Chapter 7: In the Shadow of the Death Ferry

It took the crew of the Discovery about a half hour to realize they were far from home. Saru thought to check the cosmological signature of stuff around them. Different. The only reason it could be different was if they had landed in another universe. Asking Stamets what happened was out if the question. He'd gone into some sort of coma after the last jump. They floated around a battlefield composed of busted Vulcan, Klingon, and Andorrian ships. Burnham sent Rhys to get a data core from the least broken ship so they could learn about this universe.

Saru examined the navigational display on the captain's chair and found that the coordinates of the last jump were garbled.

"One might think you did this on purpose to get out of your predicament," said Burnham to Lorca, in a bad temper.

Lorca didn't respond and went down to sickbay to sit next to Stamets. Stamets' eyes were milky, like when he'd communicated with the tardigrade. The scientist occasionally muttered something about a palace or called out for Toto. One time he sat up and whacked Lorca on the head. Lorca accepted this as right and proper.

The ship had suffered numerous damages so the maintenance engineers were busy. Yana ran in to take a look at Stamets. By then, Burnham and Saru had come down to inform Lorca of the situation in this universe. They decided it was best to keep him acting as captain, if he could handle it, since the crew had already experienced too many shocks.

"We are in an autocratic, despotic place called the Terran Empire," said Burnham. "Humans are xenophobic to the extreme. They wage war on all other species. People rise in power here mainly by killing off their superiors. There can be little doubt that they won't help us if we approach them. They'll consider us an alien race that needs to be eliminated. We've landed at the site of a battle that happened a few days ago. The rebellion did not fare well."

They gave Lorca a few moments to process this.

"So there's an empire and a rebellion," he muttered. "Empire…rebellion. Empire, rebellion…" He held his hands out to the sides as if he was weighing the two words, then exclaimed, "We're in the Star Wars universe!"

As if to confirm this, Stamets rose up on his elbows and cried out, "Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

Burnham groaned while Saru explained.

"This is not the Star Wars universe. You really must stop joking about those movies. Since it is a parallel universe many of you have Terran counterparts. We discovered that Tilly is captain of the Discovery. She took control after killing the former captain while he had a flu."

"Was that me?" Asked Lorca, thinking of the infection he'd just had and wondering if he should feel lucky that he hadn't pissed off Tilly recently. But wait, didn't he make Tilly drag a bunch of stuff up to Conference Room C without looking at it? Uh oh! What if their Tilly had hidden homicidal tendencies?

"It was not anybody we know," said Burnham.

"So who am I in this universe?" Asked Lorca. "Do I finally make my Broadway debut? I often thought I'd make a good MC in Cabaret."

"I could see you in that role," said Saru.

"You have quite a history in this universe," said Burnham. "You were from an affluent family, did very well at the Academy, and became the Emperor's most trusted officer. You wiped out the last of the Klingons in the Kappa Quadrant, brutally suppressed an uprising against the Emperor, enslaved the Nausicaans, launched a scientific program to develop lethal new bioweapons…the list goes on."

"Why do you keep saying me? This is guy isn't me." Said Lorca. "What are you two over here? You're probably food for the fishes, Saru, but how about Burnham? I refuse to believe Burnham isn't morally correct, even among these genocidal maniacs."

Burnham shook her head and said, "Nope, I seem to be just as bad. I'm as close to the Emperor as you are. I'm captain of the Shenzhou."

"Are you not on duty?" Asked Saru of Yana.

"I wanted to see if Stamets is OK," she said.

"He is not. Unless you have anything important to say, go back to your work."

"You guys didn't know there are other universes?"

"You knew and never told us?" Said Burnham. "Did it ever occur to you that this might happen? Couldn't you have warned us?"

"I had no idea! I didn't think about them at all until today."

"Do you have any idea how to get back?" Asked Saru.

"No, I used to just think and then it happened."

"Do you know anything else about these universes?" Asked Saru.

"There are 52 like this, though I've heard that only 42 are worth visiting."

"Very useful, Captain Nara," said Lorca sarcastically.

"We must find the defect in the crystal!" Said Stamets.

Yana didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation, for she went back to work pleased that even in a coma-like state, Stamets remembered her movie. At least, she assumed he referred to the technique the Adventure used to shrink.

"We'll keep reading this data," said Burnham. "We need to figure out a plan. We can't be found by the Terrans."

"Yeah, I don't think we're very willkommen here," said Lorca.

"There is good news," said Saru. "We scanned all around and it appears as though the Terran Discovery is missing. It must have been transported to our world. I suspect it returned to the site of this battle to lie in wait for rebels who might return to scavenge parts from these ships. Whatever the case, we are free to pose as the Terran vessel."

"We found schematics of Terran uniforms and masked the cosmological signature of the entire ship," said Burnham. "Most of our bridge crew was on the Discovery as well, except for Owosekun, who works on the Imperial flagship."[1]

For the time being, they redecorated the ship. Only Lorca had the authority to make changes to the ship's name on the hull, so he changed it to ISS Discovery, except he was distracted and made a minor error (after all, he had to fix the earlier change he'd made to the name). Everybody who could be expected to show up on screen got a black and gold uniform. They replaced the Federation symbol with that of the Terran Empire on all the screens and walls.

Tilly put on her captain's uniform and straightened her hair. She went to sit up on the bridge, looking very uncomfortable despite Burnham's pep talk. Unfortunately, her first encounter with the Terrans happened soon. A ship came out of warp nearby, the Hamilton. Like in the Federation, its captain was Emilia Sully. Tilly put her up on screen.

"Ah, Sylvia, the Empire's youngest and brightest," said Sully. "Have you found any of that rebel scum among this wreckage? I was in the neighborhood, searching for Lorca's forces, and decided to drop in on you."

What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to say? Thought Tilly, panicking.

"Hello…long live the Empire!" She said, and drew her arm out from her chest in a salute.

"Of course, of course," said Sully. "Long live the Empire! So have you noticed anything interesting in this quarter?"

"No, no, the rebels are not here, definitely not here. It's been quite boring, actually. Nothing to blow up, nobody to torture, I'm almost thinking about calling the rebels up on my communicator for a showdown, only I don't have their number."

Tilly realized she was rambling and bit her lip. Sully didn't seem to notice. She called up a message that said some ships had been spotted around planet Harlak.

"Why don't you check this out?" She suggested. "If you're so hungry for rebel blood, this could be your chance. I'll keep searching for Lorca. That traitor couldn't have gotten far."

They saluted again and Sully flew off. Tilly almost started to cry with relief.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she said. "Was that right? Should I have accepted that suggestion or should I have told her to go fuck herself?"

"I think even here, you don't just tell senior captains to go fuck themselves for no reason," said Detmer. "At least, not unless you hope to gain something by it."

"What if there was a reason? You heard her, she sounded condescending. What if Tilly and Sully have some history and act toward each other in a certain way and I just messed it up?"

"It's not like we had access to Tilly's captain's logs. You'll just have to go with your gut, or rather, with Captain Tilly's gut."

Lorca, Burnham, and Saru had watched from the ready room.

"Why did she call me, or rather, him, a traitor?" Asked Lorca.

Burnham told Lorca what else they had learned from the rebel data core. About a month ago, his Terran counterpart had attempted a coup against the Emperor. He failed but escaped with his ship and some followers. Our Lorca wasn't impressed and demanded to know if they had anything useful, anything to help them get back home.

"Tilly has some ideas for waking up Stamets and we're still decoding some of the data core," said Burnham. "Why don't you get some rest?"

"I'm not an invalid!"

"No, but you were sick recently and we have all been up for nearly 24 h," said Saru.

Suspecting correctly that they were either tired of his presence, worried about his ability to keep up, planning something that didn't bode well for him, or all three, Lorca gave up and went to his room.

They moved toward Harlak, having nothing better to do. They reached this planet the next day. Rhys did some scans. There probably were rebels on it, but by then Burnham and Saru had a plan that certainly didn't involve actually doing the Terran's dirty work. Burnham was extremely unhappy with the plan.

They regrouped in sick bay next to Stamets. His condition remained the same. He flopped around a little. Lorca took his hand.

"We found an interesting bit of information," said Burnham. "We are not the first ship to cross over. The Defiant appeared here as well, but the rebel data did not provide any information on how or where. We've tried to hack some Terran networks but their firewalls are impenetrable. We think obtaining more data on this ship could provide us with a way home, but we'll have to break into the Imperial flagship."

"Not the palace!" Yelled Stamets.

"It is a pretty tall order," said Lorca.

"People don't just invite themselves onto the Charon," continued Burnham. "The Emperor either asks for them or they bring something useful."

"You could find your counterpart, knock her out, and take her place," suggested Tilly.

"From the transmissions we have picked up, Terran Burnham is on the Charon right now," said Saru. "Maybe she will leave and we could catch her, but it is too risky."

"We don't have much time," said Burnham. "Yana claims this universe is paired to ours, hence, time should be co-linear. But every day we don't bring back the cloaking algorithm could mean more lives lost in our universe."

She explained their plan. Tilly would go onto the Charon with Lorca as prisoner. She'd claim to have unexpectedly captured him around Harlak. She would say she boarded his ship, killed everybody else, and blew it up. Using real footage from the Battle of the Binary Stars, Burnham made a convincing video of the destruction of the Buran over Harlak.

Tilly started to hyperventilate. Dr. Pollard came over to help and suggested giving her an injection of adrenaline to get a better grasp on aggression.

"The girl does not have an evil bone in her body," said the doctor.

"Terrans are not evil," said Burnham. "They are egotistic and opportunistic. They seem strong but it's all painted rust. Everybody is just scared of a knife in the back."

"How did they go wrong? And when?" Wondered Lorca.

"Captain? Do you understand what is being asked of you?" Asked Saru.

"I never thought I'd be a sacrificial lamb!" Said Lorca.

"Lions and lambs," muttered Stamets.

Burnham could not even begin to express how scared she was for Tilly. Her Tilly! Practically her little sister! And she had to venture into the lion's den with only Lorca for company! Saru felt confident enough about Tilly, she'd meet expectations when the shock wore off, but Lorca didn't seem all there. He continued to hold Stamets' hand, perhaps as lost as the scientist. It was wrong to send a mentally compromised person into such a situation. Saru felt guilty and uneasy.

Over the next few hours, Lorca and Tilly read all they could find on the Terran Empire. They practiced what to say. Tilly told Burnham about her ideas to wake up Stamets. She wanted to stick him in the spore drive chamber and release some spores in there. Perhaps it would form a connection with his consciousness. Finally, they all gathered on the bridge in preparation for communicating with the Empire. Lorenza sat on the bridge with a few phasers that she outfitted to act as Terran weapons.[2]

Tilly fidgeted and played with her hair.

"Hit me," said Lorca. "There must have been a struggle and I don't look like I lost the fight."

"I can't!" Wailed Tilly.

"You have to!" Said Lorca. "You're a nasty, mean, self-serving Terran! Take that phaser and whack me across the head. If it helps, think about your two applications to the Command Training Program that I rejected because you talk too much."

"Wait, what?" Said Tilly.

Rejected applications or not, Tilly couldn't hit her captain so he looked at Burnham. After a week of wanting to kick his ass, she finally had her chance. Except she also didn't take it and suggested he walk into a wall.

"Will somebody bring me a rake?" He asked. "I could do the comedy stepping on a rake trick."

Lorenza held up one of the phasers that she had modified into an agonizer, a sort of Taser very popular with the Terrans.

"We're fucking screwed," she said. "These guys like to cause pain for fun and the best we can throw at them is a little girl and a captain who's watched more TV than everybody on this ship put together. I mean, what are you going to do if the real Gabriel Lorca shows up? What are we going to do if they figure out who we are? Our Terran counterparts will either kill us slowly and painfully or make us their sex slaves! I'd prefer the former!"

"Lorenza!" Snapped Burnham. "What have I told you about being negative?"

"I've tried, damn it, but this is the biggest crapfest we've ever been in!"

Lorca thought of all the times Lorenza had comforted him and felt he should return the favor. He moved toward her and put an arm around her shoulders. She looked at him suspiciously and suddenly whacked him on the head with one of the phasers.

"Oh, god! You nearly took my eye out!" He cried.

"It didn't look like anybody else was going to do it," she said.

Lorca didn't feel much like a captain anymore but he realized everybody was scared. He wiped the blood off his eye and smiled.

"Crew, this is not going to be the end of Discovery," he said. "We will get through this because you are the most competent team in the Federation. We represent Starfleet, honor, peace, and justice and we will not let this dark world oppress us. If Tilly and I do not find a way to bring us home, Burnham and our other talented scientists will find the answer."

The bridge crew looked relieved and some clapped. Lorca looked around, as if he'd lost something.

"As Lorenza pointed out, I have watched a lot of TV," he said, "and this world with its Empire and rebellion just reeks of Star Wars. Have any of you felt a…disturbance? Perhaps some sort of mystical connection to the universe? Come on, I'm sure we're all Force sensitive! Except for Lorenza, of course."

"Not missing out," she said.

People laughed and got back to their tasks. Lorenza gave Tilly the phasers. Burnham sent the Charon a message, asking for an audience. They approached the Imperial flagship at impulse power. It slowly got bigger in the view screen. Vaguely round at first, they soon made out more details. A flying palace.

"It's not a moon," said Lorca.

They were hailed by Captain Maddox. Burnham, Saru, and Lorenza left the bridge. Maddox asked Tilly what was so urgent that she had to bother the Emperor.

Tilly shoved Lorca into the screen's view and said, "I was told to expect rebels on Harlak but I found something even better. I think the Emperor will be very excited to see her most trusted advisor again."

"Very interesting," said Maddox.

The screen flickered and suddenly, Philippa Georgiou appeared. Now, you all know she was the Emperor, but Lorca and his crew did not. Georgiou was never called anything other than "the Emperor" in all transmissions and the rebel data did not reveal her identity.

Burnham put her hand over her mouth and was glad going onto the Charon was not her job. She wasn't sure she could handle it.

Tilly saluted the Emperor. It seemed to be the safe thing to do when she didn't how to respond.

"I knew I could count on you, my dear Tilly," said Georgiou. "Unlike my irresponsible, reckless, untrustworthy daughter, you know where your loyalties lie. Bring that piece of garbage over here and tell me all about it. We will celebrate!"

Maddox came back and requested that they take a shuttle onto the Charon, for its shields were up that prevented beaming onboard. He ended the transmission. Burnham and the others came back onto the bridge.

"You're screwed," said Lorenza, unable to resist being negative again. "That's freaking Philippa Georgiou. If she's anything like our Georgiou, she's going to cream you!"

"It sounds like she knows Tilly a lot better than we thought," said Tilly.

But there was no time to discuss the ramifications of the Emperor's identity. They went down to the shuttle. Burnham had one more pep talk for Tilly.

She took her aside while the shuttle was prepared and said, "You can only rely on yourself over there. Lorca is a prisoner and a traitor to them. If it looks like they're going to kill him, let them. Your main goal is to get the data so all of us can go home. You want to be a captain so you must understand that a captain has to die for his ship when it's necessary. Don't put yourself and the rest of us in harm's way if you think there's even a moderate chance of saving him."

Tilly thought this was a bit extreme. What about no man left behind? But she nodded. Lorca overheard this and seemed nonplussed. He asked where Yana had gotten to.

"Do you want to say goodbye to her?" Asked Saru.

"I don't want her to see me like this. Make sure she stays where she is."

Tilly got on the shuttle. Burnham met Lorca's eyes and asked, "Do you know your role?"

"To suffer and die if necessary," he said.

Burnham paced Engineering while Dr. Pollard and some nurses set up Stamets in the spore drive chamber. As Acting Captain, Saru was off making sure everybody else was doing what they were supposed to. Secretly, Burnham looked at the image of Emperor Georgiou she'd saved from the view screen. This woman looked just like her! Burnham told herself there was no reason to fret, this was a completely different person who could offer her nothing.

She filled up the chamber with spores once Stamets was ready and attached to Dr. Pollard's monitoring equipment. She expected him to start rambling even more nonsense, but instead he went quiet. Perhaps it was working?

It was a few hours before Yana found out what happened. A maintenance engineer told her in the shafts. Yana dropped a bucket full of screws down dozens of feet and ran off to find somebody who could corroborate the engineer's information. She stumbled into her and Lorenza's room but didn't find her mentor. Eventually she tracked her down in the cafeteria, eating a bunch of fries and a hot dog.

"Did they really send the captain into the Emperor's palace?" Asked Yana, breathless.

"Not much choice in the matter," said Lorenza. "We've got to explore all our options."

"But they could kill him!"

"He knew the risk."

Stricken, Yana collapsed into a chair. Even then, after all the space battles and Culber's murder and everything she had learned about people, grim reality had not encompassed her. It had not affected her as it did now, when the person she cared about the most was in danger. How could she bear it if the captain died, he who had shared his beautiful vision with her and helped bring her story to life?

"My sister will have a heart attack," said Lorenza. "She's reconciled herself to the idea that I may die in war, but she will freak out if I just disappear. She'll think the worst and she will probably be right."

Yana barely listened. She cried, big heaving sobs. Lorenza patted her on the arm once, then checked her communicator.

"You managed to lodge screws up places where screws are not meant to be lodged," she said. "You should go clean it up, it'll take your mind off things."

But Yana wouldn't budge.

Stamets came to in a funny sort of place, kind of blue and glittery with fungus everywhere. He thought, This might be Heaven. If I find some microscopes and other scientific equipment to examine these fungi, it will be Heaven.

He wandered the area until he noticed a campfire. A man in a wide-brimmed hat and long jacket sat on a rock by the campfire. For a moment, Stamets thought the man was Hugh Culber. Then he realized it was a trick of the light. The man held a book that Stamets at first took to be a Bible; it was of black leather, thick, and antique-looking.

"Hi, do you know where I am? What is this place?" Asked Stamets.

"I believe we are in a gigantic organic network connecting the entire Supraverse," said the man.

"You mean the mycelial network? Oh, great, of course. How do I get out? Who are you? How did you start a fire in here with logs when I don't see any logs around?"

The man considered the questions carefully and said, "I only know how to answer the last one, and can only advise on the first. This is not a real fire. It is a hologram. I believe you will have to get out the same way you got in. Perhaps the other fellow can help you."

Stamets suddenly had a very strong gut feeling and yelled, "Are you God?"

The man stared off into the distance, clearly thinking about this very seriously. Or maybe not thinking about it at all. He looked into the book. Stamets did too. Things were scribbled in it in very bad handwriting. Stamets noticed a circle in a triangle with a line through it on one page and a child's squiggly drawing of a willow tree.

"He's not God," said a new person. "He's just a lunatic who appears sometimes. He's completely useless."

Stamets turned around and saw himself, albeit in a black uniform. Ah, the man from the mirror!

"I have a lot of explaining to do," said Stamets50.[3] "Sit down, let's get to it."

Stamets51 sat on a rock and put his hand in the fire absently. It burned!

"I thought you said this was a hologram!" He said to the man in the hat.

"It was," said the man.

"See, lunatic," said Stamets50.

"Do you think humans are naturally evil?" Asked Lorca of Tilly on the shuttle.

"I think we should focus on happy things," said Tilly.

"Fine, puppies and rainbows it is, but I feel the pressure of the histories of two universes, begging for justification."

They arrived in the shuttle bay and went up to the Emperor's throne room. Georgiou came down from her throne in a fur-lined cloak. Michael Burnham stood behind the throne, looking kind of sullen.

"Tilly, Tilly, Tilly," said Georgiou. "You've barely been a captain for six months and already you have proven yourself worthy of my regard. If there is anything I can do for you, just name it."

"For now, I just want to keep serving the Empire by destroying rebels and bringing traitors to their knees," said Tilly.

Georgiou's pleasant smile changed to a look of scorn and fury as she looked at Lorca.

"I trusted you and you tried to take everything from me," she said. "I will not make that mistake again."

"So why isn't she in chains?" Asked Lorca, nodding at Burnham.

Georgiou decided to respond with violence and beat him with a club. Lorca released a slew of colorful expletives, some of which he didn't even remember learning.

"You've been to Earth recently, haven't you?" Asked Burnham of Tilly. "How was the weather?"

"Um…all right. Not too bad."

"Has the duststorm over Europe subsided yet? I don't know why we keep terra-forming that planet. People are so stupidly attached to it. It's time to move on."

"I know, we should just find other planets to bleed dry. Maybe we should venture into Romulan territory?"

"That's an idea. I think we have the firepower for it."

Georgiou stopped beating Lorca but he yelled from the floor, "A drunken Tellarite with one leg would be a better emperor than you!" She kicked him until he didn't feel like insulting her anymore.

"Take him down to an agonizer booth," she told her officers. "I'll execute him tomorrow. Much as I'd like to torture him until he's old and broken, he'll find some way of getting out and causing trouble again."

She called for servants to prepare a feast and entertainment. They sat at a table and talked about the rebel situation. It seemed implied that Tilly would stay until tomorrow. The conversation was not too difficult. Georgiou did most of the talking. There was obvious tension between her and Burnham. Tilly thought the food was kind of strange. The main course consisted of some rather stringy meat.

"I had to cull an entire group of Kelpians last week," Georgiou told her. "They like to poison themselves in the hopes of poisoning us. Sometimes I think we should have picked a different population to be slaves and food stock. Tellarites, perhaps, they resemble wild pigs in all but name and are far less clever than Kelpians. But the smell!"

Tilly threw up when she realized she'd just eaten a person. Georgiou and Burnham fussed over her. She mumbled something about a stomach bug going around, looked at the dish with some remaining meat, and threw up again.

They brought out some dessert that Georgiou claimed was good for quieting a stomach bug. Tilly wondered if it would be people's eyes or fingers but the servants brought seemingly empty trays. It turned out to be the invisible flowers from Mirla. By some coincidence, the Terran Empire had settled this planet around the same time Discovery explored it. Of course, the Terran Empire immediately started building a bunch of factories and overexploiting its resources.

Georgiou and Burnham continued to cosset Tilly, as if she were a child. She expected Georgiou to pinch her cheek any moment and wondered what Terran Tilly thought of this treatment.[4]

The entertainment arrived. A band played music and a chained Andorrian woman danced. Georgiou liked the dance and wanted the woman to repeat it. The Andorrian started tugging on her chain. Georgiou opened a trapdoor and the woman fell into it. Some creepy little bird monkey thing cackled.

Oh wait, I was just describing the scene in Jabba's palace. Sorry. I still have Star Wars stuck in my head.

Lorca did not remember what his mother looked like. She ran off with a traveling salesman when he was six and his father deleted all the photos he had. Lorca was too angry at her for leaving him to find any others, and by the time he was older, he did not recall her face and photos did not bring back her memory as a real person.

After Georgiou's officers stuck him in an agonizer booth, he suddenly remembered his mother, and if there hadn't been a bunch of other people around who could hear, he would have called out for her.

Unexpectedly, somebody turned off the shock treatment. Lorca knew it was too early for his execution, which he was kind of starting to look forward to. Captain Maddox showed up with some guy Lorca didn't recognize at first. Maddox shoved the guy onto the floor and Lorca realized it was Ash Tyler, Terran version.

"Pikachu!" He said, forgetting that Tyler had no idea this was his nickname.

"What is that, some code word?" Asked Maddox. But he didn't care. He wanted Lorca to apologize for what Terran Lorca had done to Maddox's sister or he would kill Tyler, who'd been a trusted officer of Lorca's. Of course, Lorca didn't even know the sister's name, which earned him a pretty bad shock from the booth. A number of people were lined up behind Maddox, waiting their turn to take it out on Lorca.

Well, it was one thing to die for his crew, but he wasn't going to get beaten or let Tyler's look-alike die for a bunch of dumb things Terran Lorca did. He noticed that a corner of the agonizer booth had a crack in it. A swift kick and the wall broke. The sharp bits of plastic were a good weapon until he disarmed Maddox.

"He what?" Said Georgiou.

The officer that brought her the news hoped she wouldn't kill the messenger today and repeated that Lorca got into a fight before a bunch of people jumped on him.

Georgiou looked at the detailed report on a tablet and said, "He sent six people, six of my best officers, to sick bay. And he broke an agonizer booth. Those things cost money!"

"Don't we have a service contract with them?" Asked Burnham.

"I think it expired," said Georgiou.[5]

"How badly did they hurt Lorca?" Asked Burnham.

"Why do you care?" Said Georgiou. "As long as he's alive tomorrow, he can slowly die all night. Or are you concerned about that?"

"No, I don't care at all. Look at Tilly, she still seems to be green in the face."

Taking pity on Tilly even though they didn't take pity on just about anyone else, Georgiou and Burnham ended the festivities early so she could rest in her room. Their rooms were right next door so Tilly couldn't help but overhear their shouting match.

"You are going into your room and you will stay there if I have to chain you to your bed!" Yelled Georgiou.

"Fine! I had no intention of going anywhere else!" Yelled Burnham.

"Like I can trust you not to help Lorca escape again! I know it was thanks to you that he made it out last time! I do everything for you and this is how you repay me!"

"So execute me along with him tomorrow! Why did you let me live last time? You're going weak, just like he says. You care more about me than you do about the Empire! The rebels will be walking all over us soon."

"Don't you bring the rebels into this! That's Lorca's ridiculous argument, not yours. You just never have enough. You always want more excitement, even if it means betraying those who care about you. I should let you and Lorca run off together, only because I know eventually you will stab him in the back too!"

"In case you haven't noticed, I didn't run off with him! I'm still loyal to you."

Georgiou just made a sound of annoyance and slammed a door. Tilly brushed her hair and thought that her arguments with her mother were a lot more straightforward. For example, they had never argued over a guy that they'd both been sleeping with.

"I was able to sneak into your world occasionally and connect with your subconscious, usually soon after you had done a jump," said Stamets50. "I showed you glimpses of my world, like the Imperial palace."

He was near the end of his story, having explained everything about the Terran Universe. The man in the hat had not said anything for 30 minutes, either because he didn't want to interrupt or because he had nothing to say.

"Did you appear in mirrors?" Asked Stamets51.

"I think you started hallucinating toward the end. It's all a shitshow! I tried to fix the problems with our spore generator and got sucked into the network. I've seen crazy shit! I've had glimpses of the past, the future, all kinds of stuff that may not even be real. We have to get out of here before we go insane!"

"But how did Discovery end up in your universe?"

"When you guys did those 133 jumps, I was able to cross over to your universe with much more ease than before. I just knew that I had the power to affect something tangible, so I changed the coordinates of your last jump. I caused some sort of pulse in the network that affected the electronics of one of your devices. I still don't know how it really worked!"

It took Stamets51 a few minutes to realize that Stamets50 had dragged his entire crew into a violent, oppressive society just to help get his ass out of the mycelial network. When he realized this, he jumped at Stamets50 and tried to choke him. The man in the hat didn't budge. The fire had gone out. Stamets50 fought off Stamets51 and they glared at each other across the dying embers.

"So how do we get out?" Asked Stamets51 finally.

"I don't know, you're the navigator."

"If only Hugh were here."

"I suppose he could provide some comfort."

"You knew a Hugh Culber too?"

Stamets51 momentarily forgot his anger as they discussed the similarities and differences between the Hughs they knew. This didn't bring them any closer to getting out, though.

Not that far away, but well-concealed, the ISS Buran floated in space. The captain stood at a window and contemplated his imminent takeover of the Terran Empire. Defeated he was not! This had all been part of the plan. Even Burnham's treachery in choosing Her Imperial Tediousness over him did not matter much. They were just pawns in his game.

An officer showed up and told him a message. The captain turned around, surprised.

"What do you mean they've captured me?"

Back on Discovery, Burnham decided she couldn't sit around anymore watching glittery bits float around Stamets. She looked up the ingredients of the formula Stamets had injected into himself all those months ago and mixed it up herself. Should she tell Saru? He was Acting Captain, after all, not her. But Burnham felt too much pent up worry and anger to do things the proper way and injected herself with a cocktail of fungal and tardigrade DNA.

By the time Saru found out, she had already closed herself up in the spore drive chamber with Stamets. So far, she seemed fine, if pissed that she hadn't entered the mycelial network yet. Saru told her off for brashness. Then, pragmatically, he called up all the other bioengineers and Yana and Lorenza for good measure to think about what to do with Burnham. Yana sat in a chair and didn't offer any opinions, still too upset over Lorca's fate. Saru and Burnham agreed it would be best for Burnham to try and get Stamets back instead of navigating them home. She didn't have the skill to do so yet and they did mean to get Tilly and Lorca back.

Burnham came up with some ideas herself. She figured the mycelial network operated on various chemical and neurological connections so she cut her hand and Stamets' and performed a "blood bond" like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. That didn't work. She left the chamber and hunted through some cabinets with petri dishes of various fungal species. Stamets had been testing different species of spore and felt that some rare ones led to better jumps. Burnham took the petri dishes and dipped her finger in them, touched Stamets, then wiped off the material when it didn't seem to work. It took a while because it was painful and she wanted to wipe off each batch thoroughly so they wouldn't mix up which one worked, if one did.

She had done this seven or eight times and the onlookers didn't immediately realize she was unconscious. Then they did and Lorenza grabbed the petri dish with the special sauce before it fell out of Burnham's hand. Burnham's eyes were milky now too.

"Burnham versus the mycelial network," said Lorenza. "Anybody want to place bets?"

Tilly and the other Burnham had to wait a while for the Emperor to go to bed. Georgiou decided to go down to sickbay and execute Maddox for putting Lorca in a broken agonizer booth. Once she seemed to be ensconced in her room, Tilly and Burnham snuck off in different directions. Tilly went to Engineering. It wasn't locked and she went in and accessed the database. She had to do some hacking for a while but she finally got the data on the Reliant. She read it and her heart sank. They couldn't use this to get home. The Reliant crossed by a method called interphasic space. The Tholians of the Terran universe created this anomaly, using technology that was since destroyed by the Terrans. Plus the entire crew of the Reliant went nuts in the process and killed each other.

Tilly was so upset by this finding that she didn't leave Engineering right away, so Georgiou found her there. But the Emperor didn't think this odd. Luckily, Tilly had closed the screens with the information about the Defiant.

"I'm surprised you didn't go see him right away," said Georgiou.

"Hmm?" Said Tilly, then noticed that the Emperor looked at a corner that contained a hospital bed with the body of Terran Stamets.

"I suppose you didn't want to ruin the festivities," said Georgiou. "We've had no luck waking him up. I tried everything. Pain doesn't do the trick, nor pleasure. Perhaps I'm not the right person to do it."

They walked over to the bed. Georgiou patted Stamets on the head.

"You were always his special friend," she said. "Why don't you see if your touch will wake him up?"

Tilly took Stamets' hand. What did Georgiou mean by "special friend?" What exactly happened between Stamets and Tilly in this universe?

"Come now, be a bit more affectionate," said Georgiou. "You two used to set up such a ruckus in here, rolling around on the fungus as if it was 20th century dollar bills."

It was quite dark in the room and Tilly hoped Georgiou couldn't see her blushing.

"Should I kiss him, like Prince Charming?" She asked.

"You are being so bashful today, Tilly dear! Kiss him all you like, but I think you'll need to play with his spore generator. See if that gets some blood back into his brain!"

I will do anything for my crew, I will do anything for my crew! Thought Tilly. And I will never speak of this to anyone.

But she was saved by the bell, or rather, some alarm Georgiou checked on her communicator.

There was a time when Lorca vaguely wanted to become a politician or a lawyer. Now all he could think about was why oh why didn't he do that? Neither of those career paths was likely to end up in mind-fucking torture in a parallel universe!

Burnham pulled him out of the agonizer booth and helped him over to a chair.

"How did you manage to get caught by freaking Tilly? Were you drunk?"

Lorca didn't manage to say anything but she just went to get a first aid kit. The Imperial officers had injured him quite badly, though all of that paled in comparison to the agonizer booth. Burnham came back with the medical supplies. She just stood there and glared at him for a while. It was kind of scary. What did she want? Why did his counterpart ever think sleeping with her was a good idea?

"Tell me you love me," said Burnham.

Oh, crap, of the three feelings Lorca had for his Burnham, namely annoyance, aversion, and grudging respect, love was not one of them. He figured he could try thinking of someone else that he loved, but he took too long to respond and she sighed.

"At least you're not lying to me now."

She turned on a light and, for some reason, apologized for it though the light wasn't that bright. She fixed a gash on Lorca's forehead and tried to get his jacket off to fix a big one on his arm, but it hurt too much to move. She began to cut the sleeve off.

"You'll be dead tomorrow," she said. "I'm not saving you but I don't want you to be in pain that whole time. I've thought long and hard about what it is I should do and I don't want to be responsible for the death of the woman who cared for me most of my life. You wouldn't understand. We're just toys to you. You almost had me convinced with your stories of how great things will be once we properly crush the rebellion and take over the galaxy. I don't know. Do you remember that book I found, one of the few that hasn't been destroyed from the Old Era? Alice in Wonderland. I sometimes think we all fell down the rabbit hole a long time ago, into some dark Wonderland where wrong is right."

Huh, a Terran who realized that something was wrong with her world. That hadn't stopped her from acquiring the nickname of the Butcher of the Binary Stars, though.

Suddenly, Burnham moved Lorca's arm closer to the light and asked, "When did you get this tattoo?"

Ah, this was another thing Lorca hadn't even considered, being kind of absent-minded the last few days. When did he get it? Well, it was the last final of his third year at the Academy. The final was at 7 AM. Lorca and his friends finished it, ran out screaming and hitting each other, and started drinking before noon. Somehow they ended up at an indiscriminate tattoo parlor and Lorca thought it would be cool to have a snake wrapped around his arm, an Ouroborus. The beginning is the end. Unlike his friends, who got things they later regretted and removed, he still thought it was pretty cool.

"Oh…um…eh…I've had it forever," he mumbled. "I tried to get it removed but maybe the agonizer booth caused it to reappear."

"That's bullshit," said Burnham. Then she noticed something else. "How come you aren't squinting from this light?"

"What?"

"How did Tilly catch you? It's inconceivable. She's a novice. You…you're not even trying to worm your way out of this situation. You're not sweet talking me to let you go."

She grabbed him by the neck and hissed, "What's your secret name for me?"

Ah, secret name! Surely, in this universe, Terran Lorca must have come up with the same one Lorca deduced in the Federation! Surely, Burnham couldn't be anything other than smart aleck, always right Sherlock!

Nope.

"You're not him!" She said. "You must be a decoy. I've heard that some of the labs have been working on very convincing cosmetic surgeries. How can you tolerate bright light? You must be some genetic mutant. Where did he find you?"

Lorca really didn't know how to proceed. Was being a copy of Terran Lorca good or bad? Was it less likely to end in execution or would she just kill him faster?

"Vulcan," he said. He'd read that many down on their luck humans lived on Vulcan nowadays.

"Didn't you know you'd be killed here?" Asked Burnham.

"He threatened to kill my daughter if I didn't do what he said."

"Huh. Clever of him. He must have been hoping to halt the search while he collected allies. He should have trained you better to be like him. It's odd that he didn't notice the tattoo."

"I think he was in a rush. Please, Captain Burnham, I never did anything to hurt you. I just want to go back to my family. Will you convince the Emperor to let me go?"

"You're of no use to me. I bet you can't even provide any information on where Lorca is hiding."

"No, I was blindfolded most of the time. But Captain Burnham, didn't you just say that you're all toys in Lorca's hands, kept around only until you're no longer useful? Don't you want to prove yourself different from him?"

Burnham smacked him and snapped, "Don't talk to me that way, vagrant! You have no right to tell me what I should do! You're nobody!"

"I guess I hit a nerve."

Burnham smacked him again and went across the room. Lorca was tired and didn't feel well and was sick of pretending to be someone else.

"Perhaps if you had that rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'frumious,' and feel it too,"[6] he said. "Admit that you are frumious Lorca stuck me here in his place almost as if to make fun of you!"

"You do not sound like a man who is desperate to return to his family."

"But you're going to kill me! You're just like the Emperor, scared shitless of any little threat or anything you don't understand."

"Great, now you're starting to sound like the real Lorca again."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"I'm so glad I decided you looked too unwell to make out with me."

"You're missing out."

Burnham threw the medical device she was still holding at the light and put it out.

"Shut up!" She said. "You're just some renegade from Vulcan. I don't know why I'm still talking to you. It's just because you look like him."

"Oh, it's more than that," said Georgiou, who'd been listening quietly with Tilly.

She walked over to Lorca and dealt him a hard blow, then moved toward Burnham and slapped her a bunch of times.

"Disrespectful harlot!" Said Georgiou. "I knew you were lying about being loyal to me. That's it, that is really it, I will execute the lot of you!"

"The lot?" Said Tilly.

But Georgiou continued to harangue Burnham for her untrustworthiness even though Burnham and Lorca protested that she had no intention of letting Lorca go.

"He's not even the real Lorca!" Said Burnham. "He's a doppelganger Lorca created to get us off his trail."

"It doesn't matter," said Georgiou. "You came down here thinking he was the real Lorca. You had every intention to betray me."

"I just didn't want him to be in pain! Is that so wrong?"

"He caused me enough pain. You should follow the orders you are given."

"The lot?" Said Tilly again.

"Oh, honestly," said Georgiou. "Computer, access the last files opened in Engineering."

A screen showed the information on the Defiant. Burnham read the file, not understanding at first, then she stared at Lorca.

"Is that…," she said.

"Unfortunately," said Georgiou. "I really didn't think the universe could support two such pieces of crap as Lorca, but here he is."

"How did you know?" Asked Lorca.

"Give me a break!" Said Georgiou. "You sent six men to sick bay. Sick bay! You didn't kill them. Quite an oversight. My Lorca would have made them suffer for daring to hurt him. Then this one who couldn't keep her stomach under control once she realized she ate a sentient creature. Also, my Tilly would have gone down on Stamets like a seal eating a fish without me having to nag her about it!"

"What?" Said Lorca and looked at Tilly weird.

"I didn't do it!" She said.

"I know about the Federation," said Georgiou. "It's a dangerous concept in this world. Freedom, equality, justice…pah! I can't believe you've lasted so long."

"But we have and the Federation is really great!" Said Tilly. "Please don't kill us. We just want to go home. The ships will probably switch back when we figure out how and you can have your crazy Tilly back."

"I'd have to exterminate them all," said Georgiou. "They've spent a few days in your universe and will be full of your nonsense. I can't have them spreading dissent. It would be easiest to kill all of you since you're sitting ducks."

"We can share our technology with you," said Lorca. "We can make a trade."

"You're in no position to bargain," said Georgiou. "What trade? I can wipe you all out with some of our bioweapons and learn all about your technology myself. There is nothing you can offer me and I want you both to shut up right now, because I can see that you're about to try appealing to my better nature. I don't have one. Michael, you have one chance to prove yourself to me. Kill him."

"But…"

"You have until the count of three. One…"

A phaser blast hit the wall above her head. She ducked. A figure appeared in the doorway, with a large phaser cavalierly thrown over his shoulder and a winning smile on his face. It was Lorca50!

"Hey there, Pippa, did you miss me?" He said. "You know Mickey will never kill me, or some other version of me. She can't get enough of me. So why don't you save us all the hassle and bow down to me as your new Emperor!"

"How did you get in here?" Asked Burnham.

"Shuttle bay. I still have some friends here, and you were all so distracted by this poor shadow of mine. So, unconditional surrender time!"

Georgiou decided she was outgunned, grabbed Burnham, and used a voice-activated emergency transport system to take them away. Lorca51 jumped up and ran to the spot where they'd just been because Georgiou had grabbed Tilly too.

"Oh no," he said, and sank into a chair, suddenly feeling like he'd failed at everything. Lorca50 ambled over and examined him with a critical look. He glanced up at the information about the Defiant that was still on the screen and shrugged.

"You're not getting home that way," he said, "so you might as well stay with me and party once I become Emperor."

"You don't want to kill me?"

"No way! This is the coolest thing to happen! You're so similar to me, though of course I'm still better-looking. Oh my god, I have always wanted to find out if I'm as good in bed as I think I am. And now I can!"

Lorca51 looked up at him with disbelief and let out a sound that could only have been a whimper.

Footnotes

[1] Airiam and Detmer did not have augmentations in this universe. Detmer covered up her false eye and Airiam wore a wig and makeup.

[2] Lorenza's counterpart was an admiral in this universe who wore a necklace of human bones and boots made of Klingon skin. She was known as a brutal torturer that even the Emperor didn't quite approve of. All Lorenza had to say about this person was, "The woman looks like she weighs what I did in high school. How does she do it? Perhaps all the killing keeps off the pounds."

[3] From now on, if two characters with the same name are in the same location, I will use numbers to differentiate them. I won't use numbers if they're not in the same location. Also, the Qs, in their infinite wisdom, numbered the universes beginning from 0, and our Federation universe is #51, Terran is 50.

[4] She hated it. She hated Georgiou and Burnham just a little more than she hated everybody else and they knew it to some extent. Hatred simmered under the surface among the Terrans and erupted in events like Lorca's coup. It never occurred to them to just talk about things.

[5] Scream Inc., here to support all your torturous needs! Now open on weekends because pain should never take days off. Text OUCH to 445566 and get 20% off your first order!

[6] He was quoting Lewis Caroll. In the early days of the Klingon War, he memorized a handful of quotes by Caroll to mock his Michael Burnham. He'd already used this one on her. Indeed, she had been frumious.