Star Trek: Discovery Ends With 1 Last Spore Drive Mystery

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Discovery series finale, "Life, Itself"

Star Trek: Discovery ends with one more spore drive mystery that remains unanswered. In the epilogue of Star Trek: Discovery's series finale, "Life, Itself", which takes place 30+ years later, the USS Discovery is still using the spore drive to jump to the location of Zora's (Annabelle Wallis) final mission in deep space. Discovery's spore drive was a boon to the reduced 32nd-century United Federation of Planets, broken after the Burn destabilized the galaxy's dilithium. As a potential alternative to warp drive throughout Starfleet, however, the spore drive came up against one major problem that prioritized the development of the pathway drive instead: the need for a sentient navigator connected to the mycelial network.

For most of Star Trek: Discovery, the only reliable navigator for the USS Discovery spore drive was its inventor, Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), who integrated tardigrade DNA with his own to establish a connection to the spores that guided the USS Discovery through the mycelial network. Later, Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) discovered that natural Kwejian empathy gave Book a connection with Discovery's spores, making Book an effective backup navigator. Only tardigrade DNA or natural empathy makes a reliable spore drive navigator, but genetic engineering is illegal in the Federation, and Kwejian was destroyed, so who is operating the USS Discovery spore drive in Star Trek: Discovery's epilogue? Here are two possibilities.

Commander Paul Stamets Came Back As USS Discovery's Spore Drive Navigator

Could Stamets' Genetic Engineering Create More Navigators?

The most likely answer to Star Trek: Discovery's finale question about the spore drive is that Paul Stamets returned to the USS Discovery for Zora's final mission, just as Admiral Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) did. Burnham is alone on Discovery's bridge, due to the sensitive nature of Zora's Red Directive mission, but the Admiral also tells Zora that the rest of the USS Discovery crew will leave her once they reach their mystery destination. Although Paul Stamets isn't named outright in the Star Trek: Discovery epilogue, Stamets could easily be off-screen in Engineering and preparing for a Black Alert in the spore drive's navigation chamber, just like old times.

Commander Stamets is considered a "scientific luminary" in Star Trek: Discovery for his breakthrough work with the spore drive, not to mention Stamets' tardigrade DNA splicing that allowed himself to become the spore drive's navigator. While genetic engineering is outlawed by the Federation in Star Trek until the 25th century, nothing has been said in Star Trek: Discovery's later seasons about a genetic engineering ban still being in place. The fact that Starfleet considered the spore drive a viable warp replacement, even briefly, suggests that bans on DNA manipulation were lifted, so if additional navigators for the spore drive were created, anyone with tardigrade DNA could be Discovery's epilogue navigator.

Captain Leto Burnham Could Have Inherited Kwejian Empathy To Navigate USS Discovery's Spore Drive

Empaths Are Natural Spore Drive Navigators

Star Trek: Discovery's epilogue introduces a new character who might have the ability to navigate the USS Discovery's spore drive: Captain Leto Burnham (Sawandi Wilson), the son of Cleveland Booker and Michael Burnham. Book's Kwejian empathy allows him to communicate with the spores and navigate the mycelial network, so if Leto inherited Kwejian empathic abilities from his father, Book, the new Captain Burnham might have been the USS Discovery's spore drive navigator. Being half-Kwejian and half-human, Leto Burnham's potential for empathy isn't guaranteed, but Book wasn't the last Kwejian, either. Any Kwejian survivors, or other empaths, like Betazoids, could be navigating Discovery.

Just as warp engines require dilithium, which is in short supply after the Burn, the USS Discovery's spore drive requires either a genetically-enhanced person, like Stamets, or a person with natural empathy, like Book. It's possible new technology might have even made the need for a navigator obsolete, decades after Starfleet rejected the spore drive as a faster-than-light alternative to replace standard warp drive. Because the spore drive is Stamets' creation, however, it would be entirely appropriate, and altogether likely, that Paul Stamets returned to the USS Discovery to resume duty as the navigator for the USS Discovery's final spore jump in the epilogue of Star Trek: Discovery.