Mara, T'Son, and Toreth—now that they had remembered everything—knew they had to do something, but didn't know what. So, they decided to hold tight and wait while Toreth stalled before reaching Romulus every way she could. Since the ship was infected with the Romulan flu, they were allowed to drift in space for several days, waiting for the flu to die out.
"MARA!" "Uh-oh," Mara groaned, banging her head against the cell wall. T'Son looked up from where he was writing graffiti on the walls, such as Romulans Suck! And Mara is the most annoying person in the multiverses, and smiled. "What'd you do this time?" he asked. "Um, Val, or Toreth, probably tried some of the healing techniques I showed her on some of her sick Romulan friends," Mara answered. "What's wrong with that?" T'Son asked, "or do I want to know?" "Probably not," Mara replied.
The brig door flew open to reveal a very furious Toreth, who was clutching her blanket around her and sucking on a cough drop. "MARA, I WILL HAVE YOU KILLED!" Toreth screamed hoarsely around her sore throat. "You know, Toreth," Mara said, "if you keep screaming like that, your sore throat will get even worse. I would suggest lying down, watching some sappy romantic holo-vids, crying your eyes out, and making yourself sick on truffles."
Toreth ignored her advice, and started pacing around the cell. "How DARE you lie to the Chairman of the Tal Shiar!" she bellowed. "I never lied to you," Mara said. "About what?" "About your medical technology!" Toreth screamed, and then coughed, made a motion as if she were about to throw up, and did—all over T'Son's graffiti. "Hey!" he protested.
Mara laid back on the cot, hands behind her head, looking quite smug. "Listen," she said, "I never lied to you. I told you my medical technology secrets—I just didn't tell you they were harmful to Vulcans. What happened?"
Toreth took a sip of their water. "I expect to be paid back for that," a still angry T'Son muttered. Toreth glared. "Two of my finest guards were stricken with mentolistglohemia, and we gave them the medicine you prescribed, and they turned blue, then red, then pink, started coughing up balls of what looked like owl pellets, and then their intestines burned inside their stomachs, acid poured into the kidneys, and then they died with green foam coming from their mouths, you bitch!" She hit Mara with a disrupter.
"Ow!" Mara complained, rubbing her stomach. "That really hurt, Toreth." T'Son was grumbling as he wiped vomit off of his works of art, and shooting daggers at Toreth's back with his eyes.
"Well, you should be hurting!" Toreth shot back. "Those were my finest guards…" "Eh. So they're dead. You'll get better ones." Mara leaned back again and closed her eyes. "Mara, I want the true medical techniques and procedures, and if you don't, I'll vomit all over you." A hacking sound made Mara leap up and put her hands in the air. "Okay, okay!" she yelped. "Let's go, then!"
"Wait!" T'Son said with disgust as he cleansed his hand in water. "A disrupter shoved in your gut doesn't make you flinch, but the thought of being covered with Toreth's vomit makes you want to tell her Federation secrets?"
"I'm squeamish," was Mara's only reply as they walked out of the brig. "Then why are you a nurse?" T'Son asked the empty room.
"And this is the real information?" Toreth asked, shoving a disrupter to her head and hacking. Mara flinched. "Ew, ew, YES, I SWEAR!" she howled. "Take her away!" Toreth demanded imperiously. Mara was dragged back to her cell and thrust in, where T'Son glared. "Traitor," he pronounced.
"Hmph," Mara sniffed. "I hate vomit." "So do I, but the Federation doesn't like traitors," T'Son said. "I know," Mara said, "but this is the perfect opportunity for them to get rid of me." "Ha! You wish," T'Son said.
Mara laid down on the cot, watching as T'Son meticulously drew an "a" on the wall. "If you get rid of me," Mara said in a wheedling tone, "you'll be the most popular man on the whole ship." "Why?" T'Son glanced back before continuing his writing. "Because men don't hit on me anymore because they're deathly afraid of being set adrift in space with only water and a small supply of rations and no bathroom, or being sent to the hottest mountain in Vulcan, or—" T'Son interrupted her monologue. "Maybe so, but keeping my personnel fearful is good for them."
"You sound like a Romulan," Mara commented. "Maybe so," T'Son repeated, laying down his piece of writing utensil and standing back, looking happily at his masterpiece. "Huh. Cute," Mara said admiringly. "I like the way the phaser has a little edge to it. Although, the trigger looks slightly rounded." "You think?" T'Son asked. "Definitely," Mara said.
On the wall, T'Son had written, 'T'Son', and drew a phaser beneath his name, and then beneath the phaser written, 'Mara'. "I think it's good, though," Mara said. "Do you mind if I sleep on the cot tonight?" "No problem," T'Son said, already mesmerized as he drew another anti-Mara slogan on the wall.
Mara drifted off to sleep to the sound of T'Son's piece of metal scratching the wall, and into a dream…
"Quick!" Mara urged Toreth. "We have to get to it fast, otherwise we'll miss the portal!" "I'm going as fast as this thing will let me," Toreth retorted, speeding the small vehicle into space. Mara shoved T'Son against the wall that he was already smushed against to get more room.
"We only have five minutes!" Mara said agitated, looking at a calendar and seeing the star-date 598737, and then at her old-fashioned watch, which said 9:55. "Hurry!" T'Son urged. "She's gonna kill me!"
"There it is!" Mara gasped, pointing ahead and shoving T'Son's head against the wall. Right in front of them, a portal of blazing orange light shone, getting dimmer and dimmer. Out of impulse, Toreth slowed the vehicle. "We're gonna miss it!" Mara shrieked, and shoved the gas pedal—or whatever you call the thing that made it speed up—to the maximum, sending them shooting through the portal just as it closed.
Mara jerked awake, her heart beating wildly, and flung herself off the cot to where T'Son still sat, bags under his eyes, admiring his wall of anti-Mara sayings. "Gimme the metal!" Mara gasped, grabbing the sharp point and stabbing her hand.
"Hey! What's your problem?" T'Son asked defensively. Searching her mind, Mara slowly wrote on the wall 598735-and then scratched it out. Not right. 587635-no, not right. Suddenly, she got it, and quickly wrote down Star-Date 598737, 9:55.
"Aw!" T'Son complained. "You wrote over my best phaser drawing!" "Look!" Mara pointed excitedly. "That's when the time portal opens up! Then we can go back and make things right!" T'Son looked at her cautiously. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Look!" Mara said impatiently. "That's when the time portal opens up. We have to go through it and stop Hank." "From doing what?" T'Son asked. "I dunno," Mara shook her head, "but I just have a feeling."
"That's in three days," T'Son said. "Yes!" Mara punched the air. "One problem, Girl Wonder," T'Son said dryly. "Where does the time portal open up?"