Caleb Mir, a fugitive seeking his mother, enrolls at the academy as an attack tests the cadets aboard the Athena.
Years before the main story, the young Caleb Mir and his mother, Anisha, are caught up with the pirate Nus Braka after a theft goes wrong and a Starfleet officer is killed. Braka is jailed and Anisha is taken away, and Judge Nahla Ake promises to look after Caleb, but he escapes. Fifteen years later, Ake has become chancellor of the reopened Starfleet Academy and captain of the USS Athena, and she recruits Caleb by offering to help him find his mother.
Caleb joins a new class of cadets, including the Klingon Jay-Den Kraag, the Kasqian SAM, Darem Reymi and Genesis Lythe. When he hacks the Athena's communications to try to reach his mother, Braka intercepts the signal and attacks the ship, but the crew drives him off and the Athena reaches San Francisco. The premiere was directed by Alex Kurtzman and written by Gaia Violo.