Lihran cracked his eyes open about twenty minutes before the wakeup call with an agitated grunt. 15 years later and his body still wakes up at the correct time. Looking down the hall, he spied Covel’s boots coming at a swift pace. Lihran quickly closed his eyes again and pretended to be asleep. He heard Covel stop right beside his bunk, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. Covel hissed, “Little shit,” and stormed off. Lihran waited five more minutes before opening his eyes.

He rolled out of his bunk, rubbing his face with his hands. He sat there for a moment, staring at his hands in his lap, doom settling in the pit of his stomach. He was jerked rather rudely out of his thoughts by the Romulan in the bunk above him swinging his legs down and kicking Lihran in the head by accident. Lihran snarled and elbowed him sharply in the shins, spitting out an insult, “Fehill'curak!” The other Romulan kicked Lihran again, on purpose this time, calling him an even ruder name. Lihran bit back his temper and stood up, starting to pull on his uniform, now in a rather cross mood and glaring at his bunk mate.

Lihran shrugged into his tunic, fastening it up and making sure it was laying properly before slipping the belt around his waist and over his shoulder. He was tired and hungry. And incredibly grumpy. He bent down to pull on his shined boots, tucking his pants into the tops. He straightened up and grabbed his PADD, tucking it under his arm. He found it oddly comforting to use his native language without the aid of Universal Translators or stumbling through Standard. Of course he did pick up Standard in the 15 or so years he has been involved in the Federation, but with the use of Translators, it wasn’t as good as a native speaker would be. His Standard was broken and heavily accented without the help of UT.

As he made his way towards the mess hall, the wake up call blared throughout the crew quarters. Lihran headed right towards the source of food and coffee. He found a far away table to sit himself down at with his meal. He elected to have a rice like grain with cooked eggs and a spiced poultry meat, some various vegetables mixed in. He had a cup of Romulan coffee as well. He paid no mind to anyone else in the mess hall, catching up on the Empire news on his PADD, or… what was left of the Empire. It wasn’t even news at this point, just propaganda of a dying Empire.

Illustrious lies and gilded stories to try and motivate the average Romulan grunt to join the Star Navy. No one in their right mind would accept or believe it anymore. It was time their people entered a new era and left the Empire behind.

Lihran looked up as someone joined him, his brows shooting up in surprise at a familiar face. The new arrival smiled, "I thought it was a rumour that you were back to serving, sir! I just had to see if my old mentor was here."

Lihran chuckled, "Very much the same, Thajeet. Still the same rank I see?" Thajeet nodded and sipped his tea he brought with him, "Not much has changed, Lihran." Lihran shook his head, showing him the propaganda on his PADD, "No, a lot has changed, to be honest. Whats your thoughts on it all?"

Thajeet looked around cautiously, leaning forward to lower his voice, "I hate it. I have a child on Rator I should be raising. My wife died in the supernova. I do not want to be here."

Lihran nodded, "Not to mention we have orders to destroy and attack Federation convoys. Coup, acts of war, military strikes… I don't want to do this. I'm sure there's enough of us that we could take over the ship and go home. Or… maybe go to another planet."

Thajeet paused to consider. There it was, the first seed of mutiny planted. Thajeet replied softly, "My daughter… She has no one else. If I die here, shamefully at the hands of the Federation for defying treaties, she will not forgive me. I’d rather die trying to do the right thing.”

Lihran smiled at that, "Yeah, we want to avoid that, my friend." He looked over and saw Covel enter the room. Lihran acted impulsively and rather foolishly, leaning forward and closing the distance between himself and Thajeet, planting his lips on the other's. 

Thajeet stiffened and half lifted his hands, as if ready to shove Lihran off, yet he actually kissed him back. Covel caught sight of this and swept angrily across the mess hall. He grabbed a handful of Lihran's hair and viciously yanked him away from Thajeet. Lihran cried out in pain and lurched to his feet, wrestling Covel's hand off of his hair and straightening up, anger burning in his eyes.

Covel took a half step back, subdued fear in his eyes. Lihran was a lot larger and stronger than when they were together previously. Now Lihran could easily overpower him and Covel knew it.

The mess hall lapsed into utter silence, everyone watching the tension with baited breath. Lihran lowered his voice, his tone cold, "Do not lay hands on me like that again. I've changed." Covel retorted tersely, "I'm the captain here. I've got the bigger stick, I can do what I want."

Lihran did not reply, just giving him a daring look, arms folded over his chest. Covel got called to the bridge, saying to Lihran, "You are lucky I have things to do and am feeling benevolent. Think about the errors of your ways." Romulans were ROmulans, but even they had rules against laying hands on another in the Star Navy to keep the ship operating as one smooth unit, and now a good portion of the crew witnessed Covel lay his hands violently on Lihran.

Covel abruptly turned, stalking out of the mess hall. Lihran sighed, relaxing when Covel left.

He turned, apologising to Thajeet, “I’m really sorry about that. I wanted  him to react violently. The more people that see his corruption and violence, the better.” Thajeet lifts a brow, “You are aiming to make him jealous and make him react?” Lihran sat back down as he nodded, “Amongst other things. I will work on speaking with other officers, see where everyone’s loyalties are.” Thajeet eats his breakfast in silence for a few minutes, contemplating, “Alright. I’ll help you with this. The more of us that flirt with you with the Commander around… The angrier he will be. I have nothing to lose, save getting home to my daughter. Let’s do this.” 

Lihran looked over as Sekal sat beside him. He murmurs to the junior engineer, “Good. I need your help. Lets finish eating and head towards engineering.” Sekal wordlessly lifted a brow, nodding.