Zora's future is already laid out, but Star Trek: Discovery season 2 saw the ship integrate a hundred thousand years' worth of data from an over-sized mystery space sphere into its operating systems. A 32nd century tech upgrade accelerated that process in season 3, and now Discovery's computer (named Zora by Captain Burnham) has developed into a full-on sentience, experiencing emotions, thoughts, and a will of its own.
Zora initially appeared in the 2018 Short Treks episode, "Calypso." Set 1000 years after Discovery's abandonment, the ship is floating aimlessly through space without a soul on board. A man named Craft (played by Aldis Hodge) takes refuge on the empty vessel while traveling home to his wife and child, and meets the fully-sentient Zora. They form a romantic connection, but Craft ultimately chooses to continue his journey home, leaving Zora all alone once again.
Watching "Calypso" in isolation is enough to put lumps in throats, but Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is making the Short Treks story - and, by extension, Zora's future - difficult to contemplate without turning into a blubbering wreck. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4's appropriately-titled "...But To Connect," Stamets and Kovich put Zora's new sentient status under the microscope. They find her core programming has been rewritten to include caring for and protecting Discovery's crew - essentially, Zora's "heart" contains a wealth of memories and experiences from accompanying her human companions. So badly does Zora wish to remain on Discovery, she even builds her own self-destruct button as a fail-safe, before Stamets rejects the notion and offers to let Zora become a fully-fledged Starfleet crew member instead - a solution that delights her.
"...But To Connect" casts "Calypso" in a totally new - and far more upsetting - light. Short Treks implied Zora only became sentient after Discovery's human crew disappeared ("I spent most of it evolving myself"). An AI program alone on a deserted ship is miserable, no question, but less so when it's the only existence Zora ever had. But thanks to Star Trek: Discovery season 4, we now know Zora developed a deep emotional connection to her non-digital crew mates, coming to consider them family. Zora would've enjoyed many years of traveling as a respected ship officer, strengthening those bonds, adding more memories to her storage banks, and becoming part of the stronger-than-blood Discovery unit.
Unlike the others, however, Zora was forced to watch each and every member of that family leave or die. And rather than move on, she's imprisoned inside the eerily desolate Discovery, surrounded by reminders of the ship's glory days, cut off from all human interaction, and unable to escape. Worst of all, Zora tells Craft that Discovery's captain ordered her to "maintain position," hinting that Zora was deliberately and knowingly left behind - maybe by a deeply reluctant Michael Burnham?
But is Zora's Star Trek: Discovery future straightforward? The Short Treks episodes are canon companion pieces to the main show, but "Calypso" was written before Burnham and co. launched into the far future, creating some inconsistencies. For example, the abandoned Discovery is the original, pre-season 3 design. Also, Zora's dialogue doesn't neatly align with her rapid evolution in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. That could mean the "Calypso" Zora isn't the same version Kovich just promoted to "sentient life form," and Discovery's current Zora safely departed along with her friends. Or maybe that's just our wishful thinking...