[i]A long time ago,
[indent]somewhere in the Skyllian Verge...[/indent][/i]

“NO!”

The scream came before the CT scanning nodes attached to her temple had even picked up any brain activity. In the blink of an eye, the shockwave of explosive biotic power tore through the room. Nurse Jamie, Sylla and Chester, those standing furthest from the epicenter, were thrown with their backs against the walls. Nurse Kanto and doctor Minzua had been much closer, monitoring her vitals, and were flattened against the floor, the invisible power dragging them along the length of the room until they slammed into a medical cabinet. And doctor Bruyne had been hovering over her while coaxing her out of the artificial coma. His eardrums were blown out as he was rammed into the ceiling and was held there by crushing pressure for three seconds. 

Every glass object and surface in the room shattered into a thousand pieces. The door to the room was blown off its hinges and sent clamoring into the hallway, knocking down another nurse. The faux holo-windows and their idyllic representation of rural Earth were fried, their chips sending sparks arcing through the room. The CT scan went haywire, registering 97% brain activity before it was overwhelmed and caught fire. The bed buckled under the weight of the shockwave and its metal frame snapped clean in two. 

Delilah herself levitated in the air, her face contorted in rage and agony, her body aglow, while the ear-piercing scream forced itself out of her throat with unnatural force, and the very air seemed to tremble in fear. 

As soon as it had started, it was over. Delilah collapsed onto the sundered bed, Jamie, Sylla and Chester fell to their hands and knees, and Kanto and Minzua could breathe again. With a heavy thud and the painful snap of bones breaking, doctor Bruyne dropped out of the air and smacked onto the floor, hitting his head so hard he fell unconscious immediately. 

Wild-eyed and terrified, Delilah looked around frantically with unseeing eyes. Her vision was blurred and her ears were ringing, and her chest rose and fell rapidly with each hyperventilating breath. All she could hear was the deafening wailing of the alarm klaxons -- the ship’s seismograph had picked up on the tremors and thought it was under attack. Black shapes shouting indiscernible commands and waving oblong shapes in her face stormed into the room and surrounded her. “No, please! Don’t shoot me!” Delilah wanted to say, panic overtaking her, but her mouth didn’t cooperate and all that came out was a strangled cry. She held her shaking hands, still fitted with a pulse monitor and an IV-drip, out in front of her face, only to find them abruptly cuffed. 

She was yanked out of bed and thrown onto the floor, the floor cold against her cheek, next to doctor Bruyne’s motionless body. Delilah blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, and saw the slackness in his jaw and the blood dripping out of his ears. “Oh God,” she gasped, and tears filled her eyes. “Is he dead? Oh God, no, no, no… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I thought -- I was still -- no, no…”

Vaguely she could hear doctor Minzua above her, yelling at the navy armsmen in their bulky armor not to hurt her patient. She could hear the nurses crying in shock as they fled the room and spilled out into the hallway. She could hear the CT scan machine burning and the whooshing of someone using a fire extinguisher. And above all else there was the ship’s wailing still, each caterwauling whoop stabbing into her brain. But her watery gaze was fixed on doctor Bruyne, willing him to come back to life, to open his eyes, to take a deep breath. “Please,” Delilah said through split lips, tasting blood on her own tongue. 

And he did, coughing and moaning and grabbing the sides of his head in agony, but he did. Relief washed over Delilah and she began to weep in earnest, each sob wracking her body, sending pain down her own spine where the armored boot of one of the armsmen held her pinned to the floor. As the doctor was helped up to his feet Delilah could see beyond where he had lain, and her own reflection looked back at her from the reflective metal surface of an overturned cabinet. A strange woman, familiar and yet alien, hairless and scarred, looked back at her. 

And Delilah saw nothing there but murder.