It shifted again after the jum.
Yes. Uh, on my way.
Well, what do you mean there’s nothing here?
Aren’t we at the coordinates Jinaal gave us on Trill?
Yes, Captain, but every scan I’ve run… polar on, multiphasic, ion trace have…
Have all turned up nothing.
Not as much as a starbase within two-and-a-half parsecs of here.
Well, let’s keep looking.
Lieutenant Linus, send a team of DOTs to do a more in-depth scan of the area.
Aye, Captain.
And what about L’ak and Moll any sign of them yet?
Trill’s not reporting anything.
Well, contact them again.
They should have been there hours ago when the captain was down on the planet.
We need to be alert. It’s not like them to fall behind in a race.
RHYS: Captain, if I may.
There is logic to L’ak and Moll laying low for now.
If I were them,
I’d let Discovery lead us to the next clue, keep us guessing in the meantime.
RAYNER: If they were following us, we’d have evidence of that right here, right now, but we don’t.
So, let’s stick to the facts, Commander.
What we know, not what we guess.
Commander Rhys, take the conn.
Can I speak to you in my ready room, please?
Unacceptable.
Not how we do things here.
Trying to get them to focus.
It’s important to me that the crew be engaged and involved and encouraged to speak freely.
Okay, then, speaking freely, I think that’s a mistake.
This is a Red Directive mission, Captain.
There’s no time to be collaborative.
There’s time to be decisive and disciplined.
You don’t think my crew is disciplined?
I think they’re too familiar, too comfortable with each other and, frankly, with you.
That familiarity helped us save the Federation, the galaxy, and you.
I’m not doubting their resumés or yours, but none of you had to learn the lessons that we did during the Burn.
Things changed like that, and if I listened to every opinion and cheered on anyone who had an idea, me and my crew would have been dead a hundred times over.
You’re in a state of flux right now, Rayner, I get that.
Oh, come on.
Spare me the “I get you” bullshit.
I should have…
[sighs]
That was over the line.
Captain.
I’m sorry.
I understand change is hard for anyone.
But Rayner [sighs] the Burn is over.
You’re on my ship now.
I expect you to do things my way.
And if my way is better?
[indistinct chatter]
I won’t debate it with you, Commander.
You clearly have yet to see the value…
OWOSEKUN [on comms]: Captain, I’m picking up some odd energy fluctuations. And something just broadcast an unauthorized signal from the ship.
On our way.
[alarm blaring]
What the…
What happened? Are we under attack?
Bridge, report.
Transporter’s not working.
Bridge?
Turbolift. Come on.
Saru?
Tilly?
What?
BURNHAM: What the…
RAYNER: We’re in a wormhole.
No, it can’t be.
What was that red thing?
Where are we?
Not where. When.
What?
That’s the Red Angel.
That was me.
♪
♪
♪
[original Star Trektheme plays]
This is the day we came to the 32nd century.
We’ve gone back in time to when you went forward
to the future? That’s a little confusing.
I guess it explains
why our transporter badges aren’t working.
But how the hell did we get here?
I don’t know.
[groans softly]
BURNHAM: We’re not supposed to be here.
They can’t see us here. They can’t see us.
Come on, come on. Let’s go.
[grunts]
Okay, think, think. What could have happened?
Maybe we hit a time eddy.
Or maybe Jinaal’s coordinates weren’t as empty
as we thought?
Computer may be able to…
Oh, damn it.
Can’t help us.
SARU [on comms]: This is Commander Saru.
All decks prepare for impact.
We should survive.
Detmer’s about to crash-land on a planet.
Oh, good, I won’t waste any time worrying about it then.
The flashing lights.
That happened last time.
Okay, we’re back in the ready room,
but it’s changed again.
What?
[music playing]
[music stops]
I thought the inspection wasn’t until tomorrow.
Surprise.
Well, uh… [chuckles] we’re ready, of course.
I’ll let the foreman know you’re here.
Uh, maybe go to Deck Seven last, though.
Tell your foreman that’s where we’re headed next.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, son.
Nice one.
I hate that saying.
[chuckles]
We’re in dry dock,
when Discovery was first being built.
Wow.
So, we haven’t just gone back in time.
We’re jumping through it.
Right.
Saru called himself Commander.
Everyone on the bridge, that worker just now
they’re all living in the moment,
but we’re not being affected at all.
What if this isn’t temporal?
What if this is some kind of neural weapon?
Someone messing with our brains?
Yeah, but Zora didn’t register any vessels in the area
before this happened.
What was happening when this first started?
Commander Owosekun called up,
reported a energy fluctuation.
And then we tried to beam to the bridge.
That’s why whatever this is
isn’t impacting us.
It hit the ship at the exact moment we were beaming.
Right.
And here we go again.
[alarm blaring]
We keep coming back to the same position.
This is right where we were when we first tried to transport.
What? There’s a massive war going on out there.
When is this?
Stardate 1051.8. What is that?
It’s the battle with Control.
[chuckles] Yeah, that was a tough one.
Whatever you said about beaming, whatever hit the ship
right then, could explain
why we keep resetting to these same spots.
Can’t be a time eddy.
We would have seen that on scans.
Doesn’t feel like a neural attack.
So, it has to be something with the ship.
What are we missing?
Shit. It’s a time bug.
What?
Krenim chronophage.
We call them time bugs. You can find them in the black market
left over from the Temporal War.
They’re designed to paralyze an enemy ship
by randomly cycling them through time.
How long do they last?
Weeks, months,
until the little suckers run out of juice.
That’s why we can’t beam anywhere.
The whole point is to keep us stuck.
This has to be Moll and L’ak.
How the hell did they get it on board?
They must have made it to Trill somehow
and crossed paths with one of you.
Owosekun did say there was an unauthorized broadcast.
Right, that’d be the location beacon.
So, they know exactly where we are
and where the next clue is.
Rhys was right.
We cannot let them get what the Progenitors left behind.
So, we have to find and deactivate this bug.
My guess, it’s in engineering,
but even if we do find it, who knows how long we have.
Well, there must be a pattern to the time cycle lengths.
If we use this to track them, we figure it out.
Right now,
we need to find Stamets.
What can he do?
Well, he lives outside of time because of his tardigrade DNA.
Uh…
Nevermind.
He should be within the cycle lengths like everyone else,
but just as aware of it as we are.
He may have already figured it out.
Any idea where he’d be?
MALE: Dr. Pollard, over here!
NURSE: What about the injured
on Deck 12?
We’ll get them stable,
we get them out. You got it?
[Stamets groaning]
On it.
Paul? What happened?
A bug, a scary bug.
Listen, please,
I need to get to engineering.
Oh, God!
I forgot how bad this hurts.
You’ve been impaled, Paul.
You should be in an induced coma.
No, no, no, no, no. No, you can’t do that. Zora?
Who is Zora?
Oh, no, she doesn’t exist yet.
You’re okay. I got you.
No.
No, no. I-I need to get out of here.
I need to find a way out of this.
You’re not going anywhere. You need to rest.
No, Hugh, I need to help.
I-I might be the only one who can.
It’s okay.
No, no, no. Please.
RAYNER: Cloak alert.
What’s happening?
Not sure yet,
but I do know that last cycle lasted
twice as long as the one before it.
Hope this one’s even longer.
Where’s Stamets today?
Considering the star date, I’m guessing engineering.
Storage Deck 13,
direct via service shaft Upsilon.
Why are we taking a long-cut?
13 can access engineering and it’s usually empty.
Temporal Prime Directive.
Right. Any change in our past
could alter our entire future.
Exactly.
Then we can’t let the ship’s computer
know that we’re here either.
This is after Discovery’sretrofit,
so it’d be able to recognize our biometric readings.
You got an override code for that?
Good thinking.
Thanks.
[alarm blaring]
We just went to black alert.
What was the star date again?
Why, what happens?
Osyraa attacks Discovery.
REGULATOR: I need backup on 13!
[grunting]
[grunting continuing]
Get a better helmet.
You’re not Discovery crew. What’s your name?
Commander… Lock.
I’m on temporary assignment.
Thanks for the save.
I owe you one.
Yeah, well,
buy me a drink at Red’s. Vesper martini.
Ice cold.
Only way to drink them.
Stay safe.
Steer clear of the bucket heads,
and don’t worry. We’ll get out of this.
So will your face.
All good with Reno?
Fine. Told her I was a temp.
[sighs]
What happened here?
No idea.
RAYNER: Looks like no one’s been here in years.
Can’t even get a star date.
Computer’s glitching like it’s on its last legs.
[“Que Sera, Sera” playing faintly in distance]
Can you hear that?
♪ Qué será, será ♪
♪ Whatever will be ♪
♪ Will be ♪
♪ The future’s not ours to see ♪
♪ Qué será, será ♪
♪ What will be, will be. ♪
Hello?
[music stops]
ZORA: Captain? Is that you?
Or is this another dream?
Hi, Zora.
It’s not a dream.
You and the crew died decades ago.
[chuckles] Is this a dream?
No.
No, it’s really me.
What year is this?
3218.
That’s almost 30 years in the future.
What happened here, Zora?
Most of my memory is… I’m sorry, I…
I can’t exactly recall.
But the outcome you feared came to pass.
The Progenitors’ technology fell into the wrong hands.
What’s outside the view screen?
You died.
You all died.
Zora, show us what’s out there.
Federation headquarters.
RAYNER: [sighs] What’s left of it.
ZORA: By the time Starfleet found Discovery
and deactivated the Krenim chronophage,
it was too late.
L’ak and Moll were too far ahead.
Is that ship Breen?
ZORA: Yes.
Somehow, they got the Progenitors’ technology.
They launched a devastating attack a few weeks after
we were rescued from the time cycling.
They must have been Moll and L’ak’s highest bidders.
♪
You know, when I first walked onto this bridge,
it took every ounce of strength I had
not to turn around and run back off.
I respected Starfleet too much
to believe I deserved to be here after what I had done.
You’re talking about the mutiny.
But look where you ended up.
You have to be the only person in Starfleet
to captain a ship that you first boarded as a prisoner.
So
How’d you do it?
I never gave up.
Okay.
So, tracking the time cycles isn’t enough.
Sample size is too small to get a pattern.
Even if we find the bug,
we won’t be able to deactivate it.
Zora, any ideas?
ZORA: Perhaps you need more data, Captain.
What other variables are there?
ZORA: Many, Commander.
The ship’s location, distance and speed.
That’s it, the speed.
Why would that matter?
‘Cause we’re not just traveling through time,
we’re also traveling through space.
Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.
We’ve been too linear.
Exactly.
Zora, can you factor in Discovery’sspeed
into the time cycle lengths I’ve already recorded?
ZORA: Yes. Time cycle lengths may appear to be random at first,
but when mapped to a space-time diagram
and expanded to higher dimensions,
a visual pattern emerges.
BURNHAM: A conical wave.
It tells us how long we’ll have between time jumps.
And this is us right here.
So we’ll know this works if the cycle
resets in ten seconds.
Here’s hoping we land in an era where Stamets isn’t dead.
ZORA: Good luck, both of you.
You should be leaving in five, four, three,
Yes.
Two…
Please. Set things right again.
I’m waiting, Dr. Truffles.
You mean… Right, of course.
You need… for the…
The reference calculations for the injector coil?
Right.
And I don’t need anything.
You suggested
quite dramatically, if I might add
that I double-check the reference numbers
of a fix that I’ve done a million times.
Yes! Yes, of course.
For the injector coil
that burned out during the OBD diagnostic.
Way back ten minutes ago.
Right. Well, uh, yeah, they’re-they’re right here.
Hey, so, you know, uh,
sin-since I’ve got you here and I’m not sure when
I’ll get you again,
uh, I thought I might get your take on, um,
a theoretical predicament I’ve been mulling
in-in case it ever came up.
Okay.
Say some temporal unpleasantness
were to hit the ship… um,
to nullify it, I’d just need to
calibrate a chroniton stabilizer
to partition world lines
per Scaravelli’s constant, right?
Theoretically, yes,
so long as you factor dimensional variations.
Ah.
Are you stuck in a time loop
right now, Stamets?
What?
[chuckling]: No.
What?
Just messing with you.
Don’t bury your mind in the abstract for too long.
You’ll turn into a Rothko painting.
[whispering]: Stamets.
Paul. Psst!
Um, there’s been a spore breach!
Evacuate now or-or mushrooms will grow on your lungs.
Yes, sir.
Go, go!
Go!
How are you two even here?
We were beaming when the cycling started.
And we get sent back to the ready room after each reset.
I am so happy to see you I could cry.
I’m so happy to see you, too.
Have you had any problems?
No, no, no, no, no.
I’ve just been, uh, repeating my past actions,
some of which have been deeply unpleasant.
But I did get to see
Linus stuck in the replicator again.
Always a silver lining.
Yeah. Well, listen,
we know what’s causing this.
It’s some kind of a time bug.
Yeah, aptly named, and I know where it is.
Yeah, it embedded itself in the power distribution subsystem.
Okay, so let’s wrench it out…
STAMETS: Oh, no, no, no.
Easy now, it’s not that simple.
If removed improperly,
incalculable timelines might converge at once,
ripping every molecule around us into infinite directions,
over and over again, for eternity.
Sounds bad.
How do we fix it?
Well, uh, we have to nullify its effects
with near-perfect precision.
And to do that, I need to be able to
understand the pattern of the resets.
But I’ve been so busy trying not to change the future
that I haven’t been able to record the timings.
That’s okay. Got them right here.
You do?
Takes a village.
STAMETS: Oh, wow. This is great, yeah.
I can now build a chroniton stabilizer
and properly calibrate it to stop this mess.
But I may just need some help gathering equipment.
But the next cycle is ending in ten seconds.
Okay, from now on, we meet on Deck 13 after each reset.
Got it.
And Paul, we saw
our possible future. We can’t let it happen.
We cannot fail.
Okay, so, the next reset is in eight minutes.
So let’s be quick.
The good news is that this timeline has everything I need
to make a chroniton stabilizer.
Great.
And the bad news?
The main ingredient is a field-disrupter fluid
that’s in 32nd century holodecks. And…
At around this time, the holodeck in my quarters
would have just been installed.
I can go so you don’t risk running into anyone.
The captain’s quarters are biometrically secured.
It has to be me.
Let’s do it now.
Don’t know when we’ll be able to again.
In that case, be safe.
And fast.
Meet you in engineering.
[sighs]
[door whooshes open]
Hey.
I thought you would have been on the bridge.
I would have grabbed you a raktajino
on my way back from the gym.
Yeah, I had to pop back.
But I should go.
Um, I’ve got to be somewhere in four and a half minutes, so…
Very precise, Michael.
You know me. Precise.
You okay?
Yeah. No, oh, yeah.
Yeah, I’m okay.
It’s a lot of new responsibilities,
becoming the captain.
Mm-hmm.
Trust your instinct.
You were made for this.
Change can be hard.
It’s also the only way anything meaningful can happen.
Uh, can we talk about this later?
Um… Yeah?
Love you.
I love you.
[door whooshes open]
Nice and quiet.
He cleared it with another spore breach.
STAMETS: Yeah, I’m a little disturbed
that my crew doesn’t know that isn’t a real thing.
Not much time. Next reset’s 45 seconds.
ALL: Get out!
Okay.
This is ready. You do the honors.
Just put it right on the bug
and we should be back in our real time in a flash.
Literally.
Oh!
What the hell is that?
STAMETS: Well, it’s a defense mechanism
of some kind. A temporal shield, I think.
Let’s find out for sure.
Uh, that’s bad.
Down to ten seconds.
We got to figure this out.
There’s no way out of this mess, otherwise.
[door whooshes open]
What have you got?
Okay,
so, uh, the spanner disintegrated
because time within the temporal shield
is moving at an ultra-accelerated rate.
So anything… including us… ages to dust
before it can actually get to the bug itself.
Can we turn the shield off?
No.
But we can mitigate the effects
long enough to get in and deactivate it.
We just need to allow relativity to take over.
By taking the ship to maximum warp and then
breaking the warp bubble.
[short chuckle]
What?
Because that’s what protects us from the effects of relativity.
We’ll drop out of warp so fast
that the time inside the shield won’t be able to keep up.
Essentially, whatever went into the shield in that moment
would still age, just not instantly.
Well, wouldn’t the whiplash kill us
or break the Discovery into a million pieces?
Well, the inertial dampeners should prevent that. Hopefully.
It’s a big move.
It’ll definitely change the future.
No, not if we succeed.
Because changes to any time that we’re in
don’t become permanent until after the bug resets.
So, as long as we break the warp bubble
and turn the bug off within the same time cycle,
everything will go back to the way it was before.
So we only have one shot.
It’s a risk we have to take.
Let’s do it now.
This current time cycle is the longest that we’ll have
in a while… 14 minutes.
Who’s on the bridge?
Okay, so it’s, uh,
right now Lorca’s ship,
but he’s on an away mission with Saru and Landry.
So the duty roster has Rhys on call.
And we’ve got Detmer, Owosekun, Bryce, Tilly,
Chen, Sanchez,
and Airiam.
Who’s Airiam?
She’s an officer that didn’t make it to the future with us.
We can do this. We just have to do it together.
But you’re not their captain in this time.
You’re a mutineer. They’re not gonna listen to you.
I’ll have to find a way.
Okay, so, uh, I’ll modulate the inertial dampeners
to keep the vibrations from destroying the ship
once we’ve broken the warp bubble.
Guess I’m the lucky one sticking his hand in the spider’s nest.
Here. My communicator. Just in case you need it.
I’ll grab a spare.
We’ve got 13 minutes. Let’s make ’em count.
[door whooshes open]
Computer, bridge.
[door whooshes closed]
Mm. Mm.
Uh… Mm.
Let me just say…
Red is definitely your color.
[chuckles]
Mm.
Thank you, Linus.
Hm.
Computer! Security!
No!
Computer, belay that order.
Computer, Deck 13. We can talk down there.
Wow. Hi.
Who the hell are you?
Okay, okay.
It’s complicated.
Oh, I was really hoping that this wouldn’t happen.
But things rarely go as planned for us, am I right?
Okay. I’m just gonna… I’m just gonna explain it then.
I am you from the future.
And we are stuck… I-I…
I’m stuck cycling through time
because of a temporal weapon
that is currently in engineering.
I do have a plan to deactivate it,
but I have very limited time to do it,
so please just let me proceed,
and nothing needs to happen.
I don’t know if you’re a shapeshifter or what.
But seeing the uniform, you must think I’m an idiot
if you expect me to believe that a mutineer
could ever end up with captain’s pips.
No, no, no, no, no. Burnham, you don’t want to do that.
You don’t want to do that.
Yeah. I really do.
[grunting]
Oh!
Michael, I don’t want to hurt you.
[panting]
I know
that it’s hard to see a path to the captain’s seat
from where you are.
Even I forgot just how hopeless this time felt.
It will be a long road.
But just
don’t give up.
All right, I am very grumpy!
Just absolutely irate.
And I need to be left alone.
FEMALE: Yes, sir.
That was faster than your spore breach excuse.
Yeah, I was, uh,
a tad more surly pre-tardigrade DNA.
[console beeping]
What’s wrong?
No, it’s just the, uh, the inertial dampeners.
These 23rd century systems are muddying up in my head
with the 32nd century systems
we have now.
Yeah?
Well, un-muddy them. We’re not exactly made of time.
Okay, I need you to press pause on the “gruff candor” routine.
You have no idea how much pressure I’m under.
I thought that was your thing.
Brilliant scientist that everything’s hanging on.
Yeah, well, things change.
And not every problem
is something you can figure out on your own.
You try being the one to keep this ship together
so we don’t die and-and erase everything
we’ve ever done from history.
And even if we make it back,
this Progenitor technology we’re after… it’s
it’s different. It’s
it’s bigger than anything I have taken on before.
You’re not in any of it alone.
What can I do to help, right now?
Well, I-I do need to finish calibrating the dampeners,
which is gonna take a little time, so
if you could transfer control of the plasma-coolant systems
to that console?
Got it.
Hey. Paul.
Let’s show ’em how a couple of old dogs
still know the best tricks.
[chuckles softly]
Lieutenant Owosekun, run a multiphasic
scan of the system’s…
Michael, what are you doing here?
Specialist Burnham. You’re not authorized to be on the bridge.
And why are you out of uniform?
And what did you do to your hair?
Love it.
BURNHAM: This is gonna be hard to understand at first,
and hard to accept, but I am from the future.
Security.
No, w-wait, please.
Listen, it’s not a… it’s not a trick.
In our future, Discovery is on a very important mission
to find an immense power, and we’ve been stalled
by a temporal weapon. No need for that, Owo. I took
a right cross from you in the training room a few months back.
I don’t need that experience that again.
AIRIAM: Computer,
scan the ship for Michael Burnham’s life signs.
COMPUTER: There are two identical sets
of Michael Burnham life signs aboard.
One is presently unconscious.
It’s fine. It’s fine. She’s fine.
I nerve pinched her.
I just… I need you to listen to me.
There’s a window on Deck Six that you sit at when you’re having a bad day.
It’s usually quieter than the observation room.
You joined Starfleet because you weren’t able to save your friend when you were 15.
And you love comms because you used to listen to old radio emissions in space with your grandmother.
And you’re a cadet who’s frightened of rooming with a mutineer.
You think I’m gonna knife you in your sleep because of your snoring.
I won’t, by the way.
Thank you.
You say you’re from the future.
I am.
And you’re a Starfleet captain?
I’m Discovery’scaptain.
[scoffs] Okay.
BURNHAM: Listen to me. I have seen the Federation collapse.
We all die because I don’t complete this mission.
And I am running out of time.
And, what, you just expect us to believe all of this?
No. But Airiam will believe me.
And I know you all trust her.
Why?
Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry to have to do this.
Speak, Michael.
I’ve seen how you die.
Oh, no, no, no, don’t do that. No.
If you won’t get her off the bridge, I will.
396 days from now…
Oh, Airiam, we miss you every day.
Stop. Michael, st… Don’t…
Listen, I was there.
An AI program infects your augmentation.
Enough.
You sacrifice everything for us.
That’s a lie. Because we would never let her do that.
There was no other way.
She’d fight it off.
Some fights can’t be won.
She would never give up like that.
I would.
If it came to that, I would.
Phaser down, Bryce.
What do you need from us?
COMPUTER: Everyone to their stations.
We are going to maximum warp.
She did it. She damn well did it.
She always does.
All right, um, I’m almost done.
Uh, be ready with the chroniton stabilizer.
Attach it to the bug on my mark.
Yep, all good.
Yeah, okay, uh, we have three minutes left.
It’ll be close, but I think we can make it.
PAST BURNHAM: Step away from the console.
Both of you.
We’ve reached maximum speed, Commander.
Ready to break the warp bubble on your mark.
Thank you, Lieutenant.
Fascinating technology.
I wish I were going to be around to learn more about it.
I’m sorry.
Don’t be.
If things go the way you expect,
I won’t remember anyway.
Are they ready to go?
They should be.
Rayner. Are we all set?
RAYNER: Actually, we have a problem.
Your past self doesn’t want to screw up again.
PAST BURNHAM: Lieutenant Stamets,
I don’t know what that shapeshifter and her friend have said to fool you, but you are going to shut down the warp core and stop the ship. Now.
Um, so, like I said, it’s because of…
Uh, I think you need to come down here and have a little talk with yourself.
CURRENT BURNHAM: I would never make it in time.
We have less than three minute.
Rayner, you have to handle this.
What-what I really need is for you to let me go back to the console.
We’re about to break the warp bubble.
Shut it down.
We won’t ask again.
Last warning.
RAYNER: Gen.
We know each other.
Anyone could look up my first name.
Yeah, that’s right. But I do know you.
Not now. In the future.
Now, you’re Lieutenant Rhys.
In my time, you’re Lieutenant Commander Rhys.
You’re my tactical officer.
I’m tactical now, it’s not a stretch.
Fair point. Okay, something personal.
You love ships. You love the Crossfield.
Who doesn’t?
23rd century Constitution class.
That’s your favorite. You told me.
You love the curves.
And, Lieutenant, I have to agree.
That is one damn fine vessel.
It’s true.
You know, even if he is from the future, it’s too dangerous.
Don’t make me shoot you, Lieutenant.
Michael?
They’re working on it.
STAMETS: We have
90 seconds left.
PAST BURNHAM: If I let you do this, Discovery would be destroyed.
And if you don’t, the Burn won’t end or maybe the Federation will.
You don’t trust us. I get that.
And from what I know about you, I wouldn’t expect you to.
You don’t know anything about me.
I know that the first day that you stood on the bridge of this ship, you wanted to run.
Not another step.
‘Cause you felt you didn’t deserve to be here.
You told me that.
Future you.
And seeing that was only a few weeks ago, I’m guessing you still do.
But let me tell you something.
You do deserve to be here.
Doing a damn good job, and all this shit you’re going through is gonna make you into one hell of a captain.
30 seconds, Rayner.
For what it’s worth, I lost my family young, too.
And when that happens, there’s only one thing left you can trust.
And that’s the voice in your head.
Yours is gonna take you to some great places.
Keep trusting it. Especially now, ’cause I know what it’s telling you.
Crazy as it seems, do the right thing, and stand down.
Let us complete our mission.
Captain, go!
Do it now!
Lieutenant.
Aye, Commander. Initiating break.
Exiting warp bubble in five, four, three, two, one.
AIRIAM: Status report.
OWOSEKUN: Inertial dampers are holding, Commander.
BURNHAM: Do it now, Rayner!
STAMETS: Hang in there. Just a few more seconds.
[groaning]
Ah.
Oh, we are back to the present.
We’ve only lost six hours.
Felt like six years.
The past hasn’t been altered.
Nothing’s changed.
We did it.
[exhales]
You okay? Looks really painful.
I’m good. I’m good.
You should go see Dr. Culber, he can fix it.
[grunts softly]
It’s not lost on me how you pulled this off.
How we did.
You with the crew, me with Rhys.
And you knowing them…
That’s what convinced them.
Familiarity can lead to complacency as well.
You’re right about that.
But we’ve somehow found a way to use our connection to keep us honest, make us better.
I should have explained that to you.
Eh.
You show me more patience than I deserve.
Truth be told, I can be stubborn.
Like you used to be.
You know, I still am.
Just in a different way.
Seeing her was a really good reminder.
You know?
We are always changing.
With everything that happens to us, with the choices we make, what’s meaningful to us.
I get that being here and the way you came here is a big adjustment.
But I think we made a pretty good team today.
Yeah.
We got the job done.
Now, how do you want to go about explaining all this?
I think, with this crew, they’ll get it as soon as we say “time bug.”
[chuckling]
[indistinct conversations]
Would have been more satisfying if I’d been able to squish you.
What is that thing?
Long story.
Uh, would it have anything to do with why I just blinked and six hours have somehow gone by?
OWOSEKUN: I’m honestly a little shocked my past self believed you, Captain.
DETMER: Me too.
I can’t believe I’d ever consider breaking the warp bubble.
I’m just glad we didn’t shoot you.
[laughs]
There was a time I would have thought I deserved it.
Really glad we all came together.
Now, let’s figure out what’s changed in the last six hours.
Can the DOTs tell us anything?
They did find something, Captain: A warp signature.
It matches with L’ak and Moll’s ship.
Seems like your theory was a good one, Commander Rhys.
Good work.
Where are Moll and L’ak now?
That’s the strange thing… their trail disappears.
Like they came here and now they’re just gone.
Wherever they are, that’s where the next clue is.
And these are the right coordinates, so it’s a mystery indeed.
Are we ready?
CREW: Aye, Captain.
Then let’s get to solving it.
♪
