As the transporter confinement beam released him, and the twinkling lights faded, Shahr braced himself. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting… maybe a sudden wave of relief after getting off that ship? It didn’t come. At least he and Hina had made it back in one piece. Shahr just had to hope the hallucination-causing distortions wouldn’t plague him here. Hopefully those modifications he and the Lieutenant had worked on would help shield the crew from the subspace effects.

Hina was relieved to be back aboard the Valkyrie. The familiar and well lite transporter room was a sight for sore eyes. And yet she know that feeling wasn’t going to last. She looked to the transporter chief as they spoke a frown almost immediately crossing her face. That had been even quicker than she had been expecting.

“Welcome back Lieutenant, Ensign.” A crewman Shahr didn’t recognize addressed them from behind the control panel. He looked relieved to see a couple officers, which Shahr found concerning. “I just tried reporting your return to the bridge, but I’m not getting a response. I made an entry in the transporter logs, but I’m supposed to report it verbally too.”

Shahr shot a worried look at Hina, then tapped his own com badge. “Shahr to bridge.” Pause. “Ensign Shahr to any bridge crew, please respond.” Still nothing. This was not putting him at ease after the creepy experience on the civilian ship.

“What do you think, Lieutenant? Should we head straight to the bridge? Find others?” Shahr looked to his senior officer for guidance.

She looked to the transporter chief again quickly.

“Just note it in the log Chief… we’ll figure out whats going on…” she said, turning to Shahr. “Let’s get to the bridge… something must be going on up there to keep them out of contact.” she said, heading for the door. It wasn’t like Saffiya to just drop out of contact. That was concerning.

Shahr followed Hina out the door, and dropped his hand to rest on the phaser at his hip. There were many scenarios racing through his mind, and none of them were good. On the plus side, he hadn’t had a hallucination yet since returning to the Valkyrie, so maybe this was all a simple comms glitch. He swallowed hard. “I suppose it would’ve been too easy to simply collect some logs for the low, low price of two hallucinating junior officers…”

“At a certain point you just have to ask why we didn’t just leave at the first sign of trouble…” she commented. She was getting flashbacks of her brief time on the Cupertino, and the hole in space that they had gotten too close to without calling for a red alert. That had resulted in them being pulled into the underspace corridors. She frowned. Saf did know how to pick their missions.

“Yeah, I suppose it’s not in Starfleet’s nature to simply leave well enough alone. I can tell you the IG wouldn’t have bothered to investigate this ship. I do prefer being the guys who help those in need, but I wish we were flailing in the dark…” Shahr kept looking about. The halls were empty, though that wasn’t necessarily indicative of anything. People were on station, not milling about aimlessly.

“Well… we’ll know soon enough whats going on…” she commented, stopping at the nearest turbolift. She tapped the button a few times, trying to keep herself focused. Having another hallucinatory event now wouldn’t be good.

Shahr turned around, his back to Hina so he could keep watch on the hallways. He certainly didn’t expect any of the crew here to be full-on crazy (yet), but without any input from the bridge, he didn’t want to rule out any possibilities. Especially with so many armed, battle-hungry Imperial Guardsmen walking around.

Wait. Is that right? Shahr struggled for control within his own mind. He knew he was on the USS Valkyrie. There were no IG here. Right? Yet there they stood, right in front of him, patrolling the halls, brandishing weapons. But that wasn’t right, he had literally just noted a lack of people in the halls.

Shahr let out a low growl as he mentally beat back the hallucinations. It’s ok. It’s ok. The guardsmen he saw slowly lost focus, and then snapped out of existence as quickly as they’d appeared. It’s ok. Shahr turned to look at Hina, and prayed the turbo lift had arrived.

Hina glanced back at Shahr.

“You alright, Ensign?” she asked

Taking another calming breath, Shahr nodded. “Yes ma’am. Just… just the same shit. I’m ok.”

She nodded, understanding, then turned back as she heard the door to the lift open. She went to take a step and froze, foot seeming to hover over open air as she started into what looked like the open space of a warp nacelle. Her pulse quickened for a moment, eyes rapidly scanning the sight before her before she squeezed them shut.

‘No. No thats not real. Im not in the nacelle control room… I’m on my way to the bridge.’ she thought. She opened her eyes and was greeted with the sight of an empty turbo lift. They needed to get the ship away from here. This was becoming untenable.

“Let’s go…” she said stepping into the lift, but at that moment, there was a small chirp coming from her bridge.

“Stroyer to Morishita.”, said Stoyer’s voice. “Where are you?”

Hina tapped her badge, pausing in the door to the turbolift.

“On the Valkyrie… where are you?” she said.

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence in which the Ensign on the other side of the comms swallowed hard. “I… I’m still here. I can’t find Kazansky and … think I initiated a self-destruct sequence. Why does a civilian vessel even have a self-destruct sequence?”

Maybe it wasn’t real. There was a good chance it wasn’t real, but Naveah didn’t want to ignore it hoping it was a mere hallucination. Aside that, she also really didn’t want to be alone on that ship.

Now she felt guilty that they had left without making sure the others had gotten off the ship. And that ship was now about to explode. She frowned, looking to Shahr.

“Lieutenant, I think I have enough data from my tricorder to supplement our ship’s sensors. My readings from inside their ship should be enough to help our ship compensate for the distortions, lock onto both Stroyer and Kazansky, and beam them out. No need for the beam-out site.” Shahr swallowed to give him a half second to think. “I can do it from basically anywhere, but we’re closest to the transporter room. Maybe we just go back there?”

She nodded.

“Yea lets do it…” she agreed, stepping back from the lift letting the doors close without entering. She turned back starting toward the transporter room. “Stroyer, we’re gonna work on getting you and Kazansky back to the ship… how long is on the self destruct?” she asked.

“Five minutes. Not the fastest self-destruct, I guess.”

Hina nodded. “Ok… lets see if we can deactivate it…” she said, “Tell me whats on the display…” she said.

“Wait, you’re not coming?”, Stroyer asked, her voice pitching.

“We will if we have to, Ensign. Don’t worry.” Hina said. She looked to Shahr. “We’ll need to reconfigure the targeting scanners.. can you handle that while I work on cutting through the distortions?” she asked quietly.

“Easy day” Shahr confirmed. He tapped on his tricorder as they walked, linking it to the ship’s computer. “Can you get them both? I’m not jonesing to have to choose between shipmates today…”

“Yea… we should be able to get them both out…” she confirmed turning to enter the transporter room.