Chapter 19: Distance Squared

Discovery and the Corrigan tried as best as they could to evacuate people from a Qo'nos dissolving in lava, but casualties were in the millions. Word of a Federation officer on a small ship spread and the Corrigan retrieved Northwood. She confessed to setting off the bomb and claimed she did it as "a favor to the Federation, which is too weak and dumb to do the job." She had fits and passed out, probably from the fumes, and was taken to sick bay instead of the brig. Parts related to the bomb were found in her former room on Discovery.

Since the admirals had a rule of one Terran per ship (so they wouldn't conspire together), the Terran already on the Corrigan got sent over to Discovery in exchange for Northwood. Detmer50 did not even have time to get her stuff before she was transported. She found an empty room and crashed on the bed. Detmer51, Owosekun, and Airiam sought her out. Everybody was in shock over the sudden catastrophe and the status of the war was unclear so they decided to distract themselves by welcoming the Terran. Well-trained Federation officers that they were, they showed Detmer50 no antipathy even though they suspected she might have done the same thing as Northwood.

Detmer50 stared rudely at Detmer51's cybernetic eye and said, "I dig it. But you should totally pimp it out with rhinestones and glitter."

"I most definitely will not pimp it out," said Detmer51.

"We're sorry you got yanked away from your new crew so suddenly," said Airiam. "Did you make any friends there?"

Detmer50 studied Airiam but then looked away and said, "No. They didn't like me. Do you know what happened to Northwood? They wouldn't tell me."

The Starfleet officers exchanged glances, wondering if Detmer50 knew something about the bombing.

"I had nothing to do with it!" She snapped. "And I don't believe Narcissa did either! She was set up. She's too high all the time to put a bomb together or carry out a plan."

"Were you good friends with her?" Asked Owosekun, who noticed that Detmer50 called Northwood by first name.

Detmer50 folded her arms across her chest and glared moodily at the bed opposite.

"All you guys ever talk about is friendship and stuff," she said. "That's why you were losing this war."

Airiam sat next to her. DetmerT moved away. Airiam put her hand on DetmerT's shoulder.

"Don't touch me, you creepy shell!" Said the Terran.

"I believe you," said Airiam. "I don't think Northwood perpetrated those crimes. I would know because she's just like me when I was 21. I couldn't have come up with a plan like that. I was living from one high to the next. It took a lot of effort, both on my part and my future husband's, to pull the idiocy out of me."

"She's already had a liver transplant but it didn't teach her anything," said Detmer50.

"She needs somebody with sense and compassion to think for her for a while," said Airiam. "Could that be you?"

"How can it be me? I'm a nasty Terran. I only care about myself."

"That's not true. I know, because I know Keyla. I refuse to believe she could be nasty through and through in any universe. You've loved Narcissa for a long time, haven't you?"

Detmer50 did not look at them as she said, "Yeah, I guess, ever since the Academy. And she thinks I don't like her because I won't sleep with her! But then she might find out and she'd laugh at me because Terrans don't get attached to each other like that."

Owosekun whispered, "I keep forgetting that they were all sleeping with each other. Just any combination of people you can imagine."

"Ugh, you put some gross images in my head," whispered Detmer51.

"I'm really worried about her," said Detmer50.

"And you need to tell her how you feel about her," said Airiam.

"We'll help you," said Owosekun.

"Why?" Asked Detmer50. "Just because your faith in the Federation has been shaken and you're feeling rebellious?"

"No, not at all," said Airiam. "Because we still believe in the Federation."

Burnham sat in the cafeteria next to a cold cup of coffee and thought of all the lives that were lost, even more than at the Battle of the Binary Stars. At least Qo'nos was largely uninhabited! To think of what the casualties could have been… She listened to the news about the brief Klingon civil war. How could it all end this way? They were supposed to have used diplomacy and compromise! Why did there always have to be a Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

She sat there for hours, hearing of how Silrek capitulated and peace was declared. Timur found her but Burnham only spoke a few terse words and said she was on break. It baffled Burnham that Timur blithely went along with this Terran insubordination scheme. Northwood was obviously set up somehow but Timur agreed with the other admirals' plan to blame the Terrans far and wide.

Yana entered the cafeteria and approached Burnham.

"Will you come with me?" She asked.

"What is it? Did you re-route the power supply incorrectly again? You really need to be more careful."

"I only did that once. No, this is something else."

On the way to the transporter room, Yana explained that she got a message from Lorca saying that he was on a stolen Klingon shuttle and needed to get onto Discovery without being detected. He had something important to tell Burnham and Saru, and others who could be trusted, but not the admiral. Burnham could clear the transporter room long enough for Lorca and his friends to get in.

"Oh, great, I thought I was through with crazy," said Burnham.

But she obliged and sent the transporter room techs to do something elsewhere. Lorca and the others beamed over, leaving the shuttle on an asteroid.

"You brought my favorite aunt," said Burnham sarcastically.

She felt a bunch of emotions at the sight of Tyler and clammed them up with Vulcan expertise. Tyler didn't even see her. He stared wild-eyed at something behind her. Sully led him by the hand.

"Did you miss me?" Asked Anderson.

"Like I miss a bunion," said Burnham, while Yana hugged him and then Lorca.

"Let's get you out of here before Timur shows up," said Burnham.

They were still wearing the devices that hid their life signs so they followed Burnham to Conference Room C.

"I got married in here," said Burnham to Sully.

"Is your husband any better that the sad sack that I tolerated for so long?" Asked Sully.

"I never met your sad sack, since you visited me so rarely, but I think so."[1]

"Burn from the Burnham!" Said Lorca.

Sully nudged Tyler into a seat, where he let his head loll. Burnham couldn't ignore him any longer and finally asked if he was OK.

"Does he look OK?" Said Lorca. "I'm thankful he's totally out of it. If he recognized you he'd go bonkers. Actually, you should disguise yourself if he comes to. Why don't you put on one of those false mustaches I sent you?"

"I'll make you eat those mustaches!"

Saru, Stamets, and Lorenza showed up after Burnham called them. Lorca explained what happened with the Hurgh'hov ship and Anderson showed the list of Federation vessels. Lorca purposely did not mention Admiral Timur or his wild theories.

"They're clearly up to something," he said. "I don't know what, or when, or how, but Emilia and I can tell this isn't over."

Burnham sat at a table and leaned her head on her hands. Everybody tried to make sense of the list. Stamets figured there might be bombs on these ships.

"What if they continued using the time freeze technology," he said, "even after they could no longer apply it to Discovery? Maybe these ships were all frozen in time and they perfected the time field so well that they could bring bombs right up against the hull."

Burnham contacted an engineer she knew well and trusted on one of the ships from the list and asked her to do a scan for bombs. A half hour later, the engineer said she hadn't found anything, and she'd developed some state of the art technology for explosives detection.

"Yeah, but maybe Hurgh'hov has even more state of the art explosive masking technology," muttered Sully.

Saru got a message from Timur. While they had been talking, Discovery and the Corrigan had started flying to Earth. Timur stayed on the Corrigan. She left Saru in charge and told him there would be a big peace celebration around Earth. Many Starfleet and some Klingon vessels would gather around to witness the peace treaty signing. Timur did not say which ships were going to be at this event, but Burnham made some calls and determined that all of them were on the list. Other ships not on the list had been sent far away to do stuff like clear up any remaining skirmishes and bring aid to planets occupied by the Klingons.

"It's bombs," said Sully. "It has to be. Hurgh'hov planned all this. They somehow set up the bombing of Qo'nos. They want all those ships gathered in one place to blow them up. They don't care about other Klingons being killed either."

"What do you suggest we do?" Asked Burnham, looking at Lorca.

It had been a while since anyone looked to him as captain. He felt panicked for a moment and looked at Sully. She just raised an eyebrow and nodded at him. Lorca took a deep breath.

"We need to find these Klingons and beat the information out of them," he said. "We can't let anybody know what we're doing. It's not clear how they set up the bombing and considering the admirals' refusal to consider alternatives to Terran treachery, I think it's best not to let them know of our plans. Also, if Hurgh'hov finds out what we're doing, they could set off the bombs before the ships reach Earth."

"I object," said Saru. "Former Captain Lorca, while I do not doubt your intentions, I sincerely call into question your methods and sanity. I am sorry if this offends you but I have been in touch with your doctor and I do not believe you are capable of carrying out such decisions. You harbor a ridiculous suspicion about Admiral Timur, who has been nothing other than wise and trustworthy. I refuse to participate in any of your schemes."

Lorca shrugged and looked at Burnham. Ah, the old Lorca/Burnham power and trust dynamic! Their relationship spanned universes and often led to cataclysmic results. What would Burnham decide in this universe, she who wrote the 343-page report about all his crimes and peccadilloes?

"I think he's in the right this time," she said simply.

"Michael!" Said Saru.

"What? Sully believes this too and she's not batshit crazy," said Burnham. "The admirals made poor decisions, not just now but frequently during the war. I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow got infiltrated by a brainwashed Klingon agent or something. Saru, we've been friends for years. I'm not asking you to come with us, since this is mutiny. We're probably going to commit hostile acts against people with whom we just made peace. I ask you to give us time. Pretend you don't know anything."

"Lie for you?" Said Saru.

He looked extremely repulsed at the idea. Anderson suggested knocking him out and tying him up.

But Saru agreed to give them six hours, in honor of his friendship with Burnham, which might not last that long.

"How do we find them?" Asked Lorenza. "We can't take Discovery and six hours isn't enough time to search."

She answered her own question almost at the same time that Stamets said it.

"The Glenn!"

Yes, the second spore drive-propelled ship! Burnham and Stamets started fixing it many months ago but it was heavily damaged by the tardigrade and never a top priority. Recently, now that two people could navigate the mycelial network, Command told them to pick up the pace. The Glenn seemed to be weeks away from being fully operational but Stamets, Lorenza, and Yana figured they could get it all done much sooner. However, they would have to make do without a functioning warp core.

Stamets decided not to accompany them because it would be too suspicious if he disappeared. He brought them the mycelial interface components they'd need to finish setting up the Glenn. Burnham made her feelings about the situation known to the admirals so it wouldn't be odd if she stayed out of sight. Lorca didn't want Yana to come but she insisted. Stamets called people out of the shuttle bay so they could leave undetected. They took Tyler along even though he was still not clear-headed. Saru refused to help with their departure so Stamets would have had to hide Tyler, which would have been unpleasant for him.

Burnham piloted the shuttle off Discovery and they made for Starbase 10. Lorca made a call and Malek met them there. Lorca wasn't sure if the ex-admiral would be useful, but they needed all the help they could get. At least Malek didn't bring the cat. He actually was quite helpful in getting them onto the starbase and to the Glenn undetected.

The Glenn was in a hangar. They needed authorization from a captain to open the doors, but why bother when they could just jump away? After checking all the systems and installing the parts Stamets gave them, Burnham hooked up to the spore drive and waited for coordinates. Lorca nudged Sully toward the captain's chair but she insisted he do it.

"Come on, you're the captain of moldy starships," she said. "What's your catchphrase for taking off?"

"I never really figured it out," he said. "I usually borrowed from the Doctor."

"Then get on with it!"

He sat in the captain's chair and said, "Just like old times. Well, fine, Black Alert and allons-y!"

Burnham navigated them to the site where Sully blew up the Hurgh'hov ship. They figured the bigger ship belonged to the head of the House. They calculated how far it could have gotten at warp 9 in three dimensions and created a map of places to jump to so they could search the entire area as efficiently as possible.

But first Lorca insisted they scan the explosion site for life signs. Remarkably, they found two and beamed onboard a big black and gold sarcophagus containing Volgor and a really pissed F'Rog.

"I am through with you!" He yelled at Volgor.

F'Rog and Volgor hid in the sarcophagus with an oxygen tank instead of escape pods because they figured Hurgh'hov would stick around to destroy any. They probably wouldn't expect F'Rog and Volgor to hide in a coffin, a peculiar ceremonial object that Klingon House leaders carried around on their ships. If the House leader died but others survived and the ship wasn't destroyed, his or her sarcophagus was ready and waiting!

Lorca asked F'Rog why he was so pissed at Volgor, "Did he touch you inappropriately while you were stuck with him in the coffin?"

"Oh, he certainly got very comfortable," said F'Rog, and without elaborating on this disturbing information, he continued, "but he also revealed that he used to fantasize about becoming romantically involved with my sister!"

"Yeah, I don't see how you can get past that," said Lorca.

They started jumping around. Anderson was not outfitted for connection to the spore drive so Burnham did it all. While they were stationary and scanning, they performed various other activities. Volgor made himself a ton of ice cream, ate it too fast, and got sick all over the cafeteria. Malek was used to cleaning up messes with Ragsy so he helped, wordlessly. Lorca made himself a sandwich but ran off because Sully thought she found something interesting. It was not the Hurgh'hov ship so he came back and bit into the sandwich. There was something tough and bushy in there! He pulled a false mustache out of his mouth.

"I like the new Burnham," he said.

Of course, sooner or later, Lorca bumped into Lorenza. They mumbled some kind of crap, made a bunch of awkward starts, and finally blurted out what they were really thinking.

"I don't know what I want!" Said Lorenza.

"I like you a lot!" Said Lorca.

They sat on a windowsill. Yana peeked at them from around a corner but didn't show herself.

"Look, if you want me to admit that what happened between us was a mistake," said Lorca, "then fine, I'll admit it. Osgood got in our heads, I guess. All he ever thinks about is finding someone to be Mrs. Osgood. But while sleeping with you like that, out of the blue, may have been dumb, I think my feelings are clear. I like you and I want to be with you."

Lorenza bit her lip and looked at the floor.

"If you think I'm a total asshole, I get that," said Lorca. "I won't bother you anymore if that's the case."

"No, well, yes, you're an asshole," said Lorenza, "but most people would agree I am too. I do like you. I consider you a good friend."

"Friendzone, huh?"

"It's just that…I'm not sure if…"

"Are you worried that I'm completely broken and you'll constantly be picking up the pieces?"

"No! You're not that broken and I believe you can get better. I always have."

Lorca moved closer and took her hand.

"Do you just feel like you have no future, after losing your past?" He asked.

Lorenza sighed.

"I kind of felt like that too," said Lorca. "When I first joined Discovery I felt that finishing this war was the be-all, end-all, and cure-all. I couldn't see past it. I just had to make sure my crew did not die in vain, then I could die, for all I cared. I'm not sure when I stopped feeling like that. My crew, your family, they would not have wanted us to be sad and lonely for the rest of our lives. You've heard this before. What do I have to do to make you believe it?"

Lorenza didn't know but they embraced each other and stayed like that for a long time. Yana felt a pang of some indescribable emotion while looking at them. She wished they would stay together, so they could all be a family. Burnham passed by and saw them too. She went to Engineering.

Tyler entered Engineering with a bucket of spare parts. Burnham wondered if the moment of reckoning had come. First Lorca and Lorenza, now her and Tyler. But it was not to be. Tyler finally recognized her and spilled the spare parts all over the floor in surprise. He made a sound like a cow lowing and ran off without picking them up.

Anderson spent the entire time they jumped around remaking the Klingon-specific bioweapons he'd created in the Terran Empire. He made them less lethal and devised an antidote. He was sickened by this task but it felt like fate.

Finally, they found the large Hurgh'hov vessel. They jumped to a spot right below it and ambushed the Klingons immediately with the bioweapons. F'Rog and Volgor obviously stayed on the Glenn, with Yana and Lorenza, so they wouldn't get poisoned. Lorca and the rest doused the entire ship and rushed around, removing weapons from unconscious Klingons and beaming them onto the brig. Yana and Lorenza blocked the ship's communications.

One Klingon refused to fall from the toxins. She was the head of House Hurgh'hov and a good eight feet tall. Burnham wasn't even sure if she was the same species as other Klingons. This monster introduced herself as Zal'R and produced a five foot long bat'leth. Cleary, she was not one for conversation. A couple of other giant Klingons, probably her children, came out onto the bridge. They attacked the Federation officers.

Sully and Malek took on one of the ogres. Anderson and Tyler faced another. Lorca and Burnham challenged Zal'R. Phasers set to Stun didn't have much effect on these creatures. With a shrug, Lorca set his to Kill but Zal'R disarmed him before he could fire. He retreated to Burnham's side and they fought together, a rare event in all the universes. Zal'R's armor proved to be impenetrable even to phasers on Kill but Burnham got her on the neck. This didn't fell the Brobdingnagian, it just pissed her off. She lashed out at Burnham but suddenly turned on Lorca and grabbed him by the throat.

For a few moments, Burnham thought she was on the Ship of the Dead again, watching the death of her first captain. Then she jumped onto Zal'R's arm and prevented her from sinking the long bat'leth into Lorca. He grabbed the phaser from Burnham and fired it into Zal'R's eyeball. A shot to the brain was finally enough to take her down.

Tyler, with minimal assistance from Anderson, discombobulated their opponent. Tyler didn't remember doing it. Sully and Malek surprisingly managed to stun their opponent and tie him up. Well, it's not surprising that Sully managed this, but that Malek helped. They waited for the guy to wake up. He was extremely foul-mouthed when he did and refused to admit anything.

"We still have the rest of the crew," said Sully.

"I suspect they don't know much of the evil plan," said Lorca.

F'Rog came over once the air had recirculated and threatened the giant Klingon with some horrifying tortures if he didn't tell them the secret. The ogre just spat in his face.

"Nasty threats like that won't work," said Sully.

"I'm just going along with a human expression," said F'Rog. "You know, treat others the way you think they would treat you."

"It's 'treat others the way you want to be treated,'" said Sully.

"That doesn't sound too effective."

F'Rog wandered around the bridge, looking at the artwork. Like many large Klingon vessels, this one had decorated terraces, columns, plinths, railings, and paintings on the bridge. F'Rog paused by Zal'R's body and gave it a good sniff. Then he examined the paintings, which depicted Klingon mythology, and looked intently at one showing a Klingon in a bejeweled crown pointing a golden bat'leth at some angry gods on a cloud.

"The Legend of the King and the Golden Bat'leth," said F'Rog. "I didn't tell you this one. Yeah, sure, he defeated the vengeful gods with his weapon, but earlier in the story he stole a crown from the fairies and used its power to build a castle. The fairies got revenge by entombing him in his castle. His wife made a tiny hole and dripped water down to him, prolonging his inexorable death by starvation."

"Story time is over," said Lorca.

"The moral is," insisted F'Rog, "don't steal from fairies."

He pressed the crown and the painting moved aside to reveal a secret shelf.[2] It was not deep and appeared as some part of the artwork in scans. The shelves contained electronic equipment. The scientists and engineers examined the stuff for a while. It was spare parts, except for a black omnitool. They figured it controlled the bombs. It had a very complex firewall that precluded copying, which boded no good.

It was seven hours since they left Discovery. The ceremony hadn't started and only 15 of the 20 Federation ships were stationed above Earth. Saru gave Burnham the extra hour, but then he couldn't restrain himself and told Timur everything. Lorca got a call from Stamets.

It wasn't bombs.

Detmer50 snuck into sick bay on the Corrigan. She wore part of a cybernetic eyepiece and a contact lens to disguise herself as Detmer51. She beamed onto the Corrigan with the excuse of helping their helmsman troubleshoot a control issue.

Northwood lay on a gurney with her hair spread on the pillow and what looked like a faint smile on her lips. Detmer touched her hand. It was cold. She had no pulse.

Narcissa Airiam Northwood was dead.[3]

Detmer's hands became almost as cold as the corpse's. She slowly tapped a screen to check the cause of death. It said that Northwood grabbed an injector while everybody was busy with wounded from Qo'nos and overdosed. Detmer couldn't believe it. Northwood was sometimes incapable of spelling her name, but she could operate an injector all the time! Detmer heard footsteps. Naturally suspicious, and now even more so, Detmer looked for a place to hide. She spotted bodies beneath shrouds in the back. One was a small person so she ducked below this shroud and huddled over a body smelling of burned flesh. This officer beamed down to Qo'nos to rescue some people and did not make it back alive.

Two people entered the sick bay.

"Are we alone?" Asked the first person.

Detmer hadn't heard his voice often but she recognized Duffield.

The second person, the Corrigan's doctor, confirmed that they were alone.

"I did not expect this one to resist the procedure," said Duffield. "She was supposed to stay where she dropped the bomb. The evidence in her room was enough to point fingers at her. But I suppose the procedure wasn't meant for brains with such a history of substance abuse. What did you do?"

Duffield checked the screen.

"Ah, overdose," he said. "Believable. Not that it will matter soon. If anybody comes asking about her, you know what to do with them."

Duffield left. Detmer breathed in the funeral pyre of the unknown officer. The doctor started going around the room, checking things. He got closer and closer to Detmer. She felt irrationally scared at first. She had never lost someone she cared about and felt like death had come for her too. But she summoned up her Terran courage and leaped out from the shroud to give the doctor an uppercut that knocked him out. She considered killing him for murdering her friend but decided he was probably coerced by Duffield. She gagged him and left him under a gurney.

It was one thing to defend her friend, thought Detmer. It was entirely another thing to accuse the man effectively in charge of the whole Federation of being a traitor. Would Detmer51 and the others believe her?

It was too late either way.

The 15 Federation ships, which hung inertly over Earth, suddenly began moving toward each other. Stamets called Lorca as soon as he saw this and the Glenn jumped to Earth. The handful of Klingon ships immediately attacked and a battle broke out while the 15 ships accelerated toward each other. Sully and Tyler attacked and piloted the ship, respectively, but they didn't have enough people and jumped away.

Discovery continued to battle the Klingon ships. Timur tried to convince Saru and the bridge crew not to do anything about the 15 ships.

"Admiral, they are clearly in danger," said Saru.

"We're supposed to wait…," said Timur vaguely.

"Do you know what is going on?" Asked Saru.

"I think I failed my crew," said Timur, and attacked him.

Saru and Airiam took her out quickly and left her tied up in the ready room. Saru realized that if he hadn't told Timur about Burnham's activity, whatever this was with the 15 ships would not have started so soon. Though it slowly became clear what this was. Tilly did a bunch of scans and determined that the energy emanating from the 15 ships was pulling them closer together. A few tried to escape on impulse power, realizing that going to warp would tear the ships apart, but it was not strong enough to overcome the force of the net created by the devices. The ships with admirals in charge did nothing. Cornwell left orders not to move after she beamed away somewhere and so did some other admirals.

"Where did Cornwell go?" Demanded Saru of a commander on the Corrigan.

They tracked where she went and it was the Geological Institute at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. The other admirals went there too.

Saru communicated this to the Glenn. Discovery, jumping to and fro, soon defeated the Klingon ships, though more were detected on the way. The Glenn came back. Burnham told her theory. Hurgh'hov planted devices on the 20 ships that created a force field, or web, where the force varied with inverse distance squared (the closer the ships were to each other, the stronger the force pulling them together).[4] Unlike Stamets first guessed, Hurgh'hov didn't use time stopping to plant these devices but had the mind-controlled admirals do it. The devices were hidden behind the walls of the ships, shielded and very difficult to find. But they had to be found. Only omnitools like the one F'Rog found on Zal'R's ship could turn them off.

Detmer50 called and told them about Duffield. Unlike Timur, who seemed to have no idea what she was doing until the last moment, Duffield was fully conscious. In retrospect, there was grim irony in the fact that Lorca's crazy, fantastic theory ended up being partially correct. He didn't get the who right, or the when, or the how, but he sure as hell predicted the why (and the where, to some extent.) Duffield was a mean, envious man who got passed up for a promotion early in life and moved to a planet inhabited by primitive, indigenous people who'd been freed from slavery. Since he couldn't have the power he wanted in Starfleet, he figured he'd at least take the luxurious ambassador position. But valuable mineral and biological resources were discovered on this planet and Starfleet replaced him with a scientist. Duffield took a job on a deep space station, where he met members of Hurgh'hov 12 years ago. Some brainwashing was involved, but it didn't take much to convince this vengeful jerk that the plan was his idea.

What were Duffield and the other admirals doing at the Academy? Burnham guessed there was a final web device that would pull the ball of ships down to Earth and take out Starfleet and San Francisco. They only had moments before it was turned on. The 15 ships were crushed against each other like frog eggs. Their shields held up for now.

F'Rog and Volgor stayed on the Hurgh'hov ship. F'Rog searched it up and down and found some more hidden compartments. One contained an extra web device. The Glenn jumped back to get it. Burnham and Saru decided to set up this device on the Glenn and to turn it on just as the one on Earth turned on. There wasn't room for error. There was only one omnitool remote and Yana and Lorenza took it with them to the first of the 15 ships. As engineers, they knew the inner spaces of starships best and could locate the devices.

Lorca, Tyler, Malek, and Sully beamed down to the Academy. They ran around the Geological Institute until Malek spotted Cornwell in the distance. They ran through some rooms with giant geodes and caught up to the admirals in a planetarium. The device was already on. The Glenn turned on the one they found and tried to counteract the one on Earth. It was tug of war with a cluster of giant ships.

Lorca attacked Duffield and they fought it out. Everybody jumped and dodged among the seats of the planetarium. The podium got destroyed by a phaser blast. Malek fell among some seats and got pommeled by an admiral. Lorca kicked Duffield aside and ran to help, but Duffield knocked him to the floor. Tyler rushed to punch Duffield. Lorca knocked out the admiral hitting Malek. Sully ambushed three admirals from behind a column. Duffield cursed and screamed, not making much sense, and Tyler whacked his head against the ground to shut him up. Lorca worried that Tyler would kill Duffield like he'd killed the giant Klingon, but for once Tyler seemed pretty clear-headed.

"That's enough with Klingon mind tricks, right, Captain?" He said.

"I'm proud of you, Ash," said Lorca and moved toward Tyler just as Cornwell crept in and shot the lieutenant.

Sully attacked her. Lorca didn't watch. He knelt over Tyler, feeling as if he was being torn into a dozen mirrored fragments. Why did this scene repeat, over and over? Was it inevitable? Was everything inevitable? Malek said something but Lorca did not hear, he could not get up, he felt the waves of some interminable ocean overcoming him…

Yana followed Lorenza from ship to ship. People dashed about, trying to repair the ships as shields faded. Discovery and the Glenn beamed people out but they only had six transporters among them. Then some Klingon ships appeared and attacked, adding to the chaos. Yana was exhausted by the third ship. Despite her resolution to do more work instead of watching TV, she still hadn't focused much on physical training. She was soon beaten and bruised from falling over so much as the ships constantly careened. Lorenza didn't seem affected, or didn't let it show. The first seven ships they released from the ball joined the battle but the later ones were too damaged.

The devices were hidden in a different place in each ship. Tilly worked feverishly to find some way of detecting them and eventually helped Yana and Lorenza get within the ballpark of the device's location. Random engineers who weren't busy keeping the hulls together helped sometimes. It became more and more dangerous. Lights went out, explosions occurred, and hallways crumbled.

Finally, they were down to three ships. Yana limped from a leg injury. They crawled along some Jeffries tubes and found the device. Yana was better at using the omnitool than Lorenza at first, but her mentor caught on and did this one entirely on her own. They exited the inner spaces of the ship as it weakly floated apart from the last two. Yana was so tired that she didn't really feel the pain from her leg. Lorenza critically examined the remaining two ships from the window. Suddenly, she kissed Yana on the forehead.

"Tilly, beam her back, and beam me onto the Albatross," she said.

"Wait, no…," said Yana as she, even in her weakened state, realized that of the two remaining ships, only one would be saved. But she was already on Discovery.

"Tilly, send me back!" She yelled.

She jumped at Tilly but the cadet pushed her to the floor. The ship stuck to the Albatross jerked toward the Glenn as Lorenza deactivated one of the last web devices. The Glenn pulled the freed ship farther away from the Albatross using the connection with the device on Earth. Tilly tried to get a lock on Lorenza, or anybody, but energy built up and the Albatross exploded.

Sully found another omnitool in Duffield's possession and they turned off the last web devices. Some fresh Starfleet vessels arrived to deal with the Klingons, who backed off when they realized the plan hadn't worked. Silrek never really had capitulated; he knew some details of Zal'R's plan and intended to take the Federation by surprise after Starfleet HQ was destroyed. When other Houses realized Silrek knew Qo'nos would be bombed, they blasted him and his allies to pieces.

So the war finally ended. In weeks to come, F'Rog reluctantly took on the role of High Chancellor. The Klingons joined the Federation, since they were a complete mess. F'Rog quit after three years because the constant petty intrigues of Klingon government started driving him nuts.[4] He founded a philanthropic organization with Ksenia Timur, who couldn't trust her capabilities as a Starfleet officer anymore.[5]

Except for Duffield, the admirals were manipulated by a mind control worm that F'Rog found on the Hurgh'hov ship and doctors found in their brains.[6] Several doctors had worms in their brains too. Duffield made sure the admirals only went to these doctors, who lied about their medical exams. The worms did not inhabit Vulcans and to prevent discovery, Duffield sabotaged Terral's ship so he got blown up by Klingons, fired Malek, and hired a logic extremist to work as T'Lara's yeoman.

It never occurred to a brainwashed Duffield that when he and the other admirals went to the Geological Institute to turn on the web device, the ball of ships was going to land on them. Naturally Hurgh'hov had no intention of rewarding Duffield for his hard work. They wanted to take out the Federation leaders and for Silrek's army to blow up as much of the remaining, confused Federation ships as he could. Then they would finish off the survivors. They hadn't reckoned on a second spore drive-propelled ship, though.

Lorca collapsed against a wall on a bench in the room with the giant geodes. He thought he saw Osgood's name mentioned on a screen but didn't get up to check. Everything felt like a dream now. He was told about the explosion of the Albatross. Who had been on it?

Yana beamed down to the Geological Institute and rushed over to Lorca. Without many words, she let him know what happened. They sat silently on the stone bench, leaning on each other. After a while Yana looked up and saw Ginfas approaching them.

"Some old fuck looks like he wants to speak to us," she said.

"Yana! Don't talk about people like that!" Said Lorca.

"But you say things like that."

"And you shouldn't want to end up like me!"

Ginfas came over and Lorca asked what he wanted.

"Certainly not to speak to you," said Ginfas. "You knocked out a patient, stole a shuttle, and ran away. I have nothing to say to you."

"But the Klingons…"

"Ah, ba, ba, shut it," said Ginfas. "I've heard enough out of you. I want to speak to the young lady. I can't remember your name, because, I suppose, I'm just some old fuck."

"Yana Lorca," she said.

Lorca didn't know that she'd picked up his surname (without asking him) and muttered, "You'll be the only living Lorca who isn't a dickweed."

Ginfas led Yana over to an exhibit of citrine and said, "I tried, I really did, and I would keep at it but I doubt your father will return to Starbase 5. He's been through a lot, and so have you, but you have to take care of him now. Try and stay out of trouble."

"Did you come here all this way just to tell me that?"

"No, I was invited to the so-called peace celebration by Cornwell. Although I did suspect Gabriel would show up here."

"Do you think he's going to be all right?"

"I really don't know."

Burnham left the planetarium and stood by them, thinking that for the first time in her life, she wanted a vacation. But somebody had to clean up the mess. She glanced at Lorca and thought somebody needed to clean up that mess too, but it wouldn't be her!

"Michael, you know how the Terrans think everything is a game?" Said Yana. "If that's the case, did we lose?"

Burnham looked up through a thick glass ceiling at the sky, as if she could still see the Albatross exploding, or the destruction of Qo'nos.

"We lost a lot," she said, "but the game's not over."

Footnotes

[1] Non-essential offices like the Federation Register were shut down late in the war and the employees divested to other operations, so Burnham and Saru hadn't gotten divorced yet.

[2] F'Rog eventually admitted that he just smelled Zal'R around this painting, but he wanted people to think he figured out it was a hiding place because of something meaningful from the legend.

[3] I made this name up, obviously. I looked around for a proper, canonical first and/or last name for Airiam but couldn't find it (or didn't have the patience). If anybody has found it, ping me!

[4] Hurgh-hov stole a lot of technology from other civilizations. Possibly, they encountered the Tholians and extracted the tech for the Tholian web, or were inspired to create something similar.

[5] F'Rog really did break it off with Volgor. Lorca took pity on the ex-monk and helped him get a job at an electronics store, since he had some talent for fixing things. Volgor ended up doing many odd jobs (odd for a Klingon) over the next few decades, like participating in a comedy club, helping develop an educational time travel-based video game for history students, and getting an MBA. But he realized that his true calling was psychology and he eventually took over on Starbase 5 after Ginfas retired. Not bad for a monk who got kicked off Boreth!

[6] And so Ksenia Timur, who entered our story like a shooting star, leaves it like a dying ember. I'm sorry if you expected more out of her. I was going to have her and Saru awkwardly initiate some sort of tryst, but ah, Saru, he was too good for that!

[7] It was something like the creature Khan would one day use to control Pavel Chekhov and Clark Terrell. Since the Star Trek creators never explained just how Khan interfaced with the creatures to force his commands on the officers, I don't see why I should have to.

End of Part II