"We assure you, Captain. I am fine." Kz’zeri had fully regained consciousness during their journey to the medical bay. He resisted their attempts at providing aid, even as his blood dripped across the floor of the medical bay.

"You are most certainly not fine, Kz’Zeri," warned Doctor Eril Khini. The Lagahti tried again to get loose, but the Doctor Khini caught him. With a single light push from their mechanical arm, the Modian pinned the engineer to the medical bed. The doctor’s cybernetic eyes flickered, scanning Kz’Zeri’s injuries even as they unsuccessfully struggled against her grip.

"Kz’zeri-Vortau," they irritatedly corrected. "The injuries are only minor. We do not require assistance," they said, before coughing up blood.

Jora shook his head. "You're not fine. Whatever that thing was, it threw the two of you into an electrical panel. You’re lucky it didn’t kill you too."

"We encountered a simple spatial distortion wave, Captain. It's a normal Rift phenomenon, there is no cause for concern." Kz'Zeri's struggle weakened as the sheets beneath him began to soak with blood. "I must return to the others. We must know of V'Kari-Vortau's passing."

More medical personnel scrambled in, trying to heal the bleeding. "If you leave here, I'll be the one explaining to them what happened to both of you," Doctor Khini warned.

Jora nodded. "I have to agree with the Doctor here. You’re removed from active duty until you’ve recovered," he stated. Kz'Zeri gave him a look of annoyance before resigning to defeat.

The medical bay had already been busy in the six days since they'd entered the Rift, with some new anomalous event seemingly every few hours, but now it was flooding with the injured. Damage and casualty reports had been coming in from across the ship. They had taken hull damage all along the starboard side of their ship. With all the breaches, it was a small miracle that nobody had been sucked out into space.

What's wrong with this place, that someone might consider something like this to be normal? He dreaded the very idea he might one day consider these situations normal.

Doctor Khini looked at him, frowning. Her eyes flickered again. "And what about yourself, Captain?"

Jora stared back, confused.

"You're injured," she said. She put a hand on his chest, causing Jora to yelp in pain. "Take a deep breath?"

He inhaled a deep breath, only to have a coughing fit in response. His chest ached.

"You've got a broken rib," she stated, her eyes scanning him. "Among other injuries. You don't seem to have a concussion, at least. We're going to have to get you treated, Captain."

"I can't, I need to…" As he tried to walk away the injuries started to come back again, the adrenaline rush fading from his system. He nearly fell again, the pain in his chest and legs shooting through him.

The Doctor grabbed him, supporting him as she lead him towards one of the remaining vacant beds.

"You should be lucky you walked out of there as well as you did," she warned. "From what I've heard you were near the center of the impact."

"We were right next to the window when it broke," he remarked. He coughed, causing his chest to ache further. "We…"

His voice droned off, his thoughts jumping back to Lieutenant Tratha. He'd reacted so strangely, immediately before this all happened. Could they have…? No, it was too soon. It shouldn't be. Was this why he'd been assigned to them? Was this part of this ship's true purpose?

"Lieutenant Tratha, he pushed me out of the way, right before the impact. Probably saved us both. It's like he…"

He gestured Doctor Khini closer, looking around to make sure no one would overhear them. "When all of this is over I need you to run some tests on Lieutenant Tratha. I need you to run a psionic analysis on him."

Her expression was puzzled. "Another one, Captain?"

"What do you mean, another one?"

Her look changed to one of surprise. "Apologies, Captain. I assumed you knew. Commander Enrax already had me perform a psionic analysis on Lieutenant Tratha not long after we entered the Rift."

Why would Enrax have ordered that and not told me?

"Send me those results." He paused to think, before adding, "On second thought, run that second test too."

"I'll see what I can do," she said. The doctor seemed skeptical but her focus was already drifting away, back towards the rest of the rapidly filling medical bay.