A young Una listens to her parents whisper as she looks out at a cityscape at night. Her mother argues they should go to a hospital for Una’s broken leg but her father won’t risk people discovering they are Illyrian.

In the present day, Una remembers the experience as she sits in custody awaiting trial.

Captain Batel offers a deal if Una pleads guilty. Dishonorable dismissal means no prison time and no exile. Una balks. Batel presses it as a fair deal. Una’s counsel recommends it. Una gives him side-eye. Batel gives her time to think about it.

Stardate 2393.8 Pike wears a breather on a planet in the Volterran Nebula to find a lawyer who can win Una’s case. The receptionist tries to send him away, but he refuses to leave. Even when his oxygen supply depletes, he refuses to leave.

The receptionist blinks first as he starts to lose consciousness and rushes him into Counsellor Neera Katul’s office where the atmosphere is made safe for him to breathe.

Pike tells Neera Una needs her help. Neera says Una’s Illyrian background being outed was only a matter of time. Also, it’s not her problem.

Pike brings up the fact that Neera and Una have a history together, but it shouldn’t stop Neera from helping Una.

Neera is familiar with Una’s case. She just won’t take it on. Pike counters that he is familiar with her career as well. He points out she’s had ten cases against the Federation thrown out for insufficient evidence in the last two years. He argues if she wins Una’s case, it’ll give her other cases more attention.

Neera enters Una’s cell. She has Una give her account of the case from her perspective. Una says that as long as Starfleet didn’t know she was Illyrian, they didn’t care. But once they knew they want to make her disappear.

Neera asks why she doesn’t just take the deal and go home. Una says that she shouldn’t have to hide. She wants to be accepted as an Illyrian.

Neera accepts the case and tells Una she’ll inform opposing counsel the deal is rejected. When Una tries to thank her, Neera rejects the thanks, informing Una that she’s taking the case for the Illyrians who can’t and won’t hide who they are.

Batel comes to see Pike after Una rejects the deal. They argue over the case. Batel informs him that her boss, the Judge Advocate General is looking into the case now and it’s not going to go well for Una.

At the arraignment, Vice Admiral Pasalk joins Batel. Batel informs the judge they are amending the charges against Una to include sedition. They are seeking dishonorable dismissal and twenty years in a penal colony.

Una and Neera confer in private. Neera says the first witness is Admiral April. Una wants to testify. Neera shoots that down as a mistake.

Una agrees to do things Neera’s way.

On the Enterprise, La’an escorts Neera to Una’s quarters where she can stay during the trial. Neera requests a copy of Starfleet’s Uniform Code of Justice and Una’s service record. La’an doesn’t leave and offers she may help the case.

She suggests that Starfleet’s evidence against Una could be thrown out if it was found that it was procured through illegal means.

Batel sits down with Pike who is annoyed he isn’t testifying on Una’s behalf. She asks him about his history with Una and then springs a question on him as to how long he’d known Una was Illyrian which would incriminate him as part of a conspiracy to conceal the secret.

In the mess hall, M’Benga and Ortegas watch Spock and Pasalk at another table, speculating on their conversation. Ortegas assumes they’re being chummy. M’Benga points out there’s tension between the two Vulcans. Ortegas doesn’t see it.

Spock approaches their table and apologizes for the outburst. He reveals that of all his father’s former colleagues, Pasalk brings out the worst in him.

La’an orders Uhura to compile a file of all correspondences mentioning Una from the last six months. When she includes all personal logs, ship-wide, Uhura points out that it’s illegal to unseal personal logs without an order from Starfleet. She refuses to carry out the order.

The tribunal court martial trial is convened. Una pleads not guilty. Batel’s opening argument is based on the devastating effects of the Eugenics Wars. Neera’s opening argument is that just because there is a law banning permanent genetic modification doesn’t make that ban just.

Batel calls Admiral April to the stand. He admits that if he had known Una was genetically modified, he would not have sponsored her application to Starfleet Academy. Neera asks him to explain why he would not have sponsored Una had he’d known. He responds that it’s the law that genetically modified individuals cannot serve in Starfleet.

Taking his word that he adheres to the laws of Starfleet, Neera lists numerous occasions where he broke General Order One, aka the Prime Directive, as captain of the Enterprise. She draws the conclusion that the laws are only followed when captains choose to follow them. This elicits an outburst from April stating the law against genetically modified individuals is there to save lives.

Neera interprets this to mean the reason he wouldn’t have sponsored Una is actually fear and racial prejudice, not Starfleet’s rules and regulations.

The tribunal has all of Admiral April’s testimony stricken from the court record.

April meets with Pike in his quarters. He points out that the lawyer’s questioning and the subsequent striking of the record meant the court didn’t hear how highly he thinks of Una. He leaves without sharing Pike’s offered drink.

In chambers, Una gets upset with Neera’s line of questioning. Neera reminds her that this is an opportunity to make things right for Illyrians one day.

Neera calls La’an, Spock, and Dr. M’Benga to the stand as expert character witnesses.

In her quarters later, Neera receives Volume 4.9 of the Starfleet Uniform Code of Justice from La’an. Before La’an can leave, Neera asks her if she thinks she leaked Una’s Illyrian truth to Starfleet. La’an admits she recorded an angry personal log the night she learned about Una being Illyrian.

Neera asks why La’an was angry and if it’s because her own genetic modifications, passed down through her family, fill her with fear she will one day become dangerous. La’an admits that’s true. Neera reassures her she is no monster and there’s nothing wrong with her.

She also reassures her that it takes at least six months after high level requests to subpoena a personal log so La’an’s personal log was not the leak that outed Una. When La’an questions who else could’ve turned Una in, Neera wonders the same thing. They both come to the conclusion it was someone with something to gain by the truth coming out.

The next day in court, Neera calls Una to the stand. She asks Una why she would join Starfleet, knowing that her true identity as an Illyrian might one day be revealed. Una answers, “Ad astra per aspera” which translates to “To the stars through hardship.” It was the Starfleet motto before the Federation. It inspired her when she learned of it while studying history in school.

She interpreted it to mean, not just that enduring hardship could lead to the stars, but that the stars could deliver one from any hardship.

Neera asks her why she sought to be delivered from hardship, asks her how she grew up. She grew up on a planet in the Volterran system that had been given provisional membership in the Federation the year before Una was born under the stipulation that all genetic modification would stop. For Una’s family, the Illyrian tradition was too important to abandon.

Through Neera’s questioning, Una shares the story of a boy, Neera’s 10-year-old cousin, who was outed as an Augment. His home was vandalized, his family was arrested. The Illyrian community left behind fragmented. Some left for non-Federation planets. Those who stayed were persecuted mercilessly.

Una tells the court of how her leg was broken when she tried to intervene in a fight at school. Her parents wouldn’t take her to a doctor for fear of her genetic modifications being discovered. Her leg became infected. Luckily, they found an Illyrian doctor who saved her life.

Eventually, the local government divided the population into two cities – Illyrian and non-Illyrian. Neera attempts to end her questioning here but Una continues and explains how her family hid in the non-Illyrian city because they could blend in, leaving behind their family and friends. Una admits she regrets it and apologizes to Neera.

Neera aggressively questions Una on how Starfleet found out after all these years. Una admits she turned herself in. She explains she was tired of hiding who she was and wanted to live as herself, wanted her crew to know her truly, so she could feel safe.

Neera questions why she still wants to be a part of Starfleet. Una says the first Starfleet crew she ever saw as a child was incredibly diverse and she wanted to be a part of something like that, something bigger than herself.

Vice Admiral Pasalk takes over for Batel to cross examine Una. He asks when Pike learned of her Illyrian identity. Neera objects but Pasalk insists this is a conspiracy to hide the truth of Una’s genetically modified nature. He persists with his questioning until Una admits Pike knew four months before her arrest. Pasalk declares this proof of Pike’s involvement in a conspiracy and ends his questioning.

Pasalk delivers the closing argument, insisting that Una’s presence in Starfleet is toxic to the organization as her fraud has now dragged Pike down into a conspiracy that may lead to his court martial as well.

Neera rises to deliver her closing statement. She has Batel read from the Code of Justice, specifically Starfleet Code 8514. It outlines the parameters of how an individual can seek safety and asylum in Starfleet when fleeing persecution in fear of their life.

Neera argues that Una has met all the requirements of an asylum seeker and Pike exercised his captain’s discretion correctly in granting it. All the tribunal needs to do to absolve both Una and Pike of wrongdoing is to confirm the asylum application.

The tribunal returns from deliberations and grants Una asylum and finds her not guilty of all charges.

Una beams back onto the Enterprise, reinstated as First Officer, and the crew is there with Neera to greet her. Una thanks her. As Neera steps onto the transporter pad, she’s given a round of applause by everyone, including Captain Batel. Neera admits she still doesn’t like Starfleet but seeing a crew serving happily under an Illyrian commander is a start.

Una looks around and orders everyone back to their stations. Once they are gone, Pike walks up and hugs her wordlessly. Releasing her, he gives her a friendly punch on the shoulder and tells her it’s good to have her back, then leaves.