The silence that followed the comm link's death was a physical weight in the cryo-wing. It pressed down on Sera. One moment, the air had been thick with the distant violence of Jin's struggle; the next, there was only the sterile hum of the cryo-pods and the frantic, shallow breathing of the three people left behind.
Clara was at her console, her face a pale in the blue glow of the monitors. Her fingers, which had been flying across the interface, froze mid-air. Her breath hitched, a small, choked sound. "No... no, no, no..." The words were a desperate prayer. She turned the tablet, her hand trembling so badly the screen was a blur. "Sera... the vitals... they just spiked to over 200 BPM, and then... nothing." Her voice cracked on the last word, a raw, wounded sound. "He's... he's gone."
The tablet slipped from her nerveless fingers and clattered to the floor.
