Paul Stamets Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets was a male Human astromycologist and Starfleet officer who lived during the mid - 23rd century . He became part of the team that discovered the Mycelial network and helped develop the revolutionary spore drive propulsion system . In that capacity he served as the chief engineer of the in 2256 . ( ) As the " Discovery ' s " chief engineer , he was the first to make the spore drive viable for traversing great distances by using himself as an organic navigation computer , making the ship an invaluable asset in the 2256 war with the Klingon Empire . His frequent exposures to the mycelial plane led him to exist partially outside the universe ' s normal flow of time . This caused progressive neurological damage to Stamets ' body , and when Captain Gabriel Lorca deliberately sabotaged a spore drive jump to take the " Discovery " into the mirror universe , Stamets was left almost catatonic . His consciousness survived inside the mycelial network , however , and he was restored to health by Cadet Sylvia Tilly . Using his knowledge of the network , he was able to devise a plan to return to the prime universe by destroying the super - mycelial reactor of the Terran Empire flagship ( ) Upon the " Discovery ' s " return to the prime universe in mid - 2257 , Stamets ' control of the spore drive was instrumental in allowing the vessel to conduct a mission to Qo ' noS to force an armistice in the Federation - Klingon war . For his role in the conflict , Stamets was awarded the Starfleet Medal of Honor and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander . ( ) Career . Pre - war . Stamets trained as an astromycologist . Prior to the outbreak of the in 2256 , Stamets and his research partner , Straal , were working on an experimental propulsion technology known as the spore drive . This made use of " prototaxites stellaviatori " spore s linked to the so - called mycelial network and could theoretically allow a starship to travel great distances instantaneously . Stamets and Straal worked on the project together for nearly twelve years , but failed to achieve decisive results . When the war started , Stamets and Straal were co - opted by Starfleet to develop military applications for the technology . Stamets and Straal were assigned to the " Crossfield " class starships and respectively , experimental vessels that were the first to be built around spore drive technology . ( ) The tardigrade . While aboard the " Discovery " , Stamets shared quarters with his partner , Lieutenant Commander Doctor Hugh Culber . He was uncomfortable with his work being co - opted for military purposes , and regarded his commanding officer , Captain , as a war monger . Despite six months of research , by late 2256 both the " Discovery " and the " Glenn " were still unable to make spore drive jumps greater than intervals of Speirein 12 for the former ( a few hundred kilometers ) and Speirein 240 for the latter . Stamets remained in regular correspondence with Straal , who by the end of the year was ready to consider a spore drive jump of Speirein 900 , which Stamets felt was unsafe . ( ) At this time , Stamets met Michael Burnham after her disabled prison shuttle was rescued by the " Discovery " at Captain Lorca ' s direction . Despite being a convicted mutineer , Lorca assigned Burnham to work under Stamets in the hopes that her predictive mind and determination would help him make the spore drive viable . Initially affronted by this , Stamets was soon forced to confront other issues when a distress call was received from the USS " Glenn " . Stamets and Burnham were part of the team sent aboard to investigate , and discovered that the ship was a derelict with the entire crew having been severely mutilated , including Straal . Stamets deduced that the " Glenn " had been destroyed by an accident with its spore drive , and the team was soon ambushed by . With the aid of Burnham , the creature was captured and brought aboard the " Discovery " . ( ) The creature was dubbed a " tardigrade " for its resemblance to the microscopic Earth creature . Soon nicknamed " Ripper " for its apparent aggression , Stamets soon realized that it was able to communicate with the mycelial network and that the " Glenn " had used it to improve its spore drive . Though initially reluctant to attempt the same process , Stamets was convinced by Lorca ' s appeal to his sense of scientific wonder . Linking the tardigrade into the spore drive while exposing it to " prototaxites stellaviatori " in the spore chamber transformed the creature into an organic navigation computer , and allowed the " Discovery " to make a long jump to halt a Klingon attack on the mining colony of Corvan II . ( ) Acting as navigator . Stamets had made the spore drive viable . Intensified development of the spore drive began on Earth while all Federation ships , starbases , and colonies were placed on alert to search for more tardigrades . However , forcing Ripper to act as a navigation computer caused it immense pain and it soon became obvious that each jump was severely debilitating to it . After Captain Lorca was taken prisoner by the Klingon Empire , repeated use of the spore drive in attempts to rescue him resulted in Ripper entering an extreme state of cryptobiosis and becoming unresponsive . It was subsequently released by Michael Burnham . ( ) Stamets was under pressure from the first officer , Commander Saru , to restore the spore drive . With the help of Cadet Sylvia Tilly , Stamets resorted to injecting himself with a sample of tardigrade DNA and entering the spore chamber to act as the navigation computer . The jump was a success and Lorca was recovered , along with another Starfleet prisoner , Lieutenant . The exertion of the jump briefly knocked Stamets unconscious , but he recovered with apparently no ill effects . ( ) Events soon proved that Stamets ' exposures to the mycelial network were changing him fundamentally : due to his mixing of tardigrade DNA during his usage of the spore drive , his consciousness came to exist outside the universe ' s normal flow of time . He began seeing flashes of what were later discovered to be events in the mirror universe , including images of , and once briefly mistook Cadet Tilly as . His crewmates , however , only noticed that his scientific success had caused more positive sides of his personality to emerge . His partial displacement in time meant that he was the only crewmember to notice when the " Discovery " was trapped in a repeating thirty - minute time loop created by the con man Harcourt Fenton Mudd . Mudd used the loop , generated with a time crystal , in an attempt to steal the " Discovery " and sell it to the Klingons ; however he was unable to account for Stamets , who was able to alert the crew and foil Mudd ' s plan . ( ) To improve his connection to the spore drive , Stamets accepted cyborg augmentations to his arms . However , he was increasingly aware that use of the spore drive was taking its toll on his mind . He confided only in Cadet Tilly , refusing to tell Dr . Culber out of fear it would place his partner in emotional conflict over whether to alert the rest of Starfleet to his condition . ( ) While investigating the planet Pahvo , Captain Lorca saw an opportunity to destroy the Klingon starship " Sarcophagus " and develop a way to penetrate cloaking device s . To accomplish this Stamets would have to conduct 133 micro - jumps with the spore drive so the " Discovery " could gather data from multiple angles to generate the algorithm to penetrate the cloak . In the subsequent battle at Pahvo , the " Discovery " succeeded in destroying the " Sarcophagus " , killing the Klingon leader and capturing L ' Rell , who was believed to have torture d Ash Tyler while he was a prisoner . However , Stamets was visibly distressed from the effort of conducting so many jumps in such a short time , and declared to Lorca that he would conduct one last jump to get the " Discovery " to Starbase 88 before submitting himself to Starfleet Medical for evaluation . However , the man who the " Discovery " crew believed to be Captain Gabriel Lorca was in fact his . This Lorca deliberately sabotaged the jump , using a theoretical application of the spore drive to take the " Discovery " into the mirror universe . The effect of this plunged Stamets into near - catatonia : his eye s became a blank white and when he spoke it appeared incoherent and delirious . Without Stamets , the " Discovery " had little chance of returning to the prime universe . ( ) Trapped in the mycelial network . Stamets ' consciousness was in fact trapped in the mycelial network . Through that he still had some contact with the physical world , violently blurting out " " Don ' t go to palace ! " " , and whispering " " The enemy is here " " in brief moments of lucidity . Dr . Culber saw this as insane rambling . However , while Stamets was still unconscious , Culber was murder ed by the increasingly - unstable Lieutenant Ash Tyler . It was subsequently discovered that " Ash Tyler " was in fact the Klingon Voq , physically – and mentally – transformed into the real Tyler ' s form to act as a spy , and Voq ' s personality had been partially - awoken by the presence of L ' Rell . Stamets remained aware of this though his mind remained disconnected from his body , and he was discovered in one of " Discovery " s corridors cradling Culber ' s corpse ( ) Cadet Tilly compared Stamets ' brain scans to those of the tardigrade , and discovered that Stamets ' brain had developed a similar make up . Since the tardigrade had been cured before its release by exposure to the mycelial spores , Tilly reasoned that a similar treatment might improve Stamets ' condition . Under such treatment , Stamets ' physical signs improved across all biological metrics , though mentally he remained in the mycelial network . There he encountered his mirror counterpart , who had been working on similar experiments . Together they explored the " " , an illusory starship created by the network from Stamets ' memories , attempting to find a way out . They encountered a spreading corruption within the network , and fled into the " main engineering " of the illusion . ( ) Personal life . Stamets was in a relationship with Doctor Hugh Culber . The two first met in a cafe on . ( ) Stamets was good friends with his research partner Straal and was distressed when Straal was killed aboard the USS " Glenn " . Stamets had an uncle named Everett who sang in a Beatles cover band . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Paul Stamets was played by Anthony Rapp . This character was named for real - life mycologist , who was the inspiration for the science of " Discovery " . However , much of the character was based on Executive Producer / Writer Aaron Harberts , who commented , " " Stamets is kind of cranked up . But when writing Stamets , there was a lot of ' What would I say here ? Probably that . " " ( ) Stamets , along with his partner Culber , are the first openly gay regular characters in a " Star Trek " television series . Prior to the " Discovery " premiere , original showrunner Bryan Fuller commented , " Star Trek " started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast . . . we ' re continuing that tradition . " "