- The U.S.S. Discovery crew travel to Book's home planet to help rescue it from Osyraa, the formidable leader of the Emerald Chain; Stamets and Adira continue their search for valuable information on the origin of the Burn.
- Book receives a distress signal from his brother Kyheem (Ache Hernandez), who says their home planet Kwejian is being threatened by the Emerald Chain, a syndicate of Andorians and Orions led by Osyraa. Kyheem has been dealing with Osryaa for 15 years and this is the first time he has asked for help.
Kwejian's harvests have been devastated by locusts following climate changes caused by the Burn, and Kyheem made a deal with Osyraa to repel the locusts in exchange for giving her access to Kwejian's trance worms. This caused a rift between Book, who wanted to protect the worms, and his brother. But now Osryaa is back, and she wants something.
Vance says Civilizations that receive help from the Emerald Chain often collapse, so Discovery is allowed to travel to Kwejian. Vance says there are at least 50 such planets currently who are dealing with the Emerald Chain under impossible contracts, which will eventually lead to their downfall.
Meanwhile Osyraa visits Tolor at the salvage planet of Hunhau. Osyraa is unhappy that Tolor lost Ryn and feeds Tolor to the Tranceworms from Kwejian. Adira and Stamets figure out from the SB-19 data that the Burn started in the Verubin nebula. There is a signal coming from the center of the nebula. Something or someone is sending that signal. The signal sounds like music. The music is the same that Gray used to play on the Cello to Adira, and the one that the Barzan family was playing on the Tikhov prior to their death. Saru removes some more distortion from the signal, and it then morphs into a Federation distress signal. Every distress signal has an encoded message within it and Adira is tasked to find it.
The Discovery reaches Kwejian and find that Osyraa is on her way on her ship the Viridian. Viridian is armed to the teeth. Book and Burnham beam to the surface, meanwhile Ryn recovers from his injuries and demands that he be freed from the Discovery. Kyheem reveals to Book and Burnham that Osyraa wants Ryn, an Andorian servant that was freed in their prison break on Hunhau.
Meanwhile Osyraa hails Saru and orders him to hand Ryn over. Saru calls out that Osyraa is engaging in slavery, but Osyraa knows that she has the upper hand and the Federation does not want war with the Emerald chain, which is why Discovery was sent alone and under observer status. Osyraa than hails Khyeem and orders him to hand over Book and Burnham on a threat of famine and the destruction of the entire planet. As Khyeem hesitates, Osyraa starts destroying large swathes of the planet's forest for every minute of delay.
Ryn refuses to disclose to Saru about why Osyraa wants him so badly. Saru cannot fire on Viridian from Discovery as that will be seen as an attack by the Federation. So, a plan is suggested by Tilly to attack the Viridian via a non-Federation star ship.
Kyheem agrees to disobey Osyraa in exchange for Discovery and the Federation helping to repel the locusts.
Discovery keeps Osyraa from taking Ryn by attacking her with Book's ship. Detmer and Ryn pilot Book's ship to attack the Viridian. Detmer finds that Ryn was the only slave who ever stood up to Osyraa. Detmer flies with help of knowledge from Ryn regarding Osyraa's ship and manages to disable its weapons systems. Osyraa she sees through the ruse and promises retaliation against the Federation before retreating.
Book and Khyeem are Empaths and have the ability to repel the locusts, but in small numbers and for a limited time. The Discovery amplifies their Empath signal and guides the sea locusts back into the sea. Ryn tells Tilly that Osyraa wants him back as he the only one who knows that the Emerald Chain is running out of Dilithium.
Meanwhile, Georgiou appears to be ill and is experiencing blackouts and flashbacks. She refuses to cooperate with Culber. Culber puts her through an elemental scan to deconstruct her entire body down to the atomic level, to figure out what is going wrong. But during the scan, Georgiou's entire body becomes like a random wave, as she experiences memories from her past life in the parallel Universe. Georgiou wakes up screaming about the death of somebody named "San".
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