It's always the mycelium (Star Trek: Discovery)

[MeForever]

AN: Hi! I’ve been wanting to write a Star Trek Discovery fic for a while now, but I’ was stuck for a while. But the creative juices finally started flowing again. So I bring you this Star Trek allergy fic! This takes place in a slightly alternate universe where Paul Stamets and Michael Burnham are experimenting with different types of mycelium spores. Enjoy!

 

***

 

Paul Stammets leaned back into his chair and sighed. The engineering bay was deserted, except for him and Burnham, who had just gone into the cultivation bay. They had been experimenting with different types of mycelium spores, to see if they could find a type more effective in creating jumps. He was about to lean forward and start typing again when the door to the cultivation bay opened again and Burnham walked out. He looked up and had to suppress his laughter. She was covered in spores from head to toe, only her face having been spared from them.
 

“What happened there?” He asked, amusement shining through his voice. She hissed, and started patting down her clothing.

“One of the patches of mycelium was apparently ready to spread out and turn into a bigger patch. Only it seems that I was in the way.” She said. She was still patting down her clothing, and spores were now drifting lazily through the air.

“Just make sure the whole engineering bay doesn’t turn into a cultivation bay.” Paul remarked, before turning back to his screen and starting some simple calculations. While he started working, the spores kept drifting through the air lazily. Barely visible, but still there. They got close to his nose, some of them even entering it. Slowly teasing him. He rubbed his nose absentmindedly. It didn’t do much to quell the itch, but he was caught up in his calculations so deeply he didn’t notice.  But the itch kept increasing. After a while he was forced to sniff and rub his nose again. And again, it did nothing.
 

Then, the itch suddenly flared, and he was forced to turn away from the screen with a desperate sneeze.
“Ha’ISsh!” He turned back to the screen and caught Michael’s eyes.

“Bless you.” She said softly, almost shyly. She had never heard him sneeze, and was taken completely off guard by it.

“Thank you.” He said. His left eye was starting to itch now, and he was caught mentally between leaving and staying. Logic dictated that he should leave as he was clearly having a reaction of sorts. But truth be told, he didn’t want to leave. He was just on a roll now. So he stayed seated, willing the itch to disappear. But the universe didn’t work like that. It didn’t take more than five minutes before he was forced to abandon his calculations again to sneeze.

“Ha’IsShh! h-H’ISShh!” Again, he turned back to see Michael looking at him, this time staring a bit more than socially acceptable.

“Bless you. You… you good?” She asked. She seemed as if she didn’t quite know what to say. Normally Paul would have scolded her for being rude, but right now it just seemed as if she genuinely didn’t know what to say. He nodded.

“Quite. How are your calculations coming along?” He asked to distract her. She looked back at the screen, and he took this moment to check in the reflection of the panel of the computer how he looked. He noted with annoyance that his left eye had turned slightly red and irritated. It was still itching as well.
 

“The results are pretty interesting, you might want to take a look.” Michael said. Paul walked over to her station. Taking a look at her screen, he was of course forced to breath. Humans needed air after all. But as Michael was at the center of the spores right now, his nose protested.

“I’Shh! H’ISShhE! h-hhI’SSsh! God.” He paused for a few torturous seconds. The sneeze right on the verge of coming out. “H’IShh!” Ended his fit. For now.

“Bless you. Maybe… maybe you should go see doctor Culber. We have antihistamine on the ship.” She said. He gave her a confused look.

“What do you mean antihistamine?” He asked, but he wasn’t able to hear her reaction. “He’IShh! I’Shh! Sorry, what?” He asked.

“I said. These spores are newly cultivated, you haven’t been in contact with them before. You are displaying signs of an allergic reaction. I can only recommend you to go to doctor Culber.” He sighed. She really was like a vulcan sometimes.
 

“Fine, I’ll see-H’IIShhe! See Culber in a second. Let me c-hheck the results first.” he quickly scanned over the results of the calculations, but his brain was to preoccupied with the need to sneeze for him to really process the information. “I’sshh! H’IShhe! Ugh.” Michael gave him a look again, and he sighed in defeat. “Fine, I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, before swiftly exiting the engineering bay.

 

***

 

He arrived at the medbay and was relieved to find it empty, except for a quiet sleeping ensing on one of the beds in the corner. Hugh Culber was sitting at one of the stations looking at some medical logs.

“Ha’Ish!” Hugh looked up at the familiar sneeze. His husband was standing in the room, his eyes looking irritated and his nose as well. “Hi Hugh, do-H’IsShh! do you have any antihistamine for me?” He asked. Hugh nodded, standing up quickly.

“Of course, what happened? Bless you by the way.” He said.

“Thank you. Some of the new mycelium doesn’t seem to agree with me.” He said, as Hugh emptied a hypospray into his neck.

“There, it should start working in a minute, it-”

“Ha’ISShh!”

“Bless you, It’s always the mycelium isn’t it?” He laughed. Paul nodded, wiping his nose.

“So it seems yeah.”

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by MeForever

[The Kneezle]

aw this is so cute I love it! 

[mystic-chibi]

Nice!! I haven’t seen many Discovery fanfics! 

I like Burnham’s “You good?”  I can totally see her saying that. 

[MeForever]

@The Kneezle@mystic-chibi Thank you!