Fortunately, the lift was empty this time, and you followed Spock in with a small sigh of relief.
"Spock, how many Romulans would they have on the bridge?" you asked, fingering your phaser worriedly.
"A logical guess would be at least six," Spock said, "the minimum number usually required to man all bridge stations."
"Not good," you observed. "Spock, we don't have orders to go to the bridge. They'll be suspicious right from the get-go. We won't be able to take them all by surprise."
"No," Spock agreed grimly.
Silence fell, and just as the lift was slowing down, you got another idea. "Spock, do you suppose you can hold the attention of whoever's in charge up there?"
"For a short time."
"I've got another crazy idea," you murmured. The lift stopped. "Go out there and distract, all right? We'll try to figure it out as we go . . . I hope you can improvise."
The lift stopped, and you quickly stepped out of sight beside the doors, which had slid open. Spock looked at you for a moment, then stepped onto the bridge. You stuck your foot in the door to keep it from closing, listening hard. An unknown male voice asked a question in what you assumed was Romulan, and Spock's voice answered. He sounded as if he were walking towards the engineering stations. You peeked around the edge of the doorway, quickly taking in the bridge. There were indeed six Romulans: one at engineering, one at science, one at helm, one at navigation, one with whom Spock was speaking, and one near the lift doors, currently with her back to you. You made a split second decision.
You swiftly clapped a hand over the door guard's mouth and dragged her backwards into the lift before she had a chance to struggle. The doors hissed shut. She managed to wriggle free of your hold, but by then, you had your phaser out, and in another second, it was over. Breathing a little harder now, you straightened your hair so that it covered your ears once more and walked directly onto the bridge, praying that most of the Romulans wouldn't turn around. You were in luck; only the commander did, which gave Spock the perfect opportunity to use the same Vulcan nerve trick that he'd used on the Romulan back in his quarters and his first target in auxiliary control.
No one else seemed to notice that two of their number had disappeared. Spock glanced around and approached the man seated at the navigation station. You truly began to appreciate the handiness of his nerve trick; it took out opponents for more silently than a phaser could. As Spock eased the helmsman into a position where he was slumped over his panel, you saw the head of the helmsman begin to turn, almost in slow motion. In that same moment, your heart nearly stopped; the unconscious navigator had managed to make a small sound before fainting.
Quick as a flash, you leapt into action. You didn't even think. In a few running steps, you were near the Romulan seated at the engineering panel. You decided on your one chance at not getting shot – it was risky, but at this point, so was anything. You faked the best pained groan that you could, clutched your side, and pretended to collapse. Your forehead bounced off of a vacant chair, but you forced yourself not to react. As you had hoped, the Romulan at engineering immediately knelt down beside you. He turned you over, so that you lay on your back, and pressed a finger to your throat, checking for a pulse.
With a flurry of brief panic, you noticed that your hair had slipped away from your ears. Right now, he was focused on your neck, but if he looked even three centimeters higher . . . You feigned a convulsive spasm and managed to settle out of it with your head on the side, facing towards Spock. Through slitted eyes, you managed to make out the figures of Spock and the Romulan helmsman. In the brief second before the engineer turned you towards him again, you saw the helmsman's fall broken only by Spock's swift grip. Now or never.
You shoved the engineer back, catching him by surprise and sending him staggering backwards into his panel. He tripped over his chair, and before he could regain his footing, you fired the phaser that had found its way into your hand almost of its own accord. Heart thumping about a billion times faster than usual, you turned to face Spock. Whatever had transpired in the last twelve seconds had left him with a bleeding lip and had deposited the Romulan science officer halfway across the bridge with a bruise blossoming across his jaw. You didn't ask.
"We've got the bridge," you announced, captioning the obvious.
"Take navigations," Spock ordered. "Reverse course immediately."
"Ie, rreki," you teased, sitting down at navigations.
