Star Trek Next Generation Season 3 Episode 7: "The Enemy":
*"The Enemy" involves Lt. Comdr. Geordi La Forge being forced to work together with the Romulan Centurion Bochra on the planet Galorndon Core in order to leave the planet. Bochra has been beamed aboard Enterprise with La Forge and has informed Tomalak that while he gave the Enterprise crew no information, they were not responsible for the crash nor did they harm him. Tomalak has agreed to stand down hostilities, and La Forge and Worf are currently escorting Bochra to the transporter so he can return to his ship.*
La Forge listened to the steps of Bochra and Worf, all he could do without his visor, but he Bochra's steps had already begun to steady. Now that he was free from that planet's insane atmosphere it seemed his nervous system was recovering. He found it a little odd, but La Forge was glad Bochra was already recovering. Even without his visor, La Forge could guess from the way Worf's steps sounded that he was not happy with being so near a Romulan.
Mercifully, the three entered Transporter Room 1 with no mishaps. Worf stood by the doorway as Bochra managed to walk up the steps to the transporter pad, and though the stress pained him, Bochra did not show it before the Klingon.
"Worf, what did you do to him?" Someone asked, and Bochra realized there was already someone in the room.
He was surprised that the person seemed to be scolding the Klingon and glanced back. The operator of the teleport station was glaring at Worf with an annoyed expression was a female... human? She wasn't in a Starfleet uniform whoever she was.
"I did not harm him," Worf retorted almost defensively to the female.
The human, who was about Bochra's age physically, crossed her arms and fixed Worf with a glare.
"I did not," Worf repeated.
"Oh no," she said in a voice akin to a taunt, "Because the Romulans and the Klingons obviously get along so well. You get along with the Romulans even better than my Vulcan kin do after all."
Worf did not appreciate her sarcasm, and La Forge smiled.
"He really didn't Kaylee," La Forge assured her.
The female – Kaylee evidently – glanced at La Forge with some surprise. "Oh? What did?"
"The atmosphere of Galorndon Core," La Forge tightened his hold on his VISOR. "It's hostile to nerves and electronics."
"Is that why you're not wearing you VISOR?" Kaylee asked curiously and tilted her head at the piece of metal in his hand.
"You're Vulcan?" Bochra interrupted, surprised to hear that.
Kaylee didn't look much like a Vulcan. Her hair was blood-black and so long it came down almost to her back. Although she did have the tipped ears and slanted eyebrows of a Vulcan her skin was too pale, and her eyes were not dark brown or black but a bright blue-silver.
"Half," Kaylee clarified. "My mother was human, I was raised on Vulcan though with a Vulcan. I'm Kaylee, and you are?"
"Centurion Bochra," Bochra introduced himself.
He tried to bow slightly, but the motion strained his scrambled nerves and he almost fell off the platform.
"Be careful Centurion," Kaylee cautioned in a light humored tone, "before you get a concussion on top of everything else."
"You do not suppress your emotions?" Bochra asked curiously, surprised when he realized that her words were not monotone.
Kaylee shook her head, "I take after my mother in that regard. Although I keep my emotions under control, I've found that in most circumstances they're more useful to me when they're not suppressed."
"What does your father think of that?" Bochra wondered, knowing that if her mother was human then her father was Vulcan.
"I don't know," Kaylee replied honestly and looked down at the controls of the station. "I've never met him and I was too young when my mother died to remember her."
Bochra scolded himself for his carelessness, "I did not know."
Kaylee shrugged as if she wasn't the least bit perturbed and continued entering the coordinates of Tomalak's ship. "There is no need to be sorry as you didn't know. The only reason you would need to be sorry was if you knew and said that anyway."
"You are not going to use that," Worf interrupted loudly and raised a hand when he realized she was working on the console.
Kaylee looked up at Worf in irritation, tapping her fingers on the console. "Why not?"
"You are a member of the civilian population, and it is against protocol," Worf ordered.
Kaylee fixed him with a scything glare that held far too much emotion to be Vulcan. "You are the only Klingon I have met that does not know how to smile. I know how to smile and I was raised on Vulcan. Lighten up, I know what I'm doing."
La Forge lowered his head as their banter deepened and muttered, "Here we go again."
He must have guessed Bochra was giving him a curious look because he emphasized with, "you might as well get comfortable. This is gonna take a while."
Bochra didn't understand, but he had a feeling he would.
"Where is O'Brian?" Worf demanded.
"I don't know," Kaylee sighed in the same exasperated tone. "The Chief was called away to look at something. He told me to watch the station. Just because I didn't go to the Academy doesn't mean I don't know how to use a transporter Worf. I've used one before."
"Step aside," Worf ordered with a slight shooing motion. "I will use the station."
"I am not letting you teleport me Klingon," Bochra objected, stepping off the transporter pad. "You'd just as soon teleport me into open space."
Worf glared at him now.
"Okay," La Forge voiced when he realized this wasn't going anywhere, "I'll teleport him."
"Your VISOR's not working," Kaylee pointed out.
"My VISOR is fine," La Forge promised.
"Then why aren't you wearing it?" Kaylee asked in slight amusement, knowing she was going to win this argument.
"Uh… The interface isn't fine," La Forge admitted.
"Then you can't do it, so I will," Kaylee stepped up to the console.
Worf put an arm in front of her, and repeated. "You are a civilian."
"Bochra doesn't want you to teleport him Worf and La Forge can't, so by method of elimination I have to do it." Kaylee said and ducked under his arm to get closer to the controls again.
The communicator chimed just as Worf opened his mouth to say something and Kaylee, who was the closest, tapped it on.
"Is there a reason why Bochra has not been returned to his ship?" Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked through the comm.
All three of the Enterprise's members cringed at the sharpness in his voice, and Bochra sat on the edge of the teleportation pad, watching the situation unfold.
"Worf won't let teleport Bochra because I'm a civilian," Kaylee responded smartly before Worf could stop her, and Worf simmered.
"Kaylee," Picard sighed as if he was not the least bit surprised she was involved. "Where's O'Brian?"
"Taking care of something else, Captain," Kaylee told him. "Bochra doesn't want Worf to teleport him and without his VISOR La Forge can't, so tell Worf to just let me do it."
Picard massaged his forehead while beside him on the bridge, Riker lowered his head and smiled at Kaylee's antics. Why was it she was always involved in things like this?
"Worf," Picard ordered shortly. "Let her."
"Sir," Worf tried to argue. "It is against protocol."
"Just do it," Picard repeated and shut off the communication.
"If I may?" Kaylee asked Worf politely and waved a hand towards the controls.
Worf almost growled as he stepped back and let Kaylee back to the controls, and muttered under his breath, "Eaglet."
Bochra was surprised to hear a Klingon using Romulan slang, and looked at the Klingon curiously as he forced himself to stand.
"What does the slang 'Eaglet' mean in your culture?" Kaylee asked Bochra without stopping from her work.
Bochra was still surprised and answered truthfully. "The Eagle is our symbol, and Eaglet is a term for a young eagle. It's usually used affectionately, but can be degrading as it normally describes children or cadets."
"That makes sense," Kaylee said cryptically, and then exemplified when she glanced up and saw Bochra was still confused. "The other children on Vulcan gave me that for a nickname since I don't suppress my emotions like Romulans don't. Other have picked up on the habit."
She didn't look at Worf as she spoke, but it was clear he was part of the others faction. Bochra understood, but was surprised that a Vulcan didn't take more offense at being compared to a Romulan. It was like the human La Forge who was trustworthy. This ship, Enterprise, had a very interesting crew.
"All right, step back so I can teleport you to your ship before Tomalak calls and asks where you are to," Kaylee told Bochra in the same light-humored voice as if she would find that disastrous situation amusing.
Bochra tried to take a step back, but his legs unexpectedly collapsed. La Forge had been sitting on the edge of the platform next to him working with his VISOR, but now dropped the VISOR as Bochra fell on top of him and they both landed in a heap on the floor below the transporter. Kaylee winced at the sound when they crashed, and ran over to them. Worf took a step forward as well, but it was clear they were both fine so he stayed where he was.
Bochra couldn't believe he was looking so weak before a Klingon, and picked up La Forge's VISOR as he stood. He tapped it against La Forge's arm, and the human took it back with a nod. There was no telling how long he would stay on his feet this time so as La Forge helped him back onto the platform again Kaylee returned to the console. Once La Forge stepped off of it, she set her hand on the three bars to activate it.
"Jolan true," she told Bochra, testing out her pronunciation as she swiped upward.
"Jolan true," Bochra responded instinctively.
He gave a start that a Vulcan like Kaylee was willing to speak Rihan, the Romulan's language, but was unable to respond before the teleport froze him and his vanished from sight. There was no doubt about it though, Enterprise was an odd ship.
Once the teleport was completed and Bochra back on his ship, Worf glared at Kaylee. "Why are you so friendly with him?"
"Why can't I be?" Kaylee challenged. "He helped La Forge, right?"
"He did," La Forge said carefully, not wanting to get involved in one of Kaylee and Worf's famous debates.
"Just because he is an enemy to Klingons does not make him an enemy to me," Kaylee promised. "The Romulans are the cousins of the Vulcans after all. I have no feud with him."
Chief O'Brien picked probably the best moment to enter, and the argument was halted when the door to the transporter room hissed open. He could tell instantly that Kaylee and Worf were facing off yet again.
"Hello Chief," Kaylee greeted and broke off the argument. "Worf, won't Picard want you on the bridge when he escorts Tomalak's ship back to the Neutral Zone?"
Picard did and that meant he had to stop his argument. Worf stormed out, and Kaylee bit the corner of her lip so she wouldn't laugh at how cartoonishly upset and stiff Worf looked.
"Come on La Forge," she said instead with a note of laughter in her voice. "With the Chief back I'm relieved of duty so I can take you to Sickbay."
La Forge admitted that might be nice since his VISOR still wasn't working and he hated accidentally walking into walls or doors. He stood and the two of the walked out.
As they left, Kaylee called out over her shoulder, "bye Chief."
"Bye," O'Brian repeated, confused and left to wonder exactly what he had missed.
Ah, the tension between Romulan and Klingon. I know this doesn't look like it's going anywhere but bear with me. The Romulans are my favorite species and my stories focus on them. I also like Bochra, so this is a Bochra story with known Romulans like Tomalak, and OC's. NO SLASH! I promise there is no slash between Bochra and OC's. Never fear.