Author's Notes: Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.

Another short chapter so I am putting two up at once.

Enjoy.

"This is the worst idea you have had so far," Kate noted as she watched the readouts, "And, considering what we're actually planning to do, that says something."

Tobias frowned at her, "We need to get access to the Seaquest if we're going to succeed."

Kate sighed, "You know it would have been easier to let me go onboard and plant the bug."

"But we need to limit your contact with the crew," Tobias reminded her, "Plus if they find the bug after you've been on board it could ruin any chance of getting you on board later in order to carry out the plan."

"So instead you're going to pretend to be Nathan," she noted, "And go onboard to plant it. That's not going to be easy."

"Which is why you'll be listening in to make sure I don't do anything he wouldn't," Tobias stated.

Kate shook her head grimacing, "This is such a bad idea."

x

"Okay," Kate said as she sat watching the screen showing what Tobias was seeing as she turned the sound up to ensure she didn't miss anything, "Your biggest problem is going to be Lucas."

"I assumed Ford," Tobias replied.

Kate chuckled, "Lucas is the one Nathan dropped his guard with and treated him more like family than a member of the crew. He will sense there is something wrong unless you make sure he is too angry to think about it."

"How?"

"Be Science Nathan," Kate replied, "Not Captain. Science Nathan can be a real ass when he believes in something."

Tobias chuckled, "I have experience of that."

"Then do that," Kate told him, "Make him feel bad about joining up, make him defensive about his plan to stop the spread of this thing. Another issue I have to remember when we get back."

Leaning back in her chair Kate ate a bag of popcorn while she listened to Tobias give a pretty good performance on the Seaquest. She was stuck on this boat for the moment giving instructions while she listened to her friends interact with the man pretending to be her surrogate father. She was getting really sick of this.

x

Kate bounced off her chair when 'Nathan' came storming onto the boat and headed to the controls.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

Tobias smiled at her, "Distracting them and planting the bug properly."

"Through the WSKRs," Kate chuckled, "That is genius and without Miguel here they will never find the bug. No one knows that system like he did. But you'll need to make sure you hide the commands in one of the system routines Tim and Lucas won't know very well."

"Is there any?"

Kate nodded and took over the controls inputting instructions, "I worked with Miguel quite a bit on these when we rebuilt the boat. He added a sub-routine into them as a kind of signature. The others shouldn't know it."

Tobias sighed, "You know what they're doing is going to cause even more problems."

"When we do this it won't have happened," Kate reminded him, "So what do I care."

He shrugged, "Okay. Let's get this done."

x

The bug was working. Kate smiled as she bounced through the different sections of the Seaquest on the screen in front of her. She turned up the sound and listened to the chatter on the bridge before moving to the mess and the infirmary.

"Well?" Tobias asked as he joined her.

Kate leaned back in her chair and nodded, "It's working perfectly."

"Good," he sat down beside her looking tired.

She looked him up and down, "By the way the getting infected part of your plan was completely stupid."

He sighed, "I know but we need the relationship between Nathan and the others to exist for us to manage the final stage of the plan."

Kate nodded before taking a deep breath, "So let's get started because I want to go home."