- Tilly and Adira lead a team of Starfleet Academy cadets on a training mission that takes a dangerous turn. Meanwhile, Burnham is pulled into tense negotiations on Ni'Var.
- The Discovery is still at Ni'Var trying to study the anomaly. The crew is on edge due to the stress and Burnham is giving regular downtime to the crew to help manage the situation. Stamets in relentless and wants to solve the mystery of the DMA for Book. Book is feeling more and more isolated and lonely.
Ni'Var fast-tracks its negotiations with the Federation, and Rillak asks Burnham and Saru to participate as a replacement for Vance, who is down due to sickness. Rillak explicitly tells Saru that she does not expect them to speak during the negotiations.
Culber suggests that Silvia Tilly, who has been feeling unsure about her place on the ship, accompany a group of new Starfleet Academy cadets on a team-building exercise. Tilly says that for the longest time, she was on a straight-line path to the captain's chair, but it seems like it is time for a detour. Adira also joins them for the mission, in which the cadets need to work together to survey a planet. Kovich is consulting with Starfleet and tells Tilly that the new batches of cadets are not good at working with teams if they don't already know their colleagues. This is not good, as Starfleet needs cadets now more than ever, due to its expansion and the events related to the anomaly. Starfleets cadets that are able to collaborate with people from other species whom they don't know or have not met.
The cadets include Callum, Harral, Sasha, Gorev. They will survey Geryon, a M class moon orbiting the planet Theta Helios. They will have 6 hours to complete the survey, before being picked by a Starfleet ship back to the Federation HQ. Tilly assigns tasks to Adira just like another cadet.
They initially do not get along but are forced to bond after they are thrown off course by a rogue gamma ray burst and crash land on a dangerous moon Kokytos an L class moon. The environment is breathable but hostile. Callum dies when the ship crash lands on the moon. Adira gets everybody to work on the damaged ship to work out a plan to get airborne and fly off the moon. Adira works on sensors, Sasha works on flight systems, Gorev works on life support systems, and Harral works on long range communications. Tilly gets everyone to introduce themselves.
There are no flight systems or communications, and only 3 days of emergency rations. They have to shut down their systems as local hostile life forms sense their Electro Magnetic signals and attack the ship. Tilly proposes exiting the ship and travelling up a ridge to use their personal communication badges to signal the pickup ship, the Armstrong. The ensigns cannot agree on the right course of action. They biker constantly and delay progress in getting to the top of the ridge. Tilly gets Harral and Gorev to share their history with the Emerald Chain and they find that both their families suffered at the hands of the Chain. The cadets realize that they need to communicate to find that they are more similar than what they think.
At the ridge, Tilly turns on her communications device to attract the monsters to her and to allow the rest of the ensigns and Adira to escape. Together they are able to signal a Starfleet ship that saves them and returns them to Federation Headquarters Mysterious Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) offers Tilly a teaching position at the Academy.
T'Rina tells Rillak that Ni'Var wants the right to withdraw immediately and unconditionally from the Federation should the need arise, due to the recent events involving the anomaly. She says that after the Burn, Federation neglected the needs of the individual members, and the repercussions are still being felt. As such, Ni'Var is adamant on the safeguards. Rillak says unconditional withdrawal is not acceptable, as it would give Ni'Var all benefits of a membership, while Federation would bear all the risks of an untimely exit.
Talks between Ni'Var and the Federation appear to break down. Rillar calls for a recess. Burnham talks to Rillak who says that her hands are tied, as a compromise would like a weakness to the other worlds in the Federation. Burnham and Saru figure out that Rillak and T'Rina want them to find a way out of this mess. Burnham and Saru talk to both sides. T'Rina is a fan of Saru and tells him that the purists on her world, who are crucial to her coalition, want an exit clause to keep the Federation accountable. The DMA has re-ignited old fears and generated new ones about the Federation abandoning its members in their more dire time. Burnham convinces Rillak to consider a compromise.
Burnham and Saru talk about how the Ba'Ul and the Kelpiens now work together. The Cardassians once waged war on Humans but are now at peace. Romulans and Vulcans were at war for many generations before they found a way to peace and collaboration. They offer a compromise that they all agree to: a committee independent of Federation leadership will regularly review the union and provide independent oversight, and Burnham offers to serve on the committee as a citizen of both the Federation and Ni'Var. Rillak praises Burnham. She admits that T'Rina had warned her earlier that morning that the exit clause was coming, and which is why she sidelined Vance and got Burnham and Saru onto the negotiating table.
Culber tries to tell Book that grief can take many forms and that he doesn't have to go into depression to prove to himself that he is depressed.
Tilly later accepts the teaching position and leaves the ship after saying her goodbyes to Burnham.
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