Michael awoke to the sound of alarms and forced herself upright, with some difficulty as she had been in a deep sleep. She turned and planted her feet on the ground while rubbing tired eyes. As she dropped her hands from her face, she first came to the realization that she was not in her quarters. Michael looked around the room, sparsely furnished, but cozy. Burnham also realized that she was alone. A dark blue housecoat lay draped across the back of a chair. A housecoat, she remembered, belonging to Ash Tyler, as memories from earlier that night started coming back to her.

Another visual sweep of the room showed a small table, in the far corner near the door, with two high-backed chairs. The food replicator on the wall next to the table emitted a warm blue glow in the dark room. The majority of the room was dominated by a couch, which she was currently seated upon, and across were two lounging chairs. A hallway leading off to her left must have led to the washroom and bedroom. Ash's quarters were certainly much more extravagant than the spartan room she shared with Tilly.

Michael didn't remember falling asleep. The last thing she could remember was sitting next to Lieutenant Tyler, holding his hand, as he confided in her the hardships he had endured during his months as a Klingon prisoner. She felt a deep ache in her chest as she remembered the pain in his voice and his admission that he was still haunted by the events that had transpired. Michael swallowed and pushed back those thoughts. She could process their conversation later. Right now, the alarm still blared incessantly over the intercom and she needed to get to the bridge. She quickly made her way to the door and exited Ash's quarters.

As she jogged down the hallway at a steady pace towards the lift, she saw others headed to their stations in a hurried manner such as she was. Just as she reached the lift and pressed the button, the alarm was cut off. Burnham listened for the Captain or Saru to explain over the intercom what had happened and if the crew could stand down, but the intercoms remained silent. The lift emitted a beep and the doors opened before her. She stepped in and pressed the button that would take her to the bridge. As she rode the elevator up, the intercom continued to remain silent. The lift continued its ascent before coming to a stop and heralding her arrival at the bridge with another beep, and as the doors opened, Michael took in a scene that was far more calm and quiet than she was expecting.

Captain Lorca turned in his chair as she stepped into the room.

"Ah, Burnham, how nice of you to join us," he said, before turning back to look out of the window in front of him. "We seem to have a bit of a problem," he admitted needlessly, "Do any of these stars look familiar to you?"

"Sir?" Michael asked cautiously, looking around the bridge. The remainder of the crew had their heads bowed over panels, tapping furiously. She took note of Lieutenant Tyler's presence by a panel just as he looked up at her. He was still wearing the same clothes he had on when they were talking earlier and his eyes had dark circles under them that told her he hadn't gotten much sleep. He gave her a grim smile; an acknowledgement of what had passed between them earlier, before looking back down and continuing what he had been doing. Something was off with him, Burnham thought. Maybe he was still bouncing back from the events of earlier that day… or was it yesterday already?

Commander Saru looked up from his console and stepped around it, moving closer to the Captain and Michael. "The computer's database does not recognize any of the surrounding stars," he said, waving a hand towards the window. "We appear to have landed in uncharted territory."

Michael looked out the window at the unfamiliar stars. When she had left the medical bay yesterday they were headed at a steady pace towards Starbase 46, and yet now, they weren't moving. Burnham turned to glance at the console nearest to her. It was currently 04:50. She quickly calculated how far Discovery would have traveled since they had disembarked last night, had they maintained their speed of warp 3. By her estimation, they should have been passing by Nebula IC 434. She turned back to the Captain.

"Captain, I think we're off course."

Captain Lorca looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Agreed Burnham. Not only are we off course, we appear to have ended up in uncharted space."

"What happened? Why were the warning alarms going off?"

Captain Lorca sighed tiredly. "We were attempting a jump to reach Starbase 46 when something went wrong in engineering."

"A failed jump?" Michael asked. "Is everything well with Lieutenant Stamets?"

"We're not certain. Apparently he is currently in the throes of some kind of… episode. We are awaiting an update from the Medbay."

Commander Saru stepped closer to Michael. "We are not certain how long it will be until we can figure out our location. Perhaps you should head down to engineering and help with running diagnostics on the spore drive."

Lorca nodded in agreement. "Good idea Commander. We have enough crewmates working around this problem from the bridge. Try to see if there's any damage to the drive. If we know what caused the failure, it might give us some insight into our current predicament."

"Will do Sir," Burnham said, turning to head back towards the lift.

"Oh, and Lieutenant Tyler, accompany Burnham down to engineering and see if you can't be of assistance," Lorca added.

Michael looked over at Ash as he stepped away from the console he had been working on.

"Yes Captain."

He joined Michael over by the lift doors as she pressed the button to go down. Michael looked over at Tyler, hoping to catch his eye, but his gaze remained focused ahead and his attention seemed to be somewhere else. The lift doors opened and they stepped in. Michael turned as the doors were closing and folded her hands behind her back. The doors closed and suddenly Michael found herself alone with Lieutenant Tyler, in a silence that felt heavy and somewhat uncomfortable.

Unable to take the silence any longer, Michael turned to look at Ash. He stood with his shoulders back and his gaze locked on the doors in front of them, and while he was silent, Michael thought that he had a distracted and far off look, not one of aloofness. She began to worry that the stress and trauma he had experienced the day before were still haunting him. That was a silly thought; of course he would still be upset. Michael wished she could say something to comfort him but she was inexperienced with the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sure, she had learned about it at the academy, but coming face-to-face with the repercussions of such trauma was another thing altogether, and her Vulcan upbringing had not prepared her for the delicate balance that was the human psyche. She could barely begin to comprehend the turmoil going on within her own head, how could she even begin to try and help someone else?

Ash seemed to become aware of Michael's gaze upon him and turned to meet her eyes. He could tell that she wanted to say something, her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes searched his. After another moment of silence he thought he should maybe put her out of her misery.

"I'm okay Michael," he said to reassure her, although she didn't look convinced.

He couldn't tell her what he was thinking right now. What L'Rell had said to him in the brig had both confused and infuriated him, and as he remembered her voice, speaking to him in such an intimate and familiar way, he felt a shiver of fear move up his spine.

Do not worry, I will never let them hurt you.

She had spoken as if the Discovery was a place of danger, and not the safe haven that he was learning to call home.

As Michael continued to search his face for hints of his inner turmoil, Ash leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. Pulling back slightly, he brought a hand up to cup the back of her neck. "Seriously Burnham, I'll be okay. Let's focus on the problem at hand," he said, turning the corner of his mouth up in what he hoped was a smile. Burnham nodded, flashing him an equally weak smile in return. Ash's hand dropped as they turned back to the doors.

Michael shot another quick glance his way before the lift doors opened and they made their way over to engineering. She had a strong feeling that Lieutenant Tyler was holding something back from her.