Lihran had a wide variety of tools and materials around him, hunched over a device he was constructing seemingly from scratch. Egil was watching with a cup of coffee in hand, leaning against a crate of what one could only guess to be supplies of some sort. Egil finally inquires, “What exactly are you making?”

Lihran grunts, not looking up, “Cloaking device, in the Romulan style. They are stupidly simple. I do not understand the Federation's aversion to this technology.” He pauses, grabbing his hyperspanner, “Alright, I do to an extent. It has many faults. Like the inability to fire weapons or use shields properly when the cloak’s are up. It’s a horribly energy inefficient system. I’m already doing a lot to make this more efficient for us.”

Upon their arrival at Starbase 23, Thevius requested the use of the largest shuttle-bay for some ‘ship repairs’.

Lihran drops to his knees, leaning under the device and adjusting some fastenings and joinings.

Egil nodded slowly, “Great for intelligence vessels. Lihran snorted, “That’s about it really, if you ask my professional opinion.” He mutters and curses at whatever he was doing before pushing himself up, “Alright, grab the other side of this and help me carry it onto the ship. The Bird is way too small for me to construct this onboard.” 

Egil drained half his coffee and set it down on the crate. He straightened up and strode over to help him carry it aboard. The two engineers managed to lift the cloaking device up the ramp and onto the Thyanis with lots of grunting and swearing. Lihran took a moment to grab his water bottle and re-hydrate. He set it back down and grabbed his sonic driver and spanner, starting to pull up floor panels to access the wiring and skeleton of the craft. Egil stayed back, watching the master work. Lihran crouched on support struts, rewiring part of the craft and creating new wiring connections, muttering, “Not as simple as plugging it in.” He worked with expert precision; snipping and stripping wires, spot welding some together, successfully wiring the cloaking device into the ship. He pushed himself up and nimbly stepped across the beams to the nearby console, powering on the ship, “Go outside, and use your combadge to tell me what you see.”

Egil nodded and darted out of the ship, tapping his combadge, “Renot to Lihran, I’m out.” Lihran types some code into the console and activates the cloaking device. The loud whoops coming through the combadge made him chuckle, “Success I take it?”

Egil exclaims, “I can’t see the damn thing! That’s amazing!” Lihran smirks, sitting in the nearby chair as he fiddles with the code some more, “Trust a Romulan to jury-rig a makeshift cloaking device from Fed tech.” He de-cloaks the ship, powering the device down. Egil runs back in, “Never seen one work up close like this!”

Lihran nodded, the console illuminating his face with pale light, “It isn’t a foolproof plan, but it should keep us undetected enough from the Romulans to beam me aboard and off. We are a little fly to the warbirds. I doubt they would pay us much mind.”

Egil pulls up a chair and watches Lihran in mild amazement.

Lihran’s fingers fly over the screen, “Now, I have an idea to disguise our ship signature. I can alter our systems to hide our life signs and make us look like space debris on sensors. As long as no one looks at us through a viewer. We gotta watch our own electromagnetic and radiative emissions, though. That’s the downfall of these devices.” Lihran pivoted slightly in the chair, numbers rapidly scrolling across the screen as he worked out code and equations as if it was in his very nature, “81 years in the Tal Shiar really does teach you some things." He nods towards Egil, “Call Thevius, we are ready to depart here soon.”

Egil nodded and tapped his combadge, “Lieutenant Renot to Captain Thevius. We're ready to get out of here. Lihran finished his little project.” Thevius's voice replies, “Gathering our crew. We will be there shortly and depart soon after.” Lihran pushed himself up, starting to replace the floor panels and wiring before they rest of the crew got there.