His door slid open with a quiet hiss and T'osa stepped in holding what looked like a brown paper bag. She walked in with a guarded smile. "Good evening, Stephen," she said as the door slid closed behind her. "Are you hungry?"
Stephen shook his head. "Sorry. I ate a little while ago."
She sat down on the couch beside him and started pulling wrapped items from the bag. "I hope you don't mind if I eat. I was starving when I left work, so I stopped by this little restaurant on the way to the transporter." She opened one of the larger items to reveal sticks with several rolled strips of a crispy, khaki-colored meat pierced through. "I got extra, in case you were hungry." It had a very unique smell... similar to meatloaf, peanut butter, and honey all at once. With a wave of her hand, she announced, "This is oil-fried cavefish." She pulled out a couple of small, wrapped cups with what appeared to be thick sauces in each. "Complete with diping sauces." she added. She withdrew what looked very much like a Chinese take-out container and opened it. It was full of small, green-colored corn flakes. "These are pecha flakes." She unwrapped what looked like a small, blue eel. "We also have fresh alwe. You might want to steer clear of this one, it's kind of an acquired taste." Finally, she uncovered what looked like an elongated paper plate covered in small, decorated, yellow pastries. "Last, but not least, ossoul twists."
Stephen looked curiously at the meal in front of T'osa. The alwe looked as horrible as some of the Klingon food he had to stomach a few years ago, but everything else looked at least palletable. "How do you eat the flakes?"
She removed a thin, wooden peg, just longer than her hand, from the bag. "With this," she answered. She opened a tall, thin container and dipped the peg inside. It was coated with a thick, orange colored syrup. "You dip the stick in the s'ashova sap, then dip it in the flakes," she put the sap-coated stick in the box of flakes. When she removed it, it was covered with green flakes. "and eat." She inserted the entire stick her mouth. "If you like, I can show you how to use the shearing tool for the alwe." She smiled wryly.
Kirk smirked. "Thanks... I think I'll hold off on that." With that, he took wooden stick T'osa offered him and tried the pecha flakes. They reminded him of barbeque flavored corn chips. The dipping syrup tasted like sour honey. The cavefish was, well, crispy. By itself, it didn't have much taste at all. Thank goodness for the dipping sauces. Although the white sauce nearly burned his tongue through with spices, the pale yellow sauce was rather sweet. Although he enjoyed sharing the meal with T'osa, part of him was expecting a sedative or truth serum to begin taking affect.
She was thrilled that he would try some of her food. T'osa had been raised to believe the Federation imposed their beliefs, food, and culture on any planet or nation that fell under their jurisdiction. It was comforting to know she was wrong about that, too. Still, she couldn't help but get a sense he was still holding something back from her. It was almost like sitting next to another romulan, which she was trying to avoid. She figured she'd need to approach the subject carefully. "Thank you for the information you gave me earlier. I was able to talk to someone in strategic planning this afternoon. The Aardulae was sent into the Ovuiuse system three months ago. I'm guessing that's the missing ship, since the Ovuiuse system is almost four months into romulan space."
Kirk nodded and took a drink of the cola he made for himself. "Yep... I'd say that's probably your ship." For some reason, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. "Any ideas on what to do next?"
She nodded slowly. T'osa had been trying to figure out a way to pull off both her mission and her division's mission at the same time. She figured she just couldn't tell him the whole story... yet. If she did, he'd never go through with it. "Well," she started, staring at the floor, "I figure we're going to have to get aboard that ship." She looked up and smiled weakly.
"Why would you need to... wait." The fact she said 'we' just struck him. "What do you mean 'we're going to?'" That's why he was getting nervous. "You're crazy if you think I'm setting one foot on that thing."
She expected this would be a hard sell. "I can't board it by myself," she offered defensively. "I need help."
Kirk shook his head emphatically. "No way." She was trying to lead him into some kind of trap. He could sense it. Having him get caught aboard a captured romulan ship would lead to a major intergalactic incident.
"Stephen, the transponder system is closed. I can't access it remotely. In order for me to see who changed the code, I have to be on the ship."
"No," He said flatly. It was one thing to be the victim of a trap. It was quite another thing to waltz into one.
She looked desperate. In order for her plan to work, she needed him on the ship. "Stephen, I need someone to watch my back while I access the system. You could say you were visiting me for the night. No one would know."
"I've already exceeded the number of times I'm allowed to be shot on a romulan ship in a lifetime." He said disparagingly. He folded his hands for emphasis. If she drugged the food to make him more complacent; it didn't work. "Besides, I really don't want to spend the rest of my tour of duty in the brig for insubbordination."
She was exasperated. Perhaps she didn't quite have the hold on him she thought she did. Perhaps he really wasn't that interested in her to begin with. Perhaps she wasn't being very convincing intentionally. She shook her head. This was too important for too many reasons. "Look... if you get caught you may get court martialed. If I get caught, I'll be executed for treason." On that, she wasn't kidding. "I don't want to do this, either. But... if there's a group on Romulus actively trying to prevent the Empire and the Federation from uniting, we need to know who it is, right?"
Good grief... that actually made sense. He sat there, silent, mentally battling over what she had said. He needed to tell Captain Bolerov of all this. Yet, immediately after that thought came a phrase he learned while he was in the Marine's special operations unit... "plausible deniability". If he DID get caught, he had to ensure no one else would get dragged into it as well. He couldn't trust, her... but he wanted to believe her. She lied to him, but he still liked her. Everything in him said it was a trap, but she had a point. Something about all this wasn't right... and answers weren't going to simply jump out at them. In the end, he had to go with his gut. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes painfully.
He couldn't believe he was going to say it... "Okay... what's your plan?"