Chapter 4: The Power that's Inside

The first target for solutions to the cloaking issue was a complete bust. It was just a planet with structures made of glass, but they weren't actually invisible. Then the Discovery got called to Starbase 10 for a sequence of dull administrative issues. The war slowed down anyway. The Klingons backed off for a time after the destruction of L'Rell's forces.[1]

Starbase 10 was not primarily military and had shopping and attractions, which most of the crew badly desired. Stamets spent some time on the Glenn, which had been transferred here, and tried to fix the spore drive. Command wasn't certain what to do with the second spore drive-propelled ship. On the one hand, another ship like that could help win the war. On the other hand, they still weren't certain Stamets was not about to grow truffles from his ears. After his feat with Toto, a number of people wanted to be injected with tardigrade DNA. Culber predicted it would be the height of fall fashion.

Burnham tried to get Yana to have some fun on the starbase, but beyond checking the electronic bookstore, Yana wasn't interested. Burnham didn't persist and went to help Stamets with the Glenn, anything to be away from Ash Tyler. She discovered that whenever she was around the lieutenant, she had trouble deciding what to say and couldn't look at him without getting sweaty palms and an elevated heartrate. Although she'd never had a crush on anyone before, she knew what the signs meant and didn't have time for this. Or anyway, she convinced herself she didn't have time for this.

Lorca and Saru participated in meetings and dull administrative stuff. Lorca reviewed strategies and tried to understand Stamets' science in the evenings. He forgot about Yana so she decided to visit without warning. She found him looking at a hologram of two ships, one Klingon, one Federation.

"I finished Treasure Island," she said.

"Great…great," said Lorca distractedly. "I never cared for any of the movies, but I liked the cartoon "Treasure Planet." The flying ships were quite…memorable."

He didn't tell her to leave so Yana came over and looked at the holograms. The Federation vessel was called the USS Buran. Yana looked at the captain expectantly and because he was so used to rambling on about George Lucas or Disney when he was around her, he started to describe the scene he'd called up in front of them.

"The Buran was my ship for ten years. I had a terrific crew. We went through a lot together. In the first battle of the war, The Battle of the Binary Stars, my ship took a big hit. We lost weapons and almost all shields. We were just sitting ducks. A Klingon vessel got us with a tractor beam. We decided to blow up the ship. We set a timer and rushed to the escape pods. I helped carry the injured as long as I could, but the ship was so damaged and parts kept exploding. I was seriously wounded. I tried but I couldn't keep going. My First Officer, Landry, dragged me to an escape pod. I protested that I wouldn't leave the ship until all my crew members were safe, but she left me in the escape pod. I blacked out and didn't find out what happened until later. Another Federation ship self-destructed and the Klingons realized mine would do the same. They released the tractor beam and flew off to a safe distance before shooting at my ship and speeding up the self-destruct sequence. Eighty percent of my crew didn't make it."

Lorca didn't wait for Yana to say she was sorry or anything, he just waved at the hologram and added, "I've gone over the situation countless times, using the computer to calculate if there was a way it could have been avoided. So far it's found six."

He canceled the hologram and picked up a fortune cookie, but he didn't open it. He said, "But what would you know about it? You come from some celestial sphere of immortals where sorrow and pain never trouble you. You've never lost anyone."

Yana felt like she'd been slammed with something. She'd come in, expecting to laugh about Treasure Island or whatever, and instead got hit with some cold, hard reality. She felt it would almost be a crime to say what she wanted to say, or at least something of little consequence. The captain seemed unapproachable now. She didn't know if she would have spoken or just left, probably never to bother him again despite how much she liked him, but he spoke her mind for her.

"But I guess you're never had anyone, hmm? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you all of that. Don't let Burnham or Saru know I've been running these simulations. They'll say it's unhealthy or something. Come back some other time. I think I'll drink alone tonight."

Yana continued to stand there, trying to formulate something.

"You really don't have to say anything," said Lorca.

"I'm really sorry about the Klingon ship!" Said Yana.

"So am I, so am I."

"Not that one…of course that one, but I mean the one that I conjured up to make it look like it attacked you. The fake one. I'm really sorry I did that. It was a mean trick and I scared everyone and I'd never do it again."

"Oh, I hardly thought about that again. We have a lot of close calls here. Can't get fixated on them. It was an impressive maneuver, anyhow."

"It was mean."

"I forgive you. Now run along."

Yana felt confused and relieved and didn't move. Lorca pushed her down onto a chair with wheels and kicked it out the door. She slammed into the wall opposite. Stamets came by, humming something and skipping a little. He rolled the chair with Yana down the hall and at one point, kicked off and let them drive forward until they ground to a stop. A few people looked at them weird, but not as weird as they would have before Stamets injected himself with tardigrade and fungal DNA.

"What'd you do to get kicked out of the captain's office?" He asked. "Did you talk about feelings?"

"Um…I guess," said Yana.

Before she could get off, Stamets spun her in the chair until she felt sick.

After she left, Lorca sat on a couch for a while with a glass of whiskey, staring out the window and remembering those last few hours on his old ship. If only he'd avoided getting hit with that piece of debris he'd be…as dead as Landry? Would that be better? Or maybe they could have disrupted the tractor beam like Lorenza did at the recent battle. Maybe they could have warped out of there? But the warp drive was already busted. The computer suggested that if only they'd been faster at setting up the self-destruct sequence, most people would have had time to escape. But time had not been on their side…

These useless, frenetic thoughts spun around the captain's mind and if Klingons had attacked them at that very moment, he would have been incapable of any productive action.

He was back to business the next day and went searching for Yana to make sure she was not upset about getting shoved out on a chair. The daily log said she should be in the turboshaft doing some work. Lorca hadn't been in the turboshaft in months and decided to find her. Behind the unassuming walls of Discovery was a network of shafts, cooling coils, rails, wires, circuits and other space-agey machinery that basically only the maintenance engineers saw. Lorca, however, knew his ship very well and soon found Lorenza sitting on a bucket on a ledge next to a six pack.

"Busted," she said.[2]

"It's OK, I'm not going to tell anyone who cares," said Lorca. "Not unless you share."

"It's pretty disgusting stuff, but hey, beggars can't be choosers."

Lorca sat on some large tubing and took a beer. They watched Yana high up the wall in front of them, working very quickly. She rappelled from layer to layer and even from below, Lorca could tell she looked worried.

"Are you under some deadline?" He asked.

"She's a great kid. Kind, imaginative, but lazy...and gullible. I told her the ship would blow up if she didn't get the work done in under an hour."

"That's kind of evil, Lieutenant Lorenza."

She just took another beer.

"Didn't alcohol get you demoted?" Asked Lorca.

"Twenty years ago, it was another life."

"You could have been captain, even after that debacle."

"I chose something else. I'm sure you've looked me up."

"Just what exactly did you and your friends do to some statue?"

"Thankfully I don't remember with what or how we defaced the statue. I will say no more on the subject."

"What happened to the treaty?"

"Annulled. They're still not talking to us."

They watched Yana some more. She dropped her omnitool down the shaft and started to cry. Lorca looked meaningfully at Lorenza but she made no move to help Yana or tell her it was a trick. Yana managed without the tool.

"This really is dreadful beer," said Lorca. "I haven't had anything this bad since I was 16. You should come have a glass of whiskey with me sometime."

"As long as you're not watching anything about elves or dwarves."

"What do you like to watch?"

"People. But if you mean on TV, then I guess occasionally I like to see that angry chef yell at folks that think they can cook."[3]

Lorca went back to work, but not before glancing at his tablet again where he'd pulled up Lorenza's biography. Top of her class, a brilliant engineer, and a gifted commander, she had a weakness for parties. Her crew spent months convincing some planet to let the Federation use its dilithium reserves. At the party to celebrate the successful collaboration, Lorenza and her friends got seriously messed up and convinced some of the locals, who'd never drunk before, to join them. They trashed a palace and defaced some statue that honored a sacred martyr. Lorenza was demoted and sent home. Instead of working her way back up the ranks, Lorenza married and spent a few years raising her son before taking a job as an engineering instructor at the Academy. Her husband was a scientist and when their son got older, they all went on expeditions together. Lorenza was not with her husband and son when their vessel was attacked by space marauders who left no survivors.

Speaking of parties, Discovery's Recreation and Entertainment Department (yes, there was such a thing, Tilly was part of it) decided to have one to dispel tension or something. The Klingons were clearly planning trouble and putting people on edge. A party was not really for commanders and bridge personnel, so Burnham and all the rest sat up on the bridge discussing tactics like a bunch of nerds (as Lorca put it, though he was one of them).

General Rhys was on the bridge in a red cape for the fourth day in a row. He didn't have a nickname yet and decided he wanted it to be Dr. Strange. Lorca explained that it didn't work that way. The crew didn't get to choose their nicknames, only he did. But he let Rhys keep wearing the cape, though at one point he yelled at Rhys to duck behind his console when Admiral Cornwell suddenly demanded to speak with them. Lorca had enough strikes against him without Cornwell asking why he let people parade in clown clothing.

"Pikachu, what do you think of this?" Asked Lorca and pointed at some Klingon ships on a map.

Ash Tyler voiced his opinion that the ships were probably not planning an attack without commenting on his new nickname.[4] Burnham disagreed. If there were Klingon ships close to the border, they'd attack. What else was there for them to do? She thought it was time to stop pussy-footing around the enemy and go on the offensive.

"We can't go on the offensive until we can see them," said Tyler.

"There are ways to battle invisible ships," said Burnham. "We can lure them into nebulas or behind comets. We can scatter photon torpedoes. This can be worked out, we just need to sit down and plan it."

"The Federation is not some destructive empire bent on wiping out a species," said Tyler. "Once we disrupt their cloaking algorithm, it will scare them into submission."

"Klingons don't get scared!" Said Burnham. "Once they start fighting, they won't stop until most of them are wiped out. Or us. Captain, what do you think is the bigger picture? Offensive or defensive?"

"I think we all need to go down to that party and discuss this during beer pong. In fact, that's an order. We're all going to the party!"

They all went downstairs to the party though Saru complained that commanders and especially the captain must not behave this way. But everybody was so tired of wondering about what the Klingons would do and what they should do that even Burnham didn't protest. Saru and Airiam didn't actually make it to the party, they snuck back up to the bridge so it wouldn't be unattended and had as good a time as everybody else, chatting about strategy and Starfleet regulations.[5]

Tilly threw a necklace of Christmas tree lights around Burnham's neck and dragged her and Tyler to dance below a disco ball. Both were stiff and tense. Burnham didn't know how to dance and stepped on Tyler's toes.

"It's illogical for a species to fight until it's wiped out," she said. "We need to figure out what makes the Klingons tick, what could we threaten to make them back down."

"Are we seriously continuing that conversation?" Asked Tyler.

"Yes. I don't know of anything else to talk about."

"Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"I am Starfleet."

"OK, and more specifically…"

"You guys are shuffling back and forth like a pair of drunken penguins, and you haven't even touched the booze!" Said Lorca. "Where's Twinkletoes? I want to teach him to breathe fireballs. I think he'd have a knack for it."

"I don't think she knows how to dance," said Lorenza.

"She picks things up quickly. Let's show her," said Lorca.

He danced with Lorenza but not for long. She said something about being able to drink more than him so he foolishly challenged her to a drinking contest. Lorenza lined up twelve shot glasses in a row and quickly poured tequila into them, barely spilling any.

"This isn't going to end well for you," she said.

Five shots in, Lorenza looked smug and alert while Lorca slurred and swayed. He lifted up a sixth shot, asserting that he could do it, and fell face forward into a salad bowl. Lorenza and Yana dragged him up to his room. Burnham asked if sickbay wouldn't be better, after all, people die from alcohol overdose.

"I've been this way plenty of times," said Lorenza. "Trust me, he'll be less pissed off if he believes he made it back to his room by himself."

Burnham really did pick up some dance moves and enjoyed herself. Tyler made her promise to reveal one personal detail to him every day, even if it was something as mundane as which type of tea she prefers.

"What about you?" She asked. "Won't you reveal a personal detail every day?"

"No, I will answer any question you ask of me. But you have to ask."

"So I have to ask and tell? Why am I doing all the work?"

"So that eventually you stop thinking of it as work."

"Fine. Today I will tell you that…I have not talked to my brother since I graduated from Vulcan Academy."

"Oh, wow, you picked a big one. I don't really know what to say about that. I guess I'm sorry? Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Burnham decided she didn't really want to talk about it, and that was fine. One of her Christmas tree lightbulbs went out and the rest went out too. Burnham quickly realized they'd been connected in series (the theme of the party was the 1990s) and took a knife from the cake to strip the wire and re-connect the ones that weren't broken. Tyler helped, or rather, got in the way. Burnham accidentally nicked him and apologized over and over.

"This is serious. I have to go to sickbay," he said.

"If it gets infected, it could be serious," said Burnham.

"I could disinfect it with tequila."

"I'd rather take you to sickbay."

But they stopped near a window and Burnham finished fixing the lights. Something about the reflection of 1990s holiday lights against a backdrop of stars brought out the emotional side of her and she kissed Tyler.

The next day Burnham met Lorca in the elevator on the way to the bridge. She didn't feel nearly as mad at him as usual. Yesterday's experience left her uplifted. She still couldn't resist a few stern warnings, especially when they entered the bridge and everybody started to whisper.

"It's just not appropriate for a captain to pass out drunk at a party," she said. "Everybody's whispering about you. You're bound to get another summons to HR."

"Ye of little faith," said Lorca. "They're not whispering about me, they're whispering for me. Right, Owosekun?"

Owo winked at him and Detmer gave him a thumbs up. They even had the lights dimmed in consideration. Rhys excused himself and soon returned with a cup of coffee for the captain.[6] Lorca took it and watched him through narrowed eyes. Then he shrugged.

"Thank you, Dr. Strange," he said.

People tittered about the Ash Tyler/Michael Burnham romance like there was nothing else to talk about, and there really wasn't. People talked a little about how Yana and the captain were making a movie, but that wasn't as interesting. Hugh Culber didn't much care for either topic. He wanted Tyler in for more scans, but the lieutenant kept coming up with excuses.

"Why do you want to scan his brain so much?" Asked Stamets. "You don't even want to scan my brain anymore and mine is a lot more enigmatic."

"Klingons are well-known for using subliminal messages and all sorts of mind-control tricks to make perfectly good, non-violent people kill their loved ones," said Culber.

"But you've already scanned his brain when he first came in and you know where to look for that stuff. It leaves a mark."

"I want longer scans and better resolution. This is for his own good. I don't suspect Tyler of harboring evil wishes against us, I'm worried the Klingons got to him without him even knowing. They tortured him for months and he doesn't remember? Hell no, he remembers! Even if they didn't brainwash him, the PTSD could kick in at any moment. It could cost lives. It's not possible for a person who suffered so much to be acting like life easily goes on and he can happily take on a new role and date like a normal person."

"What does the captain think?"

"I haven't told him yet. I'm worried my fears for Tyler's well-being will be misconstrued by the rest of the crew as unfounded suspicion. He's everybody's favorite now because of his relationship with Commander Burnham."

"I feel like you should tell somebody," said Stamets.

"I'm telling you."

"Oh, right. What are you going to do?"

"I'll prod him a little. Make him remember his duty to Starfleet and his crew. It's often pride that keeps people with PTSD from admitting to it, they feel that they can handle it or that they'll lose face if they seek help. But I'm not a ship's counselor. We could really use one but nobody's applied."

"Toto would have been a good ship's counselor!"

"Um…right."

Command finally settled on another target for cracking the Klingon's cloaking algorithm and Discovery flew over to a planet called Mirla. It had no sentient life that anybody knew of. Exploratory vessels had discovered (trodden on) invisible flowers, but they didn't do a systematic study. Saru volunteered to go since he loved flowers. Burnham and Tyler also took the opportunity to get off the ship. It seemed like a chance for some pleasant shore leave.

Before they left, Culber approached Tyler in the lieutenant's room.

"I highly recommend a few quick tests before you leave," said Culber. "It's always wise to make sure you're in the best of health before going to an unfamiliar planet."

"Why do you keep saying I'm not in good health? You've been hounding me since I joined. You're not bothering those two cadets from the Carthage."

"You were a captive much longer than them. I'm concerned…I know I'm not a soldier so how can I understand anything about you but I feel you're holding back a lot of emotions. We're all here to help you."

Tyler threw some stuff into a bag in an irritated manner. He buckled on his phaser slowly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said. "You're all here to help. I'm grateful. But I feel perfectly fine and I just want to beat the Klingons."

Culber considered leaving his plan until after Tyler came back from the planet, but he was tired of these conversations.

"Look, I didn't want to bring this up right before you leave," said Culber, "but I noticed an abnormality on one of your brain scans. I didn't want to worry you needlessly…"

"What abnormality?" Asked Tyler, suddenly angry and intense.

Culber showed him a brain scan he'd doctored. He traced some very faint structure and said it was probably nothing, but the resolution was not good enough and he really needed more data. Tyler became more and more upset. He went toward his closet, then back, wiping perspiration from his forehead.

"In 99% of cases, it's nothing," said Culber. "And even if it is pre-aneurysm clotting or some fibrous bundle, we can fix it. I just need to do another scan."

"Can you fix it without the scan?"

"Um…no. I need a better idea of what it is. If I do a procedure without knowing what it is, I could do more harm than good."

"OK, but I'm going down to the planet in 20 minutes."

"Just report to sickbay when you get back," said Culber.

Tyler forgot that he'd already packed and reached for some stuff again. He saw that his bag was full and clapped his hands together.

"Will you tell the captain?" He asked.

"I'll mention it in my report," said Culber.

"But seriously, what do you think it is?"

Culber felt he was getting close to something and, on a hunch, said, "Perhaps it's damage from the Klingon torture. I'm sure they beat you over the head a lot. Head injuries often only show up months after the event."

"But you just said it was nothing!" Yelled Tyler.

"And so it is. I'm just speculating on the cause. One of the other survivors developed bleeding in the brain weeks after we rescued her. Despite our best efforts to heal the body, we still miss things. The mind is an even darker matter."

Culber realized he'd accidentally made a sort of pun on gray/white matter of the brain and smiled. Tyler took the smile to mean something else entirely.

"Do you think the Klingons did something to my brain?" He asked.

"I was hoping you'd finally come through. Yes, I've been worried for a while that you are more seriously affected than you let on."

Tyler slowly moved so that he was between Culber and the door. Culber noticed that Tyler looked menacing and tried to comfort him.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. We all have things inside of us that we can't control without proper guidance. Just let us help you."

Things inside of us, thought Tyler. He knows.

"Mold, mold, mold!" Said Lorca. "There's mold everywhere! I found mold on my toast this morning. And those stupid flowers of yours have gotten loose too, Twinkles!"

"We live on a starship powered by a spore drive, captain," said Saru. "Of course there's mold everywhere. And I had to create a flowerbed for Toto so Stamets would keep the tardigrade in his room. A lot of people have asked for cuttings of the flowers. I think the ship looks quite lovely, like a flying garden."

"A flying garden is definitely going to scare the Klingons shitless."

Burnham waved to Tyler from the doorway of the shuttle. He hurried over, looking kind of pale. They were taking a shuttle instead of beaming down because some ionic interference prevented safe transportation.[7] Lorca went up to Burnham and handed her an object, a little red and white sphere. She tried to open it but it was just a piece of plastic.

"When Pikachu starts to annoy you, send him back to his Pokéball," said Lorca.

Tilly looked around the shuttle and said, "Pikachu never went into his Pokéball. That was a big issue in some of the episodes."

"Oh, Tyler isn't the Pikachu," said Lorca. "He's not the famous one. He's just some generic Pikachu."

"But why am I Pikachu and not Ash?" Asked Tyler.

Lorca ignored him and went into the shuttle to check a few things. Saru and the others took their seats. Lorca went back out.

"All right, get this over with quickly," he said. "I bet it's a waste of time. Don't bring back any more flowers unless they're useful for the cloaking thing. You hear that, Saru? The last thing we need is invisible flowers. And if you run into battery problems or engine malfunctions or something like that, Pikachu can shoot lightning out of his ass to charge the ship!"

Burnham piloted the shuttle into the planet's atmosphere. Saru played with the Pokéball, thinking it must be a puzzle after all.

"There must be something in here," he said. "Why would he give you a plain ball of plastic? It must be a test."

"You're reading into it too much," said Burnham. "He probably synthesized that thing one night while drunk. It's just meant to screw with you."

"I don't think he drinks a lot," said Tyler, "and if he does, maybe he should see…"

He trailed off, though he'd been about to say, "the doctor."

Burnham landed the shuttle and they set off exploring. Some really cute animals inhabited this planet and Burnham took pictures for Tilly. She captured a squirrel thing with two tails and horns that allowed itself to be coddled. Tyler ambled from spot to spot distractedly. Saru set up a field lab and inspected the invisible flowers. They responded to light, becoming visible when he put them in a dark box.

"If the flowers have to become invisible," asked Burnham, "shouldn't there be some predator they're hiding from? Is a giant gorilla going to crash out of the woods at us?"

Saru looked at some notes on the planet and concluded that the predator was a sort of deer, so, not dangerous. He suggested she take Tyler for a walk along the lake nearby. This expedition was clearly a dilatory measure undertaken by Command to keep Discovery out of the war. They spent so much time and money developing the spore drive and Command was too scared of the technology falling into the Klingons' hands to use it. The Battle of the Minefield, where Discovery got captured by the tractor beams, seriously freaked them out.

Burnham and Tyler strolled along the lake. Burnham could tell something was bothering Tyler. She figured it was the same thing that was bothering her, their inaction in the war.

"We're working on a way to disrupt two tractor beams at the same time without sending any tardigrades onto the Klingon ships," she said. "Command's worried the Klingons will catch us like that again."

"What if they get three tractor beams?"

"Then we'll also work on a way to disrupt three!"

"You're so…dedicated. I really like that about you."

"And I like how you're so patient and loyal."

She reached for him but he moved away, not meeting her eyes. Burnham started to ask what was wrong but his foot sank in mud and they went back to Saru's camp to dry out his boot. Saru wanted to go into the forest to look for different species of invisible plant. Tyler offered to go with him. Burnham worked on preserving the flower specimens. Some of them stayed invisible when dried and some did not. She tried to figure out why until it occurred to her that Tyler and Saru had been gone a long time.

"I don't understand why such an intelligent person would spend so much time drawing bug-eyed girls in skimpy outfits," said Lorenza.

Yana just grunted from her bed and continued drawing scenes for her movie. Lorca called her up to his ready room to meet somebody. It was Admiral Malek, finally well enough to travel. He stood up to greet Yana but didn't offer to shake her hand. She noticed that he wore gloves.

"Show Malek what you've been working on," said Lorca.

Yana proffered the sketchbook on her tablet.

"What kind of species is this?" Asked Malek, looking at a girl with floppy dog ears.

"I meant show him the plans for the dual tractor beam disruptor," said Lorca.

"Oh, that," said Yana, and called up the plans.

Malek examined the plans for a long time, ignoring the humans. Then he randomly switched back to Yana's anime sketches.

"These were not all drawn by you," he said.

"The captain…," said Yana, then stuttered, thinking that maybe Lorca didn't want other people to know he helped her.

"I drew the fight scenes for her," said Lorca.

"I didn't know you could draw," said Malek.

"I have hidden talents."

"If only you'd hide the one you have for getting into trouble. Have I heard correctly that you hired a creative team to make this into a real movie?"

"Well, yes, we can't finish all of it. I do have a full time job."

"How much will this cost?"

Lorca couldn't even remember and looked for the quote. He showed it to Malek. The Vulcan looked as surprised as a Vulcan can be, that is, he lifted an eyebrow a little.

"Isn't this half a year's salary or more?" He asked. "Why such a profligate expense on a movie that will only ever be seen by one crew? Weren't you planning to build a castle in the air after retirement?"

"What retirement? I will die on this ship!"

"Must you be so gloomy? This is not logical."

"This is not about logic, it's about anime!"

"I won him over to its charms," said Yana.

Admiral Malek handed Lorca a stylus and said, "Here, please draw for me Katrina's face when she learns that you're wasting your time on a cartoon in the middle of a war."

"How about instead I draw for you all the damage caused by Klingons while you prevent us from participating in the war?!"

"They haven't caused much damage since the Battle of the Minefield, just border skirmishes. Nothing we couldn't handle without you. There's talk of a truce."

"Remember what happened last time?"

"The Klingons are in disarray, fighting amongst themselves. We hope it will turn out for the better. Perhaps the war will end and you could pursue your new vocation as an animation artist."

Lorca threw the stylus at him.

"Unnecessary," said Malek.

He got up and limped over to the window to take some calls on his communicator. When he was done Lorca suggested they go down to sickbay to take a look at Malek's leg. While a human might have put up some prideful front about being just fine, Malek admitted it would be logical and he'd heard much praise regarding Hugh Culber. They slowly went toward sickbay. Lorca ran his hand along the wall.

"Mold, mold, mold!" He said. "We've got white, brown, black, green, blue, yellow, and even purple mold on this ship. Have you ever seen purple mold?"

"I don't think it's uncommon on planets like…," began Malek.

He listed some planets. Vulcans always seem to know a ton of useless information. Lorca wiped some mold off the wall and looked at it sadly, then wiped it off on Yana. She shrieked.

"You suck!" She said.

"Is that the sort of thing you say to your captain?" Asked Malek.

"I don't suck nearly as much as she does," said Lorca. "Who failed her hand to hand battle training examinations for the fourth time in a row? Huh? And what about flight simulations? I've been told you seem to want to crash into asteroids!"

"I don't like hitting people," said Yana.

They reached sickbay but did not find Culber. A nurse said she hadn't seen him in a few hours. Still amused/irritated by the mold, Lorca asked the computer to tell him where Culber was. He didn't even hear the reply at first, distracted by a flowerpot.

"These shouldn't be in sickbay!" He said. "This is a sterile environment."

"Did Culber go down to the planet with your officers?" Asked Malek.

"What? No," said Lorca.

"The computer says he's not on the ship."

Lorca questioned the computer again and it repeated this. He shrugged, figuring it was malfunctioning, and asked it to find Stamets. Chances were high Culber would be there too.

"Commander Paul Stamets is in the room of Lieutenant Ash Tyler," said the computer.

"Weird," said Lorca. But he already suspected it was more than that.

He rushed to Tyler's room and the other two followed. They went inside and discovered Stamets on the floor, holding the body of his dead husband. Stamets, completely lost in grief, did not look up at their entry. Lorca knelt by Hugh's body and rested his fingers on Stamets' sleeve. He didn't say what was expected of a captain, something like, "I'm so sorry Paul, I know you're in terrible pain but please try and tell us what happened." Instead he seemed to accept Stamets' grief as his own for a moment. Yana sat next to him, not knowing what to do.

Malek checked the log on the door with the usual imperturbability of the Vulcans and said, "Stamets came in here only fifteen minutes ago. Before that, the doors opened roughly two and a half hours ago. I believe that's when you sent your crew members to Mirla."

Lorca patted Stamets on the back and picked up the tablet Hugh had dropped.

"A brain abnormality," he said.

"It looks like the image was doctored," said Malek. "I wonder why?"

"I know why," said Lorca. "Burnham and Saru are in terrible danger. Computer, call Detmer and Airiam to the shuttle bay. Come on!"

"What are you going to do?" Asked Malek as they ran to the shuttle bay.

"Find Tyler and stop him before he kills anybody else, obviously!" Snapped Lorca.

"Is it wise for you to go? You seem to be quite affected by the occurrence."

"The occurrence, you heartless, pointy-eared automaton, was the murder of my friend and crew mate! And who else should go? You, limpy? Or should Little Miss I Don't Like to Hit People be the one to go? Cause there's going to be hitting involved!"

"If you go in there with the mindset of wanting to hit or kill Tyler…"

"I know exactly what I'm doing!"

They reached the shuttle bay and Lorca ordered Mad Eye and Skynet to get inside. Malek rolled his eyes, presumably at the nicknames. Lorca called Lorenza and asked if it was safe to use the shuttle's transporter on the surface of the planet. She said it should be fine, the ionic radiation was only in the upper atmosphere.

"Why will we use the transporter?" Asked Detmer from inside.

"We don't want them to hear the shuttle approach," said Lorca.

He got in the shuttle without a goodbye to Yana and Malek and told Detmer the coordinates. The lieutenants obeyed his instructions without fail but they felt foreboding. Once in the atmosphere, Airiam finally asked what they were doing.

"We are going to restrain and capture Ash Tyler for the murder of Hugh Culber," said Lorca. "If we're not too late, we may save Burnham and Saru."

Detmer and Airiam, good officers that they were, kept their feelings to themselves.

Saru lay on the ground beneath a tree. Burnham approached carefully, but since Tyler just stood there, she figured whatever attacked Saru must have left already and rushed to his side. His head bled. It looked like he'd been smacked against the tree. Before she could ask Tyler what happened, he struck her and she blacked out.

She woke a bit later, tied to a tree. Saru still lay immobile. Tyler paced across the clearing, speaking Klingon and Federation. Burnham realized what happened but held back her emotions and worried about Saru instead. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to attract Tyler's attention or not.

"Get out of my head, get out of my head," said Tyler. He turned abruptly and said something in Klingon. He took his head in his hands and shook it.

"My name is Voq!" He suddenly yelled.

"No it's not!" He changed his mind.

"The light of Kahless will be re-ignited!" He yelled. "T'Kuvma will be avenged! The Klingon race will crush the bones of its enemies!"

"Never! I won't let you!"

It looked like this conversation could go on for some time. Burnham hoped it would. Somebody on Discovery would wonder why they weren't responding and send help. But Saru stirred and Tyler turned toward him.

"This creature has more in common with the Klingons, yet he chose to side with the vile Federation," he said. "His people are enslaved by another race and the Federation refuses to help but he fights for Starfleet. Despicable! Wake up, worm, and look me in the eyes before you die!"

"Hey, leave him alone!" Said Burnham.

Tyler moved toward her, with mad eyes and dripping sweat. He reached for his phaser with one hand, then the other hand tried to make it fall. He battled with himself for a few moments, spinning around in a manner that would have been rather comic if this was a show. He dropped the phaser, reached for it, pulled himself back, then threw himself on the ground. He got the phaser and randomly blasted at a tree. He shot again in Burnham's direction but missed by a mile and screamed suddenly.

"Did you hit her? Did you hit her, you Klingon motherfucker?" He asked, crying.

Saru came to and looked around blearily. He tried to get up but failed. Tyler got up and saw that he'd missed Burnham.

"T'Kuvma will be avenged!" He yelled and attacked her.

Burnham couldn't defend herself with anything except her head, and she couldn't pull back enough to seriously hit him. Tyler punched her, then tried to stop himself. Saru managed to get his phaser out from under himself and blasted at Tyler, but he was too weak to aim high and only hit the ground at Tyler's feet. The lieutenant rushed at him and kicked him in the ribs a bunch of times. Burnham begged him to stop.

"Ash, I know you're in there, please try and get back in control!"

"I am Voq and you murdered our Lightbearer!" Said Tyler and turned back to her.

Burnham and Saru could probably have played keep away with Tyler for a while, calling him back and forth between them, but a phaser blast from among the trees stunned him.[8] Detmer, Airiam, and Lorca came into the clearing and tied up Tyler. They released Burnham and went back to the shuttle for a cot to carry Saru. Burnham let them deal with it and stood in the sunshine by the field lab. She shook her head a little. Airiam approached her after they were done loading Saru and Tyler into the shuttle.

"First boyfriend I have and he tries to kill me," said Burnham. "I wonder how often that happens to people?"

Airiam put a hand on her shoulder and looked at the captain. He started to shrug helplessly, but then thought better of it and walked up to Burnham.

"Commander Burnham," he said. "You need to be strong now."

"That's what everybody's been telling me since my parents were killed by Klingons."

Detmer stood in the doorway of the shuttle and Burnham noticed that she had tears in her eye. Surely they couldn't all be so upset that Burnham's boyfriend went bats? Seeing that she understood, Lorca told her what happened.

Nobody could get any sense out of Tyler. If they let him wake up, he yelled Klingon obscenities and tried to bite people. If they sedated him a little, he mumbled about Kahless or something. Burnham insisted on being present. She stood by Saru in sickbay and held his hand. Stamets stood in a corner, not taking his eyes off the shrouded body on one of the beds. Dr. Pollard threw up her hands and said they needed a psychiatrist trained in Klingon brainwashing.

"My father could perform a mind meld on him," said Burnham. "But he's busy."

"Is questioning Tyler a matter of extreme urgency?" Asked Saru. "He was probably brainwashed by the deceased L'Rell."

Saying L'Rell's name caused Tyler to scream and strain at his bindings. That seemed to confirm she had done the brainwashing.

"We should just wait for Sarek to get here," said Lorca. "This is right up his alley."

"I could do it," said Admiral Malek, who was still there.

"Yeah, no, seriously," said Lorca.

"Time may be of the essence," said Malek. "He may know some of the Klingon's plans that could have an effect on our upcoming peace negotiations."

"Malek, I suspect there's a really, really bad shitstorm in this guy's head and you just won't be able to handle it," said Lorca.

"I am not a Federation admiral for nothing. I will do anything it takes."

He moved to Tyler's side and took off his gloves. Burnham watched with interest. She knew what the gloves meant and had to agree with Lorca, but it wasn't her argument. She'd rarely seen a Vulcan other than her father perform a mind meld. Malek did not say the statement Sarek always used, "My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts." He just put his hands on Tyler's forehead and closed his eyes. A few minutes passed. Malek made a face and shuddered. He let out a most un-Vulcan-like whine and veered away from Tyler. He made for a garbage pail and threw up in it.

"I told him he couldn't handle it," said Lorca.

Dr. Pollard stood by Malek for a while until he seemed to regain some composure. She led him to a cot and he sat with a look of devastation that Burnham had never seen on a Vulcan. After he finally seemed to calm down, Saru asked what he learned from Tyler.

"L'Rell cut Tyler open and cut open some Klingon named Voq and somehow she grafted them together," said Malek. "This Voq, a follower of T'Kuvma, was willing to do anything to unite the Klingons and continue the war. He agreed to this procedure but I don't believe it went correctly. They reckoned Voq would take over the body completely, but Tyler always interfered. He was supposed to murder Burnham and return to the Klingons with her head but Tyler prevented him. However, I do not believe Tyler is currently winning. The failure of Voq's plan has driven him into a psychotic rage that is destroying them both."

Malek sighed, then added, "You were right, Gabriel, there was nothing exigent in this man's head and we could have waited for Sarek. Though I do wonder if even he could…if even he could…oh, they didn't use any anesthesia!"

He rushed back to the garbage pail.

Lorca called Cornwell, who used to be a psychiatrist, and they discussed what to do with Tyler. Malek settled down again and slouched on a cot. Stamets, despite his own grief, felt sorry for him.

"Maybe you should get some rest and watch something nice on TV to take your mind off it," he said and, not one for honoring people's personal space, patted Malek on the hand.

The admiral suddenly looked even worse than he had before and shook his head, saying, "No, please, I don't need this." Stamets got worried and looked like he might take Malek's hand again without realizing that was the issue, so Burnham yanked him away by the back of his uniform. Lorca glanced at them briefly and rolled his eyes.

"Don't touch him," said Burnham.

"Why not?" Asked Stamets.

"He has…just don't," said Burnham, not wanting to reveal Malek's condition if he didn't want her to.

"It's a heightened sensitivity to other people's thoughts and emotions," said Malek. "A few people in my family have it. Just touching someone is enough for me to gleam what they are feeling, without any effort on my part."

"Wow, high school must have sucked for you," said Stamets.

"High school sucks on Vulcan in general," said Burnham.

"Oh wait," said Stamets. "So just now, when I touched you, you must have felt…"

He trailed off and looked at the shroud.

"I am so, so sorry for you," said Malek.

Burnham handed him back his gloves.

A few days later, Tyler was sent to a psychological facility. He didn't ask to see Burnham but just yelled something about putting a bat'leth to everybody's throat, so she didn't see him off. Lorca called her and Saru up to his ready room to discuss the data from Mirla.

They came in and found him kneeling behind the table, looking at an empty corner of the room. He put his finger to his lips and indicated for them to hide as well. Burnham sensed a stupid joke and just rolled her eyes. Saru obeyed.

"There's a Charmander in that corner," whispered Lorca.

He held up his communicator so they could see it on the screen.[9]

"Quickly, do you still have the Pokéball?" Asked Lorca.

"I am afraid I lost it on Mirla," said Saru.

"Oh, damn, it got away! You guys suck!"

They discussed the data from Mirla. Though invisible flowers weren't useful for the Klingon's cloaking device, perhaps they could make an invisible shuttle. Lorca asked Burnham to stay behind once they were done.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"Sir, I have no desire to discuss how I feel about the situation," said Burnham. She didn't add, especially not with you, but they both knew it.

"Oh, good, I wouldn't know what to say. I just want to apologize. I encouraged your relationship with Ash Tyler."

Burnham stared at him, astounded.

"What do you mean, encouraged?" She asked. "How was calling him Pikachu all the time encouragement of our relationship?"

"That was just, you know, whatever. But I set you up with that party. I could tell you guys were into each other and with the older person's dumb desire to see all the young people as couples, I took us down to the party and later frequently assigned you to the same tasks. It was not cool. I really don't understand how I still have so much Midwestern small town in me."

"I don't know what to make of that," said Burnham. "I thought you didn't care about anything. But whatever you did, it's not your fault."

"If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

"Actually, I would like some more work to take my mind off things."

"More work? Why not booze and meaningless one night stands?"

"Because I'm not you."

"Well, I think more work can be arranged."

Footnotes

[1] Yes, I know, the Klingons seem to be a lot less truculent in this universe than the other one. But how else are my characters going to have time to do all kinds of bullshit if they're constantly under attack?

[2] Anyone below commander level could not synthesize alcohol and it was generally discouraged on Starfleet vessels. It was certainly not allowed during a person's shift. Even the captain was supposed to be wise about alcohol consumption (hence tea-drinking Picard), to avoid situations like "The Adventures of Tintin." Of course, on the other hand, bootlegged booze has always been found by those who seek it.

[3] Gordon Ramsey cooked up the Philosopher's Stone one day and became immortal. Trust me, it'll happen.

[4] Ash is the name of the main character from the original Pokémon, in case you've forgotten or somehow don't know. The title of this chapter is a line from the first season's theme song.

[5] In the other universe, this party repeated about a hundred times and just wasn't all that fun, but this was connected to the gormagander incident. Our gormagander was safely released by now.

[6] They didn't have sexy yeoman bringing refreshments up to the bridge like a certain other starship.

[7] This sort of thing happens a lot on Star Trek.

[8] This is in contrast to most movies, where help arrives at the very last possible moment.

[9] I'm not sure how, but Pokémon Go was going strong in the 2250s after a long hiatus.