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bornofthenetwork · 5 years ago

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✺⊰| Lost with all hands | drabble fic

On the viewscreen, Starbase 11 was now in tatters. The few docked ships were floating aimlessly and burned, the base itself was…broken into pieces, and debris floated like it was in orbit. It looked like a massacre.

“Anything?”

“No.” Michael spoke, shaking her head as her fingers tapped along the screen on the monitor, “No federation life signs. Only Klingon.”

“That’s the fourth Starbase today.” Saru spoke up gravely, “and our last.”

“The Federation had fallen.”

Lorca closed his eyes, exhaling heavily. “Not while our ships are here. Make a heading out of federation space.”

“Sir?”

Lorca turned his gaze to Burnham, her question that lingered in her expression though he was annoyed but Detmer complied, the ship jumping into warp though there was flicking of unease in the ship; the recent battle had done little good.

“Earth is gone, Federation space isn’t safe and the eyes are no doubt on Vulcan next.”

“Shouldn’t we go to Vulcan?”

Lorca shook his head. “We can’t. There’s just not enough ships to defend the planet. We failed.” He failed. Their cloaking abilities masked unknown numbers; they couldn’t fight them with their ship now, the damage was still being repaired; it would only be a suicide mission. He couldn’t risk Discovery being boarded. “Once we’re out of federation space, we can try and look for the Enterprise; let them know the outcome and…go from there.” They were now the last people of Starfleet authority.

“What about other ships?”

“There’s only three left, Burnham and they’re too far from our sensors to get a reading on their position and if they’re till in one piece. The Klingons outnumber us to the point of hilarity. Let’s hope that they too head out of federation space.” He gave her a closing look, to stop with the questions. Now was not the time.

“Sir, three Klingon battle cruisers have picked up our warp signature and are following.” Owosekun annoyed, adding more bad-news onto the pile.

“What?”

“A fourth ship had joined, the Ship of the dead.”

“Damn it.” Lorca slammed his hand onto his chair’s control panel. “Stamets, is the drive fixed?”

“Just about, running a few final calibrations.”

“Then hurry up we’ve got a tail!” he cut the com. “Weapons status?”

“Phasers are online, torpedoes are not.”

“Phasers won’t penetrate a Klingon shield.”

“They can’t fire on us until we drop out of warp. Vice versa.” Rhys spoke up. “Our shields are low, we can’t take too many hits.”

“Solutions?”

“Keep going at warp, perhaps try and head towards a pulsar?” Burnham suggested though the ship gave a sudden jolt, the vibrations running through the metal.

“Either they’ll get bored or run us to exhaustion.” Saur pointed point, “Something tells me it’s the latter. Systems are failing on all decks, including life-support and emergency auxiliary power”

“Then fix it.”

“We can certainly try but our teams are stretched thin, we can’t stay in warp forever.”

“Then let’s keep going.”

“Aye, sir.”

The pursuit never stopped, three of the Klingon ships did drop out for other targets but every hour, every minute was now starting to take its toll on Discovery; she was not designed for this. The Discovery shot through at maximum warp, almost thundering if the sound was possible for sound in the void. All attempts to different routes only spared them a few minutes but they barely had the time to fix the issues that were popping up.

“What’s taking so long?!” Lorca demanded, his grip on his chair tightening as the ship gave an unusual jolt. Not the first but equally bad.

“Warp field is unstable!” Detmer cried, a note of panic in her voice. “A plasma conduit is rupturing to the warp-core. We need to slow down to repair it.”

Lorca huffed out tightly; one of the last things they needed was to stop when they were on their last legs…. “Airiam, can we jump at high warp?”

The woman pushed herself back from the screen, her hands stiff to keep her from falling forwards as the ship shook again. “Usually, yes but given the state of the engines and system failures, it won’t be safe…we could end up like the Glenn.”

Lorca grunted as the ship gave another hard jerk, forcing him to dig his heel into the metal flooring. “How long until the warp field fails?”

“About thirty seconds, sir.”

“Then we have to figure something out. Stamets, how long until the drive is ready to jump?”

There was a second pause that held….

“Twenty seconds, we’ve lost most of our spore containment, power is failing but we’ve purged the corruption to bring it back online.”

“Then jump as soon as we can. I want us out of the Klingons path. If we can’t jump…” He knew he couldn’t hand this technology to the Klingons…. There was one option of course and he’d do it if he had to, even if his every instinct clawed to survive; they had nothing and they certainly shouldn’t give their technology away after they were dead.

His knuckles turned white…. His pulse pumping in his ears… feel it in his chest and he could see the bridge crew trying to do their best… they’d survive another Klingon attack…. He knew they would.

Suddenly, the ship lurched out of warp, the feeling of gravity vanishing for only a second before the circles cut back though the force nearly had everyone from their seats.

Then there was a sudden lurch as the shields took an impact, warnings flashing along with the view screens.

‘Black alert, black alert’

“Wait! Our inertial dampeners are—“

Burnham didn’t get to finish before the ship jolted… the sensation of the ship spinning; lightening cracking then suddenly they felt the turn—too sudden, too quick but it was all too fast before they suddenly slammed down—

Discovery twisted out but instead of its smooth drive, the damage to the hardware caused immediate dysfunction, the ship spun and slammed horizontally down into the network without able to finish the jump, sinking the entire ship under it like a dropped stone into a puddle but the force a of the drop and stop as the Discovery’s saucer plowed straight into the mycelium ground, the metal bucking and snapping, sending sections all over. The soil under uplifting over some sections, the metal bulkheads along the secondary hull too buckled at the sheer force that also tore the titanium like butter and the nacelles bent and snapped, dropping away from the hulls….

Groaned and creaks echoed, the ship bouncing back from the springy ground but that force was enough to tip the ship to fall back onto its belly fully with a thung…. Continuing to shift and groan before all moving parts stopped and the dust settled.

Then it all fell silent.

Discovery had landed for the last time within the mycelium network.

Lights flickered on and off overhead over the hushed Bridge. No one moved, there was no sound apart from ventilating hisses and steam as pipes popped and buckled throughout the ship's systems.

No one had survived the impact.

Captain Lorca lay out of his seat, sprawled at the bottom of view screen, his gaze staring endlessly out with her mouth slightly ajar as blood splayed down the side of his face, the dark blue mycelium ‘sky’ reflecting onto his eyes…

Lieutenant Detmer lay under the helm, her head twisted slightly out of correct angle to her position from though her eyes were closed, and blood oozed from under her implant’s, imbedded with other debris into the pale flesh.

Owosekun was still in her seat, slumped forwards over her station, brown eyes barely open and blood barely leaked from broken skin; the force had impacted her ribcage into the station, breaking them like twigs

Like Detmer and Owosekun, both Rhys and Bryce had similar injuries, their forms laying crumpled at their stations. Airiam had been thrown from her seat and circus fried from the monitor detonating.

Michael Burnham lay against Saru’s back before the captain’s chair, her head lolled back against his side and eyes remained open to the ceiling with a dead, ceaseless stare though it was the large shard and metallic debris that had pierced through her chest that had killed her before the impact; enough force to not only send her flying away but pierced through her flesh and into Saru’s spine.

Under her, Saru was faced down, his arm trapped under him, his shoe covered hoof jammed under the science station at an odd angel though was otherwise pinned by her small frame as if she was a blanket.

Bodies of the crew lined the corridors, quarters, and rooms, from sickbay to the mess.

Spores glistened around the air, free as the canisters had popped and split, seeping from engineering outwards to the currents in the air.

Stamets still lay in the cube; the needle of the drive embedded in one arm, the other had pierced through the augment, limb and into his chest cavity; pinned into his seat. Hugh Culber sat slumped against the cube’s glass, eyes closed with a tricorder still in hand…

Tilly was laying at the base of the spore console, her red mass of curls free to rein over the dust and spores now lo longer confined by a bobble. In her arms was the only single canister of spores that were still intact, having been the last thing she had been holding onto.

“Bla… black….allerr…” The computer’s distorted voice cracked suddenly but aroused none, no one stirred.

No one could.

“…allerr…blakk..” the sounds continued, automated…

It was the JahSepp that got to the ship first.

The alien mass within their home unwelcomed; disruption to their plants, the life that had been before now uplifted with solid metals that didn’t belong. Useable mass to repair the damage, to be useful for their home now.

The hour ticked by, the Discovery’s hull taking longest to eat through before new weaknesses were found, the power from systems left to die first, emergency force fields flickering but didn’t stop them seeping inside, breaking the ship down from the inside out.

The JahSepp barely stopped at all, not even to the organic matter of the alien bodies, breaking down the organic forms though they couldn’t help but transmit the unique biochemistry that came with the bodies, enough to spread the genetic sequences and lingering memories of the aliens into the network’ biosphere.

The USS Discovery groaned as the structure failed; frames collapsed; supports got eaten away…

The ship got sparse.

Bodies disappeared.

Discovery’s outer titanium bones held only for a little while before they too caved to the natural cycle of the network.

USS Discovery had fought well. A dedicated crew that fought until the end. Echoes of their life washing into the network; a lost ship and her crew.

#✺⊰| мυи bєнiиd тнє мυรєร 〈 ooc 〉#michael burnham #star trek discovery #gabriel lorca

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