Chapter 5
2368
"Where is he?" The Romulan officer demanded in a threatening voice, his disruptor's barrel almost touching her throat.
She did not doubt his previous words. If he could see her, that meant he was out of phase too, and if he could hold the disruptor in his hand, so was the weapon.
But she was not about to lead him to where Commander La Forge was. So she moved, as she was ordered, and started walking slowly out of the bridge and as far away from Engineering as possible.
He marched behind her, his disruptor always too close to her back, so close that sometimes it pressed lightly against her uniform's fabric and in those moments she was pointedly reminded that the menace of the weapon was real.
After a few minutes leading him away, without really thinking where she was going, she realized he would start getting suspicious. And she had to make her move before that moment came, if she wanted to have a chance.
She didn't change her expression. She didn't modify her pace. Her heart was beating fast but she willed it to not beat faster. She controlled her voice so it will not betray her.
"It's here," she announced, and only the involuntary licking of her lips a few seconds before could give her away. But he was on her back, and besides, she was supposed to be nervous while he pointed at her with a gun.
She directed herself towards one of the walls, crossed it, slowly, but the moment she was at the other side, she moved swiftly, positioning herself to one side.
The Romulan came, his weapon raised, his poise alert, but she was ready. A kick to his gut, another hit to his back with both her elbows as he doubled. She hardly paused to ensure he fell to the floor and she sprinted away, crossing to the next room.
They were in one of the crew quarters' sections. As she ran for her life, she hardly registered the rooms she crossed, the crewmates she encountered and their private moments she invaded. She passed through them as if none of them existed.
She had heard the disruptor discharge as she got away. She had not been hit, but she was sure the aim had been close. She had looked back once and had hardly spotted him as he rushed to try to catch on her. If she was not able to get him out of her track, she would be the one not existing. This time, she would truly be dead.
Another few quarters, another few intimate moments hardly noticed. She was fast. He was faster. He was getting closer. She never saw him suddenly stopping, never saw him raising his gun, never saw him pulling the trigger. She only felt the surge of pain in her knee, as it failed her and she fell to the ground, even if she willed herself to keep running.
She gritted her teeth, her hand pressing her injured knee. She tried to stand up, but he was over her before she had a chance. He pulled her up, she tried to fight him. Her struggle was in vain. He pinned her arms, pressed his disruptor against her face.
"Where is the science officer?" he demanded again.
She was not about to tell him. She was not going to lead him to Geordi, no matter what. She was not going to betray him. She was not going to betray the Enterprise. She would not let them down. Commander La Forge was a bright man. He could be successful. He could find a way to warn the Enterprise of the danger they were in. He could save them all.
It was too late for her. But she could still gain him time, as she had been doing since she came face to face with the unexpected Romulan. And her life was a small price to pay if Geordi and the rest of her crewmates were safe.
Because she was not going to surrender. Never ever. She was going to fight until the bitter end. No tears, no sorrows. Her enemy would never see her plead or cry. She felt the disruptor, almost touching her ear. It did not matter. He had lessened the grip on her left arm, probably thinking that the menace of the gun would be enough for her to cooperate. He was very wrong. With all the force she was able to muster, she elbowed him in his chest.
2364
Time went by. The Romulan had left the operations center once to go to the mess hall. He had stayed there for about fifteen minutes and had returned to the operations center once more. He had not uttered a word as he crossed the corridor. She had strained to hear what happened at the mess hall, but the wall isolating both rooms was almost soundproof. She hardly registered some muffled sounds. He did not seem to be speaking anyway. She had stood and had remained alert for the time the man had stayed in the mess hall, but had sat down, frustrated, when he had returned to his duty in the operations center. It has been two hours since he came in, two very long ones. Ro caressed her hair. It had only been two hours and she was unnerved. She had tried several times to contact the Wellington, to no avail. She wanted to take action and her rational mind repeating to her that that was not a wise decision, did not help to calm her down.
Then Laren heard the door opening again, and his steps as he strolled towards her. She was again hidden at the same place, her back against the wall, her phaser ready. She tensed even more when he reached her room's threshold, but he just continued to walk forward.
Soon, he was crossing to the transporter room. She awaited utterly still. One minute, then another, then another one. Only silence accompanied her.
Inwardly, she licked her lips. The moment had come when she had to risk exposure and get out of the store room. Quietly, she took out her tricorder and checked for life sing. It returned negative, but her then paranoid mind told her that he may have been able to mask his signal now and was waiting to ambush her. She moved stealthy. She reached the door and it opened immediately. She turned sharply towards the transporter room, her phaser firmly pointing at the closed door. She stayed for a few seconds there, waiting for a possible reaction from the other side. Since none came, Ro went forward. This time, she allowed her boots to announce her approach and when she was almost at the door and it started opening, she quickly dodged to the side and pressed her back against the wall. No sound came from the other side. She did not expect the Romulan to be so cold-blooded as to not make a single move at that moment. If he was there, he should have reacted. But still, she moved slowly as she neared the door again, as she peaked through it with her phaser before her. There was no one to be seen and when she finally went into the room, it was as empty as it has been when she had first seen it.
Ro turned around the room, next she went for the control panel. She checked the logs. One in, one out. There was his name and rank, Centurion Hirok, and she was not surprised when she read that he was a Tal Shiar operative.
She was finally alone, but she knew she could not just leave the facility right then, as he had done. Her phaser lowered but still at her hand, she went back to the operations center. She took a look at the first console. She remembered having seen the Wellington in orbit as the ship was monitored by the outpost's sensors. She grimly realized that her sole presence had probably alerted the Romulans. They were at the Federation's side of the Neutral Zone, but still she concluded that if the Romulans had selected Garon II as their concealed base of operations, it was because Starfleet vessels were not usually seen around.
She checked the readings at once, looking intently for her ship. Her heart sank when she was unable to locate it. There was no ship orbiting the planet right now. There was none near its solar system. She gulped, she tried not to think of the implications of it. She looked for her shuttle instead. There it was, in the same place where she had landed it. Her small relief evaporated immediately as she noticed the other ship the sensors identified just beside it. The label indicated a Vulcan freighter, an old sturdy model, and even gave its name, the Seleya; it also showed below the cargo ship was actually assigned to the Tal Shiar service.
They were still there, and they withheld her only way out.
The screens showed no lifeforms. Ro could not know where the rest of the away team members were. She realized how slim the probabilities were for them to be safe.
She wondered if the scanners were not programmed to monitor them or if they were being detected and even recorded, but the readings were not visible by default on the main screen.
She had not even thought of that when she moved in, but maybe there was a log registering when she neared the facility's access panel and then disappeared inside. If so, the Romulan operative had to be very aware of her presence and then, he may just have beamed out to set her a trap. She tensed as her mind formed such thoughts. She later tried to convince herself of the improbability of it. If the paranoid Tal Shiar agents wanted free unrecorded access to that facility, they could not monitor the surrounding area. At least not for Romulans, the afterthought came.
Anyway, there was nothing she could do now. The only thing she could do for the moment was to check if her little handy work had been discovered. So she proceeded to find the self-repair system and enter the edition mode and then moved down quickly until she located the code she had injected. It was still there. She closed it, and then turned to lean on the maintenance station. Perhaps the mission may not be a complete failure, after all.