There were six Romulans in auxiliary control when you arrived – not exactly what you'd call even odds. The female officer apparently in charge there stood up when you entered. This time, you saluted at exactly the same moment as Spock. To your mild alarm, however, after directing a stream of Romulan words a Spock, the woman addressed you with a similar volley of foreign words.
Praying to anything that the words had been a command, you saluted again and said, "Ie, rreki," as swiftly as you could, hopefully masking the accent Spock had noticed earlier. It must have sounded natural enough, for she turned her back on you in order to converse with one of the other Romulans. You looked at Spock. What had you just agreed to do?
By the tiniest movement of his head, he indicated the far left corner of the room. You must have been ordered to station yourself there. Spock walked to the opposite corner, where he once more met your gaze. Silently, you agreed that while you could both probably manage to stun two Romulans each in quick enough succession, it would probably be enough time for the third targets to draw their own weapons. Somehow, you would have to take out two of the Romulans without alerting the other four.
You watched the Romulan nearest to you closely. For the most part, he was absorbed with his work on one of the panels that faced the wall. Every now and then, he would call something out to the commander, who would acknowledge it without even turning around. No one looked his way very often. He seemed to be your best bet, but you doubted very much if punching someone in the back of the head would be quiet enough to avoid attracting attention, especially in a room full of people with hyper-sensitive ears. You'd be best off waiting until someone was talking, and even then, you'd blow the whole thing if you missed or if he made a noise of any sort.
Spock, meanwhile, had singled out his target also. One of the female Romulans had gone around a piece of metal grating on the rightmost wall to work on the engineering panels of auxiliary control. Sparing only a moment's glance around the room to ensure that he was unobserved, Spock quietly followed her, and a moment later, you saw him quickly catch the unconscious woman before she hit the ground, another victim of his nerve trick. After easing her noiselessly to the floor, he slipped back around the grating. It was your turn.
Your victim called out another reading, upon which the commander turned to discuss it with the man nearest her. You seized your chance. If there was a deity that could hear your thoughts, they must have decided that they liked you today – your aim was right on target. The unfortunate Romulan slumped face-first into his panel, but thankfully, that didn't create too much of a sound. Two down, four to go.
You caught Spock's eye again and drew your phaser. He did likewise, and with a jerk of your head, you indicated the other two security guards in the room and then the commander and the man she was still talking with. He nodded. Stunning the unsuspecting security guard, who had his back to you, was easy enough, but you were almost too slow in turning your phaser on the commander. Her hand had gone automatically to her disruptor, and she was quick enough to turn to face you with her finger on the trigger before you managed to stun her as well.
Wow, when did you get good at this sort of thing? You let out a breath you hadn't realized you were holding in.
"All right," you said softly. "Now we have auxiliary control. We're pretty sure that the Romulans have the main bridge and the armory."
"It is also likely that they possess main engineering," Spock added, crossing to one of the main panels.
You pushed your first victim out of his seat and sat down. "According to this, we're heading through the neutral zone at warp five," you reported, examining the screen in front of you. "We'll be in Romulan space in three hours."
"Reverse course," Spock ordered.
You tried, but the buttons didn't respond. Frowning, you got to the floor and pushed back the protective paneling in front of the various cables and circuits. After a moment of checking the power links, you swore.
"What is it?" Spock asked, kneeling beside you.
"When they shot at our ship, it must have short-circuited a bunch of connections," you said, pointing at some blackened wires. "We can't navigate from down here. They must be doing it from the main bridge."
"Then regaining the bridge appears to be our next priority," Spock concluded. "We must not allow the Enterprise to enter Romulan space. It would give the Empire the precise argument they need to start a war."
"Right."
Before either of you could say anything else, the door slid open. As you turned to see who it was, hand grasping your phaser precautionarily, a phaser blast narrowly missed your shoulder.
"Stop right there! On your feet, both of you!"
