Mr. Kovich requires the USS Discovery for a top secret "Red Directive". He only reveals that an 800-year old Romulan science vessel has been discovered in a debris field, and that an artifact stored aboard needs to be recovered by any means necessary. As an away team explores the derelict vessel, suddenly the two former couriers L'ak and Moll decloak and begin to fire. They encase Rhys and Owosekun in forcefields and then detonate a bomb, by which Burnham gets blown into space. As she is drifting through the debris, she sees a cloaked vessel and activates her magnetic boots to lock onto its hull before it goes to warp. Burnham uses her phaser to break into the propulsion system. Meanwhile, the USS Antares under Captain Rayner has caught up with them and locks a tractor beam on L'ak and Moll's ship. Without the tractor beam, they would escape, whereas if the warp field collapsed around the ship, it could destroy the Antares. Rayner finally stands down, but Burnham's sabotage was not enough. Moll and L'ak restart the engines and create 20 warp trails in different directions. In order to find the right trace, Burnham enlists Book's help. He suspects that they are going to the planet Q'mau, to meet with a dealer called Fred. On Q'mau, Moll and L'ak offer the Romulan artifact, an ancient puzzle, to Fred as expected. But they only need the android to open the device, which contains an old diary, upon which they kill him. Burnham, Book and Rayner find Fred's body and beam him up the the Discovery, in the hope of recovering his memory. L'ak and Moll escape with their ship, which was hidden underneath the planet's sand, pursued by Burnham, Book and Rayner on sandrunners. Against Burnham's objections, Rayner has the Antares destroy the entrance of their mountain retreat. L'ak and Moll are forced to turn around and fire torpedoes, which releases a sand avalanche that is about to obliterate the settlement. The two Federation ships descend and block the avalanche to save the city, upon which the couriers can escape. Meanwhile at the Academy, Tilly has encrypted an ancient message left behind by a Romulan named Dr. Vellek about something enormously powerful that is hidden somewhere. On the Discovery, Stamets and Culber recover a symbol from Fred's memory that he saw in the diary. Additionally, there is a mention of the "twin moons". Burnham suspects that this refers to a planet in the Vileen system. Dr. Kovich finally lets her in on the secret. Dr. Vellek was part of the Romulan crew that witnessed the message from the Progenitors in the 24th century. He somehow found their technology or clues about it. In the meantime, Saru has decided to accept an offer from President Rillak to become a Federation ambassador. He can be close to T'Rina this way. The two decide to marry.

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