"Honey? Are you ever getting up?" The question was softened with a kiss, but Paul grunted unhappily in response anyway.
"Am I late?" He asked, mentally preparing himself to open his eyes.
"As today was your morning off, no." A warm hand tried to comb his hair into order. "But you need to be getting up now to eat before starting your shift."
"I want to take shore leave again." He grumbled, finally prising his eyes wide enough to see the handsome face above him. "I enjoyed it."
Hugh laughed, his eyes crinkling pleasantly as he pulled the bedding back. "I'm not sure Captain Lorca would agree to having leave again so soon."
Yawning, Paul flopped onto his back. "Did he take shore leave? What does he even find fun?" He wondered aloud, as his mind refused to focus on getting up and ready yet.
"Lorca? Maybe he plays battle simulations and bullies new people?" Hugh suggested as he allowed Paul to pull him down onto the bed. "Maybe he plays immersion video games? Or maybe he goes clubbing and gets laid!"
"Changed my mind!" Paul groaned as he sat up and pushed a pillow into Hugh's face to make him stop talking. "I don't want to think about it."
Hugh was laughing as he rolled them over, straddling Paul's hips and throwing the pillow onto the floor. "You're the one who brought it up." He pointed out, struggling to quell his chuckles.
"And I now regret it!" Paul assured him, trying to pull off a grimace through his own laughter. "Is your shift over already?" He asked, noticing the uniform Hugh was already in.
"It's my lunch break, but I thought I'd come wake you up before your alarm." He smirked as Paul wriggled underneath him, trying to get up. "You know I like to make sure you've eaten." He leaned down on his forearms to kiss Paul, deepening it for just a moment before getting up. "Come on." He pulled Paul out of bed and pushed him into the washroom. "I've got long lunch so you have time for a quick shower before we go eat."
"You're so generous." He grouched as he began to strip. "Computer? Cancel alarm."
Hugh made the bed as Paul got himself sorted before they headed over to the mess hall, the scientist still yawning as he ambled along beside his husband.
"Where is everyone?" He asked as they sat at a table. The mess wasn't as busy as it usually was over lunch.
"It's not 1200 yet." Hugh replied with a shrug as he put his PADD on the table and opened up the display. "But I know you prefer to eat when it's quieter so we got here a little early."
"Thanks." Paul smiled at him before turning his attention to his own PADD. Collins had had an idea about increasing the efficiency of their buffers for if the Spore Drive tried to overload the system again; his coding was typically very good but Paul liked to double check everything before making any changes, and for changing the workings of something as important as the buffers, he'd be triple checking everything before implementing it. It was more effort, but the easy route wasn't worth the risk when it could damage vital systems.
They ate in mostly silence, with little more than a murmured word between them as they both worked; Hugh studying up on known viruses in their current region of space as Paul noted sections of Collins' work that would need looking at.
Honestly, he was hoping this would work. When the spores interacted with the drive, there was always a burst of energy that the buffers had to deal with, likely just discharge from the mycelial network but he had been a little worried that bigger jumps would release more energy that they wouldn't be able to deal with. However, if this worked as it was meant to, then it would be one less thing to worry about when they finally figured out how to get the whole thing working as intended.
"I hate to say it as you're working from here anyway, but you need to go do that in engineering or you'll be late." Paul looked up to see Hugh sat opposite him from across the empty table; he must have put their tray back already.
"This could be useful." He informed the doctor as he stood up, most of his attention still on the PADD. "But it needs a bit of tweaking. I'm going to head down to Main Engineering rather than the labs to get this ironed out and hopefully set it up."
"Okay." Hugh smiled warmly at him as he paused at the elevator. "I'll see you tonight."
"I'll be back. I'm start at 0600 tomorrow so I plan to be in bed a little earlier." He told Hugh as the doors opened. "I promise to remember to eat."
"I'll see you tonight then." Hugh repeated as he stepped onto the lift and the doors slid shut.
Heading over to engineering, Paul began to send Collins messages about what would need fixing.
The next morning, Paul left his husband sleeping peacefully in their bed as he headed for the cultivation bay. If he had to be up at such an unpleasant time, this honestly was the best place to be working, where he could see the spores drifting gently through the air as though there was a breeze. With the crop doing so well, the spores floating about and the faint humming Paul could always hear in the bay during the early hours of the morning, he felt himself relaxing.
He hadn't actually gotten to bed as early as he had been planning, the work with Collins taking longer than expected to smooth out and implement; however it had gotten finished and he'd collapsed in bed beside Hugh, who had been waiting for him. It was done though, and they'd done two tests with the Spore Drive; one after dinner, which had shown them what hadn't worked out, and then another one a little after 2300, to check everything was working.
He headed over to check over the internal sensors, glancing over to logs to see that everything had been functioning as expected through the night. Next, he grabbed the tricorder from the cabinet and headed off to scan each of the plants; this particular job was a bit slower, but he insisted on it anyway, wanting to make sure that everything in his little forest was doing what it was supposed to.
"You are still doing very well." He murmured to one of them as he scanned the spores underneath the cap. There were a few handfuls of mushrooms that were thriving, which really seemed to suit the stricter conditions whereas several others were struggling, apparently far better suited to life in the wild.
He slowly worked his way through the fungal crop, examining the ascus to see which spores were ready for harvest and which needed longer; not that he was worried about running out. Their interface could work for some time before he needed to worry about a shortage, but he liked to be careful anyway.
"You seem to be improving. Is it the added moisture we've added over here, or the new compost?" he muttered, running a finger gently along the edge of a flared gill. Cadet Tilly had had an accident with the compost they developed on board the Discovery a while ago and most of it had been deemed unusable. While she had apologised endlessly, Paul didn't mind too much; it was an important lesson to learn and one that hadn't done any really damage to their crop; however they had had to buy some more compost at an alien Space Port. Now that their previous supply had diminished, they'd started to use the new compost and some species seemed to be reacting well to it.
"The main difference is a slightly higher level of phosphorous, but I didn't expect the change to be so dramatic." He sighed, a warm smile on his face as he paused. "Computer, time?"
"0725."
"Right. Best get harvesting." He grabbed his PADD to update the logs, before checking the message he had.
'Please be advised that Michael Burnham (rank stripped), graduate of Vulcan Science Academy, serving life sentence for mutiny (time served: six months, eight days) will be assigned to engineering for one week. Captain Lorca believes her logic-based approach will benefit the project. Commander Saru.'
He hummed unhappily, but brought the logs back up as he collected the spore containers.
"Okay then, let's get you into here and settled away."
The task was easy enough to do, a little repetitive but it was hard to mind when it was just him in here with his forest. He worked at a comfortable speed, noting which spores he was taking and how long until the next crop from those particular fungi was predicted to be ready. Within half an hour, he had the spare containers filled and put away; longer than usual, but with working out what they were doing with the buffers, they'd used more than double the typical amount. Then he changed the levels of UV-A and UV-C light in the far corner of the room, where more of the plants were struggling before collecting his final container and heading out.
As he went to return the container to its storage space, he noticed an unfamiliar woman staring at the reaction cube. "Who're you?" He asked, unhappy that someone who didn't belong in the engineering labs was hanging about.
"I'm Michael Burnham." She replied, turning to face him. "I was assigned."
To engineering? "Who gave you an assignment? I'm the only one who give assignments around here." But taking a moment as he brushed spores off his shoulder, he did recall something about Lorca sending a convict with a logic-based approach here for a week. "So you're the one Lorca sent?"
"Yes."
"The mutineer?" he wondered if this woman was the one who had started the war with the Klingons; the very idea made it difficult to accept her presence. "I was told to expect a Vulcan."
"There may be a misunderstanding."
"Yes." She replied but hesitated slightly as he gave a puzzled glance towards her ears; it was the most human she'd looked since he'd entered the room. "No."
Well, didn't that clear everything up nicely? "You're making this very complicated." He complained, already wanting her gone.
"I was raised on Vulcan and I attended the Vulcan science academy." Which did at least explain why she acted like a Vulcan, but she was still human so he wasn't sure why her ability to use logic was going to be such a benefit in comparison to those already here.
"My Uncle Everett plays in a Beatles cover band, it hardly makes him John Lennon."
She raised an eyebrow at his comment, as though unable to see the connotation. "I'm not sure I'm following." Apparently she'd taught herself to think like a Vulcan too.
"Well, if Lorca thinks you are such an asset, reconcile these two suites of code." He gave up trying to explain and sent her off to do busy work. It was just some coding that needed double checking before changes were made, but he had started it before Lieutenant Collins had sent him something far more interesting and so hadn't been finished yet. "Go. Somewhere else please." He added as she just stood there. "It's not like we have assigned seats."
To be fair to her, she turned to go work at the station beside Cadet Tilly in silence, bringing up lines of code and making a start. Instead, he focussed on analysing the results from their jumps yesterday; they had gotten further than before and had actually come out fairly near their planned destination, so he wondered if having the extra room in the buffers helped. It was hard to measure whether or not the ship suffered any recoil on a large scale when it was using the network to appear in a different part of space altogether.
He pulled up the logs of their jumps from last week. They'd attempted a jump of a similar distance nine days ago, but had the distance between where they had wanted to go and where they had ended up been the same? In this case, no. Yesterday, they'd come out closer. A scan through told him that while they had made other jumps of a similar distance, they had been longer ago; therefore with the changes that got made to the Spore Drive on a regular basis as they tried to perfect the technology, there were too many variables for those to be used as an accurate comparison. The Discovery would have to make more jumps to see if the results stayed the same. He made notes for his report on his PADD, adding that he would contact Straal to see how their buffers were functioning, if they had made any improvements to them and so, what differences it had made.
He sighed as he finished up his notes, deciding he'd start on a draft after lunch, to add it to the pile of other reports he had to give to Starfleet's R&D department when Lorca decided to let them have some of it. It might have been nice to have other top-notch scientists to bounce ideas off, but Lorca claimed that the data was too important to send until it was all complete and ready to be used, so Paul had to continue with his own small team here, and with Straal and his team on the Glenn; not that their teams were bad, but there were only a small handful of astromycologists and the rest of them weren't involved in this project.
'Lunch?' a message popped up on his PADD, causing Paul to check the time; 1326… he'd been focussed on his datawork for quite a while.
'On my way.' He replied, standing up and stretching his back; he always meant to change positions when he was doing a lot of time at his station in the labs, but he always got so absorbed in what he was doing that he came out with back ache later on.
"Has everyone eaten?" He checked with Harrington as he stepped away.
"Except for her." She nodded towards Burnham, who was still steadily working through the suites of code.
"See if Landry is going to come fetch her? She's not eating in here." There was no food in engineering and no drinks beyond the steps into the labs; he wasn't going to make exceptions for her.
"Yes sir."
He nodded and left the labs, trudging along to the mess hall with his face still in his PADD as he brought up the main engineering reports that he hadn't looked at yet today. In the mess, he quickly spotted Hugh in the corner, who grinned at him and pointed to the tray to let him know there was food for them both.
"Hi." Hugh smiled warmly at him as he dropped into the seat next to him. "So?" He looked expectantly at Paul, who looked up from his PADD, feeling puzzled.
"So?"
"Michael Burnham!" He exclaimed as he picked up one of the sandwiches. "The mutineer who started the war! She's been assigned to your department for the week."
Paul pulled a bowl of egg-fried rice towards himself as he listened. "I know." He pointed out. "I do notice when there are strangers in my lab."
"Paul!" Hugh whinged, apparently after some kind of gossip. "What's she like?"
"Quiet?" But he continued at Hugh's frustrated huff. "She's just gotten on with the work I gave her. She wasn't some kind of wrathful, crazy warmoger and she wasn't weeping with regret over all the deaths that she's caused." He shrugged. "She's oddly logical for someone who isn't a Vulcan."
"You didn't chat to her?"
"No. Why would I? I don't need to have a bedside manner." He didn't even chat to the people he liked apart from Hugh so it shouldn't have been a surprise.
Hugh sighed, turning his attention back to his own PADD. "I guess not. I am a bit surprised that Lorca's letting her anywhere near the Spore Drive though, especially as he won't let you talk to anyone off ship apart from those on the Glenn about it."
"I think she served with Commander Saru." Paul mused, trying to remember what he knew of her. "Maybe he vouched for her."
"I'm still not convinced that he should have." The doctor pointed out, eyes flicking up from his PADD briefly as he sipped from his cup.
"I'm not arguing with that, but it's not as though I'm going to be chatting with her about it." He groaned as he began to scroll through his own messages. "I think I'm going to have to spend the afternoon in Main Engineering."
"When's Straal calling?"
"1800. I'll just work through reports after dinner, I guess." His report on what had happened yesterday would have to wait, but he didn't want to leave it until tomorrow; that would be too long. "When do you finish up?"
"Not until 2000 today, so even if you have a good chat with Straal, you should still be back first." Hugh said, finishing off another sandwich.
Paul nodded, knowing that he would be too tired at the end of his shift for a long meeting with his friend. "I'll pick up some dinner for you so you can just come back."
"Thanks." Hugh smiled appreciatively. "Since we've not had any serious injuries in a while, the CMO is going to set me off on some simulations this afternoon."
"So while I'm hard at work, you're going to be playing immersion video games?" Paul joked dryly. "That hardly seems fair."
"Remember to ask Straal how it's going with Claire." Hugh responded as he smirked. "You forgot last time but he was worried about how the long-distance thing was going to work."
"What if he doesn't want to talk about it?" he asked, trying not to feel like a child attempting to avoid an unwanted task.
"Then he'll tell you. He's as blunt about his feelings as you are." Hugh grinned before looked at his half-full bowl. "Now shut up and eat. You've still got a while before you get a chance to again."
Smothering the urge to argue, Paul did as commanded. He hoped the bits that needed checking over in Main Engineering wouldn't take too long; Collins generally did a good job of keeping everything in order and only sending Paul the reports that needed looking over, but there were certain sections that could only be worked on if the Chief Engineer was present, in particular bits that related to the warp core. As a science vessel, as opposed to a vessel of exploration, they didn't tend to encounter as many unknown factors and often had the less experienced engineers working, especially on Discovery which hosted a number of cadets. It meant that the rules were stricter for who was present when working with the warp core, and even a junior grade Lieutenant such as Collins needed to be accompanied by the Chief Engineer in some areas.
"Is that her?" Hugh whispered suddenly, and Paul glanced up to see where he was looking.
With a straight back and a blank face, Michael Burnham sat near Commander Landry, stiffly eating as she was no doubt aware that the few people left in the mess were staring at her. "That's her." He confirmed, but turning back to his own food.
"I don't know what I was expecting." His husband mused before draining the rest of his drink. "I've got to be heading back."
"I'll take the tray." He exchanged smiles with Hugh before the man nodded and hastened away, his speed indicating that he was later in leaving than he wanted to be.
Paul scowled at his PADD, but decided to head off to engineering, putting the tray away and heading off to work.
The afternoon went as planned, with Paul managing to get through it without having to tell anyone off so he was in a good mood when he finally got the change to chat with Straal. His friend must have had a good day too, as he was more than happy to waste time on small talk to begin with.
"What do you have planned for your anniversary then?" His friend asked, smiling slightly.
Paul rolled his eyes. "Oh, I was thinking of doing our vows again. We could get the whole crew involved because I do love it when they gossip."
"You say that as though you aren't married to the worst gossip on the ship." Straal laughed, still looking oddly carefree for all the work they'd both been doing recently. "Have you even told anyone on the Discovery that you're married?"
"The Captain and the First Officer know, so does the CMO."
"Anyone who doesn't have access to the person section of your files, I mean." He interrupted.
Paul nodded. "A couple of people that I trust not to chatter about it." He still wasn't quite sure why he'd included Tilly in that group, but her interest and understanding of his research that endeared her to him.
"You haven't got anything planned, have you?" Straal sounded far too amused about this.
He sighed and shook his head slowly. "I can't think of anything. I'd suggest watching a digital data file of an opera, but he knows I hate them." He smiled gently as he considered how thoughtful Hugh was. "He was happy with going to the opera for his birthday, but because anniversaries are about both of us, he'll want to do something we both like."
"Well, what do you both enjoy, apart from the obvious?" He pulled a face as he spoke. "And I walked in on you two enough times at the academy, I don't need to hear how it's still going for you, thanks."
"You're missing a real treat." Paul laughed, before he regarded the question. "Honestly? We enjoy curling up together with a good story on each of our PADDs, a hot drink and a blanket."
"You sound like my Grandma." Straal laughed along with him as Paul went pink.
"It's nice to know someone in your family has life figured out." He paused for a moment before remembering his conversation at lunch. "How's Claire?"
"Still with me." Straal beamed, happiness flowing out of him. "Eight months now."
Paul grinned in response. "Congratulations. That's got to be a record!"
"I think the distance actually helps." He shrugged, his lips still tugged into a smile. "It means I have time to think my words through when something annoys me, rather than just shouting in reaction."
"Save your shouting for the Glenn then?"
"Not at the moment." Straal looked decidedly smug. "What was Discovery's interval?" he asked, moving them onto the topic of work.
"Last night? Speirein twelve." It wasn't an impressive jump, but it was more accurate than their other forays into double figures.
Straal was fighting a smirk, which was always suspicious. "Why so conservative? Is Lorca holding you back?"
"No. He's always pushing us for more. I'm sure that our rate of progress is his life's biggest disappointment." Not that he ever tried to hide it. "And by the way, twelve is a perfectly robust number, Straal. Where's the Glenn?"
"Speirein two-forty." Which explained his expression.
"I hate you. How?"
"A recent breakthrough."
"I hate you. How?" He repeated, even knowing that he didn't generally share his own advancements with his friend until he'd worked out the more risky kinks.
"All I can say is there are unexpected benefits to not growing your own. Right now we have to finish getting ready." He looked excited about something. "Tonight we're going for Speirein nine-hundred."
The number didn't quite click, sounding so big that it was nonsense. "That's not possible." Even if they had managed two hundred and forty, the thought of Straal trying a jump that big when Paul wasn't there to check his working out was unnerving.
"Don't be like that. You're one of my oldest friends. We've been working on this for twelve years. When we succeed, both our names are going on the Zee-Magnees Prize."
But Paul was shaking his head before Straal had finished. "I'm not jealous, oddly. I'm worried. That displacement is too massive. It's not safe." Especially as Straal had a tendency to cut corners where he could; Paul really hoped the team on the Glenn had studied whatever this breakthrough was from every possible angle.
"It is now, I worked out the kinks." Which was an unpleasant thing to hear as it meant he had likely used the Drive with the kinks to actually discover them. "Lurker." Straal warned him, disconnecting their call early so that he didn't have to hear Paul have a go at the eavesdropper.
"I despise lurkers." He informed Burnham, turning to scowl at her.
"I'm struggling with these equations." She didn't make excuses at least. He accepted her work and brought it up before them. "Initially I thought I was dealing with quantum astrophysics, but as I got deeper in, biochemistry came into play, maybe even a form of gene expression. It'd be helpful to know what I'm working on."
She had to be joking. "Why would I tell a prisoner of the Federation who is essentially a temp, the details of my top secret research?" even if Lorca was granting her an odd number of liberties for someone who had knocked out her old captain and tried to stage a mutiny when she hadn't gotten her own way.
"It's your call." She wasn't glaring at him, but there was a definite Vulcan tinge to her expression that said she was dissatisfied with his answer. "But either way, this line here? It's a mistake." And there was the Vulcan superiority that she had apparently picked up in her time there.
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes and point out that that was why they were double-checking each other's work, he glanced at the data and dismissed her. "You can go, lurker." He wasn't walking her back to her quarters though.
He headed over to the breath scanner, planning to spend ten minutes or so in his bay to clear his mind which was still focussed on the size of the jump that Straal was going to be trying. "Submit breath scan for entry… Lieutenant Paul Stamets."
It was only 1825, so he'd have time for a shower before he went and got some food for himself and Hugh.
An hour and a half later, and Paul was sat staring intently at the door. He hadn't been able to forget about Straal at all, and had only managed in getting himself more anxious; eyes hazy as the end of his mild panic attack faded, he kept watching for his husband.
"Paul? What's happened?" The first words out of Hugh's mouth as he stepped back in ten minutes later tumbled out as he spotted Paul on the sofa, fingers clenched in his messy hair.
He shook his head, stomach still queasy as he accepted Hugh's embrace and pulled the man down on top of him. With his husband's weight pressing into him, Paul finally felt the clench in his chest loosen up. "Straal's being an idiot." He huffed, shutting his eyes and relaxing.
"Straal usually is." Hugh hummed as he ran his own fingers through Paul's hair, trying to neaten it up.
"He's trying a jump that I don't think is safe." He explained, better able to get his words out in Hugh's presence.
"When?" Hugh asked, shifting to the side so he was settled beside the other man.
"I'm not sure. Sometime during the night, maybe early morning by the time they've gotten ready." He felt sick again just thinking about it. "I hope it's morning by the time they've tripled checked everything."
"I'm sure with something like this, Straal has taken every precaution."
"I'm not." His lips twisted wryly. "I think he'll get carried away with his recent successes and won't think it through properly." He sighed, giving Hugh's hand a squeeze and sitting back. "Hungry?"
"No." Hugh smiled sadly and reached for the tray anyway. "But I insist we eat all the same. I'm guessing you haven't bothered yet."
"Dinner, bed and an early start so I can send Straal a message in the morning."
The next morning, Paul sent a message to Straal; just a text one but he needed to send something. He'd had a night of worst-case scenarios drifting through his mind and so hadn't really slept.
In the labs, he looked over a report that Tilly had filled out. She was getting better at these, but he was beginning to think he should give her a word count so she could narrow them down to what needed to be said. Calling her over, he began to discuss it with her, pointing out where she had repeated herself and bits that didn't need including in this particular report at all.
They glanced up as the doors into the engineering labs opened and both the Captain and the First Officer stepped in. "During the last hour, while performing black alert manoeuvres, there was an… incident with our sister ship, the USS Glenn." Lorca informed them and Paul's breath caught in his chest. "The entire crew was lost."
There was a moment of silence as Paul tried to find his voice, aware that everyone had glanced over at him. "What happened? Was it a… bloom failure?" The Glenn had some differences in the samples they carried in dry store, which the Discovery was unable to grow on board; all their mushrooms were part of the prototaxites stellaviatori family, but they had slightly different properties and some were more unstable when used in the Spore Drive than others.
"We're sending a boarding party to find out. Lieutenant Stamets, you'll accompany Commander Landry and ensure that everything related to the project returns to this ship." Lorca commanded, but Paul frowned. He didn't want to go and see what had happened to his friend.
"Why not just transport what we need from the Glenn over to us?"
"The room holding the equipment is shielded." Saru spoke up, hinting that he had been the one to try and spare Paul the pain of this trip; Lorca was likely too deep in his 'at war' mind set to care about his Chief Engineer's feelings.
"Shielded? That's curious." He didn't like it, and it made him regret more than ever the way they had been split up to aid this war. What had Straal been up to?
"Indeed." Saru nodded and Lorca spoke up.
"Let's not indulge that curiosity. It went down by Klingon territory. Let's get in and get out." The captain's almost bored tone resonated badly through the Lieutenant and he bristled.
"Really?" This work did not need to be performed so close to the front lines. "We're running drills near Klingon space."
Lorca's interruption was with a raised voice this time, his disinterested tone now decidedly irritated. "We are at war, Lieutenant. I'd appreciate a day going by without my having to remind you of that."
He refrained from pointing out that a science vessel ought to be safely within federation territory, instead moving onto the next issue. "Well Captain, I will need to take a team with me. You know, for the cumbersome, annoying science part."
"Pick a team. Do it quickly." He stepped back, but then paused and glanced over at the women standing nearby. "Take Burnham with you."
"Sir! It's one thing to make her a data cruncher in my lab." He objected, unable to see why the Captain wanted him to bring her. "But to integrate her into this project at such a deep level-"
"I understand that you lost a friend today." For a moment, he could actually see Lorca gritting his teeth. "But this is not a democracy, you understand?"
"Yes sir." No sir, but this wasn't getting them anywhere.
"Number One, you served with Burnham aboard the Shenzhou. What is your assessment of her abilities?" He asked, and Paul felt as though his expression was just daring Saru to say something negative.
"Her mutiny aside…" Saru started tactfully, looking uncomfortably around at the people in the room. "She is the smartest Starfleet Officer I have ever known."
"Huh." Lorca turned to look at his Chief Engineer, face almost blank enough to hide his satisfaction. "And he knows you." Then he turned at stormed out, leaving his XO to look apologetically about.
"Commander Landry will meet you in the Shuttle Bay to leave in one hour." He stated, tapping his fingers off his palms for a moment. "Please take everything that we can use off the Glenn as we are not leaving her behind… but as quickly as you can so we aren't spotted by any Klingon ships."
"Yes sir." He replied quietly. He wasn't smarting at the idea that Burnham was more intelligent than him yet, thoughts of Straal and what might be over there too loud in his mind to let the insult take hold.
Saru nodded then left as well. In the silence, Paul stood staring at the door as he tried to collect his thoughts; unfortunately the dominant one was that he didn't want to go there, but as it was unavoidable he moved over to pick up his PADD.
"Tilly, get one of the modified tricorders to bring with us. Hopefully it will work better for spotting correlation in patterns this time."
"I get to come?" She asked brightly, apparently not realising that they were going to be coming across the bodies of the crew over there. "I mean, yes sir." She corrected as he glowered at her.
"I'll take a regular one so hopefully we'll be prepared." They would be able to carry the data chips in their pockets, Landry would sort out any weapons and Burnham could… be there. He still wasn't sure why she was coming along. "Head over to the Shuttle Bay then."
The women left and Paul was alone in the bay. He looked at the empty reaction cube, wondering what Straal had changed to made to his; wondering if he wanted to see what had changed. But he shook the thoughts from his head, leaving the labs and heading towards the shuttle bay.
"There you are. You'll need to put tactical gear on." Landry said as he walked in, Tilly and Burnham weren't visible, but he could hear the cadet chattering away so they were likely nearby. "Kowski's changing through there."
He nodded, turning and heading into the changing room to the left of the bay. However, it was as he held the change of clothing in his hands that he noticed the pain in his chest, the bitter ache and the building dread… He did not want to go over to the Glenn.
But Lorca was in a bad enough mood as it was. As Chief Engineer and an expert on the Spore Drive, he had no way to refuse this mission. As he began to change, he tried to bolster his nerves. Life and death were natural things and Straal had always believed in God and life after death… perhaps he stood a chance of reaching something better.
"Paul?" A voice softly called behind him, and the scientist turned to see his husband hovering near the door. "Hi."
He felt his chest lurch as he stared, wanting to curl into Hugh's chest and cry; instead he gritted his teeth and whispered "Not yet." The other man's face was long, his eyes gentle but sympathetic as he watched Paul zip up the thicker jacket that was worn on missions which required body armour.
"Okay." Hugh nodded, stepping into the room and helping him pull his armour on. "Not yet."
Kowski headed out to go see Landry as the doctor stroked his hand over Paul's arm. The scientist stood still for a moment, aware that he needed to get moving but unwilling to part from the comfort that his husband's presence brought.
"I- I told him the displacement was too large." He admitted, his voice choking as the words tumbled out. "I said it wasn't safe but he never did like to listen."
"Paul…" Hugh murmured, moving his hand up to cup his head. "I know, honey."
"Th-they… If we hadn't been split up… He always did get carried away with things if no one was there to tell him off." Paul explained, though he knew Hugh was aware of this.
He grabbed at Hugh's hands, holding them as the other man whispered his name again, the pain evident in his voice.
"I don't want to go over there. It's our research that did this." It was getting harder to breathe, his chest tight as though the armour hadn't left him enough room.
"No." Hugh replied instantly, and the conviction in his tone was something to cling to. "No. If you had been allowed to carry on your work at your own pace then this never would have happened. I know Starfleet didn't force the Klingons to attack us, but they split you two up for this war."
"They weren't entirely wrong. We have gotten further out in space than we would have in our lab." Though he hated to admit it.
"The end doesn't always justify the means though." Hugh murmured, stepping close enough to lean their foreheads together. "Especially not when we haven't even reached the end yet." Hugh pulled back enough to glare at him. "Don't you dare taken any stupid risks! If something isn't safe then don't even think about it."
The thought of doing something like that was ridiculous, but Paul didn't grin as he looked into his husband's eyes. "The whole ship was lost." He pointed out calmly, though the words tore a hole in his chest. "I may not be brilliant with myself, but I will fight tooth and nail with Lorca if he asks me to do something that might endanger you."
"Not just me." Hugh said softly.
Paul frowned slightly. "Or the ship? It does have my most up to date research on it."
"What I mean…" Hugh's voices had taken on an icy tone. "Is that you are not invincible. I don't want you trying stuff that might explode in your face."
"Nothing's exploded in months, at least not in my face." The issues with the wrap core had caused an explosion by his leg and therefore didn't count. "And I use a containment field when I need to."
Hugh just scowled at him, and Paul gave in.
"I'll be careful. I know I sometimes get carried away, but I have a team around me at the moment who all seem to be on the 'safety first' side of the fence." It was a little annoying at times, but he tried not to complain.
"You need to get going." Hugh sighed, pressing a soft kiss to his lips before stepping back.
"Before Landry comes and to get me." He winced and moved away. Out of everyone on the ship, Landry had walked in on them kissing more than anyone else; her timing really was something else. "I'll see you soon, dear doctor."
"Take care."
In the shuttle bay, Landry handed him a phaser without complaint, even though he was the last one there. Instead she stepped close to him and asked "Are you okay? I know you were friends with that guy on the Glenn."
He startled slightly at her words, but nodded stiffly anyway. "Wonderful, thank you." But he didn't say anything else in case sarcastic turned to nasty. He'd told Hugh 'not yet' and he meant it. Lashing out wouldn't help.
It was a phrase he was going to have to repeat to himself, he realised as he watched Tilly chatter away to Burnham; the woman who'd had a hand in starting the war that had eventually resulted in Straal's death. She'd been a First Officer, so she probably hadn't meant to get the locked into this conflict, but her actions had led to this.
He turned and marched into their shuttle, dropping into the co-pilot seat and turned away from the others who were following him. Just this one mission; collect their gear, put it away then he could go shout and rant at Hugh, who would still be by his side at the end of it all. He could do this; he just needed to be left alone, inside his own little bubble of existence, with no unwanted interaction.
"Everyone ready? Alright, pilot. Let's go."
He was silent as they set off, eyes on space as he tried to ignore the woman behind him.
"I can't believe he picked me." Tilly said quietly to Burnham from further back in the shuttle. "I mean, I'm the best theoretical engineer on this ship. It's why I was fast-tracked at the academy but this is my very first boarding party. Kind of hard to believe, right?"
"Not really." She replied, as Paul half-wondered at the cadet's enthusiasm.
They didn't often go off-ship, but had she not been on a landing party yet? She may not thank him in the end. It wasn't going to be pleasant. As she continued to babble away, Paul watched the arrival counter tick down; he felt sick again, as though this was all a fever dream and he'd wake soon to find Hugh beside him, his beautiful brown eyes filled with worry at the bizarre visions that were filling his head.
"We're dropping out of warp." The pilot announced far too soon, but Paul shoved his feelings back as he braced himself for the unknown. "Approaching the Glenn."
"Disco One, confirm visual acquisition." Came a voice from the com, but no one replied straight away as they all stared at the Glenn as she hung in space, a ghostly shadow without lights or activity. On the surface of the hull, he could see where the hyphae had been growing out on the actual surface of the ship; the expanding circle of mycelium forming what would have once been called a fairy ring.
"You see the etchings on the hull?" He pointed them out to Tilly, using it as an opportunity to learn rather than thinking about his own feelings. "That's evidence of catastrophic basidiosac rupture." In places they had actually breached the hull.
"Basidiosac? That's an unfamiliar term." Burnham spoke up, and he turned to scowl at her. He didn't want her input; he didn't want to remember she was there at all! This war was her fault and therefore she shared some blame in whatever accident had occurred on board the Glenn.
"You're out of your depth here, non-Vulcan number cruncher." He informed her as calmly as he could. "Seen and not heard, please." Although, he wasn't going to be watching her unless he had to.
But she was apparently unable to sit quietly. "Basidia refers to spore-producing structures. The numbers I've been analysing have been consistent with organic structures." He clenched his jaw as she spoke, fighting down his need to start an argument, trying to keep his temper under control. "You mentioned the term 'bloom', that typically refers to biological-"
"Are you trying to show everyone how smart you are?" he asked, stopping her observations as he turned back to watch her. Did she feel a need to justify her presence on this boarding party by bragging about how she was so clever?
"I'm trying to get up to speed so that I can help with this mission." But no quick recap was going to make her useful on this mission to him. She wasn't one of the protective detail as she wasn't allowed a weapon and even if she had a good understanding of science, as her background at the Vulcan Science Academy implied, he had no way of explaining the specifics of his project to her quickly enough for her to help once they got down to the labs. "In what is our problem based, biology or physics?"
And there was the problem he'd observed with Vulcan education; it was too rigid. ""Are you really so naïve as to see them as different?" He questioned, wondering if her human nature would open her up to a more flexible approach.
"Sir?"
"On the quantum level, there is no difference between biology and physics. No difference at all." He held out his hands, trying to be clear. He didn't like her, but if she was determined to understand he'd at least make sure she could avoid annoying him with questions. "And you talk about spores. What are they? They are the progenitors of panspermia. They are the building blocks of energy across the universe." He felt a smile at his lips, lifting the fog of shock and misery for a moment as he explained the very basics of his work. "Physics and biology? No. Physics has biology."
"All right." She said softly, but he could see her trying to absorb what he was saying.
"I became an astromycologist because of the awe; awe at the miracle of life. I met Straal and we formed a partnership. We would get to the veins and muscles that hold our galaxies together. We would find truth." Not that they had really gotten into it before he had come across a sample of prototaxites stellaviatori while he'd been working as an engineering officer on the Penzance. It hadn't been more than a hobby before that. "We were happy in out lab, then your war started and Starfleet co-opted our research." He couldn't seem to stop talking, the need to let some of his pain out overpowering. "They split us up, put us in charge of two different teams so we could work twice as fast. Not for truth or to further Starfleet's mission statement of diplomacy and exploration, but for war. And now my friend and his colleagues are dead because of our research and I have to live with that; but if you think I'm okay handing my life's work over to that warmonger Lorca, you're wrong."
"Lieutenant Stamets, I sincerely have no idea what research you're involved in." She assured him, though she had been putting a fair effort into working it out. After all, she had exploited having Tilly as a roommate to gain access to the cultivation bay; as though he didn't check who had accessed the labs to find why Tilly was in there at 0200. The captain had ordered him to delete the video file of her breaking in and forget about it; forgetting wasn't something he could do, but he hadn't wanted to upset Tilly by reminding her that her roommate was a criminal, as he would end up explaining how he knew. "I never even intended to be here."
"Well, if Lorca wants you to be here." He looked at her, feeling an almost inappropriate urge to laugh. "I'm afraid your intentions are less than moot."
"Activating shuttle bay containment field override." The pilot relayed to the Discovery as he eased them in, the silence that had been left behind almost deafening until he spoke up, but his words did nothing to ease the tension that had settled.
"Pilot, stay with the ship." Landry instructed as she stood up, checking her weapon as she moved.
"Affirmative."
"Kowski, let's move out."
They headed out into the ship. The air was cooler, hinting at problems with the adaptive life support conditions that the Glenn was supposed to have, but it didn't really matter. All the power was out, even emergency, but they'd brought torches along.
"All the power relays and redundancies must be shot. Is that normal?" Landry asked, as they walked along.
"Nothing's normal after an accident like this." He said, not quite unkindly though he couldn't help the stress in his voice.
They walked in silence, pausing briefly to scan the fungal threads that had spread over the walls. Paul wondered if the ship's life support system had adjusted to support the mushrooms instead, recalling how the original sample had been from a cooler setting.
However, it wasn't long until they came across bodies; twisted and mutilated in horrific ways and he had to shut his eyes, drawing a deep breath as he shuddered. "I never anticipated injuries like this. Cadet, scan to determine if the helical trauma to the body is related to the spiral markings on the ship's hull." Because he didn't want to do an analysis through observation for this when they had a tricorder modified well enough to manage.
"There's correlation." She confirmed, but once she'd gotten the data, she put her tricorder away again.
"Engineering is this way."
As they stepped along, a noise behind them caused Burnham to flinch and spin around, her light moving over where they had been, but Paul kept his own on the floor, wanting to make sure he didn't step on anyone who had been wandering about during a black alert.
And there were more than a few bodies, curled in on themselves and warped in what looked like agonising positions; he hoped they'd died instantly. A burst of electricity made them jump, but he couldn't quite see what had caused it.
Eyes still on the ground, Paul scowled as he spotted a bat'leth ahead of them. "Look." He pointed it out, wondering if the crew had been attacked before a manoeuvre which had caused the problem.
"Klingons." Grouched Landry as she led the way, carefully taking in their surroundings to make sure they weren't ambushed.
"Could this mean that they know about the device?" Tilly asked softly, the fearful note in her voice letting Paul know she realised the seriousness of the idea.
He glanced back at her. "If they do, it's all over."
The cadet got her tricorder out again, scanning the area as they went; he let her do it, maybe viewing things through the tricorder screen was easier than actually seeing them, the sense of work dulling the horror.
But it was hard not to flinch as they spotted a lift door that had failed to shut, the walls surrounding it draped with bloody entrails which hung from the network of fungal threads that had ruptured through the walls; there was enough power still going through to allow the door to open and shut, trying to close on the remains of a leg.
The Klingon bodies here were twisted up like the Starfleet crew, but they had been ripped apart by something. Landry must have noticed this as she spoke up. "Why aren't their bodies braided up?"
"Because they didn't die in the initial accident." He realised. "They probably boarded after spying a crippled Federation ship with no life signs. They beamed on to steal our tech." and both the Glenn and the Discovery had a fair bit of experimental technology on board; from newer projects like the immersion rooms which could be used for combat or medical training to older ones like replicators, which had developed from food synthesisers and were now being used for producing clothing and small parts; none of it ready for general use in the Federation, but good enough to be integrated into the systems of a science ship.
"What the hell could do this to a dozen fully armed Klingons?" hissed Burnham, the tension of the situation evident in her voice.
Paul glanced about, noticing the walls in this section; not only were they covered in blood and plant matter, but the actual metal had been cut up. "Over here." He stepped over for a closer look. "This hull is double-reinforced. What could tear through this metal?" but a loud noise pulled his attention away.
"You in the shadows, show yourself!" Tilly called out, her tricorder now on the floor as she armed her phaser. Kowski turned his weapon in the same direction and Landry did another visual sweep of the area.
A Klingon stepped forward, a finger to its lips as it hushed her. For a brief moment, it was honestly one of the strangest things Paul had ever seen.
"Is he shushing you?" Landry sounded utterly bemused as well, her weapon now trained on the Klingon.
But a moment later, they saw why they needed to be quiet. Something pulled the Klingon back, and all of them realised that it had to be what had taken out the warriors.
"Run!" exclaimed Burnham unnecessarily as they all moved.
"To engineering!" he yelled, setting off down the corridors that now resembled the Discovery in nothing more than layout.
"Set phasers to kill!" yelled Landry as she fired back at the pursuing creature, but it didn't seem to slow the thing down. "Kowski, no!" She yelled suddenly, and through the open door, Paul could see the security ensign getting pulled away by the thing.
His shrieks were cut off as the door to the engineering labs clunked shut.
"What was that thing?" asked Burnham as they stepped into the room.
Paul had no answers for her though, instead wanting to get to work so they could leave. "Burnham, download the ship's logs. Tilly, pull all telemetry and check the spore containment status."
But just behind the cadet was a face he recognised, warped as it was. Straal… The reality shook him, and he crouched beside the body of his oldest friend. "Oh God… I'm sorry, my friend." He didn't want to see this, but for a moment it was impossible to look away.
The creature must have finished with Kowski, he realised in a detached kind of way, as it began thumping against the doors to get in. After what damage it had done to the metal of the ship in the corridor, it probably wouldn't take too long.
"Log data's corrupted." Burnham noted as she tapped away at a station, continuing in her task despite the distractions.
"Sir, there's some kind of navigational hack over here." Tilly pointed out, as she scanned a device on Straal's station.
"Get what you're getting please." Landry hurried them.
Stepping around his friend, Paul pulled out a storage box out. "This is coming with us. Help me get it off." Together, they quickly disconnected it from the computer and as Paul worked on the fastenings that held it in place, Tilly stepped out with her tricorder again.
"There's some kind of device in the reaction cube." She noted as Paul placed the first device it the box.
"Well, we'll take it with us." He told her, pulling the box over to add the next device to it. He just pulled the cables out on this one with less care, helping Tilly to get it all in before he shut the box and they carried it over to the door, which Landry was trying to open with the blunt force of her weapon fire. "Can we go now please?"
"Not gonna burn through this in time." Landry said as the creature visibly bashed into the other one.
Burnham suddenly moved, her eyes on the other end of the lab.
"What are you doing?" Tilly asked.
"One Federation ship is pretty much like another, I hope." Paul watched her, not bothering to point out that it would only be familiar if she'd studied the Discovery's schematics. "I need a phaser." She checked something before turning back towards them.
Landry kept her attention on where her weapon was aimed, even as she replied "Mutineers don't get phasers."
"You won't kill it." Tilly said, unable to quell the fear in her voice.
"I'm not trying to kill it. I'm trying to piss it off." She explained, and Paul decided that even a mutineer would want to live, so he took out his own, unused phaser and tossed it over to her.
As the creature broke through, she called out to it and fired, distracting the thing and running over to the Jeffries tubes.
"We're through." Landry pulled their attention back from where the creature was trying to co-ordinate itself well enough to fit through the small gap. "Move! Move! Move!"
And at her wave, Paul and Tilly hurried through with their storage box. None of them spoke as they moved towards the shuttle bay, going as quickly as they could with the heavy equipment. But other than stumbling over occasional bodies now that they no longer had enough lights to see where they were going, they didn't encounter any problems.
"In you get." Landry shouted as she stayed behind them. "Pilot, start the engines!"
"Wait!" cried Tilly. "We can't leave yet."
Paul dropped the box and ran to the com. "Burnham, we're in the shuttle. What is your location?"
"Jeffries tube. Elevate the shuttle two hundred feet, rear quarter above the shield replacement units. Open the top hatch." She replied, and with a nod from Landry, the pilot followed her instructions.
They all took a seat as the shuttle moved, and moments later Burnham dropped through the hatch. "Go!" she yelled, and they left the Glenn behind.
The ride back was done it total silence, Tilly not needing to fill the gap in the conversation this time; Paul couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not.
As soon as they were back, he contacted Collins to sort out having someone put the new equipment away until he was ready to look at it, then headed back to his quarters.
"Commander Saru to Lieutenant Collins." The com panel chirped before he'd even gotten his boots off.
"Yes sir?" He knew he sounded exhausted, but he didn't care.
"We will be… saying goodbye to the Glenn at 2000, if you wish to join us on the bridge for it." Saru informed him.
Paul shook his head before speaking up. "No, thank you sir." He just wanted to switch off now, to stop his mind from whirling.
"Understood." Saru hesitated for a moment, likely wondering if he ought to give words of comfort, but the kelpian simply ended the call there.
Paul showered quickly, not wanting to slow down; but once he was dressed, he realised that he wasn't yet ready to work on his report. He dropped to the sofa, his legs giving out as he stared at the PADD he had put on the table.
Writing about what had happened, what he had seen… he couldn't do that yet. It was useless to deny that Straal was dead, but he couldn't face putting it down into an unfeeling, fact-based report yet.
He reached out and touched the PADD though, wondering how much data Burnham had managed to extract from the corrupted files… Straal had always done his reports orally. He really should find out what went wrong, or have a look at Tilly's tricorder readings and see everything from the safety of his quarters. Maybe it would be better to record a message for Straal's dad? He'd met the man quite a few times over the years and he'd be heart-broken to hear about this from Starfleet… but he wasn't sure what he could say, or what the official story would be.
Fingers clenching around the PADD, even though the screen was still blank, he stared at nothing at all. His breath was shorter, he noted, his mind trying to analyse what was happening physically, shying away from the emotional pain that was beginning to bubble over. His eyes were blurred and his skin was probably a horribly, blotchy red. He could feel the tears falling down his burning cheeks as his head was filled with the loud ringing that usually accompanied a migraine.
The door to their quarters opened, but Paul didn't need to look up to know it was Hugh. He'd recognise the feel of those arms anywhere. His husband didn't speak, but simply held him through the moment. He almost wanted to speak, to explain himself to Hugh, but it was kind of a relief to know that he didn't need to.
"You kind of stink." He croaked eventually, pulling away enough to attempt a smile.
"I know." Hugh winced slightly, but shifted a little to pull out his tricorder and scan him, the familiar gesture almost a comfort. "I'll get you a hypo for that headache and then I want you to drink something before to go to sleep. Okay?"
He nodded slowly, tipping his head as Hugh gave him the medicine then staggering over to get a drink. He hadn't realised how thirsty he was, but he forced himself to sip it as Hugh stripped off and headed to the shower.
He just wanted to sleep. As though going to sleep would wake him up from this reality. As though it was a nightmare that could just be forgotten. He lay on the bed and shut his eyes, waiting for Hugh to join him.
But the sound of the com panel pulled Paul from his hazy rest, the incessant buzzing impossible to ignore. A glance at the caller ID told him it was a video call from Earth, so he scrubbed a hand through his hair and sat on the sofa to answer.
"Uncle Paul!" yelled the little girl as soon as it connected.
He smiled softly as he saw her brilliant grin, which was impossible not to reciprocate in some form. "Hey Gracie. Hey Anna, where's Berko?" It wasn't often Hugh's sister called, but she usually had her husband with her as well as her daughter.
"Dad's at work!" Grace complained, pulling a face to let him know just how boring her dad's work was.
"He's on a training course." Anna laughed, flicking playfully at her daughter's ear. "It's a bit like school." She stage whispered, smiling as Grace suddenly gasped.
"I've started at my school, Uncle Paul."
"What's it like?" He asked, relaxing as the girl's rambling took his mind away from his grief. It wasn't anything difficult and he didn't need to do anything more than say a few words now and again, but her chattering was wonderful to hear.
Eventually, Hugh came and sat beside him, smelling far fresher than he had before and he did a far better job of engaging his niece in conversation. Listening to his family talking away, Paul managed to fall asleep without focussing on everything that had happened that day.
LANDRY-VISION
"Well? Was she as good as her record said she once was?"
"She was useful, in the end. She must've studied the layout of Discovery's Jeffries tubes already which meant she could distract that creature and get away."
Lorca raised his brow as he leaned against the desk in his ready room. "Creature? Is that what killed the crew?"
Ellen shook her head. "I'm not sure what happened to them. Their bodies were twisted up like… I don't know. Their jaws were half a foot away from their noses but still attached to their bodies. I've never seen anything like it." And she never wanted to again. "This creature was something else though."
"Go from the start." He instructed, and she took a moment to pull her thoughts together. She hadn't really explained anything yet.
"Lieutenant Stamets noticed that there were etchings on the hull of the Glenn." She said, opting to leave out his rant; he'd been sent on a mission to investigate the death of a close friend so she wouldn't hold the stress against him. She only knew that because Dr Culber had arrived while Stamets had been getting ready and informed her that one of the engineers on the Glenn, Ensign Straal, was an old, close friend of their Chief Engineer's. "When we got on board, the power was out and the bodies were…"
"Deformed." He said, a little coldly, but that was just her captain's way.
"Yes sir. There were Klingon bodies on board, in full battle gear, but they were all dead."
"How?" he stepped out from behind his desk to stand beside her. "Twisted up too?"
"No sir." She stated. "These had been ripped apart by that creature. It had torn holes in the metal of the ship too."
"Really?" He turned to look out at the Glenn, as though he could assess the creature from here.
"Yes sir."
"I want to have a look at that thing."
"We'll need somewhere to store it. Its claws are stronger than anything I've ever encountered." She pointed out, but the captain was turning back to her.
"I know just the place. My private research room has a containment pen. It's metal, but the shielding can be adapted to cover any weaknesses it might make."
"I'll go get that sorted, sir."
"Thank you, Commander." He dismissed her, and she headed off to the transporter room.
Some called him a harsh captain, unfeeling and heartless after what had happened to the Buran, but she didn't care. It had reshaped who he was perhaps, but now he was focussed on winning this war and he was willing to do whatever was needed to accomplish that task. Lieutenant Stamets had called him a warmonger and she'd heard others complaining about his desire to fight, but she didn't care.
He was her Captain and she believed that his drive and sharp-thinking would help them win this war.
He had her loyalty.