- [Burnham has taken out a game of 3D chess]
- Spock: I am attempting to understand why the Red Angel chose me to expose a threat to the entire galaxy. And your solution is to play chess?
- Michael Burnham: When the Red Angel showed you visions you couldn't reconcile, it caused you to question your ability to examine the world logically. What better way to return to logic than via the game that represents it?
- Spock: It is arrogant of you to assert that my present manner of thinking requires fixing at all.
- Michael Burnham: It is arrogant of you to assert it doesn't. Or you're just afraid you'll lose.
- Spock: All right, Michael. Let's play chess.
- Captain Christopher Pike: I'm curious. Did you sideline the Enterprise because you knew I'd never stop reminding you of that?
- Admiral Cornwell: You sat out the war, because if we'd lost to the Klingons, we wanted the best of Starfleet to survive. And as this conversation makes clear, that was you, and all you represent.
- Captain Christopher Pike: [taken aback] Thank you.
- Admiral Cornwell: You're welcome. Now will you get off my ass, so we can get back to work?
- Admiral Cornwell: Sometimes, in war, the terrible choice is the only choice.
- Captain Christopher Pike: Giving up our values in the name of security is to lose the battle in advance.
- Spock: Perhaps he needs distance from you not because he no longer has feelings for you, but because he no longer knows how to feel about himself.
- Admiral Cornwell: I understand this is more than you bargained for. But you cannot abandon the mission, Chris. Whether I can issue orders or not, we have to get a team onto that station and reset Control.
- Captain Christopher Pike: What is it about the look on my face that suggests I've changed my mind?