“Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” is episode eight of season one of Star Trek: Discovery.
The USS Gagarin is asking for help as they are under attack by six Klingon vessels and are being pounded. The Discovery arrives, but the Klingons have cloaks and, whilst cloaked, the Federation ships can’t fire on them because they don’t know where they are. Captain Lorca orders the Discovery to position itself between the Gagarin and a Klingon firing at her. They stop one torpedo but the other gets through and Gagarin is destroyed. Lorca orders them to leave.
After the black alert, Stamets leaves the drive chamber and he looks a bit out of it. Tilly asks if he’s alright; Stamets calls her captain and asks what she’s doing down here. When Tilly challenges Stamets calling her captain, he denies it. And is a bit snippy.
Lorca is speaking to Admiral Terral, because he wants to know why there were no other ships around to help. Two other ships were attacked at the same time; both were also destroyed. Terral asks how many of the Klingons were equipped with the invisibility shields. All of them. The admiral says that Kol of House Kor has managed to revive the Klingon Ship of the Dead and is sharing the technology with every house who swears fealty to him. Every ship attacks out of nowhere. That’s why Lorca’s mission to Pahvo is so important.
Burnham, Tyler and Saru are on Pahvo. Every tree, rock and blade of grass vibrates with its own tone, which combine to make the sound of the planet. This is even broadcast into space by a crystal structure. Starfleet wants to modify this into sonar to detect cloaked Klingon vessels and turn the tide of the war. Tyler mentioning that they are making good time results in Saru saying that he could make it in 15 minutes. Burnham explains that Kelpiens pursued by predators can exceed speeds of 80 kmh and can also sense predators from as far as 10 km away. Saru states that they also enjoy being discussed in the third person whilst present. But Burnham is accurate. Saru’s senses are more acute and he’s being deafened by the planet. Then the noise becomes more audible and a blue glowing thing appears. The planet is supposed to be uninhabited and the thing doesn’t register as being any different from the forest. More appear and they want the three to accompany them away from the transmitter.
L’Rell is on the Ship of the Dead and Kol admired the scar she got in “Choose Your Pain”. He also makes comments about how he doesn’t want unity, but supremacy under his rule. What can she offer? Interrogation skills as Kol has a prisoner who refuses to talk. Kol will consider her request to join if she brings him information.
The three on Pahvo are led into a structure. Saru believes the Pahvans mean no harm; he’d sense a threat. One of the beings touches Saru and he says he can feel their intentions, a desire to converse. This also means that First Contact protocol is in force; Starfleet cannot borrow or alter the property of the locals without their understanding and agreeing.
L’Rell carries something to a cell, in which Admiral Cornwell, captured in “Lethe”, is being kept. She tells the admiral to scream and both wind up screaming at each other. The guard leaves and L’Rell tells the admiral she was convincing. Now they can talk.
Tilly confronts Stamets in the mess hall to find out what is going on with him. He doesn’t want to talk; she refuses to leave. Stamets admits that something is happening. One minute he knows where he is and who Tilly is and what he’s doing, then everything changes. He hasn’t told Culber, as either choice Culber would make would hurt him. After Stamets had altered himself with the Tardigrade DNA, his reflection was seen walking away from the mirror after he did. Not at all creepy.
L’Rell wants to know what Starfleet does with those captured. Imprisoned, interrogated humanely then returned as part of the peace process. No, they do not execute them. L’Rell wishes to defect; there is nothing there for her now. She once had like-minded brothers and sisters, even a successor to follow. Now, they are forever gone. They can escape on L’Rell’s ship. Cornwell asks why she should trust L’Rell. L’Rell asks her what choice she has.
Saru is trying to communicate with the Pahvans, and they get inside his head. They seem peaceful and friendly, but they are also rather alien. Are they what they seem? Burnham and Tyler end up kissing for the first time. Again. Thanks to Harry Mudd repeating time, they’d done it before in the previous episode, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”, but that of course never happened chronologically speaking.
The title is the motto of the Royal Navy; ‘If you wish for peace, prepare for war.’