Centurion Bochra raised his disruptor and nodded to his friend in the holodeck with him to start the simulation. His friend Lavok did so, and a silver sphere about the size of a baseball appeared in midair. Bochra began to shoot at it, hitting it every time as it moved around and tried to make him miss.
After a few seconds of getting shot it shattered into three smaller orbs. Bochra continued to try and shoot all of them, but now his shots were going a little wild. His accuracy dropped dramatically.
After ten seconds (human time) the simulation ended. Bochra lowered his disruptor with a huff. Target practice was standard for all crewmembers and required for members of security such as himself, but Bochra found it irritating. He could hit the target in real life fine, just not that little silver sphere that loved to taunt him so much.
"Well," Lavok told him with a sigh, "you got perfect accuracy for Level One. Level Two was 47%. Last time it was 42% so you are getting better."
"It's the multiple targets," Bochra muttered, "I keep trying to hit all of them so I hit none of them."
In this little simulation game, you had ten seconds to hit the target. If you hit it enough it shattered into three orbs and the difficulty moved to Level Two. In theory, if your aim was still good enough you could score enough hits and it would shatter again into six targets – Level Three. Bochra had never reached Level Three before his time was up. He ejected the powerpack of blanks and slapped in a round of live shots to his disruptor.
"I hope you're not going to try shooting it again," Lavok asked warily when he saw Bochra do that.
"No," Bochra snapped and shoved his disruptor into its holster on his belt.
"Attack the target please," Lavok said and held up his hands in surrender, "not me. I'm just an Engineer, and there's no way I'd win against you."
Sorry," Bochra muttered under his breath as the two of them exited the holodeck.
"I am trying to help," Lavok added when Bochra didn't sound sorry.
Bochra sighed as his friend fell in step with him. "I know you are."
Lavok let them walk in quiet down the halls for a few seconds before speaking again. "You can't keep blaming yourself for Patahk. He agreed to go on the scouting mission into enemy territory just like you did. He knew the risks of what would happen if the Pi was discovered."
"Leave it be," Bochra warned.
Patahk was Bochra's oldest friend, and the two of them had been like brothers. He had died at Galorndon Core though and Bochra had lived. Why had he lived while Patahk died?
Lavok reluctantly fell quiet.
"Jolan true," Bochra said somewhat sharply in goodbye when they reached an intersection.
Bochra was heading for the mess hall for some food, and Lavok, as Chief Engineer, needed to get back to Engineering.
"Jolan true," Lavok repeated softly as the friends parted ways.
Once they parted, his friend's troubles faded away as Lavok turned his thoughts back to his duties. His Engineers had been having trouble stabilizing the flow of the plasma conduits these past few days, and Lavok knew it was because of the modifications they had gotten to their cloaking device. In order to test the upgrade, Tomalak had received orders to patrol the Neutral Zone.
Once he reached Engineering, Lavok entered and went to the control panel to try and isolate the problem again. Those techies at spaceport had to have crossed a plasma line or something because the flow was still wrong. He realized in exasperation that the plasma ratio was thinning. Like all Romulans Lavok was eager to have a cloaking device that would allow a ship to use its weapons while under cloak, but these current upgrades weren't going to get them anywhere close to that.
One of his engineers was already looking at the problematic port, and Lavok walked to him just as the engineer crawled out of the panel and sat up on his knees.
"Have any success?" Lavok asked him as he approached.
The engineer gave a start at Lavok's voice and whipped to face him. Once he realized it was just Lavok he relaxed. Lavok recognized this as one of the new batch of new recruits they had picked up a month ago although he couldn't quite remember his name.
"What?" The engineer asked.
"Did you have success?" Lavok repeated.
The engineer shook his head, "no sir."
"Let me take a look," Lavok offered.
"No!" The engineer replied quickly, surprising Lavok with his refusal. "Uh, there's no need. I fixed the regulator here, but the problem's in the wiring somewhere else."
"Let me take a look," Lavok ordered and kneeled down so he could get under the panel.
"That's really not necessary," the engineer promised nervously.
"At ease," Lavok ordered lightheartedly. "I won't demote you if there's something wrong."
He ducked under the panel, musing that some of these newbies were so skittish. As he inspected the circuitry and had to admit that the newbie had done a good job. The newbie had forgotten to run a shift gauge over the Delta amplifiers though.
"Hand me a shift gauge," Lavok told the newbie held out his hand but no tool appeared.
He paused and then ducked out of the panel. The engineer he had been speaking to was gone. In fact, he wasn't even in engineering anymore. Lavok gave the room a bizarre look and reached for a shift gauge himself only to find that it was missing from the kit.
"Wonderful," he sighed, "the techies crosswire this ship and know the other engineers can't put their tools back."
He stood, and swiped the tool he needed from another kit until the missing shift gauge could be located. Tool in hand he returned to his perch and ducked inside the conduit. Something glittered inside. Lavok narrowed his eyes as he looked closer, and gave a start when he saw the missing shift gauge.
It was jammed between two circuits. Electrical current flowed through the metal item, scorching the delicate circuitry it touched. An artificial current had been created where there should be none and it was being sent to the plasma, gradually raising its temperature. The other circuit it was touching was the safeguard and with it disabled, no alarms were going off as the temperature rose closer to combustion.
Lavok reached a hand in to remove the tool, and then thought the better and decided to shut off the current first. He stood straight as he scooched out of his position and finally looked over at the DataPADD the young engineer had been using. For some reason, the volume was turned off so it couldn't sound an alarm. It was warning him of the temperature.
He looked at it and then shot to his feet, "shut down the engines, full stop! Now! Turn off the main power! We have to cool down the plasma!"
The ship had plasma lines running through the walls through most of the D'derdix. When the plasma lines reached combustion and ignited it made quite a lightshow.
"Sir," Data alerted Captain Picard. "I am detecting an energy spike on the Romulan side of the Neutral Zone."
"Same here," Wesley Crusher called out. "Weird, it looks like a ship just exploded."
"Incorrect," Data objected. "There is a Romulan D'derdix. It has been crippled. Its main core is precarious. The ship will self-destruct."
Picard frowned, "lifesigns?"
"113," Data told him, "all Romulan."
"Did they send out a distress signal?" Picard asked.
"No," Wesley said, "I doubt they had time."
"Sir," Data added, "it is the IRW Terix, last Captioned by Tomalak."
Tomalak… Picard frowned. "Change course to the ship but don't cross the Neutral Zone. Let's see if they ask for help and keep scanning."
Tomalak was laying on the floor of the bridge, stunned from the explosion. He raised his head and cringed as he tried to move an arm. The left side of his face was numb, and he couldn't see out of his left eye. Slowly, he forced himself to sit up, shoving a metal support beam off of him
"Report!" He ordered the bridge.
There was no reply. The dust settled enough for Tomalak to see that everyone else on the bridge was unconscious or worse. He pulled himself to his feet with the aid of his chair and hit the communicator.
"Sickbay, we have injured. Sickbay?" There was only static. "Engineering report. What just happened?" Nothing but static.
That explosion must have knocked out internal communication. He ignored the cloaking device and limped over to the engineering panel. There was a body on it and he shoved it off, wishing he could be gentler but not able to with one arm. Engineering said that the plasma had overheated.
"No," Tomalak whispered, "don't you dare."
He slammed his hand on the console. His ship was still dying. Tomalak grabbed a spare data crystal and plugged it in, ordering the computer to download the information about the explosion. Then he limped back over to the comm controls and sent up a distress beacon.
"Sir," Data announced, "A distress beacon from the D'derdix has been activated on all frequencies."
"Open a frequency to the Romulans," Picard straightened and readied for a video comm.
"Frequency open," Data informed him.
"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise to Romulan ship, do you need assistance?"
There was only static. Picard frowned and looked to Data.
"The channel is open sir," Data assured him, "it seems their communications are down however."
Picard thought for a moment. Entering the Neutral Zone would bring trouble, and these were Romulans. They were also lives and that needed help.
"Adjust course to intercept the ship," Picard ordered. "Mr. Crusher, inform Mrs. Crusher that she's going to have wounded."
"Yes sir," Wesley repeated, sending his mother the message.
The ship made quick time to the crippled D'derdix.
"Keep us at a safe distance in case the ship explodes," Picard told Data, "and hail the Captain again. Tell him we're here to help. Ask him what assistance he requires."
Data relayed the message, "no response Captain."
"Hold on," Wesley spoke up quickly, "I'm getting a response." He boosted the volume.
"… ship… unstable… any assistance…"
Picard frowned at the scattered reply.
"… any assistance authorized…" the Romulan repeated.
"Tell him we acknowledge," Picard ordered Wesley, "and that we're sending over medical teams."
Wesley sent it, but he wasn't sure if the Romulan acknowledged.
"Sir," Worf put in, "is that wise?"
"I think I agree with Worf," Commander Riker added.
"Look at the ship Commander," Picard waved a hand at the crippled Roumulan ship that filled the screen. "I don't think they're a threat although I acknowledge your response. Worf, prepare security procedures."
"Medical team is prepared to transport," one of the bridge crew called out.
"Have them armed and accompanied by guards," Picard told them, "and then let them beam over."
Tomalak might not be a good guy but his ship just got blown up. It was indeed that engineer that sabotaged the ship and unfortunately, the only witness was in Engineering when Engineering exploded so I don't know how much help Lavok will be. On top of all that, now Tomalak has to be rescued by Picard.