Michael Burnham shares Spock’s final log with Captain Christopher Pike, highlighting how her brother made drawings of the red signal bursts two months before Starfleet had discovered them. Given their mission, Burnham believes they should speak to Spock about this, yet Pike reveals that he is currently in a psychiatric facility on Starbase 5. Pike and Burnham are called to the bridge as Discovery has found another red signal thanks to Sylvia Tilly’s ship modifications. Burnham suggests they get closer to extract the exact coordinates of the signal, but it’s in the Beta Quadrant and the only way to get there in less than 150 years is the mycelium network.
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Paul Stamets remains the only means available to navigate the network, yet he is reluctant to go back in because of his encounter with his partner, Hugh Culber, in the network after his death. Unfortunately, he has no choice. Discovery reaches their destination, but once again, there’s no signal to be found. Instead, they locate human life-signs and a distress call. According to Saru’s scans, the distress call has been transmitting on loop… for 200 years, predating humans’ use of warp drive, and begging the question “How did these humans get here?”
According to Burnham’s calculations, these people arrived in the Beta quadrant at the same time World War 3 was taking place on Earth. The planet is Earth-like, but to investigate how these humans got so far outside the Alpha Quadrant, Pike orders an away team including himself, Burnham, and Lt. Joann Owosekun. The Discovery away team locate the origins of the distress call – it is coming from a church which seems to have cobbled aspects of several faiths from Earth. The stained glass windows adorning the church have several familiar motifs on them, and one not-so-familiar one; an alien figure.
Before they can investigate further, the away team are spotted and invited to a prayer meeting where they learn more about this planet. New Eden was populated by the “First Saved”, who took cover in the white church during WW3. When all hope was lost, an ‘angel’ appeared to them surrounded by fire and brought them to Terralyssium, their new home. Not knowing which God had rescued them, the people combined all religions into one as thanks to their savior.
Back aboard Discovery, the crew realizes that the radioactive rings around New Eden are moving towards the planet, a consequence that is certain to destroy the planet within a short period of time. Unfortunately, this new phenomenon is affecting the ship’s systems, preventing Saru from contacting or transporting the away team back to Discovery. The crew theorize that the mysterious red signal called to them to save the planet’s inhabitants. The question is how?
Back on Terralyssium, oblivious to the impending catastrophe headed for the planet, Burnham becomes distressed over Captain Pike’s decisions to leave the people behind in place of returning them back to Earth. Pike, however, doesn’t believe the inhabitants need rescuing, and there’s the Prime Directive to consider. One of the locals, Jacob, finds them in the church basement – when he sees Owosekun’s tricorder, he asks to be taken back to Earth. His family are scientists and he doesn’t believe in divine intervention, nor that the Earth was destroyed. When Pike and team don’t relent to his requests, Jacob knocks them unconscious and steals their tech.
Meanwhile, Tilly is injured while examining the sample of asteroid Discovery brought on board after the ship’s first attempt of locating a red burst signal. While recovering in Sickbay, she and a mysterious colleague realize that the asteroid is exactly what they need to pull the radioactive debris away from the planet. While helmswoman Keyla Detmer has the skills to fly around the planet, the only way for Tilly’s plan to work is if Discovery is in the center of the debris field. To do that, Stamets will need to utilize the mycelium network again to position the ship in the correct location. Discovery successfully pulls all the debris away from the planet, just in time to beam the away team off New Eden.
Back in Sickbay, Tilly meets her mysterious colleague again, who greets her as ‘Stilly’. The nickname rings a bell and reminds Tilly of an old classmate May Ahearn. Yet no Ahearn exists in the ship’s crew manifest. When Tilly digs deeper, she discovers May Ahearn is deceased, prompting Tilly to wonder if she is seeing a ghost, or losing her mind.
Later, Burnham finally discloses to Pike that she saw a red figure approaching her before he rescued her on the asteroid that contained the wreckages of the U.S.S. Hiawatha. While she wouldn’t ascribe any divine properties to the figure, Pike believes that context can change their perspective. Still concerned about leaving Jacob behind on Terralyssium, Pike makes the decision to go against General Order One. He alone returns to the planet and provides Jacob with a long-lasting energy cell in return for a helmet camera that was worn by a soldier back on Earth before the church was transported to Terralyssium. At long last, New Eden’s church has power once again.
Back on the ship, Pike replays the footage from the camera – it shows the WW3 soldiers in the white church and then the red ‘angel’ appearing out of nowhere.
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Posters courtesy of Laz Marquez and J.J. Lendl
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