Thevius was running behind for his own meeting for his crew, PADD clutched to his chest with one hand, gripping a cup of coffee in the other. He strode briskly through the halls of the Starbase till he arrived at the conference room he booked for his ragtag crew.

Thevius pushed into the room and walked to the head of the conference tables, setting his mug of coffee down sharply, jolting the Al-Leyan engineer awake. Egil rubbed his eyes and groaned, “You know I hate daytime briefings sir– Coffee for me?” Thevius slid his coffee farther from the engineer and pointed silently at the replicator. Egil rolled his eyes and stood up, moving towards the replicator, “Triple espresso, hot.”

Thevius silently took stock of his small crew. He had the engineer, Egil Renot, an incredibly talented man. Nivox was a Cardassian scientist, and brought along his husband, a Bajoran medical officer named Ivin. Thevius knew the two were inseparable and he needed them both anyways. They had their surly tactical officer, K’Vibo, a Klingon. And their Andorian Intelligence officer, Ashihl, finished off this widely varied bunch.

Thevius sighed, turning on his PADD and starting to send files to those present, “Alright, let’s get to business. I am sending you all the important files regarding this.. Mess.” He grabs his mug and takes a sip of coffee, the steam warming his face. “That is the best way to describe what this is. I won’t explain the convoluted mess that is Romulan politics. It’s in the document.”

K’Vibo frowns, “What do we have to do with those dishonourable Romulans?” Thevius pursed his lips, “More than I would like. Please let me explain, K’Vibo.” The klingon resigned and grumbled, leaning back and folding his arms.

Thevius nods, “As I was saying… The Fourth Fleet has answered a call for aid. I cannot bring our ship and main crew onto the front lines. The rest of us have been temporarily reassigned to other ships and the base here to help with humanitarian or front lines issues. I do believe we will be of more use going the intelligence route.”

K’Vibo interrupts again, “I do not approve of skulking in the shadows, Captain! It has no honour! We should be-”

Thevius tersely cuts him off, “Lieutenant K’Vibo. Let me speak. I will open for discussion soon. The more you interrupt me, the longer this takes.” Egil hides a chuckle with a cough, earning him a glare from both Thevius and K’Vibo.

Thevius sighed, “Anyways. There is a method to my madness. With Romulans, a straight up firefight can be tiring and they will try to fight dirty. So the easiest thing to do is play them at their own game and out-dirty them first. We need to think like they do. We are dealing with the Star Navy and potentially Tal Shiar.”

Ashihl mutters, “We need a Romulan to think like a Romulan.” Thevius nodded slowly in agreement, “We will have two, in fact. A good friend of mine, whom I trust, is working on this station. We are picking him up and taking him with us on this mission. He has roots in the Senate, Tal Shiar, and Star Navy. He had lots of power before he defected. He has security codes and knows those ships better than he knows Starfleet ships. He is a valuable asset.”

Thevius pauses to drink his coffee, continuing, “Now, my plan is.. And I beg of you, not a single word of this is to be spoken. This would never be approved by command. I have hand selected you all because we do not have families who would be severely impacted by our losses. What I have planned is severely risky. Absolutely mad and highly dangerous. It is suicide if we fail, but if we succeed…” He glanced at K’Vibo, “It will be glorious.”

K’Vibo nods slowly in approval at that.

Thevius leans back, “My plan is, with our operative, we sneak in with the little Aerie class and go behind the Star Navy or Tal Shiar lines… Whoever is there and is a threat. We sneak back, and with Lihran’s help, we can modify our transporters to beam him across onto their ships. He has security codes, uniform, rank pips and all that. He can pass as one of their crew or officers with no problem. He can leech data, gather intelligence, sabotage their supplies and ship. And then we beam him out of there. I can vouch for him, that he is utterly loyal to the Federation.”

Ivin nods, “I like this idea, sir. I pose one question. You mentioned two Romulans, who is the second?”

Thevius hesitated, his crew did not know of his mixed heritage. He takes a breath, staring down at his PADD for a moment before looking up, “Me. I am the second Romulan.”

Silence hung heavily in the conference room as they all processed this. For the longest time, everyone thought he was a poorly disciplined Vulcan.

K’Vibo broke the silence first, “That explains a lot. No offence, sir. You are the least Vulcan-y Vulcan.” Thevius nods at that slowly, “I… am aware. No offence taken. I am half Romulan, half Vulcan. My mother was murdered during the coup at the Senate, which is my motivation to undermine them and feed them their own poison.”

Thevius gave a faint smile, “I believe in this ragtag, odd crew of misfits. I picked the best, and I very much believe it.” 

He moved to stand up, gathering his PADD, “We leave in five hours with a ship giving us a lift to Starbase 23 where our little vessel awaits us. Ashihl, wait a moment. I want a word.”

The crew all stood up and filed out, except Ashihl who stood behind with Thevius.

Thevius sat on the table facing Ashihl, “Now, I need Lihran. You’ve seen his file and what he looks like. I simply do not have the time to authorise a transfer of him to my command. We have five hours- less than, to get him on that ship and out. I want you to do this. I do not care how you do it, just grab him and get out. Alright?”

Ashihl’s brows shot up, his antennae twitching furiously, “You.. are authorising me to kidnap a Starfleet officer? If I get caught, I am just following your orders?”

Thevius nods, “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. I will take the blame for it. Alright?” Ashihl nods, “Alright, sir. I will do it. I will get you your Romulan.” Thevius smirks, “I knew I could count on you.”