November 2256: Michael Burnham joins the crew of the Discovery, with no rank. Captain Lorca lets her in on the secret of the creature captured aboard the sister ship USS Glenn, apparently a macroscopic form of a tardigrade. He plans to investigate what makes the tardigrade that Landry names "Ripper" powerful, and how to turn this into a weapon against the Klingons. Landry, however, is killed when she attempts to sedate the creature. The Discovery receives a distress call from Corvan II, a dilithium mining facility that is attacked by the Klingons. The Discovery is the only ship that could reach the colony in time, using the spore drive. Against Stamets's objections, Lorca decides to use the drive, but the ship does not end up near Corvan II. Burnham observes that "Ripper" is attracted to the spores, which may have been the reason why the creature was on the Glenn with its mushroom storage in the first place. As she thinks the tardigrade only attacks when in danger, she approaches the creature with a container of spores. Stamets is impressed and works with Burnham on a way to use the tardigrade as the ship's "navigator". The Discovery arrives at Corvan II and destroys the attacking Klingon Birds-of-Prey. Despite the success, Burnham feels remorse about the mistreatment of the imprisoned creature. In the meantime, in the debris field at the binary stars, the Klingon survivors Voq and L'Rell plan to relaunch the damaged ship of T'Kuvma, with the help of the dilithium processing unit of the abandoned Shenzhou. Kol appears to help but actually bribes Voq's starving crew with food to pledge allegiance with him. L'Rell hands over the dilithium processor to Kol, who then exiles Voq to the Shenzhou and warps away. L'Rell, however, secretly beams over to Voq, apparently with a plan to regain control of the empire.

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