A few moments later, the sensors detected a faint echo of the disturbance astern.

Hale watched the display. "I think you just lost your tail."

Once clear of the enemy border Vighross was able to travel at higher war speed, but the trip on theis last leg seemed to take forever. With the Adrenaline fully worn off Jaxom dropped out of warp. The Rubicon appeared ahead. He initiated the security handshake before opening voice communications.

"Hello there, Rubicon. Transport Vighross is on approach vector requesting permission to land."

The response came almost immediately. "Vighross, identity confirmed. You are cleared into Bay Three. Proceed."

Hale finally spoke, "Well, Joker, Bring her in."

Jaxom secured the warp core and oriented The Vighross for its final approach and matched the Rubicon's course. "Vighross confirms Bay Three. I'll take her in if you don't mind." The massive shuttle bay doors opened ahead. Deck crews were already positioned along the perimeter as he gave the starboard engine a slight bump of power.

"Closing to fifty..."The transport slipped between Rubicon's massive warp engines and secondary hull.

"Twenty..." The atmospheric shield approached. "Ten meters." Jaxom fired the retro thrusters as Vighross crossed through the atmospheric shield. Inside the bay, a crewman guided the transport toward an open berth beside her sister ship. The landing gear touched the deck softly and settled under her own weight.

"Vighross, touchdown confirmed. Welcome back to the Rubicon." The remaining impulse engine wound down and for the first time since the evaluation began, everything was quiet.

Hale looked at Jaxom,"Textbook landing. Ensign" Hale said. The simulator began shutting down around them, the shuttle bay and techs outside the ship vanished. Hale and Jaxom unfastened their restraints. Hale turned to the young pilot, "You handled fear better than most pilots I've tested. You didn't freeze. You didn't become reckless simply because things got exciting. And when you recognized a problem you couldn't safely solve alone, you asked for help."

The cockpit hatch opened and Jaxom stepped into the mission bay. The tension in the bay was thick, along with the smell of blood and sanitizing agents. Something was wrong.. The mission bay was silent, and the team was gathered around the bio-bed. Jaxom approach noticing the spent hypos on the floor along with torn packaging and bloodied gauze. The field medic straddled her patient's chest, both of them were covered in blood. The exhausted medic reached out for help to get off the bed, and the team helped her to a crate to sit. She looked enraged as she took off her bloody gloves and loosened her jacket. She looked up at Jaxom and said, "he died four minutes ago."

Jaxom stopped, "Four minutes?" His mind immediately began recalculating could he have taken another route, pushed the engines harder, reached the landing zone sooner? He ran the scenarios from every angle, each time he arrived at the same conclusion.

He turned to Hale, "The ship had made it home. The team had made it home!" Jaxom turned stepped closer to the biobed, he didn't bother avoiding the blood on the deck. The figure had been positioned by the medic into a neutral posture, hands resting at his sides. Jaxom stood there for several seconds then, quietly "I'm sorry." He looked around room at the team members and said again "I'm Sorry." Tears welled in his eyes, his breathing became shallow and the room seemed to tilt. The medic noticed the color drain from his face.

"Joker!" She caught him before he collapsed, securing his shoulders and lowering him carefully into a seated position. "You're hyperventilating. I need you to slow down your breathing." She held him firmly, "That's it. Stay with me."

Jaxom tried to breathe but couldn't seem to get enough air, his vision narrowed around him, as the medic got to work on him. "Don't worry about anything else right now. Don't worry about the ship. Don't worry about the evaluation. Just breathe."

His eyes began tracking She deliberately slowed her own breathing. "In...And out. Again."

He began to respond, his breathing slowed down and evened as Hale approached, "Joker. You realize there was no casualty here today."

Jaxom looked toward him as the words took a moment to register. Hale glanced toward the bio-bed and the figure dematerialized along with the team, and the blood on the floor. "This was part of the evaluation," Hale let the words settle. “You spent the entire exercise managing fear while still doing your job. You were afraid, but you didn't let that fear make your decisions for you.”

Hale softened his tone, "It is easy to lose your humanity our here. Compartmentalization is taught because sometimes you have to put something aside long enough to do the job in front of you. But there's a difference between compartmentalizing something and becoming detached from it."

Hale extended his arm and pointed around the room. "This simulation gave you something you couldn't fix. Something you couldn't fly faster enough to prevent. We wanted to see what happened when you were confronted with that. In The work we do, you may bare witness to horrors, but those horrors are carried by every team member in their way. That is a bond we all share."

“In the work we do, you may bear witness to things you can't un-see. Horrors that don't disappear just because the mission is over. Every member of the team carries those experiences in their own way.”

Hale paused for a second, “That is a bond we all share.”

Hale nodded toward the cockpit behind them. “You showed us something important today. When you were scared, under everything that was thrown at you this morning you still flew your craft. You still made decisions. And you brought your team home.”

Joker allowed himself a small smile.

Hale's tone became matter of fact “That is the mission.”

The simulator announced the final results:

EVALUATION COMPLETE

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE: PASS

FEAR RESPONSE: FUNCTIONAL

RECOVERY RESPONSE: OBSERVED

PILOTING CERTIFICATION: PASS