After being on the run since age 6, 21-year-old Caleb, a brilliant street kid, is offered the chance of a lifetime: to join the first new Starfleet Academy class in San Francisco in over a century. There's just one problem — the person offering him the spot is newly-minted Chancellor Nahla Ake, the Starfleet captain who sentenced his mother to Federation prison fifteen years ago…

Holly Hunter (Captain Nahla Ake)
Sandro Rosta (Cadet Caleb Mir)
Karim Diané (Cadet Jay-Den Kraag)
Kerrice Brooks (Cadet SAM)
George Hawkins (Cadet Darem Reymi)
Bella Shepard (Cadet Genesis Lythe)
Oded Fehr (Admiral Charles Vance)
Gina Yashere (Lt Commander Lura Thok)
Brit Marling (Main Computer voice)
Stephen Colbert (Digital Dean of Students voice)
Robert Picardo (The Doctor)

Tatiana Maslany (Anisha Mir)
Paul Giamatti (Nus Braka)

Rebecca Quin (Lt. Mackenzie Ya)
Ken Barnett (Lt. Hayden Thriss)

Michael Brown (Lt. Thelonious Dandrid)
Nicole Dickinson (Lt. Astrid Atlee)
Tricia Black (Lt. Rork)
Avaah Blackwell (Haile)
Joseph Chiu (Ensign Weldu)
Raffa Virago (Cadet Pickford)
David Benjamin Tomlinson (Starfleet officer)
Scott Gemmell (Darem's posse member)
Mia Yaguchi-Chow (Darem's posse member)
Ritchie Lawrence (Darem's posse member)
Luciano Fernandez (Young Caleb)
Atlas Blu Klamer (Scrap voice)
Solen Morales (Little Orion)
Kenzyn Hoffman (Little Suliban)
Ian Busher (Torothan senior guard)
Lynn Anne Zager (Detention center computer voice)
Darren Richardson (Torothan shuttle computer voice)
Brian David Gilbert (DOT voice)
Jeremy Culhane (DOT voice)

• The U.S.S. Athena NCC-392023 is the main headquarters for Starfleet Academy. At the end of the episode, it arrives at Earth and the main hull lands in San Francisco to become the campus's main building.
  
• Nahla Ake is a Human/Lanthanite hybrid. She resigned from Starfleet 15 years ago, after Caleb Mir's mother was sent to prison. (Commander Pelia from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was also Lanthanite.)
  
• Jay-Den of House Kraag is Klingon. He is pursuing a career in the medical division.
  
• Darem Reymi is Khionian, an aquatic species that can transform between a human form or a hairless scaled form.
  
• Genesis Lythe is Dar-Sha, and daughter of a Starfleet Admiral. She grew up on starships until Starfleet Academy opened.
  
• Lura Thok is a Klingon/Jem'Hadar hybrid. She is Captain Ake's first officer and the Academy's Cadet Master.
  
• Robert Picardo reprises his role as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager.
  
• Oded Fehr reprises his role as Admiral Charles Vance from Star Trek: Discovery.
  
• Paul Giamatti guest stars as Nus Braka, a Klingon/Tellarite pirate affiliated with the Venari Ral, a group of marauders who rose to power after the Burn.