Chapter Three

Troubling News

Doctor Philip Boyce glanced out the door from his office situated at the back of the large state of the art infirmary section of the Enterprise as the doors swooshed open. He smiled warmly as he caught a glimpse of the Admiral as she spotted him and began to make her way across the room.

A long time ago when Boyce had been younger and Cornwell a newly graduated student he'd been her mentor at Starfleet Medical back in San Francisco. She'd been ambitious and hungry to learn about the human mind and soul; about counseling. He'd cautioned her that he was merely a physician and not an expert in her field. Katrina had smiled at that and told him he was doing fine and that she appreciated his company, that he took time for her and saw to it that she got the help she needed. A year later Katrina had moved on to fully train as a psychologist and she'd been good at it. Then one day she'd simply vanished from Medical and, after tracking her down, he'd found her in the lower ranks of Starfleet Command. He had asked her how she could throw away a perfectly good career on a whim but she'd smiled at him and told him she wasn't satisfied with just counseling other people, she wanted more.

Boyce had accepted her reply and followed her career at a distance, still proud of his old pupil and what she'd become.

"Philip," she said warmly as she embraced him in a hug.

"Katrina," he replied fondly. "It's been a long time."

She nodded sadly and took a step back.

The old doctor looked at her with concern, it had been a long time since he'd last seen her so indecisive and upset as she was at the moment – of course people who didn't know her would never pick up on it but he could easily see through her façade.

Katrina glanced around the room until her eyes landed on a very familiar figure in a secluded area of the large sickbay, not too far away from the old doctor's office.

Boyce followed her gaze toward his newest patient and sighed inwardly. "An enigma," my junior doctor called him," he said softly.

"Philip," she said kindly as she stole yet another glance at the unconscious form of Gabriel Lorca. "Are you sure it's really him?"

He nodded, there was no hesitation on his part. "Admiral I understand your doubts but I can assure you that this man is our Gabriel Lorca. I've documented everything, the scrapes from his youth are there again, the ones no regeneration of the skin can ever hide, the ones that seemed to have disappeared when he was retrieved from what was left of the USS Buran."

Katrina Cornwell let out a shaky breath as she dared to hope again. "So my Gabriel is dead?" her own words echoed in her head, they had for a long time now, ever since she'd uttered them the first time; ever since she'd learned about the impostor wearing his face.

"Katrina," Philip said softly to call on her attention. "It really is Captain Lorca," he assured her. "Go and sit with him for a moment but, please, don't expect him to wake up any time soon. I'll brief you on his condition when you're ready."

Kat hesitated for a moment at the edge of the biobed. She took another glance at the monitors as if to ensure herself that the man before her really was, if not well, but alive. The good old Doctor Boyce nodded at her with a small smile as if to encourage her, to instill in her the lack of confidence she was currently displaying.

Philip sighed and wearily reached up to rub his forehead as he turned away from his old friend and his patient. He didn't personally know Gabriel Lorca but one look at Katrina's face told him she held dearly of the man despite everything that had happened. The fact remained, however, that the captain had a long road of recovery ahead of him and not only that but he had to endure the wrath of people he didn't know. He had to, somehow, answer for what his counterpart had done even though it wasn't fair of any of the others to ask that of him.

The simple truth was that Lorca would have to fight hard just to regain the trust from the rest of the Fleet and to rebuild the bonds the other man had broken. The old doctor shuddered, he just hoped that the captain would be able to do so and he hoped that everything he'd endured while waiting for the rescue hadn't been for nothing.

Phil shook his head sadly as he began to walk toward his office, the thoughts of another captain suddenly on his mind, his captain and friend – Christopher Pike. The crew of the Enterprise was still on the mend from their mysterious encounter with a phenomena no one had ever seen before. The ship's systems were continuing to malfunction. As late as last night all the replicators in the mess hall been overloading, creating a cascading system error on the entire deck. Several crewmen had been injured in the commotion but no one had ended up being fatally wounded.

Boyce sighed as he sat down in his office chair. He was feeling old all of a sudden and dejected. He still couldn't phantom what had transpired while they'd been away on their deep space exploration. That there had been a war between the Federation and the Klingons, started by an incident at a Binary star system by Philippa Georgiou's XO. The woman who happened to be the adopted sister to Spock of all people. Philip reached up with his palms to rub his forehead as he felt the beginning of a headache.

"Spock," he whispered sadly as he recalled that the Vulcan had left the ship earlier without much of an explanation. "What happened to you?"

Christopher hadn't been very talkative the following day after his science officer had left the ship. Philip remembered that clearly. In fact the captain had looked agitated and frustrated but he hadn't called him on it. Chris could be stubborn at times, like the time just before the kidnapping on Talos IV when he'd practically told him he'd resign, that life as a Starfleet captain wasn't anything for him.

The doctor had huffed at that. Pike was the definition of a Starfleet captain. He was kind, diplomatic and caring of others. He could also be a soldier when required and he was a splendid tactician. The fact remained; unless he hadn't been so good at his job Starfleet would never have trusted him with the Flagship of the Fleet.

Now Boyce could only hope he would see his captain again, alive. The 'Red Angel' had only created chaos so far and the doctor felt threatened by it. The crew of the Discovery had been through a lot and they'd been duped by the mirror image of the man now occupying one of the beds in his sickbay. He knew Christopher was good with people and easy to trust but he was still worried. Even if the captain wouldn't hesitate to do everything in his power to make sure his crew was all right it wasn't necessarily the other way around and Philip only regretted he couldn't be there to look after him.

OOOOOO

Una sighed in frustration, her hands gripping the consoles of the captain's chair as the Enterprise suddenly dropped out of warp. "Report," she demanded.

"I have no power," the helmsman replied with frown. "Not even thrusters."

"We're starting to drift," Lieutenant Amin cautioned.

"Engineering," Una shouted through the now open com channel. "What's going on?"

"Another system malfunction, ma'am," Louvier shouted to make himself heard over the klaxons. "It's cascading thorough the ship!"

Una jumped as something sparked in front of her.

The helmsman gasped as he was jolted out of his seat, his console exploding. Lieutenant Amin quickly made her way over to tend to her colleague.

"Bridge to sickbay, medical emergency!" Lieutenant Nicola shouted as Una took up her conversation with the chief engineer. "Can we make it to the Starbase?"

"Negative, Number One," Louvier replied curtly. "At least not at once. We're operating with good old flashlights down here at the moment, the bulkheads have closed off several sections. I have injured crewmen here."

"Have you notified sickbay?" she asked seriously.

"Yes, ma'am, I'll get back to you as soon as I know more."

Una stared at the communications panel on her armrest for a moment and then got out of her chair and knelt next to the acting helmsman, her own regular position when Chris was onboard. "DePaul?" she asked softly. "You'll be all right, just calm down and take deep breaths. A medic will be here shortly to tend to you."

OOOOOO

Katrina Cornwell steadied herself on the edge of the biobed next to Gabriel and frowned in confusion as the Enterprise began a rapid deceleration and, had she not been gripping the frame of the bed so hard that her knuckles was turning white, she would have been thrown to the floor as the ship veered hard to port only to come to a complete stop a few seconds later. The lights dimmed almost immediately in the room and a low warning klaxon sounded for Red Alert.

Katrina took one last look at Gabriel who seemed to be oblivious to his surroundings before she hastily left the room in order to get to the bridge. Stepping out in the corridor of deck five her ears where assaulted by the much higher klaxon that seemed to echo through the small space, creating a funnel effect. Red lights flashed angrily and crewmen and officers alike dashed toward designated areas. The Admiral reached the turbolift and got in. She quickly grabbed the stick in order to engage the elevator. "Bridge," she commanded.

A moment later she stepped out in a rather calm environment, the klaxons had been turned off and the red light muted in the background. Una glanced at her as she made her way over to the injured man.

"What's happening?" the Admiral demanded.

"Multiple malfunctions in several systems at once," the commander reported dutifully. "We have injured crewmen across the ship, engineering reports the drive system is down. At this point we're dead in the water."

The Admiral sighed. She knew the Enterprise was in need for an overhaul and extensive repairs, still, when Pike had assured her they'd make it to the rendezvous with the Discovery on their own and that the systems appeared to be working properly at the time, she'd expected that the trip to Starbase two would be an uneventful one.

"Shields are down!" the junior tactical officer shouted suddenly.

"Send a priority one distress call," Number One replied calmly. "As soon as we have even an ounce of power we're diverting to space dock San Francisco. I don't care how many ships there are in line we'll park on top of a smaller vessel if we have too. Admiral Cornwell, before we arrive I can have a shuttle ready for departure. If you let one of my pilots accompany you and put it directly into orbit you can safely transport Captain Lorca and yourself directly to Starbase Medical before we dock. That way I hope to avoid putting him on public display."

A faint smile appeared on the older woman's face. She'd underestimated the cunning of Christopher Pike's XO. In order to satisfy both the Enterprise's needs and Captain Lorca's Una chose to contact SFC directly and Starfleet Medical on a secure channel. Katrina nodded in appreciation. She should have known, she should have expected this. This was not a science vessel with a basic trained crew only, this was the Flagship. She'd somehow forgotten that, lost her faith in the powers of humankind during the war. This was Christopher's ship, a man in which she had absolute confidence and faith.

"Thanks, Commander," Kat managed. "If you need me I'll be in sickbay."

OOOOOO

To be continued