Tomalak had given Kaylee Dare permission to perform a mind meld with Lavok to find the traitor's identity. There was a risk that Kaylee would learn classified information from the engineer's mind, but the odds were in Tomalak's favor that she did not. Bochra didn't understand the idea of "roulette" or what it had to do with the situation, but he was still worried.
Even if the traitor was found, Kayle might still learn something. It was also possible that she learned something and the traitor wasn't found. No matter what happened, Tomalak was going to get in serious trouble. He would likely be demoted, and it might end even worse for him.
Bochra looked on as Kaylee stood beside Lavok's prone form, and beside her was a Betazoid who would help stabilize her since Lavok was dying. After taking a few breath to calm herself, Kaylee raised one of her hands to Lavok to begin. Having never seen a mind meld before, Bochra watched intently as Kaylee placed the tip of her fingers on the side of Lavok's face, close by his temple jaw.
"My mind to your mind," Kaylee said quietly in English as she began and closed her eyes. "My thoughts to your thoughts."
Her voice tapered off as the meld took hold. Bochra wasn't sure what he was expecting, but that seemed to be way too simple. Shouldn't it be harder or somehow flashier to establish a meld? Some of the stories he had heard were obviously exaggerated.
Kaylee cringed and leaned forward, bracing herself on her bed with her other arm. Her body was trembling, and her breathing was no longer level and calm. She must have succeeded in connecting with Lavok.
Troi hesitantly took a step forward, and then flinched back and put a hand to her temple as she was repulsed from her attempt to partake in the meld. Something was happening with Lavok as well, and his blood pressure was increasing. Bochra sat up worriedly, glad that the doctors were distracted by Kaylee or one of them would have made him lie down again.
Slowly, Kaylee's breathing leveled out to the same slow pace as Lavok's. She was evidentially gaining control because Bochra saw Troi exhale in relief and nod at Dr. Crusher who was hovering nearby. Scattered around the medbay were addition security guards, more then there had been before, and Bochra was secretly glad they were here. With luck the traitor was about to be exposed, so they would have to make a move now or soon.
"We are at engineering," Kaylee whispered as she found the correct memory.
Bochra felt a little chill when she said 'we,' and she continued speaking.
"The modifications to the cloak have been glitching," Kaylee said, making Bochra cringe slightly when he realized she was repeated classified information. "There is a problem with the plasma ratio, and an engineer is already working at the problem port. We scare him when we ask if he had any luck, and he moves at our cue so we can look ourselves. Odd, he seems reluctant to let us near the port. What could he be afraid of?"
Bochra's breath caught. This must be it. It was it, and one of the Romulans in the medbay tensed and sat up as well. His movement wasn't noticed as so many others were doing the same thing. Damn Vulcan was about to expose him.
"There is a shift gauge missing from the toolkit, which we want to use, so we take another one temporarily," Kaylee continued, speaking a little slower and more carefully. "We see the missing shift gauge caught between two panels when we look, and then we get out to shut off the power. Odd, the Engineer has left, and we cannot see him in Engineering."
"The traitor," Bochra whispered in Rihan softly, knowing that the engineer must have left because he knew what was about to happen.
"A muted Padd next to us catches our attention warning us," Kaylee suddenly started speaking quicker. "No, no shut it down. Shut down the engine! Now!"
She started coughing unexpectedly, and blood dripped from between her lips. That would have to be enough, Troi decided, Kaylee had reached her limit. Troi set her hand on Kaylee's wrist, and was unexpectedly hit with the information in the mind meld. It made her head spin and her eyesight blur incomprehensibly even though she didn't gain any information, and she jerked Kaylee's hand free from Lavok.
The meld ended with the contact broken, and Troi and Kaylee landed on the ground in a heap. Dr. Crusher instantly knelt by Kaylee's side, using a hypospray to deliver a dose of lexorin into her bloodstream and checking her vitals with a tricorder. Bochra clenched the sheets in disappointment. It appeared that the stress had been too much. Although they now knew how the explosion had happened, they still didn't know who had started it. Would Kaylee remember anything?
The traitor sitting near Bochra exhaled softly in relief. His cover was still secure. That was good.
Then Kaylee opened her eyes and Troi helped her sit up. She whispered something, and the traitor's breathe caught again. Oh no.
"Aerv," Troi repeated Kaylee's words louder. "What is Aerv?"
Now it was time to go, Aerv i-Mnaeha tr'Khellian thought to himself. She had his name, and the other Romulans would realize what was going on before long. The traitor glanced next to him, an escape plan already worked out that he now executed.
"Aerv," Bochra repeated softly. "That sounds like a name."
Lavok had managed to see the traitor before the ship's destruction, and had evidently known his name. Was the name Kaylee repeating under her breath the name of the engineer who had fled right before his sabotage had destroyed the Terix? If it was then it would be easy to check the roster and find out his full name and who he was. They had the name they needed.
Bochra was just starting to smile when the power in medbay cut out, plunging the room into darkness. He sat straight as he heard a muffled sound and then something falling to the ground. There was a hiss as the doors to the medbay opened, although the lights in the hall were off to, so it remained black.
"Oh no," Bochra muttered, having a bad feeling that Aerv had just made himself scarce.
"Get the lights back on!" Worf shouted.
"Emergency power coming online now," Dr. Crusher called out above the growing noise level.
Red emergency lights activated on cue, and illuminated the room. The first thing Bochra saw was that there was a security officer lying on the floor with red seeping into the carpet where his throat had been cut by something. Then he glanced around and realized one of the Romulans was missing.
"The traitor's gone," Bochra called out in English.
"So is this officer's phaser," Worf added and knelt by the fallen security officer.
The traitor was now loose on Enterprise, armed, and his next target unknown. His had suddenly become more dangerous. Worf motioned to the other security officers, and they ran out into the hallway, scattering to try to find where Aerv had gone.
"Captain," Worf said after he tapped on the combadge that he wore on his chest as he left medbay. "The traitor has fled medbay and stolen a phaser."
Bochra failed to hear the rest of the conversation as the doors closed, but red alert suddenly sounded with a waning alarm. Glad that he was already mostly healed, Bochra got out of the bed as Troi stood, and she and Dr. Crusher helped Kaylee to a bed. It looked as if she would be all right, so the next task was figuring out the traitor's next move. Would he go for Engineering as he had on the Terix?
It appeared Bochra was the only Romulan present who was both healed enough to do something, and had training to make a difference. He wasn't going to take a nap while the traitor who had blown up Terix and fatally wounded Lavok ran loose. Of course, he would only get in the way of the Enterprise security officers if he didn't know what he was doing and they might mistake him for Aerv. Bochra needed to find out what Aerv's next move was and then beat him to his target.
The few security agents who had remained weren't looking so Bochra knelt by the body of their comrade. It looked as if his throat had been slit by a scalpel or something similar, and as this was a medbay, Bochra could believe that Aerv had located a scalpel. Curiously, the security officer's combadge was gone, and Aerv must have taken it. Bochra tapped on a console nearby, taking advantage of the officer's negligence to try and figure out what Aerv had done.
He almost rolled his eyes when he saw that it was as simple as he thought, an embedded subroutine that turned the lights off. Turning the lights off, what a childish move. It was amazing that such a trick was still effective, but hesitated when he took a closer look at the virus Aerv had somehow managed to implant in Enterprise.
His eyes widened when he recognized the virus and he swallowed. This was a quick-acting Tal Shiar virus. What would a traitor like Aerv be doing using a Tal Shiar virus? That meant, that could only mean he wasn't a traitor, but a Tal Shiar operative following orders. The conclusion didn't make any sense. Why would the Tal Shiar order the destruction of Terix?
The Tal Shiar was the Romulan Star Empire's intelligence agency, and one of the most respected and feared organizations in the Alpha and Beta quadrant. They protected the Empire's secrets from outsiders and traitors within. What feud did they have with Terix? Commander Tomalak bickered with those higher ranking them in when they gave incompetent orders, but he never pushed things too far. Even if Tomalak was the target, what gave the Tal Shiar the right to destroy the entire ship?
Bochra turned away from the panel and crept up on the closest of three security officers left behind in the medbay. Even if this was a Tal Shiar directive, Bochra was not just going to sit back and let their agent keep killing. In order to do anything though he needed a weapon, and a phaser would do. His fellow crewmembers realized what Bochra was doing, but kept silent and let him approach the guard.
He tapped the security officer on the shoulder, and when the human turned, punched him. It was a nice solid hit, and his Romulan strength sent the human security officer flying backwards to hit a bed. The sound drew the other security guards attentions, but Bochra was already moving.
As the human drew his phaser, Bochra got into range and knocked the phaser from his wrist with a swipe as he punched the human in the solar plexus and threw him aside. The third security agent present was suddenly dropped with a phaser, and Bochra glanced over his shoulder to see that one of the other Romulans had taken the disruptor from his first victim. Bochra held out his hand, and his crewmate tossed it to him.
Bochra caught the phaser and then held up his hands towards the medical personal. "At ease. I'm not after you, just the traitor Aerv."
"Need any help?" The Romulan who had thrown the phaser asked.
"Not this time Sienae," Bochra assured her and took the combadge from the security officer she had stunned.
"Good hunt," another Romulan called out.
Bochra tipped his head to the one who had spoken as he fastened the combadge onto his chest and left medbay with the phaser in hand. He would find that traitor, and get some straight answers out of him about the Tal Shiar virus. Sienae smiled as he left, and reached over to check Bochra's victim lying by her bed for a pulse. Troi, Dr. Crusher, and the medical personnel who were still conscious didn't understand what was going on.
"At ease," Sienae assured them. "Bochra doesn't like to hurt civilians, just the bad guys."
Their befuddled look didn't negate and Sienae gave them an amused look.
"What?" She asked them. "Did you think Centurion Bochra was a science officer like me? He's not."
"He's a security officer," Troi grasped.
"So you humans would call him," Sienae chuckled. "He might not have the patience for Lavok's technical garble, but he knowns how to fight. I for one am not worried about him. In fact, I think I'm more worried for Aerv."
Bochra tapped on the combadge in the hallway while Sienae and the other Romulans soothed the medical personnel and let them look over the unconscious security agents. From the conversation spilling out of the combadge, Bochra gathered that extra security had already been sent to Engineering and other vital places on Enterprise, but the internal scanners were disabled. It appeared that Aerv's virus had done more than just turn the light off after all, and security was being forced to spread out and search the ship manually. There was no sign of Aerv yet, but if he really was a trained Tal Shiar agent then he wouldn't be easy to find.
"Come on," Bochra whispered and tightened his grip on his stolen phaser and tried to ration out what Aerv's next target was. "Where are you?"
All it took was for Kaylee to say a simple name, and everything goes to hell. I realize that i haven't done much from Bochra's POV as this story is supposed to be about Bochra, so i will work on that. Bochra is a part of the Romulan military, and he's a warrior instead of a communication or engineering officer, which would be the two support branches. More about him will continue to be revealed.
He is taking what happened personally and a Romulan probably is best suited to deal with a Romulan, but Aerv is a Tal Shiar agent. I will confirm that for you. Aerv is an elite, and his training is on a whole different level from the basic combat Bochra learned as a foot soldier. If he finds Aerv first, as he wants to do, then he could end up wishing he hadn't.
We know a little more about the situation, but there are actually more question then before. Is Aerv really taking orders from the Tal Shiar, or is he a turncoat playing to another tune? If he is following Tal Shiar orders then why did the Romulan's intelligence agency order the destruction of Terix, one of their own ships? If Aerv is a traitor, then who gave him his orders to target Terix? Was destroying Terix the real goal, and if it wasn't, then what is Aerv's real target?