“I’m leaving all three of you in charge,” Sidda said as she looked over Orelia, Orin and Na’roq as they gathered in the Vondem Rose’s transporter bay. “Na’roq’s done a damn fine job in figuring out who’s a viable bounty in the Romulan states, so you’re to cross the border, arrive at Republic outpost 162, transfer the prisoners, then come right back. No funny business, no picking fights, no antagonising the Romulans either.”

Orin rose his hands to start signing when Orelia just covered them with a hand of her own, winked at the man, whom she was eye-level with, then stepped forward. “Yes mum,” she said, dripping with sarcasm. “No parties, keep the house clean, no using the car while you’re gone.”

She just stared at Orelia in confusion, the woman clearly having lost her mind and speaking in a foreign language. “What are you on about?”

“Terran movies when parents inevitably leave their kids at home unsupervised.” Orelia turned to look at Orin and Na’roq, who both were smiling and nodded their heads once. “We’ll be fine. We know what we’re doing, simple in and out. Anything goes wrong we cloak and slip the border nice and slow.”

“You know Kevak will rat you all out when I get back.”

“Never doubted it. Man’s unbribable,” Na’roq chipped in with a slight shudder as she said it. “It goes against the best Ferengi traditions.”

“He’s a Klingon,” she replied.

“That’s his problem,” Na’roq snapped back.

“Don’t worry, the Rose will still be in one piece when you get back. Then we can go deliver our Federation prisoners.” Orelia stepped forward and rested a hand on her left shoulder. “Don’t give Gaeda a hard time, will you? It’s his ship after all you’re riding on.”

“Keep my ship safe cousin.” With another round of farewells, she bid her crew goodbye and now found herself waiting for the rest of the party for this fun little escapade. Drunk discussions with her right-hand man, a complaint about that monstrosity that Klingons call a command chair, some fortuitous information and she’d awoke in the morning at her desk, face planted on a padd, with a series of half-written notes that made a certain amount of sense. And now here she was, with a duffle bag on the steps up to the transporter itself, pacing the room while she waited.

Her plan had entailed one of the twins coming along, for while the key part of the plan was to steal something for fun, there was no reason why some serious salvage couldn’t be done on the side as well. Whatever wasn’t bolted down or liable to actually get a Starfleet task force hunting them down was fair game she reckoned. Watching brother and sister play some quick Romulan kid’s game to decide who went resulted in T’Ael winning, making her the second person on the team.

And it should have stayed at two until Revin had heard that she had planned to take a berth on the Thorn to undertake a personal mission. She had made it rather clear she was not staying aboard the Rose, especially entering Romulan territory, if Sidda herself wasn’t aboard ship. Regrettably, that conversation had happened after a few physical combat lessons with Orin and combined with some more intimate knowledge Revin possessed had made it an entirely unfair fight.

Clearly, she was going to have to improve her own skills and rely less on just shooting all her problems.

So, a three-person team it was then. She still hadn’t revealed in its entirety to her team, just Gaeda who no doubt had slipped it to Lewis Chin, who was spending more and more time on the Martian Thorn. That man was no doubt revealing in the executive officer role he took up whenever aboard the bird-of-prey and Revin had suspicions he’d want to try and make it permanent before much longer, leaving her with Trid as the Rose’s senior helmsperson.

Lost in thought her pacing had stopped and she had failed to notice the transport bay doors open to admit anyone. Or the sound of another duffle bag being set down either. She was oblivious until Revin slipped her hands under her own arms and hugged her from behind. “There a reason you dyed your hair bright red?” The question was delivered between kisses to the neck.

“I felt like it,” she replied, tilting her head and just luxuriating in the tender moment before the door opened again behind them and the sound of things being dropped to the floor, a groan and subtle cursing ruined the moment.

Turning they faced the scene of T’Ael, with her own bag and two hard carry cases lying on the floor, sprawled amongst another crew member, a young human male, who she recalled was an engineering mate. Likely their transporter operator for this departure. With the help of Revin and herself, both were on their feet, bags and cases collected and ready to go. One case was simply T’Ael’s engineering go-bag, the other was brand new, save now for a series of slight scuffs. It was a metre long, and not terribly deep or tall either, hinged on one side and colour matched her signature purple.

T’Ael had even emblazoned the rose design on the top of the case. “Is it done?” she found herself asking, fingers hovering over the latches to open the case and view the contents, but halting, having promised herself she wouldn’t. The contents of this case after all were for someone else.

“Made out of a chunk of the Rose herself, sharpened to a mono-molecular edge. Used one of the outer hull plates that got damaged in the storm. Looking forward to making another actually. Think I might have a talent for it,” T’Ael bragged as she took the case away from Sidda and stepped onto the transporter padd. “Maybe Samuel, you can beam us over to the Thorn without bumping into anything?” The question to the human was a bit of a growl.

“Energize when ready Samuel,” she herself stated to the man, in a much nicer, friendly tone. Seconds later they found themselves in the far more cramped transporter alcove of the Martian Thorn. Before them was Gaeda and Lewis, both with boyish smiles on their faces.

“Welcome aboard ladies. Got a compartment set aside for you, all together,” Gaeda said, clearly relishing the chance to lord things over his friend and former captain. “Ready to go steal a chair?”

“Wait!” T’Ael exclaimed, bags and cases being dropped once more. “I thought this was a salvage mission. What’s this about a chair?”

She found herself spinning to look back at a confused engineer and fiancé. “T’Ael, we are going to steal parts. Plasma injectors, ODN relays, whatever fancy toys you can find and take. All from a Manticore-class heavy cruiser. Just while you and Revin are doing that, with…” she snapped her fingers a few times, then pointed to Lewis.

“Chalmers and Tavol,” he dutifully supplied.

“Right, Chalmers and Tavol, I’m going to go steal myself a chair. Trust me, stealing the chair, they’ll completely forget about whatever you take.”

“Steal a chair? Boss, we could make you a chair,” T’Ael said. “Please tell me you’re joking with me,” she said.

“Love, which ship are we stealing from?” Revin asked, changing the subject ever so slightly.

And with that, all she did was smile at her fellows from the Rose, turned and walked away with her duffle bag.

Gaeda chuckled, then stepped forward to receive a case from T’Ael, passing it to Lewis, then taking the other. “We are going after the Endeavour.”