"Stamets," Michael and Skylar announced to get their scientist's attention.
"What could the two of you be doing here together?" he asked as he immediately put up his guard.
"We have reason to believe that the jumps are harming the tardigrade and we need to find another way to do it," Michael announced, taking the lead which Skylar was grateful for since all she could think about was Lorca's safety and knowing she may have signed his death warrant by advocating for Ripper.
Stamet's shook his head, "We have tried a dozen different ways after large timeframes of research and now, you're telling me that when we may need to jump at a moment's notice, we need to find another way?"
Michael nodded, "Another jump could kill Ripper."
"If we have to sacrifice the tardigrade to save our Captain then I would think that is a noble way to go out," he replied.
Skylar shook her head as she moved forward and spoke, "I'm the last one to advocate against saving Captain Lorca as I have a different interest in his rescue then everyone else but I have to agree with Michael. Ripper will not survive another jump and it would haunt me forever to know I allowed his execution. Can you please help us find another way?" she pleaded, a small hint of the emotions she was struggling with surfacing.
Stamet's felt for her as he would feel a similar struggle if it was Hugh they needed to save, "I will do my best but if the time comes and we haven't found another way, we jump. Agreed?"
Michael and Skylar looked at each other before reluctantly nodding. Skylar stepped back, "I'm going to get Hugh, he may be able to aid us in this impossible task."
Michael and Stamets nodded as Tilly joined the team after the debate and they began pouring over their research as if they didn't have the tardigrade.
Skylar walked into medbay, breathing a sigh of relief to see Hugh wasn't occupied, "Dr. Culber, we could use your assistance to find a new way to use the spore drive. Do you have time?"
Hugh turned at her voice, pity visible on his face, "I would be more then happy to help but are you doing ok?" he asked, comfortingly.
Skylar took a deep breath, "I'm ok for now as long as we're working toward a way to save him. You know I would do everything i could to help you get Paul back if it was the other way around, right?"
"Of course, Sweetie," he replied tenderly, "What can I do to help in your work?"
Skylar explained that the tardigrade couldn't make the jumps anymore but that the ship would need to make several jumps in Klingon space to save Lorca and he immediately understood her conflicting emotions. After she told him everything she knew so far, he grabbed her hand and led her out of medbay.
"If anyone can find another way, it's Paul," he comforted her as they walked back to the Spore drive to help in the search for an alternate way to make jumps.
When they reached the team, Tilly was presenting an idea to make a computer Ripper to trick the system.
"That's what I was trying to do before we found Ripper and it only allowed us to make small jumps but now, I understand why," Paul replied.
"What have you just discovered?" Michael asked as Skylar and Hugh joined at the station where the team was hard at work.
Paul grinned before he explained, "What I was missing before was the fact that the network Ripper travels is a living thing and therefore, we need another living thing to allow us to navigate the network."
"What kind of substitute are you imagining?" Hugh asked, his own concerns evident.
"Nothing yet but we can run a systematic trial through our database to find another viable species to put the tardigrade DNA into," Paul replied.
Tilly started the computer search, "Let's see if we can find a way to trick the network with another species."
Time passed as the computer ran through different options until it came back with one option and one only, humans.
"We need to use a person?" Skylar asked as she saw the results populate.
Hugh was the next to comment, "That can't happen. If the jumps are harming the tardigrade then I can only imagine what it would do to a person. We need to get back to the drawing board."
"We are more advanced then the tardigrade so the side effects would most likely affect us only in slightly little ways," Michael added.
Before anyone could continue the debate, Saru entered the room, "Why is the spore drive offline?"
Stamets was quick to explain, "Burnham told me that the jumps are negatively affecting the tardigrade and we are working on another way to connect to the drive. We've found one viable option."
"Burnham came to me with this same concern and I told her that she could investigate after we found our Captain which she clearly did not like," Saru replied, disgusted, "Now, prepare the tardigrade to make a jump."
"Sir, we can use a human instead and not harm the tardigrade any longer," Skylar announced knowing if the words came from Michael, they'd be even less well received.
Saru's face contorted into a look of disgust beyond what any of them had seen before, "Trials like that on a human are strictly prohibited and you are all to follow my orders. Do you understand?"
Michael was about to reply but stopped as she saw Skylar shake her head.
The jump put the tardigrade into an extreme state of shock but it did allow the Discovery to find Lorca's location.
"We can't use Ripper again to get out of Klingon space," Skylar announced as she looked at the creature with heartbreak in her voice and eyes, "Put the DNA in me and I can go in there to make the next jump," she volunteered.
"Lorca would kill us," Hugh shook his head, "You and Michael are the last two people we could possibly put in there," he disagreed.
Tilly moved forward, "Let me do it."
"No, Lieutenant Tilly," Paul protested, "I'm the only who knows the network well enough to make the jump with the DNA in my system."
Hugh began to fight the idea but Paul was too quick to inject himself and absorb the potential ability to activate the spore drive, himself.
"Why did you do that?" Skylar asked, "None of us can ask you to make a sacrifice like that. We don't know what this will do to your system or what affects the jump will have."
"I can handle it," Paul replied, "I feel it."
"Saru to Stamets," the comm chirped to life, "We found the Captain and we're about to beam him aboard. Are we prepared to jump?"
Stamets nodded to Skylar, "Go to the transporter room and greet him," he said before replying, "We will be ready to jump."
Skylar raced out of engineering, through the halls, to the transporter room where she waited for Lorca to appear on the pads in front of her. Her heart was beating through her chest as she waited but after a few moments that felt like eons, the transporter lights appeared and then Lorca appeared with another man who dropped once they were fully on board.
Skylar moved toward Lorca but she was stopped briefly to allow him to check on the stranger as he ordered, "Make the jump now!"
"Who is that?" Skylar asked as she switched into doctor mode and moved to asses the man, noticing immediately he'd been stabbed. Her attention was also brought to Lorca's face which was heavily beat up.
"His name is Ash Tyler," Lorca replied as he gave her a subtle smile to assure her he was ok, "Help me get him to the medbay."
"Or course, Captain," she replied as she took half of Tyler's weight and they got him to a bed where Skylar could begin to tend to his wounds.
"Take a seat," she said to Gabriel, "I'll patch you up once I'm done with him. Do you have any injuries other then what I can see?"
Lorca shook his head, "They went after my sensitivity to light more then anything else," he informed her then laughed softly, "I suppose I should have listened to you when you said you had a bad feeling about this mission."
"You'll learn one day to take my advice seriously," she replied wishing she could embrace him instantly.
Once she had Tyler stabilized, she moved over to Lorca where she was finally able to pull him to her, his head resting against her chest in her embrace, "I was so scared I was going to lose you," she whispered.
He pulled away moments later, "You can't get rid of me that easily," he smirked as she began to clean up his wounds.