It had taken a little while before they could get all the data to debrief on the sphere. From scans of the exterior and interior, Michael couldn't help but be fascinated by its…design. It reminded her a little of herself that it was not a typical species. No signs of anything that could be labelled as alive but its energy patterns fluxed and it had a very hot core temperature that pulsed around; no doubt spreading heat throughout its system. No doubt absorbed nutrient in the form of radiation and particles. Its vast size must be a necessity for that too…

Linus and Pike talked about it though she vaguely listened, twirling it's hologram around for a new angle.

"Any attempts at communication?" Pike asked, "The longer we're here, the longer it'll take to catch up with Spock."

Michael's eyes rose from the hologram before shaking her head. "It's unlikely to offer verbal communication. There's…no way it could develop speech since there's no need for a voice in the vacuum of space. There's nothing to suggest telepathy. We should have our universal translators look for anything other than verbal speech patterns and translations."

Both of their head turned. Pike's eyebrow raising. "Like…sign language?"

"Yes. It could use…anything between energy shifts or light to serves as a medium between us." Michael mused, "The stasis field we're in… it drums against the hull unevenly." To why she had considered other options. It was really starting to grate on her nerves. Like someone constantly tapping along the ship. It reminded her of what tractor beams felt like which she still hated.

With a thoughtful nod, Pike pressed a button on his desk. "Bryce, open communications that don't require vocal translations. Use the viewscreen if you have to."

"Aye, sir," Bryce called back through the comms.

"Clearly, it must need us from something." Pike mused. "We're the only ship in this area, aside from Spock's shuttle, it left shuttle but got us….why?"

"A small shuttle size and a single occupant probably not worth its need unless we weren't in pursuit," Linus suggested.

"Most non-sentient species, it might think we're food, threat or a mate. If it wanted to eat us, would have done it by now, if it thinks we're a threat, it's capable of tearing the ship apart. We're clearly not the right size or shape to be considered a mate so there's a chance that this creature is sentient and intelligent." Michael listed though she couldn't find a clear reason to yank a passing starship out of warp. "What do we have onboard that it could want?"

"There have been dozens of ships passing over this area last few weeks. It's not clear." Pike responded. "We'll have to wait until we can find communications with it before…" he trailed off as they all heard his words were spoken in Vulcan.

Michael frowned deeply, her head tilting; a language she knew he didn't know.

Just then, the ship's lights turned red and alarms rose. With a new sense of alertness, Pike took the lead out but as soon as they exited the ready room, they were suddenly confounded with a sudden spurt of the confused uproar of unfamiliar languages with equally confused bridge crew.

All around, the consoles glitched, switching between written texts of languages which only added fuel for the confusion.

"I'll try to get the systems on automatic." Though the words came out in Klingon, she knew the look of confusion from Pike; clearly he didn't have a wide variety of languages, so she shot to the captain's chair, the scripture another dialect of Vulcan appearing on its panel though just about altered the control to shunter some of the security features to auto before it switched to something else, Arabic, maybe if she could recall the scriptures and font.

Michael then shot to her monitor that flickered into Klingon before pulling out a back panel and disconnected some wires carefully to loop through itself and remain more distanced to some of the ship's systems; enough she hoped to keep the monitor to stay on Klingon but now, it was useless as a science monitor.

Around her, the words were thrown but no one was getting anywhere beyond noise. She knew she had branched out on her languages considerably…given how much time she had when overseeing Georgiou at the facility but this was still far from her area of expertise. There was one person on this ship that was very much capable of keeping up with the vast amount of different languages but…

She couldn't wake Saru… not with his health in the way it was. She had to get creative.

Pike's voice pulled her attention but again, the words echoing from his lips weren't familiar, there was a vivid sense of frustration that flushed his body along with the confusion. Her head cocked to the side before she flicked the screen on her monitor to display images from the data banks. They wouldn't have been altered, only the text. Universal images would be their best friend.

On the screen, a series of icon pictures popped up. So she brought up schematics of the ships main computer on Deck 4, a speech symbol then pulled an image of a spanner, turning to Pike, she gestures to herself than to the sequence of pictures.

Pike's interest caught though there was a sense of relief in his face as he took in the pictures. He could understand that. Michael watched him mull before he nodded. She didn't hesitate to do to the Jefferies tubes this time; not needing the turbolift.

Getting to the Main computer, Michael started to work to disconnect some of the subsystems manually via the hardware than the corrupt soft where. Clearly something had infected the systems, while she had a feeling it was something to do with the sphere, it clearly wasn't compatible. Perhaps it mutated into a type of virus?

Michael could feel that perhaps it was likely the case, their systems probably were very different things. Miscommunication or a fault….or it was its way of trying to communicate?

With a few final tweaks, adjusting the yellow chips around, she flicked another few buttons then waited…. On the screen, the text shifted into English and then… the red symbol of Comms disappeared and after a second it turned green, all around her sounds echoed; a flood of English touching her ears.

"Burnham to bridge, I've got the translator up for the time being, ship-wide and on all systems. I think it's a virus that was incorporated, most likely an attempt of communication that failed but I can't be sure. I'll get a team together to disconnect a few systems from the mains so they don't get infected again if that's the case."

"Copy that, Commander. Return to the bridge when you're done." Pike approved before the lines closed.


Michael finished quickly, getting teams dispatched and was just entering the turbolift when quite suddenly as she stepped out to the bridge, she felt her entire body seize up as a sudden whining rang though the ship; thundering against her eardrums, a faint smell of garlic in the air.

She couldn't move. Couldn't blink, her eyes wouldn't even move as if she was a statue. Inwardly, she wanted to panic about this, that the last time this had happened, she had been on the Charon… and before that, Mudd; that had led to her shattering. She didn't want that….couldn't deal with that… not now.

"What the hell is that noise?" Pike demanded, out of her immediate site but she could hear he was by Nhan's monitor. "Burnham?" Through the noise, it was hard to pick up his boots but he suddenly swam into her line of sight, his confused expression immediately melting into concern. "Michael?!" His hand came to her shoulder, blue eyes staring into her but she couldn't blink or flicker her gaze. He whipped around to Nhan for an answer.

"Our harmonic jammers have been activated… the virus has spread." She announced a note of worry in her tone. "I'll try and circumvent them."

The ship suddenly gave a lurch and her balance was thrown, unable to shift to maintain it. She felt the shift in gravity and…she began to topple.

For a second, she could almost see herself shattering again. On the bridge of all places; which she'd admit was not the best place but it'd mean she'd get seen to quicker than shattering in a quiet part of the ship…

Warm arms suddenly embraced her, she could almost smell his scent though Chris's touch was most familiar; the same warmth trickling over her skin; almost making her forget the moment of her inabilities of movement before the reality caught up. Pike's arms were warm and she could see the bridge shift in her vision as he was careful to lower her down. Fortunately at an angle where she had a good view.

"We can't circumvent them from here," Nhan called out. "If I can get to the science lab, I can try and disable it with a shock pulse."

"An EMP will knock out all our systems. We don't have the time for the repairs." Pike spoke up. "Bryce, open a line to engineering. If Michael's frozen, Stamets must be as well. We can't jump without him".

After a second, there was a pull beep.

"I'm sorry, Sir but…the virus is interfering with comms."

"Damn it." Pike muttered under his breath. "Let's get Commander Burnham to Sickbay. I'll need to know what the situation is down there."


It took longer than Pike would have liked to get Burnham into a gurney; the statue like posture she had been walking it had made it difficult. If she had been limp, carrying her would have been much simpler. But both he and Nhan had to take one side of her and tug.

He could only imagine what was going through Burnham's mind at this. Frustration, annoyance and no doubt embarrassment. With comms down, they hadn't been able to exactly call for a gurney but they took the first one that came around.

"We are we taking her to sickbay? I don't think the docs quite know what to do about this." Nhan mused as they walked.

"I don't think leaving her on the floor anywhere would be ideal, commander. At least in sickbay, she'll be both monitored and no doubt pick up more information from there." He hoped at least. "Now, please do what you can with the jammers, if not, try and disable the rest of the anti-vampire stuff you've got running."

"Aye, sir. I have a few ideas for that."

"Good." They departed ways before turning another and almost sliding the gurney into the bemused form of Saru.

"Commander Saru, I thought you were on bed rest." He remarked. He hadn't seen Saru but he could see he was far from well. Burnham had been right about that. Perhaps it was a good thing they were going to sickbay.

"The… the ship was in high alert, I thought you could do with some help." Though he took the end of the gurney and began to help pull it along with him and the nurse.

Pike's eyes narrowed though he felt a wave of concern. "Commander, I really think you should go back to bed. We've got the situation under control."

"No, I can handle being on my feet for a few hours more, Captain. I've gotten a little caught up and… I thought perhaps we could slow the spread of the virus." Saru continued, coughing a little before he carried on. "Digital antibodies to…counteract the virus's effects. Should…allow us to regain more of the ship's systems."

Pike's head cocked to the side though he couldn't deny that wasn't a good idea. "We've got a few systems taken offline to prevent corruption. I can get the team to start looking into it."

"I've already started an algorithm we can use." From tucked under his other arm, the Kelpien pulled out a PADD, dropping it down onto the gurney next to Burnham's head. "It'll…be sluggish but it should work."

They took a final turn into sickbay and almost immediately, Dr Pollard descended onto them like a dragon seeking gold, her focus passing to Burnham for a moment before going straight to Saru, with a displeased expression growing on her features.

"You've gotten worse." She remarked, tugging him to the biobed. With relief that Saru otherwise taken care of, he was equally glad to see Dr Culber appear with a tricorder in hand though his eyebrows pulled in as he saw Burnham

"Doctor Culber." Pike greeted. "I know vampires can't exactly qualify for medical treatment but…" he trailed off.

Culber's lip curled up into a low smile, "I heard about the system activations. There's nothing more we can do unless we can turn them off."

Pike huffed, suspecting as much. "Can she stay here?"

Culber hesitated though a look passed his face, lighting him up as if had a light bulb above his head. "Engineering."

"What?"

"Engineering's been, or at least the spore drive's been developed against the jammers." Culber pointed out, "If we can get her behind those, she'd be able to move."

"Then let's go there."


Once there, Pike was surprised to see Stamets himself up and about, yet Michael remained motionless as the door behind them closed.

"How are you up?" Pike questioned, eyes flickering around; noting both Tilly and Reno there too before his focus shifted to Stamets again. The vampire in question looked….mildly perturbed at a constant but his features shifted a fraction as soon as he saw Culber, visibly relaxing. Culber had said engineering was secured…unless it was very specific areas…

"Modifications to my Augments, captain." The commander spoke, unzipping his sleeve to display an augment panel embedded in the skin of his forearm.

Pike's head tilted though he could feel that opened up a can of questions right there. Implants and technology weren't something that worked with vampires; he was sure he had read all about that.

"We…developed it as means for comfort when using the drive," Tilly spoke up, hurrying from her monitor and straight to Burnham's side and immediately grabbed her stiff hand, rubbing in soft comforting circles. "We used the same technology used for the anti-jammers to protect the spores when the jammers are active."

"So… that makes you immune to the effects?" Pike questioned, feeling like the point of the jammers here in the first place was now greatly diminished.

"For the most part."

"I developed an implant for Michael in case…something like this happened. If we can install it, she'd be able to move." Tilly said, pulling out a small device from her pocket.

It looked similar to Stamets's arm augments but it was about four centimetres long and two centimetres wide that was relatively flatter and sleeker in shape but it had two prongs on its underside that he felt went under the skin.

"And…where is that going to go?" Pike questioned, curiously taking it from her before inspecting it in his fingers.

"Anywhere, really." Tilly shrugged. "Silver line with their nerve systems. I'd suggest her arm since it's convenient but to get it in, it had to go under the skin. There's very little that can…do that without vamp-teeth."

"Maybe somewhere less prone to damage." Stamets pointed out. "As she's clan leader, there's a chance she'd end up in a scuffle; one way or another. Installing it there is…far too easy to get ripped out or breaking."

The talking continued though he was sure he could feel Burnham's irritant mood as neither Tilly nor Stamets zeroed in on a location.

"How about I decide, you install and Burnham can choose to have it removed and installed elsewhere once she's able to talk to us." Pike overruled loudly. "She needs to get active and extending this talk isn't going to help. Lower back." A place he could think was reasonable if he saw how vampires fought; they never exposed their back and it was low enough to not cause restrictions to movements.

Both looked surprised but Stamets nodded. "Yes, sir." He suddenly appeared beside Burnham's gurney and Pike helped Culber and Tilly with turning Burnham onto her side; her arm position making it hard to get her on her front fully so they had to hold her up in place.

The back of her shirt and jacket were pushed up, Pike's fingers held it though watched as Stamets's teeth shifted, unable to feel the sudden cold wash down his spine to see sharpened fangs exposed, his face disappearing down behind Burnham's frame but he heard the crunch.

A low dull cracking-crunch, like gravel rubbing together. It wasn't a pleasant sound though he was glad to see Stamets's face reappear a second later and pressed the augment into place.

Pike's breath held though he was sure he wasn't the only one before he felt Burnham's body jolt and just as suddenly loosen up. Immediately he let go of the fabric and she rolled back carefully onto the gurney, black eyes closing for a moment, her chest expanding and fingers flexed.

"Michael, are you alright?" Tilly question.

"Why…couldn't you have put me in the protected rooms?" Burnham questioned in a very dry tone. "Listening to your decision making was a roller coaster."

"The rooms sealed off," Reno called up, continuing her work at the wall a few meters away, not disturbed by their intrusion. "Even the spore canisters lock up. Can't open it until the alarms off."

"Great." Burnham sat up abruptly, her hand disappearing to her back though her whole demeanour was…sullen. "We need to get to sickbay. Saru…Saru's diagnosis isn't good."

The sudden jump in the topic made Pike blink. "What?"

"Saru thinks his conditions gone terminal. I…need to see him myself to see if that's true." She jumped off the gurney. "Thank you." Though genuine, she was clearly preoccupied.

Pike exhaled heavily. "I need to get back to the bridge." He had to see what the status of the ship was now; see if they got comms working; at least then he or anyone else wouldn't have to make the manual trips.


Michael didn't go to Saru straight away. No, she had to help with implanting the anti-bodies into the ship's software and seeing the results compile before she could see him. Leaving them the data to

She could smell his scent much more as she made the trip. It made her stomach tighten enough as she saw him. Laying there on the biobed, beads of sweat all over his skin and his pink skin drained of a lot of colour but…the back of his head was redder and much more inflamed.

"Saru." She called softly, a hand coming to touch his, his skin feeling drastically cooler though he stirred at her immediate touch. Turquoise eyes opening up a crack at her before they closed again, muscles in his face pulling together.

"I take it you heard while you were here?" He mumbled.

"Yes." The noise had lessened considerably since Nhan had departed ways to resolve the issues, enough for her to have heard his and Dr Pollard's chat. "I don't…think you're dying, Saru."

The Kelpien scoffed lightly, "This is a natural Kelpien process called Vahar'ai. Although, mine is premature but it's a process I know I'd face at some point."

"Then that's an indication that something triggered this. Artificially." Michael argued softly. "I know what…dying smells like. But…you're undergoing a biological shift but that shouldn't mean death."

"Michael," Saru's eyes flickered open, "this process is normal. When it occurs on my homeworld, it's a signal for us to be lead to the culling for slaughter by our predator species, the Ba'ul. Even if we didn't die then, we could be driven mad by it. Either way, death will still occur."

"Has any living Kelpien tried?"

Saru tittered softly, his hands coming to rest on his stomach. "No."

"Then how can you be sure that enduring is death?" She pressed, "I know transformation is terrible. It hurts and it feels like it could last forever but that doesn't mean it'll be the end. There's no reason for your biology to trigger a death process when the body is designed to adapt and survive."

"Turning into a vampire is a very different thing, Burnham." His voice rose and his cheeks flushed. "I've watched this happen in my village for years. I know what this is and you're attempting to assure me that it's not lethal isn't going to change what is happening. I don't want that argument. I don't want you to believe or make me believe I may survive this because of ignorance of the full picture! Allow me this, Michael."

Michael's eyes dropped, silenced as much as she wanted to rebuff such a sentiment. He was giving in to it. Or she was simply in denial. Both were happening but…she didn't want to argue with him. Not now.

"The…digital antibodies are working in the ship's systems. Sluggish but it's expelled the virus from a few of our core systems." Michael spoke, changing the topic because…what else she was could say? "Comms are down but…Nhan and a few teams are getting them up running. Most…of the anti-vampire tech is off but the jammers are still active." Thank god, she could hear properly now the rest of the ship; including the bridge as thy discussed the sphere and its rise in temperature.

"Hm.." Saru exhaled heavily. "I…have been collecting files and data since I joined Starfleet. After…Captain Georgiou pulled me from Kaminar almost 20 years ago now." His lips curled up a fraction with a fondness though blinked with a groan; hands coming to his eyes. "Ugh, flashes of ultraviolet. I'm surprised you can't see it."

"Vampire vision improves in clarity, not other spectrums." Abit, maybe they did in a milder sense; they could make out different levels of colours that…they hadn't ordinarily seen but nothing drastic like Kelpien's optimal level. They sensed more from their other senses like smell; that was their superior sense. Hunting senses for greater distances.

"Do you know why I joined Starfleet, Michael?"

"No."

Saru's smile stayed, saddened. "When I left, I had nothing but…plant seeds and my sister's knife. My life hadn't started then and all I had done was…exist; waiting for the end. While I was being processed at Starbase 7, I saw…so much. Diversity of culture…experience, so many species that coexisted. Some had…less than me. Some had…stories." Saru's voice quietened as he spoke. "I listened to them. I…found purpose because I realised that…I could help these people, other people, and other species. It was…logical to join Starfleet to do that." He let out a sign, eyes flicking closed. "I knew I wouldn't become to go home. A…price to pay to be a part of this life. Of knowledge."

Michael's eyes lowered but she could feel his emotions in his voice, parting so much to her that…she had not been privy to before. Her hand rose, coming to his head though she could feel the heat against her flesh. His face pulled up into a grimace though leant his head back into her touch.

"On…the event of my death," Saru started, "I…want you to keep them, help…continue to catalogue them. I know that…I might not go home but…sooner or later, other Kelpiens will leave Kaminar. It would…be helpful for them to have a path to follow; from the perspective of a Kelpien."

Her head bobbed softly. "Of course." While she didn't doubt his belief on his imminent death; he clearly phrased it to satisfy her discontentment… but the fact was, even if he did survive this; she'd still outlive him. Perhaps would see that day herself what Saru could not.

Though Michael observed him for a long moment, something…about this all felt familiar. The situation they were in with the sphere was quite distracting and took away from Saru; clearly anyone could guess that the premature nature of Saur's ailment was not coincidental. As the stasis field bothered her, clearly the sphere triggered this…

Then suddenly it clicked.

Her eyes widened and her hand dropped from his head suddenly enough to distract Saru's from his thoughts.

"When people die or are dying, they always want to leave something behind." She stated, "You and your work, the…The sphere must need us for…a similar type of purpose." There was no logical reason for its behaviour. It was trying to make contact with them

Saru frowned though the lines straightened out as he too made the connections. "The virus…the lights… oh, it makes much more sense now."

"It's ancient…powerful and intelligent. Rhys and Owosekun were saying its temperature was rising."

"That's it's death process." Saru wiggled up from his biobed, taking a breath before he got up and swayed though the vampire was quick to grab his arm, steadying him with ease.

"Where do you think you're going?" Pollard called out sharply, looking up from her patient.

Michael didn't wait to give her an answer before she took Saru and shot away, stopping by the turbolift and waited for the kelpien to recover from the short trip before he stumbled into the turbolift. Pollard could chew her out later. Now, they didn't have the time.

"Nope," Saru spoke, once as they moved.

The turbolift doors opened and Michael swept into the bridge, moving Linus from the science station that looked to have…been patched back into its role again; no doubt to be fixed properly later.

"Captain, have you tried running the translator through the ultralight spectrum?" She called out, pulling him from his conversation with Owosekun.

Pike's eyes flickered past her though his frown said enough. "No."

"We think we've come up with a hypothesis of what's happening; the sphere virus…the light." Saru called out, stumbling to his monitor, "My illness."

Pike's eyes stayed focused on the Kelpien. "Scans show we're 7 minutes away before it detonates. Please make this quick."

"My illness is a death process that was triggered prematurely. This…sphere is the only cause we can conclude based on proximity and how it's interacting with our ship. It used a virus to our communications in an attempt to establish contact…but what it had to say overwhelmed the systems. Mutating and causing problems we are currently facing." Saru spoke up. "My species evolved to detect dangers and have naturally higher senses but…that makes us vulnerable in the same instances. Hardwired empathy. The light I've been seeing, I can feel it reaching out."

Pike's face didn't change though his blue eyes remained wary. His jaw flexing at the mention of his death-process clearly coming to the forefront of concern.

"Can you confirm this?"

"If we run the light through the translator, it should start to recognise a linguistics pattern," Michael spoke up confidently. "As you can tell, the Sphere is dying, Captain. It's why we're here now; not any other ship before us. It needs Discovery's computer to deliver whatever it needs to say before it expires. To be preserved."

"Spock's shuttle leaves our sensor range in five minutes, Captain," Detmer called up.

Pike's head turned towards the viewscreen, his heart thumping a little faster and she could feel how his body flushed with this spout of information.

"Computer, switch the view screen into the ultraviolet spectrum and run through the translator."

With that, the screen displaying the Sphere flickered, though onscreen said a very different thing, flutters of what had looked like bright light turned into ribbons that fluttered around in unique patterns; not randomized as usual light patterns but morphed and flowing with intent. The screen lit up with the computer's attempts of rendering but even now, it was still overwhelming but there was enough…

"Options?" Pike moved, pacing almost though he looked uncertain nonetheless.

"If it's dying, it'll be messy given its side and mass and how it's heating up." Rhys spoke up "Our weapons will disintegrate."

"If we drop our shields, diver all power to computer processing and library's, we can receive its download and get away before it dies."

"Not if we're being held by the stasis field." Detmer pointed out, "are we to assume it'll drop it?"

"We'll have to. If we don't, it'll keep us here until it expires but if we do this, we have a chance to get away without posing a risk of getting caught up in it." Michael mused though she kept her gaze on the captain.

Pike's eyes closed before he nodded swiftly and far from thrilled. "Then let's do it. Send an alert for all the crew to stand by until we depart; if it needs the computers….we have to keep the systems clear."

"Aye, sir."

Michael was quick to get busy, compressing a good portion of their library and memory already for the sake of space—she didn't know how much the sphere was expected to have but she expected a lot. They had to make room for it.

The bridge got into motion and readying for the transmissions before Pike moved to sit in his chair, knuckles white as he gripped the arms of it with a solemn expression.

"Ready?"

A beat passed but the nod hung in the air.

"Drop the shields, open the channels."

The lights turned out, though the yellow-alert was that kept the whole bridge lit before her monitor and the others lit up; a transmission coming through, filling the processing above but to her astonishment, the systems continued to process faster and above their maximum…. Michael relayed this out loud though her eyes stayed to the screen, the clock ticking but there was a sense of anticipation that came with this.

Then it was complete.

"Transmission complete."

"Detmer?"

"Stasis field dropping. 20 seconds until we can get to warp."

"Pull us away at full impulse, Spock's trajectory."

Discovery moved, peeling away from the sphere as it began to get brighter, seconds ticking by until… the ship lurched into warp; but on her sensors, there was a huge spike of energy and radiation.

"The Sphere's detonated in our wake. It must have sped up its death cycle once the transmission was complete." She could only imagine what that would have looked like…but they couldn't afford to lose Spock's trail. They had won those minutes back.

Saru's chuckling pulled the moment away, slamming down the reminder; the shadow that hung around him.

"Now, I think it's time for me to follow suit. My head hurts." Saru started, his pain starting to show through as he stumbled, edging towards the turbolift doors. Michael didn't hesitate to dart to his side, taking his weight with ease. She could handle this…. She had to. If he survived or not, she had to.