Hurt

Posted on Fri Jul 17th, 2026 @ 2:10pm by Commodore Wilkan Targaryen & Gamma Quadrant NPC & Lieutenant Commander Kuzos & Lieutenant Rio Kholin MD & Ensign Mirakylin Yumerieva & Ensign Icarus To-Ennien

5,739 words; about a 29 minute read

Mission: 9. Oubliette
Location: SS Christopher Pike
Timeline: 2439-10-09, 23:15

Inside the cramped, dim cabin of the runabout Frost River, the air hummed with a suffocating, schizophrenic heat. The ship’s physical console flickered with weapons-charging arrays, but the true steering column was a fractured mind.

"The Nyota Uhura is weak," a jagged, violent voice hissed from the pilot’s seat, though no lips moved. "Crush her. Tear the metal skin. We must burn our way to the surface of Saltah'na. Home. Reclamation!" It was the voice of a butcher, one of the fifty condemned souls jammed into the psychic cage.

"No! Look at the Enterprise: she is a warship that's circling like a hawk," countered a panicked, high-pitched vocalization, vibrating from the exact same throat. A heavy murderer's ego pushed back immediately: "Let the Enterprise watch us bleed them! We have their blood on our hands already. Feel it? Seven of their crew, screaming in the dark corner of this flesh. They are ours now!"

An echo of the dead Enterprise crew members rippled through the shared consciousness, a sickening phantom ache that made the runabout's pilot jerk violently against the restraints. The stolen memories of those seven Starfleet souls clawed at the walls of the collective mind, blinding them with duty, fear, and grief.

“Quiet!”

The core identity tore through the chaotic chorus. Xurbam reasserted himself, forcing the fractured pieces back down into the bedrock of his mind. His hands slammed onto the console, arresting a stray Phaser lock aimed at the newly arrived Uhura. Then, a faint sensor spike caught his attention. From the underbelly of the giant starship, a tiny Type 20 shuttlecraft, the Christopher Pike, slipped out into the void. It was approaching on a tight, low-power vector, its modular medical systems radiating a strange, unnatural energy.

The prisoners felt the sudden spike in Xurbam's heart rate, a ripple of alarm through the shared neural network. "What is that? A target? Let us tear it apart!" a chorus of voices screamed, reaching greedily for the weapons array. "A small mouse to crush before the cat arrives!"

"No," Xurbam growled aloud, his actual voice low, gravelly, and straining as he actively suppressed the sensor data, burying the shuttle's telemetry deep within his own consciousness to hide it from the inmates. He could feel a strange intent from that tiny craft... not a weapon, but a threat to their collective existence. If the prisoners noticed it, they would obliterate it instantly.

"There is nothing there!" Xurbam lied to his own mind, gasping as blood trickled from his nose.

"He is hiding something!" a calculating voice hissed from the depths, a thief who recognized a deception. "The host plays us for fools! Look through his eyes! Look at the sensor grid!"

"Destroy it! Destroy everything!" the crowd roared.

Xurbam threw his entire willpower against his own limbs, wrestling with his fingers as they twitched toward the firing triggers. He was drowning in his own skull, desperately trying to maintain the seal on a cosmic nightmare before the madness consumed him entirely. Suddenly, a high-pitched, harmonic chime pierced the cacophony. The air in the cockpit began to shimmer, a cascade of silver molecular light washing over his body as a Transporter beam engaged from the approaching shuttle.

The inner cage erupted into absolute panic. "An attack! They are ripping us out! Fight it! Reconstruct the shields!" fifty voices screamed at once, throwing their collective psychic weight against the beam, trying to anchor the physical body to the runabout’s deck plates.

Before the inmates could seize the controls, the space outside erupted. A blinding flash tore through the viewport as the Enterprise’s quantum torpedoes detonated in a precise, bracketing proximity wave. The violent concussive shockwaves slammed into the Frost River, overloading its sensor grids and shattering the console’s power relays. Inside Xurbam's mind, the sheer, unexpected blast radius fractured the prisoners' collective focus, sending their screaming voices into a momentary, disorganized tailspin.

Xurbam felt the underlying frequency of the transport hold steady through the chaos, and he knew it wasn't a weapon; it was a line thrown into the abyss. With a final, agonizing surge of his remaining sanity, leveraging the split-second distraction of the torpedo bursts, the host stopped fighting. He opened his mind to the light, embracing the pull of the dematerialization field, and fought with every ounce of his soul to let the Federation beam him away before the monsters could claw their way back to the surface.

The cockpit of the Christopher Pike felt smaller than it ever had. From the pilot’s seat, Wilkan’s fingers danced across the Helm controls, his jaw clenched so tightly that his gums felt as if they were going to bleed. He could hear the low thrum of the ambulance module directly behind him, a constant reminder of the crowd he hadn't wanted aboard. He hadn’t won the battle to leave them behind, but he didn't have time to brood over the breach of protocol now. The shuttle violently bucked as a series of blinding flashes erupted right outside the viewport. The Enterprise had opened fire, her Quantum Torpedoes detonating in a precise, bracketing proximity wave. The deliberate concussive force rattled the Frost River, overloading its sensors and providing the exact tactical window the shuttle needed.

"Brace yourselves!" Wilkan roared over the thunderous rumble of the detonations. The shockwaves slammed into the Pike, and he wrestled with the manual thruster controls to keep the shuttle from tumbling out of position as the transporter beam reached critical mass. "The moment that pattern solidifies, we are in the cage with a wolf!"

Mira did her best to reinforce the Inertial and hull shielding to help keep the Pike as stable as possible. She also completed her mods to the power, shield, and field sensor arrays attached to the Medical Module. If Xurban produced fields that could easily shift and disrupt sensor readings, well, she would make sure they would not feed false data to the power and fields by enabling multistage AGC circuits. These were always built into backups as sensor modules can fail from a sensed overload. Yes, sensor fed power circuits were more 'efficient', however, AGC circuits were all about the actual power flow and internal, no external, sensing. Thus, they were 'hardened' against what could take out the power from a sensor. She made sure to make the cut over to be 18%. If the sensors for the ambulance mod went higher than 18 percent, the backups would automatically cut in to keep power flowing to those critical systems of the Module. And, the reason for 18%... Federation equipment was rated for 25% more of load before failure, and thus, nothing would go down, and yet the more efficient sensor fed power could be used until that 18%. She patiently waited, crouching as her 'chair' was the repair pack, surrounded by a yellow field of her life support belt she had activated when the shuttle left the Enterprise.

The air in the mission compartment shattered with a blinding cascade of molecular light. The physical form of Xurbam materialized, his body convulsing as blood dripped from his nose, his posture a chaotic silhouette of fifty fighting souls. A sudden, suffocating pressure slammed into the space, a wave of ancient malice and stolen memories that scraped violently against the edges of Wilkan's mind.

Gripping the Helm tightly, Wilkan’s hybrid resilience hardened, his mental defenses slamming shut against the psychic assault. He forced his eyes to stay fixed on the telemetry, fighting the phantom vertigo as the shuttle's power grid began to wildly fluctuate.

"Help me!" Xurbam pleaded as the others tried to take control.

Rio was on her feet instantly, working to use the preplanned method to try to separate out Xurbam from the other minds he was battling with. It felt to her as if he was desperate to expel the others but was being overwhelmed and she saw him afresh as a the victim and a hostage rather than the murderer they had all assumed him to be. She fought back any sympathy that was trying to impose itself onto her mind and distract her from her tasks.

Mira checked the connection from the Probe power pack to the Aux Packs connected to the Ambulance module and verified the cut over to each feed. If any started to weaken, she would cut over to the probe pack so as to get a chance to check on and hopefully fix what was going wrong.

The CMO was aware of the golden aura of the Guardian Alien who had accompanied Xurbam onto the Enterprise and could feel the contrasting cool nature of that presence as it too tried to hold a safety force that Rio couldn't identify but was finding a great help.

Kuzos was monitoring ICU integrity closely he was also aware of the presence of Xurbam's guardian as it's attempt to assist Rio at the first sign of difficulty. "ICU integrity is holding despite the attempts of the prisoner's to break it."

Icarus stepped up beside the CMO and held out the case she'd been carrying. "It's now or never," she purred softly, "we have to contain the other identities while the host is able to cry for help."

"Let's get it done!" Rio agreed and began the process, with the equipment already to go and fully prepped it was just a matter of one LCARS light and Rio initiated the process. Chaos erupted, Xurbam's body contorting as if it were metaphorically a bag of combattants within him. Obviously in reality if was much more complex than that but it was clear that some, perhaps all, of the ensnared souls and subconsciousness' were fighting against being evicted. Some clearly realising there were no receptacles for them to be transferred into, others perhaps just resisting out of instinct, maybe even some who were trying to make the process happen so they might escape, even into a final death as a chosen preferred option, but whoever was fighting for which cause and for whatever reason, clearly a lot was going on.

Xurbam collapsed to his knees, his skin crawling as if fifty spiders were weaving webs inside of his fractured mind. The deck plate of the Pike was cold and grounding, but it wasn't enough to silence the howling. The voices inside him were disoriented by the transport and stunned by the torpedoes' wake, but they were already re-forming, clawing at his neural pathways like rats in a burning granary.

“Traitor! You invite the executioners in!” a deep, resonant voice shrieked, vibrating in Xurbam’s own teeth from his own mouth. “Tear the doctor’s throat! We take this ship!”

Xurbam gasped, his hands locking onto the metal grating until his silver knuckles went white. Blood, thick and metallic, pooled in his mouth as he fought the urge to lunge at the woman moving toward him with the medical device. The intruders craved the violence; they fed on the cortisol and adrenaline he was radiating. He had to starve them.

"Don't..." he choked out, the word nearly drowned by the cacophony of fifty overlapping screams. He forced his head up, his eyes unfocused and darting between the aliens. His chest heaved, every inhalation feeling like jagged glass. "They aren't just fighting to stay," he rasped, his voice cracking under the weight of the collective ego. "They're waiting for you to stumble. If you... if you miss... they'll burn this shuttle out of the stars. Do it! Now! Before they..."

"We won't miss," Icarus purred encouragingly while not straying from Rio's side, working in tandem with her to save this poor creature and to save their own crew. She was ready to yank the woman out of the way should it become necessary. Her claws were sheathed but she was prepared to use them if necessary.

Mira ignored what was happening in the module, as well as the outside. Her entire focus was keeping that module running at full, modified capacity to give the docs and the others on board a chance.

Rio held the instrument up further and moved closer towards Xurbam. The mind repair regenerator was humming - seemingly gently but even with no psychic powers at all, Rio was close enough to feel the tension and resonance it was giving off. She had imagined it to work along the line of a regenerator, giving off deep, sub-level vibrations that were attuned to brain waves and the conduction of cerebral electric pulses between the cells within a being's cortexes and hopefully returning them to their optimum balance, again as a replicator would do with other cells and their respective conductivity and heightening the process of repair and replicating. Somehow, the fact that there were SO many elements in chaos within the patient was giving Rio a moment of doubt when finally faced with the cacophony apparently resonating inside the patient.

She sensed the desperation in Xurbam's struggling lungs and cracked attempts to speak. There was nothing for it, she had to increase the frequency. Would it be lethal to the patient as well? She couldn't know for sure but he seemed to be being overwhelmed so the CMO had to just wind it up and stay strong. No doubts, just positive action. The instrument vibrated itself with more intensity and Rio had to strengthen her hold to stop it from falling out of her vibrating, resonating fingers as they tried to keep it level and aimed. She screwed up all she had and dialed it up to full power, holding on, the vibration spreading to her teeth which began to chatter but she wasn't in pain nor otherwise affected so she held on, determination making her eyebrows lower into a frown of concentration.

"Kuzos," Wilkan looked toward his Security Chief as he spoke in a whisper, "keep your hand on the manual release. If Xurbam breaks free, you vent this cabin immediately. Don't hesitate - this ends tonight."

The hum of the mind repair regenerator vibrated through the very marrow of Xurbam’s bones, a high-frequency assault that felt like molten glass pouring into his neural pathways. The condemned prisoners inside him shrieked in unison, a bittersweet symphony that threatened to tear his consciousness apart. Yet, as Rio dialed the instrument to full power, a sickening, calculated shift occurred within the fractured bedrock of his mind. The violent butcher, the panicked screamer, the cunning thief - their fighting stopped. They merged their efforts, shedding their individual chaotic noise to form a singular, insidious weapon, utilizing Xurbam’s own vocal cords to striking effect.

"Do it, Wilkan." The convulsive twisting of his body suddenly ceased, his posture relaxed with an unsettling, fluidic grace. When he tilted his head up, the raw panic in his eyes vanished, replaced by a cold, devastating lucidity. Xurbam’s voice was a smooth, multi-layered tapestry of sound, carrying the underlying, unmistakable cadences of the Enterprise’s own lost crew members. "Open the hatch and let us drift into the quiet. It’s what you do best, isn't it? Leaving your people behind when things get too hard? What you think of as pain is only a shadow."

He shifted his gaze slightly, the dark, predatory intelligence focusing on Rio, the tone shifting to a soft, mocking purr that echoed the resonance of her own medical device, "And you, Doctor... look at your hands shake. You think you're curing a patient, but you're just executing a host. Every percent you raise that frequency you burn him away first. We are anchored deep. If we die, he dies a screaming prisoner in his own skull. Are you ready to be a murderer in the name of medicine?"

Xurbam let out a low, rattling breath, blood dripping steadily from his chin, his expression an open invitation of psychological ruin. "Pull the trigger, or open the sky. Either way, you validate everything we are..."

"No! Don't listen to them!" Xurbam screamed as the cold, calculated mask shattered; his eyes wide and bloodshot as the host clawed his way back to the surface. He looked frantically between Wilkan and Kuzos, weeping tears of blood. "They're winning! I can't hold them back anymore! Please... kill me! Kill me before they take control again!"

Kuzos moved his hand to the manual release. "I will not fail you Commodore or the others. I will not hesitate as you stated this ends tonight.." He replied coldly his eyes on Xurbam

Icarus snaked her tail forward, hooking it around Rio's waist, ready to yank her out of the way if necessary. "Recommend forcefield and flooding the ICU compartment which anesthezine gas before we proceed," she urged.

Mira was listening while maintaining the module. This multi-personality Xurbam had not once acknowledged her. She was Telekinetic, not telepathic, closed off to any telepathy, and that gave her an edge. It wasn't the life support belt, which was active, it was her mind not being able to be sensed. She called out, "Class 10 forcefield at the ready, anesthezine gas at your command, I have your back, my ship crew." She only hoped her sentence would penetrate the telepathic suggestive commands being issued by the many who desired destruction. She knew that what was done technology wise would work, the instability and weak point were the sentients involved. "We are more than each other, thus we are more than those trying to overcome Xurbam... support him.. don't listen to the others." Now, it was up to those on board and their resolve for rescuing Xurbam without loss.

Without warning, the golden glow of Xurbam’s eyes intensified into a blinding, white-hot glare. He didn't use telekinesis or phantom energy to break the field; instead, the entity leveraged Xurbam's own physiology, overloading his nervous system to project a massive, localized psychic pulse. The raw, concentrated wave of mental malice slammed directly into the forcefield’s emitter sensors, blinding them with an artificial feedback loop that tricked the computer into registering a catastrophic failure.

Sparks showered from the ceiling as the power relays buckled under the psychic feedback. The light-grid began to whine in protest, distorting and bowing outward as the prisoners forced Xurbam’s physical body forward, slamming his silver knuckles and his own weight straight against the weakening barrier.

At the signs of the overload, Mira cut over the probe core power to add to the flow while hoping it was enough reinforce what was there.

"Kill him?" the voice boomed, layered with the malicious laughs that echoed directly into the minds of everyone present. "He is but a fragile vessel, and you are far too slow." The entity snapped toward Mira with a predatory intensity as they read the surface thoughts of the crew. "Your AGC circuits are clever, but they rely on flow. We don't need to rewrite the software... we only need to shatter the glass!"

With a sickening, physical crack, the forcefield sputtered and winked out, plunging the compartment into a strobe-like flicker of warning lights. The voice of the main computer interrupting with a haunting warning: "Containment breach."

Within Mira's mind was a 'Nope, not enough..'

As the wreckage of Xurbam's body began to hurl itself forwards, it's broken hands reaching grotesquely out in front of it, ready to reach for the exit hatch once it managed to leave the aft section - as it fully expected to do next - a few seconds were available to the medical officers - just a few - but just enough for Rio to drop the mind regenerator and snatch up an emergency phaser from it's rack on the bulkhead close to her head that she had noticed earlier and thought almost subconsciously that it would be a danger if the "Xurbam Combination" were to grab it. Fortunately that hadn't happened as the tall, grey body was more intent on racing to the forward section of the Shuttle "USS Christopher Pike" in it's attempt to leave before anyone could stop it.

Clearly the "Combination" that used to be Xurbam hadn't imagined a doctor would be so fast to grab a phaser nor indeed that one would happen to be so close at hand, or even already in her awareness from earlier, so the reactions and consequentially sudden and speedy actions that followed allowed Rio to get in a good 'stun' shot, bringing the Combination to a momentary stumble.

It was a shame that the Phaser was safely put aside set to stun as standard and the few reflexive second it took Rio to struggle to reset it to any higher setting for a second shot gave Kuzos and Icarus the chance to get in their own reflexive reactions as well.

The heavy, blue discharge of the stun beam illuminated the cramped cockpit, striking Xurbam squarely in the chest at point-blank range. At that distance, the standard safety margins of Starfleet weaponry ceased to exist. A Phaser set to stun relied on the rapid atmospheric dispersion of its beam to safely disrupt a target's nervous system; compressing that entire thermal and electrical yield into a direct, point-blank discharge turned a non-lethal deterrent into a blunt, catastrophic hammer. It was a basic law of energy ballistics that applied to any living being in the quadrant: at zero distance, the localized voltage overloaded the heart.

The combination's grotesque forward lunge stopped dead. Xurbam’s body stiffened into a rigid, unnatural column, his hands freezing inches from the cockpit threshold. A sickening, collective gasp tore from his throat as the massive stun charge ripped through his autonomic nervous system, instantly short-circuiting the vital electrical signals traveling from his brain to his heart. The fifty invading souls did not just feel the shock — they were trapped inside a rapidly dying house. The mental pressure in the cabin dropped like an atmospheric leak as the hive-mind’s anchor to the physical world began to violently unravel under the sheer physical trauma of the blast.

From the pilot's seat, Wilkan’s hybrid senses registered the precise moment the tactical math collapsed into tragedy. He didn't need a Medical Tricorder to see the localized cardiac arrest taking hold; the silver skin of Xurbam's neck was already mottling, the gray flesh turning a dull, oxygen-starved ash under the weight of a pulse that would have stopped a Klingon's heart just as easily. "The discharge..." Wilkan murmured, his voice cutting through the sudden, hollow silence of the cabin as he stared at the console telemetry. "At that range it's killing him."

For one final, terrible second, the monstrous grip of the combination slipped away entirely, leaving only the primary host behind. Xurbam’s eyes lost their blinding white glare, softening into a deeply bloodshot, agonizingly human clarity. He collapsed backward against the bulkhead, his chest seizing as his heart gave its final, erratic tremors. He didn't look at Rio's phaser, nor the environmental controls. His failing gaze locked straight onto Rio, a profound, tragic relief washing over his bleeding features.

"Thank... you..." Xurbam whispered, his true voice barely a rasp above the low thrum of the shuttle's Impulse Engines. With a final, convulsive shudder, his hands went limp against the deck plates. The suffocating psychic weight that had choked the Christopher Pike vanished entirely, leaving nothing behind but the quiet hum of the medical module and the empty vessel of a host who had finally found his escape.

Kuzos's hand tightened around the release and then pulled back as the CMO shot Xurbam with a phaser. He had time to grab Icarus and pull her harshly back from harm's way. His arms around her waist as his eyes went to where Xurbam lay against a bulkhead and then convulsive shudder vanished from view.

Mira, in thinking there was still 6 minutes to resuscitate Xurbam, sprung into action. She released her tail from where it was holding onto the bar to which the satchel was connected just in case the front hatch had opened. While the docs dealt with the patient she had to check on the shuttle's power grid to make sure it was unharmed and then see about restoring the containment field for next time the patient awoke in the medical module. She touched the LCARS panel near her to check the shuttle's systems, and remarked, "Shuttle systems stat, getting to work on Med Module now.."

Icarus yelped in surprise as strong armed yanked her back. While grateful for the intended rescue, she still had work to do. Carefully, she disentangled herself from the Vorta's protective hold, briefly brushing her tail against his hand in gratitude before jumping forward towards the chief medical officer. "Doctor, are you alright?" She purred, knowing that having to kill one's own patient has to have some serious impact. One glance at their patient told her he was already beyond saving so she focused on the one who might need help.

Carefully, she took the woman's phaser and set it aside before leading her to the nearest chair, just in case. "Doctor?" She prompted, before taking a glance around. "Everyone else alright?"

Rio's mind, horrified that she could have done that, and stunned by the proximity of the close range of the destruction, recoiled and sent her into an internal but silent scream. It seemed to block out everything: where she was, what had just happened, that it was she herself who had pulled the trigger, that Xurbam had been blown to bits, that the danger of the 50 souls was gone, that Xurbam had thanked her - and the look in his eyes..... that stayed when all the rest seemed to fade. Xurbam's eyes filled all that she could think about and she sank to the floor, having trouble remembering how to breathe.

Mira didn't hear the question from Icarus. She was already in the Medical Module trying to repair the containment emitters as well as clear the overloaded power buffers as she only had about 4 minutes left by her internal counter. She keyed the repair parts bin to release to see if what she needed had been provided. If not.. when Xurbam was brought back to consciousness, they might not survive. Her work prevented her from going into 'heebies jeebies' from the patient reading everything from her and her setup... still, she had a job to do, so she put her all into it.

The feline doctor was quick to respond, as she was already close to Rio and she caught the woman before she struck the deck. Using tail and arms, she eased her into a nearby seat and crouched in front of her, tricorder at the ready. "Doctor?" She queried, ears twitching and whiskers quivering in concern. "Doctor talk to me...what happened?"

Rio heard Icarus' voice but was still seeing Xurbam's eyes. She fought to refocus and managed to see the pretty feline features looking at her in concern. She shook from head to toe, like a cat or dog, shaking off water. It was a very bizarre feeling but it allowed her to regain the sense of present and reply. "I'm..... I'm okay." she lied. "I just felt a little dizzy for a minute. I'll be fine, don't worry." she tried to smile but it seemed a bit wobbly even to herself. The seat felt more stable than her legs so she stayed sitting down for a few minutes longer but couldn't remain where the 'murder' had taken place. ~Someone had killed them all.~ Rio's mind seemed to narrate what had happened before the big admission of guilt hit her ~...and that someone had been her.~ Her mind writhed but she fell silent and left her with an 'out of body' feeling. She automatically recognised the signs of a 'shock' reaction, she went cold, then hot, then started to shiver.

Wilkan’s hands didn't shake, but they felt heavy, almost detached from his body, as he locked the manual thruster assembly into place. The sudden, absolute vacuum where the crushing mental weight had just been left a ringing silence in his ears. He could hear Rio’s ragged breathing from the back, the frantic clicking of Mira’s tools against the relay panel, and the low, concerned purr of Icarus. He didn't look back at the body. He didn't need to. The telemetry on his primary console told the story in cold, unblinking green lines: Target Heart Rate: 0. Autonomic Function: Ceased. The math was done.

"Mira, abort the medical reset," Wilkan said, his voice flat, carry the ancient, worn edge of a man who had seen too many borders crossed and too many people left behind in the dark. "There is no 'next time.' A Phaser discharge at close range collapses the myocardial wall. He's gone."

Hearing Wilkan's voice, Mira paused what she was doing. At the final 'he's gone', she began putting away the parts she had dragged out from the repair parts bin.

He slapped a sequence of commands into the Helm, overriding the holding pattern he’d maintained during the crisis. The Christopher Pike groaned as its maneuvering thrusters fired in unison, banking the small shuttle sharply away from the dead, drifting hulls of the Frost River and the Monongahela.

"Kuzos, secure the compartment," Wilkan commanded as he looked to his Chief of Security. The elegant silhouette of the Enterprise filled the viewport ahead, her shields still shimmering faintly from the proximity bursts Rrawran had laid down. The Commodore opened a channel to their mothership as the others worked to secure their safety.

Kuzos didn't bother with a reply, he simply got to work in carrying out the order. Xurbam was dead, the fifty personalities he held also gone. They owed their lives to the one person whose duty was to save lives and the CMO had, in taking of Xurbam's life she saved the lives of those on the shuttle, as well as those on the Enterprise, possibly the Uhura as well and most definitely billions of lives in the quadrant. The needs of the many did outweigh the needs of the one or even the few but that knowlwdge didn't change the somber attitude of those within the shuttle.

Mira left the Medical Module and went back to the starboard side just in front it. She removed the Power Transfer and Monitoring Panel while wrapping her tail onto a nearby support bar, she began the process of repairing the power grids for the shuttle while undoing her power feed crossover junctions in preparation for landing on the Enterprise. She would remove the Type X Probe Power Pack once the grids were stabilized. Sparks flew, but she paid them no heed. She had to keep her mind occupied with engineering work so as to not have to confront yet within her what Xurbam had done just mere minutes before, there would be time for that later after she made sure the others were safely off the shuttle.

The click of the communication channel cutting out left only the hum of the Impulse Engines to fill the cockpit. Ahead of the small craft the shimmering blue plane of the Shuttlebay’s containment field expanded across the viewport, casting a cold light over Wilkan’s face. He eased the thrusters back, bleeding off forward momentum with practiced precision. The Christopher Pike glided through the energy field with a faint, static crackle that vibrated through the deck plates, instantly replaced by the heavy, pressurized hum of the Enterprise's internal life support. The shuttle settled onto the landing pad with a dull, hydraulic hiss. Through the forward glass, the waiting containment detail moved forward. A wall of Security and Medical personnel with stasis fields at the ready came forward, but inside the cabin the true containment had already occurred.

Wilkan powered down the primary flight systems, the consoles darkening one by one into a silent standby mode. He unbuckled his harness, his joints aching with the phantom strain of a battle fought entirely in the dark. For a long moment, he didn't move to open the forward hatch. He simply sat in the quiet of his ship, looking out at the safe, structured world of the flagship, knowing that while the vacuum outside was empty, the air inside the Pike would carry the weight of Xurbam's final words for a long time to come. He stood up slowly, the centuries of his long life settling heavily onto his shoulders as he finally reached for the hatch control to let the outside world back in.

Turning back toward his crew, the Commodore looked them over one by one. He searched his soul for something meaningful or inspirational to say, to soften the blow of what had happened here today, but his eyes kept latching onto the covered body of Xurbam in the distance. Instead of being the beacon of hope, he was a source of devastating reality.

"Report to Sickbay to be cleared before returning to duty," Wilkan ordered, the flatness of his voice leaving no room for argument. "Dismissed."

Eyes wide and ears flat on her head, Icarus snaked her tail forward and wrapped it around Wilkan's wrist, holding him back with an air of defiance. "Sickbay includes you," she hissed, "you too need to be checked out."

"My personal log will note that the entire away team completed post-mission evaluation," Wilkan answered, his voice echoing the lifetimes of a man who had outlived whole generations of starships, but the harshness softened, "I have no intention of falsifying my own records, Ensign."

While arm deep into the panel as she now was able to disconnect almost ready to give power junctions, Mira shook her tail twice to show 'heard'. She had to get the grids to the point where they could be shut down, do a hand over to the repair engineer, and then she would be able to follow the 'dismissed' and get to sickbay. Or, maybe, the repair engineer might come in to do the handover immediately, and then she could go. Either way, right now, her task at hand was the only thing on her mind. The Commodore and Doc Rio were the most important people to get to sickbay first, the Chief of Tactical and the second doc next. She.. was the lucky Ensign who drew the short straw to be on duty for both shuttle Xurbam encounters... no, don't think.. just.. focus, tasks at hand.

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