After spending a year working as a courier and learning more about the 32nd century, Michael Burnham reunites with the crew of the Discovery. Saru officially takes command of the ship. Using the spore drive, the Discovery heads for Earth, from where a Starfleet admiral named Senna Tal sent a message twelve years ago. Booker hides the Discovery's dilithium on his cloaked ship inside the shuttlebay. Upon their arrival, the Discovery is boarded by the United Earth Defense Force for inspection. Earth has become isolationist, and very protective of its supply of dilithium. An alien named Wen, who is known for frequently trying to raid Earth, appears with five ships, in the hope of finding dilithium on the Discovery. The UE boarding party tries to beam back, but something blocks their personal transporters. Without consulting with Saru, Booker and Burnham take the courier's ship and turn it into a decoy for Wen. United Earth Captain Ndoye says she can't allow Wen to acquire the dilithium and opens fire on Booker's ship, but Saru orders the Discovery to take the hit. Burnham contacts Wen and offers him to beam over the dilithium to his ship but actually kidnaps him once he lowers his shields. On the Discovery, it turns out that Wen is human and comes from the abandoned research colony on Titan. After a previous attempt to ask Earth for support ended in the destruction of the ship, he now tries to get what his people need by force. Ndoye promises to help Titan. In the meantime, Stamets and Tilly have found out that the blocked transporter was sabotage, obviously carried out by 16-year-old Adira, a member of the United Earth forces. Adira reveals that they just wanted to buy themselves more time to investigate the ship. They joined the United Earth forces with the intention to find a Starfleet ship one day. Adira is actually the human host to Admiral Senna Tal, a Trill symbiont. Saru gives his crew time to visit the surface of Earth, and then orders to continue the search for Starfleet Headquarters.

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