Kirk looked positively shocked. "You came here to admit to me you're a spy and have been lying to me because you need someone you can trust?"
The gravity of what she was trying to explain was starting to overwhelm her. "Stephen, please. I'm sorry. You were a mission. Then I got to know you. Now... I don't know what I know any more."
Stephen could tell she was starting to really be upset. But... it could just be another acting job. "Why don't you talk to one of your romulan friends? I mean, why risk telling me..."
"I can't!" she exclaimed, almost in tears. "I don't know who I can trust any more."
Lord, give me wisdom... and CALM, he thought to himself. He took a deep breath. He was becoming more and more convinced that she wasn't acting this time, even though a nagging voice continued to insist she was. "Okay, okay," he started, his voice much calmer. He motioned with his hands and sat forward in his chair. "Back up and try from the beginning."
Something about his demeanor soothed her. Mentally, she was desperately hoping that Stephen truly wanted to help. She took several deep breaths and looked into his eyes. They were no longer glaring and angry. Instead, they seemed warm, but worried. She took several deep breaths before continuing. "Alright. Right after your rather short battle with the three warbirds was over, I decided to look up their identity. They weren't listed on the active roster. I actually found them on a list of decommissioned ships."
Kirk nodded. "So, someone stole them from the shipyards?"
T'osa shook her head. "No. The records at the Derici Maintenance Center has them listed as 'scrapped'. That means at least seventy-five percent of the ship was dismantled and is no longer flyable."
Kirk thought for a moment. "So, you're thinking this wasn't just some paperwork mixup."
She shook her head again. "For one ship... maybe. For three ships at the same center, no. Someone went to a lot of trouble to retire three ships then make it look like they were destroyed." She raised her pointer finger. "Here's where it gets really creepy."
Oh, great, he thought.
"I tried to do some more poking around day before yesterday. The entries in the Derici computer were gone! They're also gone from the naval ship manifest, too. I contacted my commander to tell him what was going on. He already knew! He said that another group was investigating it and I need to leave it alone."
Not that he was an expert on romulan politics or military, but that sounded pretty typical to him. "And you don't think he was telling the truth?"
She buried her head in her hands. "I don't know." Her head was starting to hurt. She eventually looked up, obviously tired. "What I do know is this. I left a copy of the decommissioned ship manifest up on my computer on the Devoras before they erased it from the central computer. When I compared the new list, there were FOURTEEN ships missing from five separate yards." Her eyes looked desperate.
The gears started turning in Kirk's head. His eyes grew wide. "So... you're thinking the remans have gotten their hands on fourteen romulan warbirds and someone on Romulus was helping them?" Oh, precious Lord... that couldn't be right, he thought. Please tell me I'm wrong.
She slowly nodded her head. "That's the only conclusion I can come to. The remans have gotten a hold of at least three ships our systems say were dismantled. Whoever did it was able to keep the ships from being reported as stolen AND having my boss tell me not to look into it any more. Now... whoever did it was also able to erase those ships from our military systems completely. That means it's probably Tal'Shiar." With that, she pushed herself back into the couch and stared at the ceiling. She said it. She told him the truth... well, most of it, anyway. She was both relieved and terrified. It was all on Stephen now. There were so many things he could do with this information that could spell disaster for so many. But, she told him. It was too late to take it back.
Stephen slumped back into his chair, his mind swimming with the knowledge he had been given. Wow. Still, part of him wondered if this was all some kind of elaborate trap. Still, there had to be something to this story. The truth was the truth... the Warlord, disguised as the IRW Devoras, was attacked by three romulans warbirds. Sensors positively identified the crew as one hundred percent reman. Somehow, remans got their hands on romulan technology. "Holy crap," he exclaimed quietly.
T'osa leaned her head back forward and smiled weakly. "So... how was your day?"