Chapter 5: One F'Roggy Evening
The Discovery was asked to perform a minor reconnaissance operation. They used the spore drive to jump close to a disputed border, took some notes and video, then got ready to jump back. Lorca called out, "Black alert," as usual, but then immediately afterward he yelled, "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer…"
But the ship had already arrived.
"Damn, didn't even get through one bottle!" Said Lorca.
"You shouldn't drink on the job, captain," said Owosekun.
"That's what my captain used to tell me a lifetime ago," he said. "She thought promoting me to commander would teach me some responsibility but it just made it easier to access booze!"
While he looked off into the distance and seemed to indulge in pleasant memories of the past, Burnham gloomily opened and closed a minor program on her console. She thought of the report she'd started on Lorca months ago and never finished because he seemed to start getting along better with the crew. But it was the opposite way around; the crew got along better with him. They just realized it was easier to deal with his shtick than to oppose him.
Later, Burnham reported to Lorca's ready room to perform the extra work he'd promised. It was reports and stuff. It was on the ready room computer and Burnham called up the general directory.
"What sort of filing system do you have?" She asked.
"Um…I think it's called 'I can't remember what I called the folder last time so I'll just create a new one and hope I never need to look at this stuff again,' " said Lorca, then added, "Enjoy," in a sing song voice and left Burnham alone for several hours.
Burnham could not tolerate a messy desktop so she cleaned up the computer before she could even start on the reports. When Lorca returned, Burnham gave him a small chip and said, "The ready room computer is not for your personal information. It's a semi-public device. Here are your taxes. Put them somewhere else. And…you may get audited this year."
"Did you find anything else interesting?"
"Something was seriously slowing down this computer. I finally found a huge folder containing all 122 seasons of Doctor Who. I deleted them."[1]
"What? No! That took so long to download!"
Burnham let him mourn the loss for a few moments, then gave him another chip and said, "Actually, I do have mercy. Take this back to your TARDIS."
She reported on the reports and went back to her room, feeling a little guilty about the other chip she'd taken with her. She'd found a large folder on the ready room computer with ship's logs and other files on the Buran. Deciding it was time to learn about what made Lorca tick, she copied them. She started listening to Lorca's own log and got exasperated right away. Quite a number of entries from Lorca's first few months as captain of the Buran went something like, "Oh my God, I'm so wasted, I don't even know what stardate this is!"
Eventually, this changed and he started commenting on members of his crew and their interesting experiences. The nicknames existed back then too and Burnham had a hard time figuring out who was who. Two people were dubbed Ironman, but one of them was only called that ironically. Burnham listened to the account of the Buran's adventures far into the night, and continued to do so for the next week. She looked up Starfleet reports on the same occurrences and pulled up biographies of the crew members.
She told Saru, who was at first aghast that she stole something from the captain, then acquiesced and also listened to some of the logs. While Lorca didn't comment much on the everyday occurrences on his ship, his crew members complained a lot. Apparently, Discovery was spared one unfortunate facet of Lorca's act (perhaps the war managed to pound some decorum even into his head): a penchant for dressing up.
About six years ago, the Buran got sent far out of Federation space with a bunch of scientists onboard to study astronomical formations. Without any contact with Command, Lorca abandoned Starfleet uniform and wore an unbuttoned jacket, jeans, sneakers, and carried around a cane since he decided it was a great opportunity to do "House, MD." He threw a ball around the bridge, then frequently didn't catch it and chased after it. He made everybody watch all of "House" and they had long discussions about the show. Half the time anybody asked him a question, he responded with some line from "House" such as, "Everybody lies," or just yelled, "Put him on methotrexate," or, "It must be lupus!" He whacked people with his cane, broke a console with the cane, and finally tripped over the cane and broke his nose, which effectively brought down the house (and which some people considered poetic justice).
Then there was the time, two whole years, during which he wore a bow tie like Matt Smith as Dr. Who. While not as annoying to his crew as the House thing, he did have to keep hiding it whenever people of authority showed up. One time he forgot and when asked what the hell he was wearing, he said it was, "for religious reasons."
The crew of the Buran seemed to be composed of "stormy personalities, hooligans, and saints" as First Officer Shweta E. Landry put it. She spent eight years with Lorca, often getting him out of some mess or other. She was clearly one of those saints (even more so, now, thought Burnham sadly), for why else would she remain First Officer to an asshole for so long when she could have advanced her career? Only people who could tolerate a lot of shit stayed on the Buran. The others left, pissed off and complaining.
Burnham and Saru became intrigued as to how Lorca acquired his rank in the first place, and how he managed to keep it for ten years considering his attitude. They scanned his biography. He was not one of the 65% of Starfleet employees who went straight into the Academy after high school, if not earlier. He had a BA in Political Science from the University of St. Louis. After the Academy, he served on the Resilience, under the command of Captain Violet Perkins. From what little they could gleam about Perkins, she hadn't been much of a role model. Already 70 years old when Lorca first joined her crew, Perkins seemed to hang on just to spite everybody who said she should retire.
Malek joined the Resilience seven years after Lorca. He didn't seem to be the most competent field officer, and Lorca probably got him out of tough situations a lot. One time Malek led a relief effort to some people on a frozen wasteland planet and his party got attacked by yetis. They were injured and trapped until Lorca figured out a way to use the same yetis to track Malek's team. Basically, if it scratches and bites or if there was quicksand or a hole in the ground, Malek got chased or fell in it and Lorca often got him out. Considering how often Malek stepped in to cover Lorca's ass after he became captain, it seemed the Vulcan felt indebted to Lorca for saving his life all those times.
Perkins finally retired and the Resilience was disbanded. Instead of joining a new crew, Lorca spent a year on Vulcan with Malek, apparently as some administrative assistant. Of course, perhaps no one wanted him on their ship… It was all speculation at this point. Vulcan didn't release great records and it took Burnham many hours to track down who exactly gave Lorca his commission on the Buran. It couldn't have been Malek, he wasn't an admiral yet. It turned out that Malek's mother, Admiral T'Lara, made Lorca captain.
Burnham couldn't help but remember Lorca's comment from a while ago on how people become captain. She didn't remind Saru about that incident because she thought Saru's sensitive nature would quail at the suggestion.
She and Saru tried to innocuously question the captain about his past. Burnham once asked in the elevator, "So, why'd you go into political science?"
"It's the degree people get when they don't know what to do with their lives," said Lorca.
Then later Saru asked, "What was the most important lesson you learned from Captain Violet Perkins?"
Very predictably, Lorca replied, "To keep a good lock on my whiskey cabinet."
Another time, Burnham questioned Lorca about his acquaintance with the President of the Federation.[2]
"Oh, I called him a douchebag one time in a meeting," said Lorca. "I thought that was it for me, back to Missouri, but Wayne said I was the first person to be so sincere with him. We get together sometimes to drink and play 3D chess. I let him win."
After all these questions, Lorca was on guard when he spotted Burnham and Saru in the cafeteria. He said to Stamets, with whom he'd taken to having lunch, "Hide me! It's Tweedledee and Tweedledum, they're so annoying these days."
Stamets obligingly moved his lunch tray so Lorca was hidden from view. The captain even sank in his chair until he was practically lying on it.
"What's so annoying about them?" Asked Stamets.
"They just keep asking me so many questions! They want to know everything about me. It's all, 'Tell me about that time you almost got sucked into a black hole,' or, 'How did you stop that smuggling operation on Rigel 10,' or, 'Why did you spend a year on Vulcan?' Honestly, it's like they're planning to write my biography!"
"Why did you spend a year on Vulcan?"
"It certainly wasn't for the bars and strip clubs."
Burnham and Saru took their food elsewhere and Lorca sat up again. Stamets picked at his lunch. Lorca looked at him attentively.
"You don't have to hang out with me," said Stamets. "I know you're just doing it because I'm your biggest asset."
"Or my biggest ass."
Stamets chuckled, even though he'd just been insulted.
"Do you know what I'm worried about most regarding Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Asked Lorca. "There's a well-known phenomenon among these Starfleet ships you may not be aware of, Fungusbrain. You see, the First Officer or top commanders always develop a peculiar fascination with the captain. They become enamored with him or her and hound the poor captain, wanting to know everything about his life. Most of the time this is harmless and passes, settling into a respectful relationship. But sometimes the officer makes an awkward pass at the captain and then comes the tedious, disgusting explanation."
"Oh, come on, it can't happen that often!"
"It does, it does! There are papers written about it. In fact, this peculiar relationship has turned straight people gay and the other way around!"
"You're just messing with me! But fine, which one do you think will make a pass at you first?"
"Oh, definitely Saru. Let's make a bet on it."
Stamets laughed and laughed at the idea of Saru making a pass at Lorca. He thought of this image frequently over the next few weeks, whenever he felt too sad.
The admirals decided to have a meeting on Discovery to discuss the upcoming peace negotiations with some of the Klingons. There hadn't been any fighting in months. Sarek and his wife Amanda arrived after the admirals. Lorca and Burnham stood in the transporter room, greeting everybody as they arrived. While not a fancy dress party, the meeting was to be held after dinner. Burnham and Lorca had strong and somewhat similar opinions on all these proceedings but it didn't look as though anyone planned to listen to them.
"Greetings, Michael, I am glad to see you are well," said Sarek.
"It's so wonderful to see you," said Amanda.
"Ah, the beautiful Amanda," said Lorca, and kissed her hand. "If I had known you would be joining us I would have ordered the ship to be cleaned until it was sparkling."
Burnham looked from her mother to Sarek. Neither of them seemed to notice anything odd about the captain's behavior. They all went to the dining room. Usually the Discovery was kept bare and sterile, as befitting a warship, but today somebody had hung up heavy red cloth curtains over the windows. The atmosphere felt rather stuffy. The admirals were already seated. Saru sat across from Admiral Omar Duffield. Lorca sat across from Amanda and Sarek so that Burnham had to take a seat further back.
Amanda picked one of the vegetarian dishes and Lorca said, "You have impeccable taste. Sarek is so lucky to have you."
"Vulcans are all vegetarian," said Amanda.
"But you are human, yet you choose to live by their standards. How exemplary! Let me guess, you won't have a glass of wine as well?"
"Vulcans do not believe alcohol consumption is logical except for certain rituals and ceremonies."
"Then I will also refrain. Amanda, I was planning to get hammered tonight instead of listening to these specious peace discussions, but you have changed my mind. Just a few minutes in your company and I am already a better man."
Burnham could do nothing about Lorca blatantly hitting on her mother without causing a scene, and the quick glance Sarek shot in her direction suggested he would be very displeased if she spilled champagne on Lorca as she wanted to. She fulminated silently.
"Are you happy on Vulcan?" Asked Lorca.
Amanda clearly though the question was inappropriate, for she took her time answering, but she finally said, "My husband is not the easiest person to live with, and some have never accepted me there, but it was the choice I made."
"Your wisdom far exceeds your years. I see that in Burnham sometimes. You were so kind to accept her into your home. She's become a wonderful commander."
Amanda felt compelled to thank him.
Lorca continued to pester her throughout the meal, making references to her charm and beauty. Sarek ignored their conversation and spoke to Malek and Cornwell. Burnham said nothing and glared at the captain. Everybody's dessert came with a fortune cookie.
"Goddamn it, Gabriel," said Cornwell. "I'm not opening this and I can think of a place I'd like to shove it if we weren't in polite company."
Malek opened his and read aloud, "From a drop of water a logician could predict an Atlantic or a Niagara."[3] He paused, then said, "Not very typical fortune cookie material."
"He's picked it out himself," said Cornwell. "Don't give him the satisfaction of opening it, that's an order!"
Stamets had just been about to do so. He stopped, confused. Cornwell rolled her eyes and he decided it wasn't a real order. His fortune said, "Consciousness will always be one degree above comprehensibility."[4] Burnham opened hers too and read, "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?"
"From your favorite book, isn't it?" Asked Lorca of Amanda.
She wearily reached for her fortune cookie but Cornwell got up and walked around the table, collecting the unopened ones and putting them in a basket. She went out into the hallway and stopped a random officer to borrow his phaser, since she hadn't taken one to dinner. She set the basket on the floor and blasted the fortune cookies to smithereens.[5]
"Was that really necessary?" Asked Malek.
"Those messages were clearly personalized in some way," said Cornwell. "I don't know or care what Gabriel has to say about myself or about anything, really. I think I have done everybody a favor."
"What did mine say?" Asked Amanda.
"I didn't know you'd be coming," said Lorca. "I think you got a generic one. But I would be thrilled to make one up just for you. Something from Shakespeare, perhaps. Something that Romeo said to Juliet."
Amanda said nothing and followed Sarek and the others into the reception area. Burnham asked Lorca to stay behind in the dining hall for a bit. Once they were alone, she confronted him about his behavior toward her mother. He answered quite simply, without denying it.
"I don't like your father and I think this is a funny way to annoy him."
"It's annoying me a lot more! You're always making enemies out of people who are on our side. I demand you stop!"
"Or what? Honestly, your mother hardly ever gets compliments from that sad sack of a Vulcan she married, hell only knows why."
"You're hurting her feelings. Think of it from her point of view. She probably believes you're mocking her."
"How is comparing her eyes to the Crystal Mines of Neorilia hurting her feelings?"
"So you won't stop? You're making an ass of yourself!"
"I'm used to it."
He turned to go into the reception hall. Burnham reached for his arm and he swiftly brushed her off with a mischievous look. Burnham had appealed to Lorca's logic and then to his emotion. There was nothing left to do but prevent him from going into the reception hall by force. She tried to slam him onto the table but he knew perfectly well she'd resort to force and slipped away. He grabbed her and tried to knock her over, but she rammed him into the wall by the window. He shoved her back toward the table. She tried to yank him toward the floor. He pulled her down and they scuffled, somehow getting the red curtain to fall on them. They continued to whack each other and roll around, until Malek, who'd quietly entered to take his communicator from his chair, spoke up.
"Always the same with you, Gabriel, always the same," he said.
"Malek, catch her and throw her on the brig," said Lorca, disentangling himself from the curtain. "She's trying to start a mutiny and take over the ship!"
Burnham gathered the curtain into a ball and walloped Lorca with it.
"He hit on my mother!" She said.
"Get up, Gabriel, and stop acting like a child," said Malek. "You will apologize to the lady and behave yourself for the rest of the evening. Is that clear?"
"Crystal," said Lorca. "Just like Amanda's eyes."
Burnham groaned. They got up. Lorca went into the reception area but Malek stopped Burnham and said, "You have red thread in your hair." He held up the reflective surface of his communicator so she could remove it. She glumly thought that Lorca would have just let her go in front of the other admirals looking like that.
"You need to have thick skin and a strong sense of humor to work with Gabriel," said Malek. "I did not have either."
They went into the reception area. Lorca apologized to Amanda and bowed at her. He explained that he just wanted to irritate Sarek.
"It's fine," said Amanda. "You wouldn't be the first person to try to get to my husband through me. In fact, you had the mildest intentions."
Cornwell started to discuss the peace negotiations. Some of the Klingon houses, spearheaded by a leader named F'Rog, were sick of the war and wanted to end this without losing face. The other houses, led by Kol, refused to enter into discussion unless it involved blasting.
"F'Rog agreed to meet us at an undisclosed location and negotiate the terms of our agreement," said Duffield. "I don't believe they will go so far as to aid us, but if we can just get them to stop trying to kill us it would help immensely."
"F'Rog?" Said Lorca.
"We have agreed not to send any battleships to the site," continued Duffield. "We will only take shuttles. They don't trust us. We need to convince them of our good intentions. This will be difficult because they know Discovery can jump to our aid at any moment."
"F'Rog?" Said Lorca again. "Is that really the guy's name?"
He started to laugh uncontrollably. Duffield tried to ignore him and discussed details of how they would settle on a location and code of conduct.
"Do they just put an apostrophe into regular words and make them names?" Said Lorca. "What if they put an apostrophe into the word…into the word…"
He couldn't get it out and laughed so hard he had to grab onto the bar counter. Duffield and Cornwell exchanged glances. Malek looked gloomily into a glass of water. Lorca finally got his point across.
"What if there's…what if there's a Klingon named P'Rick?!"
He sank behind the bar so that his laughter sounded muffled.
"He can't come with us," said Cornwell.
"Not if he makes fun of the Klingons' names like this," agreed Duffield.
"Gabriel, you'll stay in the shuttle," said Cornwell. "We can't trust the Klingons as much as they can't trust us. I'm sure they'll leave people in their shuttles too and will probably have a backup force not far behind. This is a dangerous diplomatic mission and we need to know that somebody will have our backs when we're down at the base."
"Can't trust the Klingons?" Asked Saru. "Perhaps you mean may not?"
"I'm not going to deal with semantics now," said Cornwell. "I hope everybody understands their role in these negotiations. We'll send more information tomorrow. For now, meeting adjourned."
Burnham sat with her mother and Sarek until they decided to go to bed. She felt Amanda was a lot more upset over Lorca's idiotic trick than she admitted. Burnham felt ashamed that she'd scuffled with Lorca like a pair of five-year-old siblings. But honestly, he brought out the worst in people! Burnham would never, ever, ever have physically assaulted a superior if she hadn't been under Lorca's bad influence![6]
Malek drank a glass of wine by himself. Burnham stared at him, guessing that he'd waited for Sarek to leave before indulging in non-Vulcan behavior. Duffield, Cornwell, and some other admirals continued to talk late into the night. Burnham went over to Lorca by a window. She didn't say anything about his earlier behavior. She made up her mind to do some deep digging on him. It was high time he paid for all his nonsense.
"P'Rick, huh?" Said Burnham. "That was clever of you."
"It didn't trick ol' Thumbelina," said Lorca.
"Do you mean Malek?"
"Yes. He knows I just don't want to risk our necks on the station. I'm glad he kept his trap shut. I have no intention of joining the admirals on this wild goose chase that will probably end with somebody getting cooked. It seemed easier to act out and be forbidden from going than to argue with them."
"I agree. I don't trust the word peace coming out of a Klingon's mouth."
They leaned on the windowsill, trying not to yawn.
"Why is Malek drinking wine?" Asked Burnham.
"He's a bloody mess," said Lorca. "He can barely keep it together. He's no good at missions and galumphing around the galaxy. He should have stayed in his office."
"That condition he has must be difficult to cope with."
"And he doesn't cope with it. He just tries not to touch people. You know, it even works on animals. One time he petted a cow on the nose and went weird for an entire day. He even started mooing."
"You're making that up!"
Lorca gave up on trying not to yawn, did so obnoxiously, and called it a night. He went over to Malek and thumped the Vulcan on the back. Malek slouched and moved away.
"I actually stayed true to the promise I made Lady Amanda," said Lorca. "I haven't had a drop all evening! I don't know about Sarek, but maybe she can win over the Klingons!"
The admirals weren't sure when the peace talks would happen, but probably in ten days. Burnham and Saru continued to do research on Lorca. Now they focused on his experience right after the Battle of the Binary Stars and how he came to lead Discovery.
The latter question was easier to answer than the former. First of all, while people could generally find much at fault with Lorca's diplomatic skills and attitude, his military aptitude was never in doubt. Second, though Lorca hardly seemed to be the best choice for a project as important as the spore drive, at the beginning of the war, the admirals thought it was ridiculous. A network of mold throughout the universe?[7] Puh-lease! So when the President of the Federation suggested his buddy take over Discovery, the admirals heartily agreed. Who better to be in charge of a joke than Gabriel Lorca?
Well, the joke seemed to be on them.
It took Burnham much longer to unravel what happened to Lorca in the hospital after the Battle of the Binary Stars, and when she put the pieces together, she really did not like what she found. Federation space hospitals were a mess after the battle. They were short-staffed to the point of temporarily hiring non-Starfleet doctors. Lorca's doctor was named Nancy Carter. The name sounded familiar to Burnham. Where had she seen it before? Not that it wasn't a common name.
Eventually she found a Nancy Carter on the list of the staff of Lorca's first ship, the Resilience. Carter got fired for selling prescriptions. She eked out a living on various outposts and managed to avoid any other infractions such that Starfleet hired her to help with the mess after the first battle. With trepidation, Burnham searched all over the internet for more information on Nancy Carter. She finally found a social media page with a photo of a woman who looked like the right Carter, standing in front of a fancy hotel.
How did some down on her luck, former criminal make enough money to stay at a resort?
When Burnham told Saru what she found, he refused to take the allegations seriously at first. He thought Burnham was just angry about Lorca's treatment of her mother. There was no call to stir up trouble from mere speculation.
"Besides, he has significantly improved," said Saru. "I have not heard him make a single nihilistic pronouncement in months and I cannot remember the last time he has given out an Unfair, Unwarranted Tirade of the Day."
"It doesn't matter if he's improved," said Burnham. "He committed a crime in order to cover up what I'm certain was a deprecatory mental diagnosis. This is Starfleet, we can't just let this sort of thing fly. Among his files on the Buran, I also found a series of simulations of its destruction. He never moved on, that's why he's so angry all the time. Not that he was a great captain before the battle! He would have been fired years ago if Malek and the president didn't always cover his ass."
"So present your case to the admirals, if you feel so strongly, or tell your father. Do not confront Lorca about it. He will be furious!"
After a lot of back and forth, Burnham convinced Saru it would be better to confront Lorca about the situation before contacting the admirals. Most of them hated him and Malek…why, there was a chance he knew! An illogical Vulcan, indeed. There had to be a way to get a confession out of Lorca. Saru suggested they approach him from a point of sympathy and understanding and gradually work their way to the problem.
Burnham wasn't sure she could do sympathy in this case.
They waited for Lorca in his living room instead of the ready room, since it was more private. He showed up, not expecting them, and was taken aback.
"Tinkerbell and Sherlock! What are you doing here? Is this an intervention?"
Burnham and Saru stared at each other, surprised that he got it right.
"I really don't drink that much!" Said Lorca.
He glanced guiltily at a decanter on the windowsill. Burnham stood up and rubbed her hands down the sides of her uniform nervously.
"I was wondering how much you know about real life simulations?" She asked.
"I know enough."
"I took a few classes on it at Vulcan Academy and…"
"Was there anything you didn't do at Vulcan Academy? Oh right, date and have fun." But he was quite perceptive and added, "So either you've run some simulations on my liver and want to tell me how much longer I can keep pretending to be young, or you opened some files on my computer that weren't for your eyes."
"That's true but, before you get angry," said Burnham, "I just want to say that your simulations suck, the R-squared values are far from ideal,[8] and there was nothing you could have done to prevent the catastrophe. Considering how well you understood your ship and crew, you should know that."
Lorca put his hand up to his chin and said, "My simulations suck, huh?"
"Yes...it's a complicated field," said Burnham.
"So you came here to tell me I'm not good at simulations," said Lorca slowly.
"Actually, we wondered about why you performed these simulations," said Saru. "We guessed that you just wanted to understand what happened to prevent such a thing in the future. Perhaps you hoped to get closure? But since the simulations are so flawed and suggest overly simplistic ways for the situation to have been avoided, we felt we should tell you. Just in case it has been troubling you."
"Indeed," said Lorca. "Well, that was nice of you. I suspected the simulations might be flawed but it's good to have a proper expert look at these things. Try and stay out of my stuff in the future, won't you? I trusted you wouldn't look through my private files, even though they were on a semi-public computer."
He turned toward his room, obviously thinking that throwing the hint of blame that was starting to creep into the conversation back at them would dissuade them.
"There is another thing," said Burnham. "I've been reading people's reports on some of our experiences during the war and I noticed that Stamets thought you seemed very upset right before you agreed to send the tardigrade onto the Klingon ship. You seemed to hesitate and you dropped your tablet. Stamets thought you looked like you were having a painful flashback. Saru and I, we don't want to make speculations…"
"So don't," said Lorca.
"But we think that you might not really be over the tragedy of the Battle of the Binary Stars," continued Burnham.
"How exactly is a person supposed to get over something like that?" Asked Lorca. "Are you two over the death of Philippa? Is Lorenza over the death of her husband and son? Have you come here to offer condolences long overdue or do you think that breaking a tablet is a serious impediment to our war effort?"
Burnham knew that he was trying to decrease the gravity of their implications and she wanted to go in for the attack, but Saru touched her elbow and shot her a look that she figured meant "sympathy and understanding first!"
"Captain, let me just say something that, you are right, is long overdue," said Saru. "Burnham and I, we loved Captain Georgiou, but I do not think we ever thought of things from her perspective. She was just always perfect and right and wise. Her death blinded us to…to your struggle. You were right to yell at us that day when you accused us of unfair comparisons. Captain Georgiou said that one or both of us would lead a ship, but we still have a lot to learn. I can see that now. I do not think I understand quite what it means to be responsible for an entire ship yet. But of course you do, and you are familiar with the process of learning your crew's talents and watching them develop personally and professionally. I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose them all like that. I am so sorry. We should have discussed this when we first met but we were rather intimidated by you."
Lorca passed by them and went to look out the window. He finally said, "You'd think that a captain who lost his crew and a crew who lost their captain would be like pieces of a puzzle that ought to fit well together. I suppose I was unfair to you too. I made a joke of your loss. I apologize. Thank you for the concern."
His politeness took Saru off guard, but Burnham knew he was trying to brush them off. He moved toward his room but Saru stood up and said, "Wait, captain." Lorca turned around, irritated now.
"Please, captain, we just want to talk," said Saru. "We are in this together as a team and we need to understand each other."
"What else is there to talk about?" Asked Lorca. "You apologized, I apologized…if you want, I'll apologize some more, I don't care. I'm sorry for yelling at you a lot and calling you Twinkletoes. I don't think I'll stop but don't take it so seriously. Do you want to sit here and talk about the past? Let's do that when the war is over. I have work to do."
Saru looked at Burnham. He gave up. He did not see a way of doing this via sympathy and understanding. Burnham came closer to Lorca. She reached out as if she wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but he moved back toward the wall.
"Captain, this is complete guesswork on my part and I deeply regret it if I'm incorrect," said Burnham, "but I believe you are suffering from PTSD. You have been irascible and hard to deal with. You make jokes about everything. Considering that we all lost something in this war, you have not respected anybody's sorrow but your own. This is all deleterious to leadership and I believe you never received the help you require."
"I don't recall giving you permission to speak," said Lorca. "I tolerated your presumptuous statements, but you have crossed a line! If you're just angry that I made a few off-color comments and gave you a silly nickname, then say so. Don't try and diagnose me with some nonsense to make yourself feel superior."
"I'm not trying to seem superior, I just want what's best for my crew," said Burnham. "Why did you rejoin the war less than a month after the catastrophe? Nobody expected you to jump back into battle so soon."
"I had a responsibility!" Said Lorca. "Half the captains in this war never tasted real battle, and my ship dealt with Klingon border skirmishes on and off for years. But I do not have to justify myself to you. This has gone on long enough. Leave before I get really angry!"
"Responsibility?" Said Burnham. "Hardly! I think you returned to the war for the wrong reasons, to get revenge. And you expect us to risk our lives for you?"
Lorca looked angry enough to hit one of them.
"You think I'm bent on revenge?" He said. "You think I pulled myself out of the hell of my own mind to come back to this wretched battlefield and destroy those who took everything away from me? No, you idiot! I don't believe in revenge! I wasn't a starship captain for ten years to believe that revenge could do any good. It won't bring them back! But I still owe it to them to continue this battle and prevent other people from suffering the same fate, since I didn't have the decency to die like the rest of my crew!"
"Believing you should have died with your crew is hardly a healthy reason to pick up an entire new crew and act like we'll never live up to the old one!" Said Burnham. "Are you even hearing yourself right now? You're yelling at us like a Klingon! A proper captain should maintain his composure under emotional stress. All you've done since you arrived on this ship is fulminate or mock people."
Saru was quite affected by the captain's statement about dying with his ship and wanted to say something conciliatory. He took Burnham by the arm to prevent her from saying more criticism. Lorca noticed Saru's sympathetic expression.
"I'm sorry about all the harsh comments," he said, making a visible effort to calm himself. "Maybe I just don't want to get attached to all you pitiful Tinkerbells and Fungusheads because you'll die on me too."
Burnham didn't see anything laudatory about this statement.
"That's not how it works!" She said. "You can't yell at everybody and keep us at bay while you work out your issues with the past. You have to be there for us, not for the dead! Why didn't any of the psychologists that treated you realize that you're not all right?"
Lorca said nothing and looked at her suspiciously. Burnham figured she could beat around the bush some more or just go for it. She was tired of talking to Lorca so she went for it. She explained her conjectures about Nancy Carter and that he'd bribed the doctor to release him despite a diagnosis of serious PTSD, or whatever it was.
"That's a pretty serious accusation," said Lorca calmly. "Why did you approach me with this instead of the admirals?"
"Cornwell doesn't exactly like you," said Burnham. "She would make an unpleasant scene. If you tell us the truth first, we could help buffer the fallout. Show us your financial statements."
"This is so funny, Burnham," said Lorca. "You have such an over-exaggerated notion of your detective skills, a real Sherlock. I don't know how you came up with this nonsense, but I suggest you eliminate it from your thoughts. I didn't bribe anybody and I'm not mentally unbalanced. You just can't tolerate a captain who doesn't hold your hand all the time and tell you what a great leader you'll be someday. Get out of my room and just be happy that I don't report you for slander."
"You couldn't report me because somebody would realize it's the truth. If you don't show us the truth I will tell Admiral Cornwell tomorrow. I will stand by my convictions! I don't need someone to hold my hand but I can tell when my captain is being completely inappropriate and borderline psychotic. And you know Cornwell will believe me! She'll show up here tomorrow, pissed off that she didn't think to investigate your hospital experience herself. She'll laugh at you and let the whole crew know what you did in the worst possible way. Do you really want to go through that? Show us your financial statements!"
Lorca looked at Saru with a depressed expression and asked, "Weren't you supposed to be doing a good cop bad cop routine? Did you forget your lines?"
"I am so sorry, captain," said Saru. "I wish we did not have to attack each other and demonstrate a lack of understanding. I believe you did not want your crew to have died in vain but committing a crime was not the solution. Please show us the statements so that we can prepare a proper report."
Lorca let out a long, drawn-out sigh and went over to his ready room computer. He shook his head a little and pulled up his bank account. Then he sat on the couch and leaned his head on a cushion. Burnham and Saru looked through the data.
"That is a lot of savings, captain," said Saru.
"I don't rent or own property," muttered Lorca. "Or have kids. I'm just a ghost on a flying ship."
Burnham found the transactions she'd been looking for and saved the records to a chip. Still, the transactions were to unnamed locations. It would be best if Lorca confessed verbally. She'd been recording their conversation. Lorca noticed her looking at her communicator, checking that the recording was still running.
"So do you…," she began.
"Fine, I did it!" He yelled.
"Did what?" She asked.
"I slept with your mother! And your father! Even though he was condescending the whole time!"
Lorca released a hysterical laugh that turned into something like a sob. Burnham balled her hand up into a fist and let it go.
"You lousy, wretched…," she muttered without finishing the sentence.
"Please, captain, without the ridiculousness!" Said Saru.
Burnham waited for Lorca to stop laughing and finally got him to confess that he'd bribed Nancy Carter to falsify his medical record. He became gloomy again after that and fiddled with the couch upholstery, not meeting their eyes.
"We will write up a report and send it to Sarek," said Burnham. "He will be the one to tell the admirals and despite his dislike for you, he will do it in a diplomatic way to avoid widespread embarrassment. For now, we won't tell the crew."
"Maybe we won't ever have to tell the crew," said Lorca quietly.
"They will find out eventually," said Burnham.
"But it just occurred to me that you two are the only ones who know of my petty little crime. Perhaps…the knowledge will die with you!"
He suddenly pulled out his phaser and blasted it right in front of Burnham's face. It vaporized a pillow.
"Oh my God, you psychopath!" Screamed Burnham.
Saru just covered his face with his hands.
"That's Captain Psychopath to you!" Yelled Lorca. "As long as I'm wearing this badge I still give the orders, and if you want to take it from me you'll have to pry it off my cold dead body!"
"I don't want your badge yet, but I do want that weapon!" Said Burnham.
She tried to take the phaser from him but Lorca threw her to the ground with a neat Vulcan martial arts move (he hadn't spent a year there in vain). Saru got up to subdue him but Lorca, who was clearly vacillating between depressed lethargy and vitriol, threw the phaser against the wall where it broke into pieces, just like he'd done all those months ago with Yana. Lorca collapsed back on the couch and buried his head in his hands. Burnham got back up.
"I'm surprised Malek and Wayne Ichigari were enough to keep you from getting fired all these years," she said. "You were half mad before the war already. You know, if you want people to listen to your jokes, you become a comedian! You don't take on command of a starship where people entrust their lives to you. No wonder your crew members were always quitting."
"Burnham, please," said Saru. "Do not judge the captain's entire life right now. It is really not up to you."
Suddenly, they received a transmission from Command. It was Duffield. He said F'Rog and the other Klingons who sought peace were worried of traitors spreading the word to Kol and wanted to conduct the negotiations tomorrow instead of in ten days.
The three were silent for some time. Burnham looked balefully at the remains of Lorca's phaser, wondering if they should refuse to go. Lorca was hardly in the right mindset for peace negotiations. But he quit playing with his sleeve and sat up straight.
"We still have a job to do," he said. "We will proceed as planned. Write up your reports or whatever you want but I am going to those negotiations tomorrow."
Thank heavens he convinced the admirals to let us stay in the shuttle, thought Burnham.
"All right, business as usual, for now," she said.
Saru still felt troubled by Lorca's earlier comment and moved to sit by him. He said, "Please, sir, do not feel that you should have died with your former crew. You have done good things with us here and I daresay that you were the only one who could have achieved such results. We learned a lot from you."
"Ugh," was all Lorca let out.
Burnham got up and went toward the door with Saru. Some demon possessed her to turn back to the captain and say, "Get some sleep and behave yourself tomorrow."
Lorca growled and yelled, "Behave? Behave?! What am I, a half-witted ensign? How dare you speak to me like this? Damn you!"
He didn't have a phaser anymore so he grabbed his shoe off his foot and chucked it at them, but it hit the wall harmlessly. They made it out the door. They heard another thump.
"What was that, the second shoe?" Asked Burnham. "He must have thought the first felt lonely. Wow, that really didn't go smoothly!"
"We should have just used…"
"I know, sympathy and understanding. But come on! He didn't let us!"
Back in the room, Lorca wasn't quite ready to calm down. He punched a cushion and yelled, "Fuck Burnham fucking Sherlock, fuck Tinkerbell, and Fuck. My. Life!"
Burnham decided that if Lorca showed up the next day looking like he'd slept in his clothes and smelling like alcohol, she'd have to make their apologies to the admirals. But he arrived nice and early, neat and clean with only a hint of a mean smirk on his face.
The negotiations were held in some neutral space that wasn't claimed by anybody. Burnham, Lorca, Airiam, Detmer, and Rhys went in the shuttle. They opened a comm window and watched the proceedings, but only one way. Rhys scanned the other shuttles. The Klingons left only one person in each. So far, they seemed to be non-hostile. Lorca believed that about as much as he believed Vulcans could like rom coms and urged Burnham and Airiam to hurry up with the probe. The Klingons could have an entire cloaked ship around here and they wouldn't be any the wiser. Burnham sent the probe outside and piloted it around the area, doing wider and wider sweeps. Basically, if the probe hit an invisible ship, they'd know.
Duffield greeted F'Rog and his people. Pleasantries, as much as Klingons can do pleasantries, were exchanged. Duffield rambled on about the cost of the war.
"This war is not about cost!" Snapped F'Rog. "It is about freedom. It is about preventing you leeches from gobbling up the galaxy!"
"Leeches?" Said Lorca. "And they worried I'd piss them off. I know Duffield, he can't handle too many insults."
"The Federation is not some Mongol Empire hell bent on conquering land," said Cornwell. "We just want people to live peacefully together."
"Your definition of peace and ours are different," said F'Rog. "You want everybody to be like yourselves. You want to crush our individuality until we're just humans with funny faces. You don't understand how we live and never will!"
"Same old, same old," said Burnham and checked the progress of the probe.
"But are we attacking your land or spreading propaganda among your people?" Asked Malek. "We kept to ourselves. We've had some quarrels but nothing major. T'Kuvma provoked us and all your houses by planting his ship in a spot right on the border."
Burnham suspected the negotiations would go to hell right now. Why had Malek mentioned T'Kuvma? The Klingons were so sensitive about this. But instead, they exchanged glances and growls that didn't sound too pissed off.
"T'Kuvma set himself up as our Torchbearer for the wrong reasons," said F'Rog. "This is the point that Kol and I disagree upon and the reason we are here today. T'Kuvma was an outcast who wanted to unite us as a type of revenge. He did not walk among the people. He did not seek to understand every house for its individuality. He just worked on re-building his father's ship and dreamed about being a leader."
"What do you know about Voq?" Asked Malek.
Burnham passed the tablet monitoring the probe to Airiam and gave the negotiations her full attention.
"Disgusting business," said F'Rog. "Mixing Klingon blood with human! L'Rell only told a few people about it. I say it is a technique that takes too long and has too little effect."
"Do you know how to rectify the condition?" Asked Malek.
"Put a bat'leth through the man's heart, of course," said F'Rog with a laugh. Then he added, "We are not here to discuss ancient Klingon medicine, if it can be called that. I want to be certain that our rights will be respected if you win the war against Kol."
Duffield and Cornwell discussed details of the peace treaty. Airiam reported that she'd scanned for several miles around the area and no invisible Klingon ships were present. Rhys had not detected any outgoing messages from the Klingon shuttles. It seemed as though F'Rog truly came in peace and this wasn't a trap.
"Sarek will be so smug," said Lorca.
An ancient Klingon named Volgor prepared a peace treaty on a piece of parchment. Burnham rolled her eyes at the useless ceremony and pomp. She rolled her eyes again when F'Rog and Volgor demanded three of the admirals sign the treaty in blood (and three Klingons).
"Thumbelina's going to love this," said Lorca.
Indeed, for some reason the ceremony required the opposite sides to hold the other's hand and make an incision. Duffield and Cornwell did it unquestioningly with Volgor and another Klingon. Malek got F'Rog (a few other admirals were present but too junior for the "honor").
"What's with the gloves?" Asked F'Rog, who didn't know about Vulcan psychological conditions and would only have laughed if he did.
"Allergies," said Malek.
He kept it together during the procedure, though he looked somewhat green around the gills when he returned to stand by the other admirals. Airiam hadn't paid much attention to the bloody ceremony. She tapped the tablet. The probe was almost out of range.
"The probe has entered a nebula," she said. "It's losing signal fast but I can discern two Federation vessels hiding in it. I believe the admirals weren't as trusting of the Klingons as they claimed to be."
"The precaution was unnecessary," said Detmer. "They've already signed the treaty."
"It was a stupid move," said Burnham. "If F'Rog had spotted those ships, he would never have signed. It was a breach of trust."
"Speaking of breaches of trust…," said Lorca.
A dozen Klingon warships dropped out of warp around the station. The admirals heard about it immediately and turned on F'Rog, but the Klingons were just as surprised. One of the newly arrived warships opened communications with them. It was Kol.
"You vile traitor, F'Rog! You sold us out to these scumbags!" He yelled.
He wasn't in a mood for diplomacy, that much became clear when he fired on F'Rog's ships. Lorca opened long range communication with Discovery and told them what happened, as well as the coordinates. The admirals beamed onto several shuttles. Detmer piloted over to cover the escaping admirals. Rhys and Airiam operated weapons. All the shuttles were equipped with warp drives so the admirals made it away. Lorca and his team planned to do the same instead of getting Discovery involved, but Burnham looked back at the station. Kol had aimed most of his forces at F'Rog's shuttles. The Klingons were stranded at the station, which had good shields but no weapons.
Lorca called Discovery to jump to their location at once. Saru obeyed and Detmer brought the shuttle onboard. They ran up to the bridge, where the admirals were already talking to Saru.
"Get out of there immediately!" Said Duffield. "Why did you call Discovery when you had time to warp out of there?"
"F'Rog and the others are trapped," said Burnham. "We can't rescue them with only a shuttle. We need to call those two Federation vessels Airiam detected."
"F'Rog is a filthy Klingon who probably orchestrated this whole thing!" Said Duffield. "Kol's entire attack could be a trap just like last time. I'll be damned if they don't stop firing and make up after you leave, which you should do right this minute!"
"The station is taking significant hits and they've spotted us," said Saru.
"Shields up and use evasive maneuver Gamma Pi 14," said Lorca.
"No, no Gamma Pi or whatever you have planned!" Said Cornwell. "Discovery is a lot more important to us than some ratty Klingons who made us sign a rag in blood for their amusement. They can't be trusted!"
"Actually, they were being sincere, if rude and unpleasant," said Malek. "I felt it. F'Rog does not exactly want peace, I think, but he does not approve of this state of affairs and he feels it's tearing apart his people. We can trust them, I'm sure of it!"
"What do you mean, he doesn't exactly want peace?" Snapped Cornwell.
"Well he's a Klingon, they never do…," said Malek.
"Malek, you're nuts, this war has scrambled your brains and I don't think you ever recovered from reading that human-Klingon's mind," said Duffield. "Lorca, this is an order: leave the battlefield now."
Lorca looked at Burnham, Detmer, Saru, and the rest of his crew. They were disgusted by the admirals' behavior. They convinced F'Rog to make a dangerous trip to this station, successfully signed the treaty, and now wanted to abandon their allies because Klingons are generally untrustworthy and less valued than humans?
Well, Lorca had nothing to lose!
"You lot need to just…go fuck yourselves!" He said.
He closed the screen and turned to the battle. Detmer had skillfully avoided some hits, but Klingon ships, cloaked and de-cloaked, now surrounded them as well as the station. It was time for quick thinking.
"Weren't we working on some algorithms for predicting cloaked ships' movements?" Asked Lorca.
"They're not quite ready," said Airiam.
"They'll have to be good enough."
They applied the programs to the battlefield. Lorca tried to learn it quickly and issued orders for a series of jumps and attacks. Discovery flew among the Klingon ships like a lightning bug, on and off, on and off. Burnham worried that Lorca planned to destroy all the enemy vessels, a pretty tall if not impossible order, but he had other things in mind. Instead, he created a commotion away from the station.
"Open communications with the Kol," he said at one point when they were stationary. He didn't give Kol a chance to speak when the Klingon appeared onscreen but said, "Hey, you smelly dumb turd! You made a big mistake coming here! We're going to destroy you with only one ship and dishonor your families for generations!"
"Why you…," began Kol, but Lorca ordered a jump to a new location where the program predicted a cloaked ship to reside and blasted at that spot. It was empty. They had moved too often and the computer couldn't handle the data. But most of the Klingon ships, at least the ones they could see, were away from the station and Lorca ordered a jump close to it. He'd goaded Kol, hoping the Klingon was of a similar mindset to the admirals and had assumed the Federation left F'Rog's delegation to die.
They appeared next to the station and beamed some of the Klingons aboard. Kol's forces flew at them. Discovery held its ground and the shields took a beating. They only had so much space on the transporter pad and F'Rog took thirty people with him.
Two Federation vessels showed up and the captains, Emilia Sully and Malcolm Perkins, greeted Lorca. They'd heard what happened and were strongly on Discovery's side. They distracted the Klingons while Discovery beamed aboard the last of F'Rog's party. The three ships agreed on a rendezvous point and got out of there.
"Let's go see what Michigan J. Frog is up to," said Lorca once they were safe. "Somehow I doubt he's singing and dancing with a top hat and cane."
He went down to the largest conference room with Burnham and Saru. F'Rog was definitely not dancing. In fact, two Klingons lay dead, everybody was up in arms, and Volgor chased Tilly around the room. She had the treaty. Klingons grabbed at her, Discovery officers lashed out at the Klingons, and one of them stuck a leg out to trip Volgor. The elderly Klingon flew through the air and landed in front of Burnham.
"What's going on here?" She asked. "Who killed those Klingons?"
"I killed them," said F'Rog. "They gave away our location to Kol. Not that it matters. How did those two Federation ships arrive so quickly? You betrayed our trust! We did as we promised, thinking that for once you lot would show some decency. And then, to add further insult, your admirals wanted to abandon us after we signed the treaty! No thank you, we'd rather team back up with Kol after this!"
"We will not stop you," said Burnham. "I agree that the admirals were completely out of line. But doesn't it count for something that we disobeyed orders to save you?"
"You are just a handful of ships," said F'Rog. "Your government is corrupt and you will not be able to resist their demands."
Lorenza was somewhere in the crowd and said to the person next to her, "See, he agrees about the government. We need major reform, I'm not too sure what kind, but major."
"Little girl," said F'Rog to Tilly, "you can stop hiding that paper. It is meaningless now. We will leave peacefully today but next time we meet, it will be in battle."
Burnham stepped forward and suddenly spoke in Klingon. She'd been studying it after Tyler's hospitalization.
"Wait, General F'Rog. Don't you recognize me? I am Michael Burnham. I started this war and I want the chance to end it."
The Klingons muttered among themselves. F'Rog wasn't impressed. He continued to speak Federation.
"A nice parlor trick, but just by speaking our language you do not become our equal. I don't care who you are. I already expressed my views on T'Kuvma, which I'm sure you heard. I will not continue fighting you because I believe T'Kuvma was some messiah but because you are all inherently untrustworthy."
"Isn't there anything we can do to prove our trustworthiness?" Asked Burnham.
"I can't think of anything at the moment, and tomorrow it will be too late. I see my ship out the window. If you can keep the word you gave me five minutes ago, you will not stop us as we go back to our ship."
"That ship…," said Lorca quietly.
F'Rog hadn't noticed him before but now he came closer. The Klingon ship seen out the window was called the End of Days. Lorca knew it well. It had destroyed the Buran.
"You are the captain of that ship?" Lorca asked. "You commanded that ship at the Battle of the Binary Stars?"
"You never found out my name?" Asked F'Rog. "But of course, why bother to uncover the name of some lousy Klingon, even if he did destroy your ship? I looked up your name. What would you have done today if you had known who I am?"
Lorca didn't know what to say.
"When I heard that the captain I defeated so easily was in charge of the teleporting monstrosity," continued F'Rog, "I just laughed. What a recipe for disaster! L'Rell put in a lot of time and effort to capture this Discovery and look where that got her. I said, just leave them be! Sooner or later Gabriel Lorca will blow up his own ship!"
It seemed imprudent for F'Rog to goad Lorca when the Klingons were entirely at the mercy of the Federation. But F'Rog wasn't in this for himself. He wanted Lorca to shoot them up, proving for the umpteenth time that the Federation doesn't keep its promises. Most of F'Rog's people understood what he was getting at and grimly agreed but a few thought he should have gotten out while the going was good. Too late now.
Lorca just stood there, looking from F'Rog to the End of Days. Burnham wanted to drag him away before his irascibility took over but she knew this situation was up to him, unfortunately. He didn't seem to care about the insults, though. He said some trippy nonsense.
"I did not look you up because I figured the captain of a ship called the End of Days must be Death himself."
"Aren't you angry?" Asked F'Rog. "Here I am, I who slaughtered your people! Don't just stand there staring at my ship, fight me! Be a man! Give in to rage and take your revenge!"
The Klingons shouted and growled, eager for a fight.
"Choose your weapon," said F'Rog, quite certain that it would be necessary. "We will settle this here and now. You dishonor your former crew by hesitating. Are you afraid you're not strong enough? If you cannot defeat me, at least you will join your former crew in death, as you should have the first time. Well? Challenge me!"
A few Klingons pushed Lorca toward the center of the ring that had somehow formed. Burnham and Saru exchanged worried glances. What were they supposed to do? Why couldn't Klingons act like normal people? But wait, that's what they kept accusing the Federation of wanting to turn them into…
Lorca finally snapped out of the nightmarish scene F'Rog's ship had brought back and focused on the Klingon, his adversary, the destroyer of his beloved crew! Not Death but a living enemy that could be blasted to pieces in exchange for some infinitesimal fraction of the lives he'd taken! Lorca put his hand on his phaser. F'Rog brandished his bat'leth.
Tilly, behind the crowds, clutched the treaty, like some angel of peace. And as good as it would feel to crack F'Rog's head against the floor and shoot his brains out, Lorca had not lied yesterday to Burnham and Saru. He did not seek revenge, only to justify the deaths of his crewmembers. Killing F'Rog would only cause more pain in the long run.
"Do you have any idea what you stole from me?" Asked Lorca.
"You would have done the same thing to my crew," said F'Rog.
There was the truth, all right. Lorca went through the crowd to retrieve the treaty from Tilly.
"Not today, my brother in war. Burnham asked what we could do to prove our trustworthiness," said Lorca. "I believe I have proven it. I will not attack you. I will not harm any of your crew, even though you destroyed mine. I have more reason to kill you than anybody else in this room but I care more about peace than revenge. The treaty stands!"
F'Rog continued to sing the same tune, "But you dishonor the dead!"
"Enough about honor! I believe we have very different notions of the word, and unless you want to seem like a complete hypocrite after you rambled on about individuality, you should accept that! I'll honor the living by making you uphold this treaty!"
F'Rog angrily looked around the room, caught. He growled softly and called over Volgor. He indicated for the old Klingon to take out the mini-bat'leth they'd used earlier to make cuts for the blood signatures.
"Fine, we'll go back to the terms of our treaty," said F'Rog. "But I want you and Michael Burnham to sign it as well. These admirals are worthless."
Burnham and Lorca let F'Rog cut them none too gently and signed their names. F'Rog and his people went down to the transporter room and were soon back on their ship. It lingered next to Discovery for a while, as if F'Rog hoped that maybe seeing it would piss Lorca off again and incite him to shoot at it and break the treaty once more.
Lorca stormed off and Saru made as if to go after him, but Burnham held him back. Lorenza went to find the captain. He stood by a window and watched the End of Days. He seemed calm but he suddenly thumped a fist against the windowsill.
"That vile, loathsome, hypocritical bastard!" He said. "How dare he say he defeated me easily? I had no choice! We were in an unfathomable situation! How was I supposed to… And now, he talks about honor! I mean, what if he's right? Maybe all these virtuous ideas about peace are nothing but useless blather and I should have just smashed in his skull! What if I really did dishonor my former crew?"
He punched the windowsill again and Lorenza caught his hand.
"It's ok," she said. "You did the right thing. Your former crew would be proud of you and we are all glad to have you with us."
The End of Days finally warped away.
"He cut you pretty deep," said Lorenza. "You should visit sickbay."
Lorca put his bloodied hand behind his back and said, "Eh, you know Klingons. You stick a fork two inches deep in them and they'll say, 'Something itches.'"
An announcement called Lorca up to the bridge.
"Oh, crap," he said. "I forgot I told the admirals to go pleasure themselves."
"If only they could have taken your advice."
However, the admirals were nearly contrite. It was rumored that they almost came to blows over the matter, but by the time they addressed Lorca, his crew, and Captains Perkins and Sully, they had resolved their differences. Duffield admitted their error, apologized for causing a scene, and promised to be more humanitarian in the future. Things would probably have been different if Lorca had been the only one to disobey their orders, but Perkins and Sully did too and the admirals decided not to cause a rift among Starfleet.
Of course, Lorca knew he was finished as captain, so disobeying the admirals (and giving them his honest opinion on how they should spend their time) wouldn't make things much worse. Would he have done the same if Burnham and Saru hadn't discovered his crime and his job was still secure? I'd like to think he would have!
In fact, in a few other universes, he did.
Footnotes
[1] That's not even including the original series!
[2] Presidents of the Federation were hit or miss. Most of the time it was some figurehead idiot who just read proclamations that other people wrote for him or her. Power was with the admiralty. During the Klingon War, Wayne Ichigari never distinguished himself and mostly hid in a bunker the entire time, occasionally looking out to yell that the war was going great on the news.
[3] From Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, a quote by Sherlock Holmes.
[4] Gösta Carl Henrik Ehrensvard, Man on Another World 1965 (Chicago University Press). I suspect Lorca copied this quote out of a book of quotations like I did.
[5] The random officer smiled. Several months ago, he had approached Lorca about the possibility of a promotion and they discussed his qualifications and assessments. Lorca just wasn't sure and said, "Let the fortune cookies decide." The officer took out a fortune that read, "Time is a river." Lorca said, "Yes, I do believe fate is telling us that you have not traveled along the river of time long enough to be ready for a promotion."
[6] Yeah…right…
[7] The ships Discovery and Glenn were funded by Starfleet while the spore drive technology and many of the scientists working on it were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Yes, indeed, DARPA, with its unobtrusive efficiency, managed to outlive the country that spawned it.
[8] Eh…