Communications Hub

Riker spreads the hand-drawn map across a crate in the cramped Romulan storeroom, his finger stabbing the path through dim tunnels to the Communications Hub. He envisions banks of consoles pulsing with encrypted signals, ready for a hail to the Enterprise, but Ethan blocks him: voice authorization demands Tomalak's distinct timbre alone. Frustration surges in the stale air as guards' footsteps echo closer, the hub's locked transmitters crystallizing Riker's entrapment in the base's maze and the illusion's iron grip.