- Burnham and Book race to evacuate a group of stranded colonists in the anomaly's path as one of the Federation's brightest scientists comes aboard the U.S.S. Discovery to do high-stakes research with Saru and Stamets.
- The DMA disappears and reappears 1000 light years away 4.2 seconds later, proving that it is not a naturally occurring anomaly. Before it moved, the DMA showed a massive spike in X-Ray radiation.
Vance says that many civilizations may have the technology this advanced, which includes the Metrons, the Nacene, Iconians and so on. Vance classifies those responsible as the unknown species 10-C. Scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) joins the ship to help determine who created the DMA. Tarka is also working on the next generation spore drive but has yet to figure out the navigator problem. Stamets is angry at Tarka for not having once consulted him even though Tarka is working on technology that Stamets developed. Tarka explains to Stamets and Saru that the DMA is a vortex of dark matter surrounding a control device at its center. Tarka says that someone created a tunnel through space time to get the DMA to this galaxy.
Tarka makes a model of the DMA controller which requires more power than Discovery can give. This device will create a wormhole just like the DMA, for a real-world trial. Stamets and Tarka work on the model together, and Jett Reno gives the additional power, but Saru cuts the experiment, when the model DMA comes very close to overwhelming the containment field and destroying the integrity of the ship. Tarka scares Stamets. Stamets tells Culber that Tarka is very single minded about his work and cares about nothing else.
Culber is feeling overwhelmed with all the cases coming to him for help. Culber seeks a meeting with Kovich but doesn't know what he needs to ask. Kovich understands the problem and tells Culber that he is only wondering why he was chosen for a 2nd chance as nobody else gets it. Culber came back from dead and wants to know his purpose. Culber wants to believe that he is a savior, because if he is not, then his existence is an insult to anyone who ever lost someone. Kovich says that Culber puts himself under stress only to escape the persistent guilt of being alive.
Learning that the Radvek asteroid belt is in the DMA's new path, Discovery is sent to evacuate its inhabitants. It is a former Emerald Chain colony and inhabited by the Akaali species. The ship has 4 hours to evacuate everyone for the DMA makes it impossible to transport anyone.
The magistrate (Jonathan Goad) of the belt is grateful for their help and begins organizing for his 1206 people to beam aboard, but he refuses to release their 6 prisoners, who he refers to as "The Examples". The Magistrate says that the Examples were chosen to demonstrate the cost of misbehavior and is a Emerald Chain tradition. He also adds that the prison is automated and those who know how to operate it have fled hours ago.
Burnham and Book go to release the prisoners themselves, who claim to have been imprisoned unjustly. The prisoners want to escape and won't join Burnham until they are guaranteed that they are not returned to captivity once the DMA has passed. Burnham convinces them to escape by offering them asylum on Discovery, but one, Felix (Michael Greyeyes), chooses to stay behind.
Felix reveals that he accidentally stole an orb recording a family's heritage and then murdered the owner in the ensuing fight. Book still wants to save him, but Burnham honors Felix's wishes, and he dies when the asteroid belt is destroyed by the DMA. Burnham later gives the orb to the daughter of the man Felix killed.
Burnham finds that Zora is developing emotions, which is a prelude to consciousness. Tarka befriends Book. Book starts to get fanatical about finding who is behind the DMA. Tarka says that the DMA has an energy source equivalent to a hyper-giant star, unfathomable power. Tarka can sense that Book is angry.
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