- While Captain Burnham leads an away mission to a planet that was once home to the aliens responsible for the DMA, Book and Tarka secretly infiltrate the U.S.S. Discovery.
- 29 hours are left before the DMA hits Earth and Ni'Var. The Discovery has no way to penetrate the hyper-field.
Burnham decides to visit a dead planet near the hyper-field which may be the home world of Species 10-C. The planet was a gas giant, which was hit by asteroids, and the gas was stripped away. The orbit around the planet is surrounded by a Dyson ring of the same material, as the controller. Earth General Diatta Ndoye believes this is a waste of time, but other diplomats support the decision if it provides useful information that helps the communication with 10-C.
Burnham travels to the planet with Saru, Culber, and pilot Keyla Detmer, where they find the large skeletons of a species that once lived in the planet's former gas layers. Saru calculates that the skeletons are around 1000 years old, around the same age as the hyper-field. The advanced civilization that existed, would have seen the asteroids coming and would have evacuated the planet beforehand. They also begin to experience hallucinations that create strong feelings such as fear. The surface of the planet is covered in a blue dust, which is kind of a complex hydrocarbon compound. They find mass graves on the surface which indicate that the civilization was not able to evacuate the entire planet even with all their technology.
The team deduce that 10-C fled the planet during meteor strikes that burned away the gas and killed some members of the species, and that the species use complex hydrocarbon compounds to communicate their emotions which are now affecting them on the planet. The team determines that Saru, Burnham and Culber had all stepped into a unstable patch of land when they experienced the hallucinations and Detmer had not, and she did not have any hallucinations. Detmer re-configures the EV suits to filter out the hydrocarbon compounds and the hallucinations disappear. They were able to get through the filters since there was no record of them in the Federation database.
The team finds different types of hydrocarbons inside a reinforced structure that they believe is a nursery. A nursery means that the civilization protected their young and valued life. Burnham speculates that the hydrocarbons are used to communicate feelings. They believe they can use these hydrocarbons to help communicate with 10-C. The Discovery collects 16 unique compounds from the surface of the planet, each corresponding to a different emotional state.
Meanwhile, Book and Tarka follow Discovery to the planet and sneak on-board. Tarka makes a plan to penetrate the hyper-field by hitching a ride on the back of Discovery. For this they have to install a patch that Tarka has designed, in the Engineering section of the ship.
Tarka bypasses Zora's sensors to allow their ship to be attached to Discovery undetected, taking engineer Jett Reno hostage in the process. Meanwhile, Book lures Ndoye with a message that seemingly came from T'Rina. Book convinces Ndoye to help them destroy the DMA. Book tells her his plan to penetrate the hyper-field attached to the Discovery and then disable the DMA's power source to save Earth. He says that he does not trust the 10-C to be sympathetic. He wants Ndoye to keep him informed of the Disovery's plans. Ndoye says that if the 10-C capitulates before the Earth is in the Red zone of the DMA, he and Tarka would have to stand down, and Book promises.
Saru speculates that maybe 10-C knew what they had done while destroying planets inside the galaxy and simply did not care. The Discovery arrives at the Hyperfield, with Book's ship attached to the hull.
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