Cleveland Booker

Warning! This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Discovery, and thus may contain spoilers.

Species:	Humanoid
Occupation:	Courier
Status:	Active (3189)
Born:	Kwejian
Father:	a father
Sibling(s):	Kyheem (brother)
Other Relative(s):	Booker's family
Pet(s):	Grudge (cat)
Played by:	David Ajala

Cleveland "Book" Booker was a male humanoid who lived during the 32nd century. He owned a cat named Grudge. Though he looked Human, he had the ability to connect empathetically with plants and animals, during which a glowing orange pattern appeared on his forehead. (DIS: "That Hope Is You, Part 1")

Early life

Booker was born after the Burn to a family of "killers" and "poachers." However, Booker said that occasionally someone like himself is born into his family as some sort of "balance," and that his relatives no longer welcome him.

As an adult, Booker worked as a courier, using his ship to ferry goods between buyers and sellers out of the exchanges, including the Mercantile on Hima. Doing so provided him with necessary dilithium for clandestine conservation activities, including rescuing trance worms and delivering them to wildlife sanctuaries. His ability to connect telepathically with plants and animals appeared to aid his quests. Michael Burnham commented that he was effectively enforcing the Endangered Species Act after the Federation's collapse following the Burn.

Partnering with Michael Burnham

In 3188, Booker stole a trance worm named Molly from another courier, Cosmo Traitt. Traitt was pursuing Booker in orbit of Hima when Burnham shot out of the wormhole she had opened using the Red Angel suit. She collided with his vessel, damaging his dilithium recrystalizer and forcing his ship to crash on the surface. When Burnham approached his ship on the ground, Booker was initially hostile and engaged her in hand-to-hand combat. However, she quickly persuaded him that the collision had been accidental and that she was effectively stranded. Burnham agreed to trade her tricorder and other 23rd century technology at the Mercantile in exchange for dilithium Booker needed. Once inside the exchange, Booker betrayed Burnham, trapping her in a security field and taking her technology to trade himself.

After being questioned by Ithyk and Ithor, Burnham revealed that Booker had an unidentified stolen cargo. The Mercantile regulators quickly surrounded Booker, who had been unable to trade Burnham's goods. He teamed up with Burnham to steal a significant amount of dilithium and escape the exchange. On the way back to his cloaked ship, Booker demonstrated his abilities when he called forth a Hima water plant to obtain a liquid in its leaves to treat Burnham's wound. He also allowed Burnham to attempt, unsuccessfully, to contact USS Discovery, and correctly deduced that she was a time traveler. Ithyk, Ithor and others caught up with them back at Booker's ship, but he released the trance worm, which then ate the regulators, killing them. It also ate Burnham, but Booker used his telepathic connection to convince it to spit her out. Booker and Burnham then took Molly to Sanctuary Four just in time for her breeding cycle. (DIS: "That Hope Is You, Part 1")

Booker continued to work with Burnham on and off for the next year, with Burnham sometimes traveling in her own small vessel and sometimes teaming up with Booker for adventures in places such as Donatu VII and Iso VII. In 3189, Discovery emerged from the wormhole at the Colony, where Booker used his vessel's tractor beam to break it free of the planet's parasitic ice. (DIS: "Far From Home")

He and his ship then traveled with Discovery to Earth via the spore drive. He used his vessel's cloaking device to conceal Discovery's dilithium from Earth's sensors, for which Saru repaid him with a portion of Discovery's dilithium reserves. Beaming over to Discovery, Booker was surprised to find the controls operated not by Keyla Detmer or Sylvia Tilly but rather Philippa Georgiou. Georgiou proceeded to inquire about his relationship with Burnham, briefly flustering him before he refused to discuss it further. Later, Burnham and Booker used his ship to distract and capture Wen, which ultimately led to the cessation of hostilities between Wen's people and Earth. He remained in the area to make a fresh start away from rival couriers who knew his reputation, such as Zareh. While saying goodbye to Burnham, Booker playfully winked at her. (DIS: "People of Earth")

Sometime after parting ways with Discovery, Booker was traveling to the Bajoran exchange when he heard about a black box from a ship destroyed in the Burn located on Hunhau. He left to track down the device and programmed his ship, with Grudge aboard, to rendezvous with Discovery if he did not return within 24 hours. However, Booker was captured by Tolor and held as a slave for the three weeks it took his vessel to rendezvous with Discovery. Burnham and Georgiou took his ship on an unauthorized mission to rescue him and find the black box. During his time on Hunhau, Booker befriended an Andorian named Ryn who was punished for speaking against the Emerald Chain and forced to install explosive devices in workers' necks. After Burnham and Georgiou deactivated the facility's fence that would trigger the device in any worker who tried to escape, most of the slaves escaped on a transport vessel while Booker took the injured Ryn aboard his own vessel. They returned to Discovery, where Booker was pleased to learn Ryn would recover. In a turbolift, he thanked Burnham for saving his life and noted that they "always find each other." The two were about to kiss when Linus, who was having trouble adapting to his new portable transporter, inadvertently beamed in and interrupted them. After he left, Burnham nearly laughed off their near-encounter before Booker pulled her back in for a passionate kiss. (DIS: "Scavengers")

Appendices

Appearances

• DIS:
  • "That Hope Is You, Part 1"
  • "People of Earth"
  • "Scavengers"
  • "Unification III"

Background information

Cleveland Booker was played by David Ajala.