Gabrielle Burnham

Gabrielle Burnham was a Human astrophysicist and engineer who lived during the 23rd century, before traveling through time as the Red Angel. She was the wife of Mike Burnham and mother of Michael Burnham.

History
The three members of the Burnham family were stationed on Doctari Alpha during the 2230s, where, posing as an astrophysicist, Gabrielle worked on the Daedalus Project as an operative for Section 31. 

During that time, the Burnhams had originally planned a vacation to Mars, but Michael begged them to stay three more days in order to witness a nearby star go supernova. However, during their extended stay, Doctari Alpha was attacked by the Klingons. Mike attempted to barricade the kitchen door, while Gabrielle hid Michael in a. Michael did not witness the death of her parents, but she heard everything happen, saying that they killed her father quickly, but took longer with her mother. The Klingons then sat down on Burnham's family table, ate the dinner the family had prepared and laughed. 

Unbeknownst to Michael at the time, Gabrielle had survived the attack by using the Red Angel suit to travel through time. Unfortunately, she didn't go back one hour as planned, but instead ended up 950 years in the future – where she discovered that had evolved and eradicated all life in the galaxy. She then made it her mission to not only return to her family but to stop Control from succeeding in its mission. 

In 2257, the crew of the USS Discovery discovered that Burnham's mother was the Red Angel when they trapped her on Essof IV. By that time, she had made 840 further trips through time, each recorded in the suit's logs. Gabrielle discovered that she was unable to stay long in any other time period, as the suit had become tethered to her new home – the planet Terralysium – in the future, and she was pulled back there soon after each jump. She rescued a group of Humans from World War III and brought them to Terralysium, seeing their survival as proof that she could make changes to the timeline. When she encountered Spock, she discovered his unique Human-Vulcan psychology and dyslexia made him the only person who could overcome the atemporal dysplasia which prevented her from communicating with anyone else. She also determined that the 's data on artificial intelligence was essential to Control's evolution and eventual dominance, and tried numerous ways to prevent Control from possessing it. When she was unable to destroy the Sphere, she instead moved it into the path of Discovery in the hope that they would capture the data and keep it safe. 

Gabrielle thought Michael's plan to upload the data into the Red Angel suit and reprogram it to travel much farther into the future was a good one, but felt she needed to go with the suit in case the plan didn't work. When Control, using Leland's body, attacked the facility on Essof IV to get the data, she pleaded with Michael to let her go. When the containment field holding her in the present was destroyed, the suit was pulled into the far future, and Gabrielle back to her anchor point on Terralysium, with no way to return. 

Appearances

 * (First appearance)
 * (flashback)
 * (recording, archive footage)
 * (recording)
 * (recording, archive footage)
 * (recording)
 * (recording, archive footage)
 * (recording)

Background information
Gabrielle Burnham was portrayed by Sonja Sohn. Her name may be an allusion to the angel.