As the repairs of the USS Discovery are underway, Zora analyzes all available data from the Sphere and on the DMA. She manages to determine the location of the hypothetical Species 10-C that created the anomaly. But Zora doesn't reveal the coordinates because it could mean harm to the crew to go there. Delegates from the 60 Federation members and many nonaligned worlds follow an invitation of Starfleet, to decide on how to proceed regarding the DMA. While Booker and Burnham join the conference, Kovich arrives on the ship to assess Zora's evolution to a sentient AI. He argues that he could decide to extract the AI from the ship and transfer her to a new form, but only as a last resort. While Culber, Adira and Gray vehemently defend Zora's development, Stamets is mistrustful because he remembers what Control did in the 23rd century. Zora then creates a failsafe, a device that would erase the AI in case the crew felt threatened by her. The delegates on the conference are divided on whether they should try to contact the creators of the DMA, or rather continue their so far futile efforts to try to destroy it. Tarka steps forward and proposes to collapse the DMA with a cascading subspace burst, essentially using an isolytic weapon of the type that is outlawed since the Khitomer Accords. He secretly reveals to Book that he intends to salvage the power source of the anomaly to travel to another quantum universe where the Burn never happened. When President Rillak calls for the final pleas, Book speaks in favor of Tarka's plan, whereas Burnham advocates a peaceful first contact. The vote is in favor of the latter. On the Discovery, Stamets asks for Zora's trust in her crew, and she finally reveals the coordinates. He then proposes that Zora is acknowledged as a crew member, which Kovich approves of, and destroys the failsafe device. Gray decides to leave the ship to spend time on Trill. Tarka and Book prepare Book's ship to pursue their plan and install a "next-generation spore drive". Burnham discovers that Book left behind Grudge in her quarters, but it is already too late...

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