Every moment in this world felt hazy, every passing second inching her closer to some unknowable abyss, tamping down memory and morals, smothering instinct until she feared she might not know enough to run.
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
“If I were to let my crew board your ship, I would be killing them,” Michael explained, a part of her struggling with the concept that she was trying to appeal to a monster. “Even if we survived you, we wouldn’t survive the Federation cull.” “Then there is no quandary,” Control replied. “You are already lost.”
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
Something was looking at her–seeing her–something that might think it knew her.
Something that might even think it was alive.
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
“The elders taught us that Hell was a moon that fell into the sea. For seven days the water boiled, and when it finally cooled, the tides carried the moon back to the shore as stones. When the first Kelpiens left the sea and walked upon the shore, the stones cut their feet and they bled. So they fashioned hard soles to walk over the stones, but the stones lodged in the tread and were carried across the world. "Now we say, ‘One cannot know the peace of soft earth if they have never walked upon sharp stones. And if ever you walk with light feet, pray it is not that the stones have been lost, but that you have learned how to carry them.’”
Discovery was not a threat by firepower alone, but Control had learned to never underestimate her Captain. Sufficient compression turned resistance to violence. A rat caught in a snare would still dare bite the spring.
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
Screencap modified with Photoshop + ClipStudio by AdelineIserman
“We need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt who this officer is, what she’s doing on Seraphis, and how the hell she's managed to evade discovery by the single most dangerous enemy the Federation has ever faced."
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
Seraphis, too, always seemed to work against her when she was there, like the vessel herself had a threshold of tolerance for sabotage–even when it was intended to free her.
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
“You resort to derision and mockery when you are unsettled,” Control replied, unfazed by the question. “You are often unsettled in my presence. It has been exacerbated by the hallucinations you encounter while in your dormant state.”
“Dreams,” Michael corrected, grinding her teeth together. “They’re called dreams.”
She glanced up at it as the servos of its neck thrummed.
Airiam’s neck, she reminded herself, sickened by the way Control’s existence leached into the spaces where Airiam’s memory lived, and how insidiously it was eroding the distinction between the two.
“The more accurate linguistic selection is ‘nightmare,’” it said, the head twitching back to an upright position. “You experience them often.”
“And how would you know that?” Michael asked, her brows furrowing.
A motor whirred.
“I recognize patterns, Michael.”
-----
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Control has the Federation on the brink. When the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham sees one last shot to turn the tide. But as Control's obsession with her deepens and the boundaries between ally and adversary begin to unravel, its objectives evolve into something far more dangerous--and lead Michael to question if she's still in control of her own game.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Airiam, Michael Burnham/Control, Michael Burnham/Nhan
Rating: Mature
“I had to scuttle Hood today.” Michael exhaled, the heel of her palm digging into her forehead. She remembered the way Tilly had sounded in her call earlier that day. Broken. Hollow. That intractable optimism she’d tried so hard to hold onto when serving on Discovery was distant now, worn thin and feeble over time, every transmission more defeated than the last. Michael hadn’t wanted to give her up, hadn’t wanted to send her away. She worried for her, for the things that could happen now, the things beyond her control. But Starfleet was desperate for another captain–for someone brilliant and stubborn like Tilly, who wouldn’t mind the oldest, shittiest end of the Starfleet stick. The only vessel to survive the attack on the museum. The only one not connected to the core at the time. The only one Control hadn’t even tried to take, to corrupt or destroy, because she was just too goddamned old. But Franklin could fly, and that was all that mattered. If anyone could keep her alive in this kind of fight, it was Tilly.
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Michael Burnham / Airiam, Michael Burnham / Control, Michael Burnham / Nhan
Synopsis:
Three years after the attack on Section 31 Headquarters, Starfleet and the Federation are on the brink. Planet after planet is falling to Control, every attack more devastating than the last. There are no patterns, no viable solutions to stop the carnage, and with their resources dwindling, the last Federation starships are at risk of being corrupted themselves.
But when the USS Discovery begins receiving encrypted transmissions from someone claiming to be Starfleet who seems to know everything about their enemy, Captain Michael Burnham is forced to decide whether their new source is truly an ally–or if Control is luring the Federation’s last bastion of hope into a trap.