- Michael Burnham: You judge the creature by its appearance. And by one single incident from its past. Nothing in its biology suggests it would attack, except in self-defense. Commander, this creature is an unknown alien. It can only be what it is, and not what you want it to be.
- Commander Landry: It's amazing how much I hate Vulcan proverbs. You're new here; so let me share a piece of wisdom. Lorca isn't interested in what you are. He's interested in what you can do, for him. And if he needs us to make that thing useful in his war effort... that's what we're gonna do.
- [last lines]
- Captain Philippa Georgiou: [in a message] Hello, Michael. I hope that wherever this finds you, you are well. I imagine you have your own command now. The captain of your own ship. I have always tried to show you by example. The best way to know yourself is to know others. You are curious, an explorer. So I am leaving you my most beloved possession, handed down through my family for centuries. My hope is that you will use it to continue to investigate the mysteries of the universe, both inside and out. And keep your eyes and heart open. Always. Goodbye, Michael. And good luck. Know that I am as proud of you as if you were my own daughter. Take good care. But more importantly, take good care of those in your care.
- Saru: As First Officer, I take pride in knowing every name and assignment on the crew manifest. You were to be on the prison transport shuttle that left yesterday.
- Michael Burnham: Captain Lorca offered me an opportunity. I can tell by your threat ganglia that you weren't consulted.
- Saru: The Captain keeps his own counsel. Had he inquired, I'd have suggested the duty roster lacked any opening for a mutineer.
- Michael Burnham: "A valuable asset". That's what you called me.
- Saru: I was speaking hypothetically. Politely. And as someone who was certain I would never see you again.
- Michael Burnham: You can tell your threat ganglia to relax. I'm only here to help.
- Saru: My ganglia remain unconvinced.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: [answering a hail] Admiral Cornwell.
- Admiral Cornwell: I didn't realize you were eating, Captain.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: Excuse the breach of protocol.
- Admiral Cornwell: We just received a distress signal from the planetoid Corvan 2, a mining colony...
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: Near the Aneto system. I know it.
- Admiral Cornwell: Sending it through now.
- [the message plays]
- Admiral Cornwell: Corvan 2 generates 40% of the Federation's dilithium.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: The pipeline's cut off, that's half the fleet grounded.
- Admiral Cornwell: Klingons ambushed the blockade that was protecting the colony, and now, the closest Federation ship is 84 hours away. Yours is the only ship in the fleet with a chance of getting there on time. Is the Discovery read to jump?
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: I told you we'd be ready when you called, and we are. The Discovery's made dozens of small jumps with no issues. We can make it the full distance.
- Admiral Cornwell: You have no doubts?
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: None.
- Paul Stamets: [cut to Engineering] There is no way in hell we'll be ready to jump that far.
- Commander Landry: Lorca thought you and I would make a good team. Your science, my tactics. Together we can deal with Lorca's little monster.
- Michael Burnham: How do you know it's a monster, Commander?
- Commander Landry: Because I've seen what it's capable of. So have you. Let's call it Ripper.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: How's the patient, Dr. Culber?
- Dr. Hugh Culber: Well, I took care of the skull fractures first. Another millimeter, and the palatine bone would've pierced his cortex.
- Paul Stamets: The frontal lobe is overrated. It only contains memory and emotional expression. It's completely unnecessary.
- Dr. Hugh Culber: Well, I'll save it. You know, just in case you might wanna have a feeling one day.
- Voq: [in Klingonese] T'Kuvma, my Lord, it has been six months since your ship was disabled and the war began. We are left behind, in disrepair. Your followers are hungry. Help me guide them to nourishment.
- L'Rell: [entering, in Klingonese] You are an artist now?
- Voq: This is the orbit of every object we have scavenged through in the debris field. There are no Birds-of-Prey that we require to restart our engines.
- L'Rell: There is one ship.
- Voq: We will not have this discussion again.
- L'Rell: The Shenzhou is within range. It may have been abandoned, but it still has an intact dilithium-processing unit.
- Voq: This is the very ship that felled T'Kuvma. To fuse its technology with our own would be blasphemy.
- L'Rell: You had no such outrage when we ate its captain. I saw your smile when you picked the meat from her smooth skull.
- Voq: As T'Kuvma perished in my arms, I swore to keep his fire lit. To resist assimilation. To lead his followers. But now they slowly die of hunger on this ghost ship. His legacy dies with them. I cannot allow it.
- L'Rell: What good is purity if it leads only to death? My father was T'kuvma's blood kin, but my mother was House Mo'Kai, the watcher clan, the deceivers, the weavers of lies. When I was a child, she gave me a bat'leth and told me to cleave my own heart. To choose one house over the other. Instead, I built a bridge to serve both. Now it is your turn to build... to go into that graveyard, and bring back the Shenzhou's processing unit for the good of your people. You must go to that ship.
- Michael Burnham: Your Ripper... appears to share some natural traits with the tardigrade species. A docile creature that lives in the waters of the Earth. A micro-animal capable of surviving extreme heat and sub-freezing temperatures.
- Commander Landry: Did you say "microscopic"?
- Michael Burnham: In our case, somehow, macroscopic.
- Commander Landry: How did it get on the Glenn?
- Michael Burnham: All the recent logs were corrupted. But the Glenn's captain made an earlier entry that security detected a stowaway. There was no hull breach, and no unregistered microbiota in the transporter's pattern buffer. But this was found, rummaging around in the lower cargo bays.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: [ending a training simulation] We're all dead.
- [sarcastic clapping]
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: Very nice. Very polite. Now, Discovery is now the only Starfleet ship with a displacement-activated spore drive, which means, when it's up and running, we will be able to materialize anywhere in the known universe. Behind enemy lines. Above the Klingon homeworld. Anywhere. But we will be alone. We will not have backup. There is just us, and we get one chance to get it right.
- Commander Landry: We'll do better next time, sir.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: It will be hard to do worse.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: We're the tip of the spear in a science vessel filled with wide-eyed explorers. You know what they need us to do, don't you?
- Michael Burnham: They need us to win.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: They need us to survive, Burnham. Want to know how you're gonna help me do that?
- Michael Burnham: I'm happy to assist Lieutenant Staments with the refinement of the spore drive.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: Said the xenoanthropologist.
- Michael Burnham: I also studied quantum mechanics at the Vulcan Science Academy, sir.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: I know, but I'm gonna put you to better use.
- Michael Burnham: These are some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy.
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: I study war. And this is where I hone my craft. I try to learn from the best. Here. Now, this I think you'll find uniquely interesting. You've met once before.
- [the creature from the USS Glenn approaches and is zapped by the containment field]
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: It has a natural aversion to light. Same as me.
- Michael Burnham: Why would you keep something so dangerous on board your own ship?
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: That thing killed a dozen Klingons on the Glenn, and there's not a scratch on it from their bat'leths. If we're gonna win this thing, if we're gonna have a chance of saving the Federation and everyone in it, we need the best weapons available. So, what material is in a claw that can shred the hull of a ship? What's a hide made of that can withstand the firepower of a phaser set to kill? I need you to find out... and weaponize it.
- Keyla Detmer: [as the ship hurls toward the planet] Collision is imminent!
- Captain Gabriel Lorca: [authoritatively] Collision is not an option.