Choose Your Pain Line-by-Line

[May 20]

MUDD: The name is Mudd. Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Harry for short. I reiterate. Ouch!
(Lorca lets him go.)

 

[CaptVader]

Lorca: Where are we?

 

[Orac]

Mudd: On a resort off Antares Minor. You must try the spa. The hot stone massage is delightful.

 

[CaptVader]

Lorca: Where are we?

 

[Athena28]

MUDD: Typical Starfleet. No fun at all. We are on a Klingon prison vessel. Particularly nasty one.

 

[May 20]

LORCA: What's a civilian like you doing on a Klingon prison vessel?

 

[Orac]

Mudd: The only crime I'm guilty of is loving too much. It's true, Captain. I fell for a woman far beyond my reach. Sweet Stella. Her family didn't approve of me, so I had no choice except to try and buy her father's respect. Scary, scary man. So I borrowed a large sum from some non-traditional lenders, and gifted her with a moon. It worked like a charm, until I fell behind in my payments. Huh. The creditors came after me, chased me into enemy territory, right into the Klingons' arms, who deposited me here, where I await my fate.

 

[CaptVader]

(Another man in a Starfleet uniform groans.)

MUDD: Oh, I wouldn't bother with him, Captain. I believe the technical term for his condition is out to lunch. Here comes the floor show.

 

[Orac]

Klingon: Choose your pain.

 

[Athena28]

MUDD: They may look stupid, our Klingon hosts. They're anything but. They regularly give us the choice to choose our pain. We can accept the beating ourselves or pass it on to our cellmates. It's our captors' way of keeping us from bonding.

 

[May 20]

LORCA: You seem conspicuously free from bruises.

 

[CaptVader]

MUDD: I've learned how to choose wisely. Don't judge. You're gonna wanna stick with me. I'm a survivor, just like you.

 

[May 20]

[Engineering]

CULBER: You should know that Lieutenant Stamets rarely, if ever, listens to me.

 

[Orac]

Burnham: I can handle him.

 

[May 20]

CULBER: Please, show me how.

 

[CaptVader]

BURNHAM: Lieutenant Stamets. Your spore drive is genius. Beyond genius. What you've achieved for the war effort, for the whole of science itself, it's a contribution–

 

[Orac]

Stamets: I know I'm brilliant. What are you trying to get out of me? Why are you with her?

 

[May 20]

CULBER: Burnham is worried about the physical effects that Discovery's jumps are having on the Tardigrade. I've done my own evaluations, and I must concur. Scans of its frontal lobe show significant cumulative deterioration every time we go to black alert.

 

[Athena28]

BURNHAM: We need to find a work-around. Making Ripper the critical component for the s-drive is unsustainable for the creature and your invention.

 

[May 20]

CULBER: We could lose them both, and with them, any chance of saving Captain Lorca.