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ironwoman359 · 1 year

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The Secret History of the Invincible II

Chapter 1: Seams Pull Apart

Summary: “How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.”

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you.

It's been months since the Invincible safely landed on a new planet to build humanity's first colony among the stars, and the Captain has been working very hard to ensure that the colony has everything it needs. But now that everyone's getting settled, it's time to sit down with the colony's official historian and give a report to send back to earth about the Invincible's voyage...and the Captain must choose how much to reveal about what really happened

Ships: Platonic the Captain and everyone, with an emphasis on the Captain & Mark.

Content Warnings: Just a lot of discussion of everything that went on in ISWM itself, and hurt/comfort as the characters try to process that and work through it. And guilt. SOOOOO much guilt. Fun!

Word Count: 2,857

A/N: I've had this idea in my head for a long time, of how the Captain and Mark would move on with their lives after everything they went through in the wormhole, and I'm excited to finally start posting it. Enjoy!

*If you like to read on AO3, check the notes for a link!

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With a sucking whoosh and a swirl of blue energy, you suddenly found yourself back in your cryopod. You looked around, heart sinking as the pod’s interface whirred to life in a painstakingly familiar sequence.

*Software update complete*

“Good morning, Captain! We are currently *error* years into our journey. Coffee is en route. Current ship status is absolutely catastrophic. In-in-initializing emergency wakey-wakey protocol.”

The cryopod spat you out and you crumpled your hands and knees on the deck of the bridge. The alarm lights flashed an incessant red and the ship’s emergency klaxons blared in your ears, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. You couldn’t even bring yourself to stand up. It wasn’t over. It would never be over. You’d thought that maybe this time, you’d actually done it, but who were you kidding? This would go on forever.

“Reviving head engineer.”

“Captain?”

You looked up at Mark, who was stepping out of his pod with a frown on his face.

“Does this feel-”

The air warped around him and his form glitched between different versions of himself, settling briefly on one with a tattered uniform, skin marred by burns and his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

“You let us die, Captain,” he said, his voice low and distorted, before he glitched back into his normal self.

“-familiar to you?”

“Mark-” you staggered to your feet, but before you could speak, he glitched again, and Celci stood in his place.

“It never ends, Captain,” she said, her face covered in frost and her goggles glowing blue. “No matter what you try, nothing can save us from this nightmare, and it’s your fault.”

“Celci-”

Her body warped and it was Burt now, digital rain running down his face.

“I'll tell you what I know,” he said. “Storm clouds are gathering... the wind is gonna blow... the race of man is suffering .”

“This is why we shouldn’t have trusted you,” Gunther’s voice said from behind, but when you turned, it was the alien from the Universal Stability Agency standing there, her clothes torn and blood pouring from her mangled eye socket.

“It all comes down to bad leadership ,” the alien said in Gunther’s voice, then they continued in their own. “All those worlds...all those people...gone. Because of you.”

“Seeing things, Captain?”

The voice was low in your ear and you whirled around, just in time for the bridge’s main control console to burst into flames.

“Fire on the bridge! *Error* Life support systems failing. *Error* Automatic fire suppression system offline. *Error* Failsafes offline.”

Instinctively, you turned towards the fire extinguisher, but found yourself stuck to the floor and unable to move, ice slowly creeping up your legs.

“*Error* Captain offline.”

A wall of fire and shrapnel barreled towards you as the console exploded, engulfing the bridge in flames. As the heat swarmed around you, you felt a deep despair settle in your heart, like a physical weight. It didn’t matter that the explosion would kill you. Nothing mattered anymore.

Not even death could save you from your fate.

--- --- ---

Your eyes flew open and you gasped, lurching upright to find yourself in your bedroom, safe and sound. Cool night air filled your lungs, a stark contrast to the blazing fumes from your dream.

Dream? Or memory?

You pushed the thought away and swung your legs over the side of the bed. You knew from an unfortunate amount of experience that there was no point in trying to get back to sleep after one of these dreams. You slid your feet into your slippers and made your way into the kitchen, overriding your coffee machine’s programmed start time to brew a pot right away.

“Coffee always helps,” you muttered to yourself as you grabbed a mug from your cupboard.

And it really did.

True, coffee couldn’t keep the nightmares (or the memories) from rising up and plaguing your mind, but the strong scent and bitter taste was grounding, as was the gentle *drip drip drip* of the machine in the quiet hours of the morning. The caffeine boost didn’t hurt either, and throwing yourself into the next day’s work was typically enough to silence any lingering thoughts floating inside your head.

Tonight, however, was anything but typical.

Normally, you’d instruct your computer to read out tomorrow’s schedule for you, but there was no need; you already knew what it would say.

*Senior Crew Meeting with Colony Historian – All Day*

You cupped your mug in your hands, letting the warmth seep into your palms as you leaned against the counter.

The historian had been nothing but cordial, assuring you that while they’d blocked out the full day for the interviews, it would most likely only take a few hours out of the morning, if that. You hadn’t argued the point, unsure of how to even explain why it might take longer to chronicle the Invincible’s journey than the historian expected. That was if you even decided to give the full, true account of what had happened.

If, indeed, it had even happened at all.

You shook yourself and rubbed your eyes. Suddenly, stuck within the confines of your apartment walls was the last place you wanted to be while you waited until it was socially acceptable to be out and about. Still holding your coffee in one hand, you grabbed a jacket from where you’d draped it over the back of a chair the day before and slipped out your front door.

Your apartment building was one of the first permanent residences that had been built after the initial groundwork of the colony was laid. It stood near the center of the settlement and housed most of the Invincible’s crew, including her entire senior staff. As Captain, you’d been given a large unit on the top floor, which conveniently meant that you were only one flight of stairs away from the roof.

The rooftop was little more than a barren expanse of concrete and loose gravel, though eventually there were plans to plant a garden, and you could see why. You’d only come here once or twice before, but the view of the colony below and the sweeping landscape of your new planet stretching out beyond it made it the perfect spot to create a cozy little gathering space. For now, though, it would be a decent enough place to wait out the rest of the night alone.

Or at least, alone in theory.

Illuminated by the dim glow of the streetlights below, a single figure sat on the edge of the rooftop, their legs dangling over the edge of the building.

“Mark?”

He turned, surprise written on his face.

“Captain? What are you doing up here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” you said as you approached. “It’s nearly four in the morning.”

“Is it?” He asked, and you nodded. “Huh. Didn’t realize it’d gotten that late. Or, early, I guess.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“Oh...who’s to say? It’s easy to lose track of time with a view like this.” He gestured, but not down at the colony or the dense woods surrounding it. His eyes were fixed upward, and when you followed his gaze it was easy to see why.

Thousands upon thousands of stars dotted the night sky, with nary a cloud in sight to obstruct them from view. The largest of the planet’s three moons was also fully visible, and one of its smaller sisters was just beginning to poke over the horizon.

“Wow,” you whispered. “They’re so much brighter here than on Earth.”

“No major cities here yet,” Mark responded. “No light pollution to obstruct our view. And it’s gonna stay that way, if I have anything to say about it. What’s the point of a new planet if we treat it just like the old one?”

You hummed in agreement, before folding your legs beneath you and sitting beside him.

“Yeah...it would be a shame to waste this second chance,” you said quietly.

Mark glanced over at you for a moment, something unreadable flashing in his eyes before he looked away again.

“You never did say what you were doing here, Captain.”

“You didn’t either,” you countered, and he pressed his lips together in a firm line.

You were both quiet for a moment, one beat of silence that threatened to stretch on into infinity with barely an acknowledgement before Mark sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he said with a shrug. “That’s all.” He looked over at you again, and this time he let his gaze linger. “...could you?”

“Not really,” you admitted. “Too many…thoughts in my head, I suppose.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” he said with a nod. “Have you…” he hesitated, then seemed to steel himself. “Have you been having that problem often, since we…since our voyage?”

The unspoken question hung heavy in the air between you, and you swallowed down your nerves.

“Fairly often,” you said quietly. “You?”

“Yeah,” Mark said, sighing again. “Same here.”

You fidgeted beside him, unsure of how to proceed. It wasn’t like the two of you had been avoiding each other since you landed, you worked together nearly every day of course. But aside from Mark’s quiet “ thank you” when you’d first arrived here months ago, neither of you had even remotely acknowledged what had happened between you in the warp core. You weren’t even sure how much he remembered, and aside from that brief moment on the bridge, Mark had seemed completely fine, throwing himself fully into building the colony without a single sign of discomfort.

Though maybe , you thought now as you took in the tension in his shoulders and the tightness at the corners of his eyes, he was just very good at hiding it.

You knew you should say something, you needed to say something; not only were you Mark’s captain and therefore responsible for his well-being as a member of your crew, but you were his friend. Or at least, you hoped that after everything, you were still friends.

“Mark, I-”

“How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.”

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you. Mark winced, and you took that as a sign to continue. “Everything.”

“ Everything everything?” Mark asked, and you nodded. “So…you remember what I did then,” he said, pulling his legs up and leaning his arms on his knees.

“What you did?” you repeated, and he rolled his eyes.

“If you’re trying to spare my feelings then I appreciate it, but you don’t have to bother. We both know that I...I caused all of it.”

"Mark, it wasn't-"

"Don't you dare say that it wasn't my fault," he interrupted, shooting you a glare. " I went back in time, I sabotaged both ships, I built the warp core. It was my fault." He laughed, hollow and empty, and for a moment you were back on the Invincible II , watching him fall apart in front of you all over again.

"You were just doing what you thought was right," you said slowly. "That's all any of us were doing. You had no way of knowing-"

"I did though," he insisted. "You told me, remember? You told me not to use the warp core, not to go back. But did I listen? No. I lost faith in you, trusted the word of that alien lady over yours, and I nearly destroyed everything."

It’s not like I gave you a good reason to have faith in me in the first place, you wanted to say, but you thought better of it. As much as you wanted to stew in your own guilt, trying to shift the blame onto yourself wouldn’t help Mark feel any better about his part in it all.

"Do you know why I told you not to go back?" you asked instead. "How I knew that you would even try? You told me not to let you. You said that you lost hope, but you never stopped trying to fix your mistakes, right up until the very end."

Mark opened his mouth to speak, but he froze, confusion written across his face.

"I...I told you?" he looked down at his hands and nodded carefully. "I…I did tell you."

"Mark…” You frowned. “How much do you remember?"

“Um…everything,” he said slowly. “Or at least, I assume it’s everything. It’s strange…sometimes I can’t pin the memories down quite right. Almost like I’m trying to remember a dream.”

“I almost thought it was a dream,” you said, leaning back to look up at the sky. “When no one acknowledged it when we landed, I thought maybe it was some side effect of the cryosleep. I asked Celci though, and she said that the brain doesn’t enter REM in cryo. So I just figured I was the only one who remembered.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Mark admitted. “And it’s not like I could tell someone about it without them thinking I was crazy.”

“It’s not the easiest thing to explain,” you agreed.

“ Right? ” he said, so loudly and suddenly that you jumped a little. “How would you even do that, like, ‘oh, guess what, I was transported through a wormhole across space and time and can remember living and dying over and over and have the memories from a dozen different universes all jacked up in my brain! Take me to the looney bin!’”

He grew more and more animated as he spoke, arms waving around before he finally let them fall back to his sides with a huff, and you swallowed.

“Mark…you’re not crazy. You know that, right?”

He hesitated, for just a bit too long for your liking before he answered.

“I know. It just…it feels crazy. I don’t even know how to begin sorting through everything in my head.”

“I understand,” you said quietly. “Believe me, I do. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but lately I can’t help but wonder…” you trailed off, your gaze slipping from Mark’s face down to the mug of coffee cooling in your hands.

“Yes?” he prompted, and you sighed.

“The historian interviews are tomorrow,” you said bluntly. “And I’m not sure whether to tell them the truth.”

Mark let out a breath, and you glanced over at him just in time to see him rest his chin on his fist.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” he admitted. “Until tonight, I wasn’t sure that it was worth the risk. I didn’t want to lose everything I’d worked so hard to build…not again.”

You opened your mouth to reassure him that he wouldn’t, but you couldn’t quite make the words come out. After all, how many times had the two of you lost the ship, the crew, the colony? How many times had you lost each other?

“But you know what I think now?” Mark continued, looking over at you. “I think that that’s exactly why we need to tell them what really happened. To try and stop it from happening again, to somebody else.”

“To somebody else?” you asked.

“As far as command back on Earth is concerned, this mission has been one hundred percent successful,” he explained. “I mean, it sure looks like it on the outside. Everyone is alive and healthy, the ship made it here safely, the colony is thriving. And the Invincible herself was a prototype...if she was successful then there were plans to fully reverse engineer the warp core for other ships, other missions…” he trailed off as your eyes widened, the full impact of his words settling over your shoulders.

“We can’t let that happen,” you whispered, and he nodded.

“We have to tell them. We can’t…. I can’t let my mistakes be repeated. No matter the consequences.”

He wrapped his arms around his legs, shrinking in on himself, and you swallowed. Slowly, you reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder.

“Our mistakes,” you corrected quietly. Mark shot you a small smile, and you returned it as best as you could. “I’ll be there to back you up, one hundred percent,” you continued. “And…”

You paused, unsure if you should complete your thought, but Mark made the choice for you, reaching out to return your gesture, taking your arm in a steady grip.

“And I’ll do the same for you,” he said. “I’m behind you all the way, Captain.”

You looked at him, his face illuminated by starlight, and for a moment all you could think of was all the times you’d failed him, all the times he’d suffered because of you. But his gaze held none of that anger, that resentment that you’d seen from him before. And if you could trust him, after everything, was it really so inconceivable that he could still have faith in you?

“We got into this mess together,” you finally said, squeezing his arm. “And we’re going to get through it the same way.”

Mark nodded as the first rays of sunlight began to peek over the planet’s new horizon.

“Together.”

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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider reblogging, it means a lot to me <3

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