The shimmering white sparkles of the transporter beam faded away. Stephen and T'osa found themselves standing in front of her home, it looked similar to his own apartment in Houston. The sun had just set behind the mountains to the east, casting an erie purple hue to the landscape. Where she lived was crowded with buildings, but looked almost spartan as he looked down the street towards the center of the city. The street itself was wide and sandy, but with relatively few vehicles. There were but a few people walking the sidewalks. At regular intervals, floating globes of bluish white light began glowing dimly, illuminating the sidewalks and streets. An occasional humid wind would blow through the area temporarily moving the globes out of place, but would immediately re-orient themselves.

T'osa considered him thoughtfully. "You've never been to Romulus before, have you?"

Kirk shook his head only half hearing her. He wanted to take in all the sights he could. From a number of half opened windows and doors he could make out the sounds of romulan discussions too far away for his translator to interpret. In a tree across the street, he could discern the flapping of some small, winged lizard. It made a high-pitched owl sound, but repeated it very quickly for several seconds before letting its tone drop off at the end. The tree it was in looked odd to him as well. It was about five meters tall, but the trunk looked more like a thick vine. The only branches were a single layer at the very top spread like an umbrella of dark green leaves. As he looked around, he noticed the landscape was full of these trees. The grass, if you could call it grass, had a light blue hue to it and was almost a half meter tall. Each blade appeared to have small prickles all over it, but as he touched them, they were soft. The smell had a hint of cinnamon.

His eyes went from the nature to the buildings. He had always found it strangely ironic that planets initially named by humans for Roman gods would have native names that sounded similar; Romanad and Resanea. Of even more striking irony was how similar the Romulan way of life paralleled ancient Rome... right down to the large pillared archways of their architecture. To Stephen, of course, this wasn't merely coincidence; it was proof that God's hand stretched farther than anyone could imagine. Although the technologies surrounding the streetlights, the freestanding messaging systems, the building security systems, and the vehicles lining the street were modern, the bricked, arched design of the buildings looked as though they leaped right out of a Julius Caesar documentary. The similarities were shocking. He wished he could stay for awhile and take it all in.

T'osa watched his eyes as they hungrily scanned everything. While she lamented the possibility of a coup to seize control of her home, she was definately proud of her people. The idea that someday she would be forced to leave or accept a new way of life mentally pained her to the point of momentarily closing her eyes. She was convinced. She WAS a patriot. The people she was trying to uncover were the traitors, no matter what rank they carried. Her oath was to serve the Empire, not a group a dissadents with power. Not everyone would agree with that, she admitted to herself. It was a terrible notion to think that some of her own race had more in common with the money grabbing Ferengi than with her. One day, when everything was back to normal, she'd give Stephen a legitimate tour of the capital city. Unfortunately, now was not the time. T'osa needed to start putting pieces together.

She gently tugged his elbow. "Come on, let's go in." Absently, he nodded his head. She led him up the wide stairs to her home and pressed her hand against a lighted panel next to the door.

"T'anranea verlosh a perit'a, T'osa," a computer voice said to her. The door opened. Inside, she headed toward an ornate sprial staircase led to the second floor.

"Looks like a nice place," Stephen remarked. The four doors on the first floor appeared to be some kind heavy wood. He followed her up the stairs.

"It is," she smiled, "but thank the gods for transporters, or I wouldn't have any furniture. I tried carrying some small things up these stairs when I first moved in, and almost killed myself." At the top of the stairs, the nearest door on the right swung open. They stepped into a darkened room. "Lights." she said aloud.

Soft yellow lights from two floor lamps illuminated her small living room. It was a square room, with two small chairs and a sofa ringing a small, round table. A large painting of a desert landscape covered the southern wall, next to the front door. A large computer terminal dominated the eastern wall. As he examined the arched entryways that led to a small bedroom and a kitchen, she walked to the computer terminal. "Computer," she started. The screen instantly burst to light with the symbol of the Romulan Empire; the bird of prey holding Romulus in one talon and Remus in the other. "Replay number four saved message with Stephen Kirk."

Within seconds, he heard his voice and face say, "Hi, T'osa. What brings you to my video screen?"

"I'll be right back," she said, then disappeared into her bedroom.

"You recorded our conversations?" He asked, somewhat alarmed. His mind began replaying as much of their previous conversations as possible, trying to think of anything he might have said that was, in any way, unwise.

"I always record my conversations," she replied with a raised voice. From within her bedroom, Stephen could hear her rifling through various objects.

"Even personal ones?" he asked, raising his voice over the video screen and rummaging sounds.

The rifling sound ceased. She re-appeared with a small, black, cylindrical device. "Especially the personal ones," she answered with a smile. "Smile," she said. She pressed a button on the side of the device.

Still confused and taken aback at the notion his conversations were in a Romulan computer, he responded the only way he could think. "Huh?"

She set the device on the round table and pressed another button. "It's a biorhythmic emulator. To anyone scanning my home, it'll look like we're here." She pointed to the video screen. "To anyone listening to my home, it'll look like we're here... for the next three hours, anyway." She picked up a small, black knapsack from the floor by one of the chairs, then motioned for him to follow. "Come on. We'll go out through the balcony." With that, she headed towards the kitchen.

She certainly had this planned out, he thought. That worried him. If she did have this all planned out, why did she need HIM? He shook his head. It was a little too late for him to back out now. He held up his finger. "Hang on," he said. Reaching down, he opened the bag he brought with him. "I need to change into something more... appropriate." With that, he withdrew an all black outfit, a vest, boots, gloves, and a very ominous-looking black mask. "It'll only take a minute or two. Can I use your bedroom to change?"

She nodded. He certainly came prepared. That was an impressive uniform he had brought. It certainly wasn't standard Starfleet issue. T'osa recognized the vest from intelligence reports she occasionally received. It was some kind of high-tech Marine gear, but she couldn't remember exactly what it did. Apparently, there was more to Stephen than met the eye. What emerged from the bedroom unnerved her. He was dressed in all black, from the full headmask that completely covered his face to his boots. The bodysuit was form fitting, revealing unusually well-defined biceps. The lack of eyes in the mask was especially disquietting.

"Okay, I'm ready," an especially intimidating, computerized voice said. Presumably, it was Stephen, but it sounded completely synthesized.

"Nice outfit," she remarked uncomfortably. SHE didn't have nifty gear like that.

"Just a little something I picked up during my tour in the Marines," Stephen replied using the synthetic voice of his suit. She would have to get used to that as well as a few more 'benefits' this suit had to offer. He spent three years in the Special Operations unit of the Starfleet Marines before being accepted to the Academy. This exosuit was part of the perks. He had already configured it to emit the bio-readings of a romulan. "Shall we go?"

"Yeah," she was still looking over the suit and vest. She wondered what kinds of toys that thing carried. T'osa had a feeling she'd find out. "We can climb out the balcony in the kitchen. It'll be a twenty to twenty-five minute walk to the old city from here."

"And you're sure that old transporter will work if it's powered up?" He still had some lingering questions, but she seemed to have the plan worked out. Just in case, he brought a few of his 'suppliments' in his backpack.

She nodded. "One of the two should work. The power cell I brought will only work twice, though. The two stepped out onto her balcony, slowly climbed down once they knew the back road was clear, then began their shadow-lined walk towards the old capital city, a large cluster of mostly bombed out buildings and torn up roads on the west side.