In the Verubin Nebula, Saru, Culber and Adira find a Kelpien ship hiding a holographic world built for a child, Su'Kal, while Osyraa seizes Discovery.
Discovery traces the Kelpien signal to a crashed starship on a dilithium-rich planet inside the radioactive Verubin Nebula. Saru and Culber beam aboard, and Adira secretly joins them, inside a holographic program that shapes their appearance.
They find Su'Kal, a Kelpien born in the nebula and raised by the hologram after his mother died, and learn that his emotional distress causes the energy surges that set off the Burn. At the same time Osyraa's forces capture Discovery and force it to jump to Federation headquarters. Anne Cofell Saunders wrote the episode and Norma Bailey directed.