The shuttlecraft sped through the cosmos at half impulse power, and the stars started to become little more than blurs streaking beside them. The shuttle's computer system suddenly sounded an alarm and Lara, who who been sleeping, jolted upright, instantly awake. "What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing to concern yourself with," Data replied, his voice in its usual measured and calm tone.

Seb nodded and typed something into the console. "Uh uh, it was just warning us that we have entered the Neutral Zone."

"We must be nearly there," Charles mused aloud, and Data nodded.

"We have arrived at the planet – the Hidden Planet."

"It's not very hidden, is it?" Seb felt compelled to pointed out the obvious. "Romulans aren't as subtle as you'd think, are they?"

Lara rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's ironic," she suggested, though she doubted the reality of her own assumption. "Whatever it is, we need to start landing procedures. Data, did you want to swap places?"

The android considered for a while. "I will obliginglyhand over control to you, if you wish," he conceded.

Upon that, Lara and Data exchanged seats in the shuttlecraft and she and Seb gave the computer system a landing pattern and route, and then the small ship began a descent.

Charles was preoccupying himself with reading over a padd he had been given – they had each been appointed their own. He was reading his Romulan profile. "This is quite real," he mused, and Data gave him a curious look. "We've got the looks, and now we've got the whole works." He waved to the padd, on which were displayed all of the made-up ideals concerning his new Romulan identity.

"Chebais,"he said deliberately, feeling the unusual, alien word on his tongue. "Chebais." He shook his head. "I don't like it."

Seb rolled his eyes. "We've had a while to look those over."

"Still."

"Be quiet, Chebais," he said, relishing Charles' irritated face when he heard the name.

Shrugging his shoulders, Charles decided that he would get used to his new name. He would only have it for a short while, though. Besides, he could hardly be envious of Seb's being called Sevin, and it would be amusing to call his sister Latuka. He frowned, realising that he had forgotten someone. "Data, what's your Romulan name?"

Data blinked. "Devahk."

"Hmm," Charles mused. Still not worth being jealous of.

As the shuttle's altitude gradually got lower and lower, it began to shake slightly in protest, and Seb realised that the pattern was too steep. Data sensed that something was wrong and he leant over Seb's panicked shoulder, quickly altering the landing route, and the computer beeped contentedly.

"Fifty thousand metres," Seb called out after thanking Data. "Forty-five… forty… twenty..."

Lara took the opportunity to look out of the window. She at last figured out why the planet had its particular name. It was not hidden, no, not in the sense that it could not be found via navigation. But once she saw the surface of kilhra'eri euhre, it became clear to her how desolate the planet was.

"Why on earth would the Romulans want an outpost here?" Charles asked, noting the relatively worn-out and dilapidated state of the world below them.

Lara ignored her brother's comment. In its own way, the planet was beautiful. It reminded her of when she had gone hiking on Mars' Olympus Mons. There was not a lot to see and it was desolate as for as they eye could see, but it was staggering nonetheless. It was empty of life, as far as she could see, but that was the way with most outposts. The planets on which they were were uninhabited except for the few urban centres where procedures would take place.

Out of the cockpit window, now, the cadets could fully take in the view in front of them. It was a busy metropolitan centre, a sharp contrast to the otherwise desert-like outskirts of the planet. People – Romulans – walked about the complex, doing business and talking to each other. It surprised Charles; he had never really thought of Romulans as particularly social creatures, but then he recalled that he had only ever met Vulcans. He had never even talked to a Romulan; he had only read about them.

The shuttle hovered along the surface of the planet, before coming to a total stop. The computer told them that they had reached their destination – a rather superfluous warning – and they stood up warily.

"I think I'd rather stay in here," Charles joked nervously, taking one last look around the cabin.

"Stop complaining," Lara ordered him, and he soon obeyed. "This will be exciting, interesting, ground-breaking, won't it?" She looked at Seb and Data, who nodded readily.

The cadets each picked up their own luggage, Data with much more ease than the rest of them, and then they alighted the shuttle and found themselves caught up in the strange beauty of the place. It was breath-taking. The architecture was astounding, unique. The great structures curved upwards to the sky, and he had to wonder what a sight Romulus itself must be. It reminded Data of Vulcan greatly, but he knew that it would be unwise to say so. He was a Romulan now. Not an android. Not a sympathiser with humans.

First, they were to report to one particular place, and that building towered over the rest of the buildings, and Data informed his friends that the building was home to the military academy that Admiral Tucker had mentioned to them. They were greeted by a rather officious-looking Romulan woman with dark eyes and even darker brows. She led them to a desk, and Charles took in the air around him. It was a grand space, but at the same time rather lifeless and dull. There was no personal touch, no paintings or plants or even any windows. It was just plain and dark and did not look welcoming in the least. But it was a military academy, and a school was a school – they rarely seemed inviting, Romulan or not.

Behind the desk a tall, slim Romulan male was waiting for them. He asked them for their identities and their retinas were scanned. Lara found herself panicking slightly, but then she felt Data's hand on her shoulder and she promptly calmed down. She had been nervous that something would go wrong with the signing-in procedure but it was all over in a flash, and before she knew it, the Romulan official had given them their quarters and told them to unpack their things.

"We don't have much time," Charles muttered, hauling his suitcase along the ground, as Seb watched him with some degree of humour. "Seriously, we have to sort ourselves out, sort our stuff out, and then report for a meeting in half an hour? I don't think I can do that!"

Lara made a face of amusement, and slight annoyance, which Data tried to read. He held out his hand. "Would you like me to carry your luggage, Charles?" he offered, having noticed Charles' tired face.

Charles was about to accept but then declined. "You don't want to show off your strength too much, Data," he warned him. "You'll be found out in a jiffy."

Having researched the meaning of the word 'jiffy', Data nodded in understanding. Their quarters were side-by-side. Lara was a little disturbed; apparently, Romulans didn't agree with gender separation. They had each been given individual key cards with which to get into their dorms.

The dorms. They were very small, with only bunks. There were three to a dorm, and Seb, Charles and Data were all assigned to one together. Lara, however, was in the dormitory beside them, sharing with someone who she didn't know.

"See you, Lara," Charles called, and Seb returned the farewell.

Data, however, regarded her a little more closely. "I shall wait for you to unpack."

Lara's mouth broke in an appreciative smile and she thanked Data, but declined his offer. Entering her dorm, he found that one bed was evidently already occupied, so she chose the one furthest from the occupied one. She wondered exactly who would be in the other bed; it did not seem to be in use at the moment.

She couldn't help but be envious of the others; they all got to stay together, but here she was, all alone for lack of a better word. And, worse than that, she had no idea who she might see in the bed furthest from hers.

Having set her suitcase on the chosen bed, she unpacked her clothes – her 'Romulan' clothes, hanging them up promptly, before taking out the various padds and textbooks that she had been given by Starfleet. She sighed when she got out the clothes; they were all either black or grey or brown, and she resented the Romulans for their lack of appreciation not only for fashion but also for colour. She decided that it would be best to store the padds and textbooksin a secure place, but such a place was lacking, so she settled for placing them under her bed. It would have to do.

There was a mirror in her suitcase, too, and she slowly took it out. To her relief, the cosmetic alteration was still doing its job. She hoped that it would do all that it was supposed to do.

Sure enough, when their half an hour of allotted preparation time was over, she found Data, Charles and Seb standing obligingly outside.

The assembly hall was dull and lifeless; the walls were painted a stark grey, with a sharply accented ceiling and rather shiny floor. As soon as they entered the room, Charles felt compelled to note how quiet the room became; how everyone seemed to be watching them. And then he felt – at least he thought that he felt –his disguise slip loose. The prosthetics… But the doctor had assured them that they were fine. And yet he couldn't shake off the unnerving feeling that the room was giving him.

And the people in the room. There were perhaps a hundred Romulan cadets waiting patiently alongside them. Patiently? Perhaps watchfully? A Romulan rarely missed a trick. They were all standing obligingly side-by-side, the males basically indistinguishable from the females, all straight-backed and obedient.

There were no chairs in the hall, only floor space for them to stand on. Lara swallowed deeply, and Data curiously cocked his head over in her direction. "Is something wrong?" he inquired, his voice deliberately low.

She glanced up at him nervously, too scared to turn her head too much in case that was thought of as rude. "I'm just nervous," she mouthed, and Data gave her what she perceived as a comforting smile. Beneath all of the prosthetics, he was still undeniably Data. That gave her some degree of comfort.

Suddenly, she felt someone push into her. She snapped her head around, her eyes narrowing and catching on a slim Romulan male.

"I apologise," the offending person finally said, after having decided that they could not match her stare. His tone was not even condescending; Lara was shocked by that. He sounded annoyed, irritated, but that was as far as it went. He still did not sound sorry.

Lara nodded curtly; normally, she would have told them not to worry, but Romulans were not compassionate people, by all accounts, and she wasn't about to transgress the stereotype. Once hehad turned back to face the front and had joined the rest of the compliment in waiting for the arrival of the minister – or whoever was in charge – Lara found herself intrigued.

He was tall and did not appear overly strong, but Lara gathered that Romulans shared the supreme strength abilities of their Vulcan cousins. Whatever is was, she wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of one. And yet his face was nearly serene, calm. His brow was high, his eyes bright and alert and intelligent.

At last, the great door at the front of the hall slid open with a quiet whoosh and the entire room dropped to total silence. Charles found himself absent-mindedly reaching for Seb's hand, but Seb looked down at him with a pointed look and Charles nodded in brisk understanding. Lara felt herself grow unsteady on her feet.

"Cadets." His voice was sharp and neutral, demandingrespect in every way. "You have demonstrated that you are ready to make your people proud, to die for the Empireand to command respect from every other species, for they are subservient."

Data, meanwhile, was analysing the man's speech. Each change of tone, pitch, speed, volume, told him what the man was thinking. But he didn't need his positronic brain to realise that the minister was disgusted with the mention of 'other species'. Yet there was something about the man's speech – more than something – which arose suspicion in Data.

"And now you will do even better. When the Federation or the Klingons-" another barelymasked sneer, Data found "-take it upon themselves to stand up to us, we will be ready to strike."

Like a cobra, Charles couldn't help but think.

"If they're even capable of that," Lara heard some rather courageous – or suicidal – cadet say.

But his opinion was apparently seconded. "They've kept quiet for a hundred years. What's the point?"

The murmurs were instantly silenced when the minister walked closer to the rabble. "Quiet," he snapped, and Data once again began his observations. "Do your people proud. Dismissed."

After having filed out, Charles and Seb quickly made for their dorm, and then breathed a huge sigh of relief. Data was sitting, looking rather pensive, on the end of this bed.

Next door, Lara was likewise sat on her bed, vaguely reading stuff on a padd, but she was really paying as little attention as possible. She jumped when the door slid open, caught unawares. Watching the doorway, she saw a familiar face step into the room.

The Romulan looked at her for a short moment, their eyes meeting, before making for his own bunk and taking out an abundance of padds and technical manuals.

"Hi," Lara began slowly, before cursing herself. How did Romulans even greet one another? She cleared her throat and was about to start again when the Romulan spoke.

"Good evening," he said softly, and Lara listened for traces of suspicion in his voice. "I am Jo'rek."

Taking that as an invitation, she introduced herself, making her voice deliberately low and barely making eye contact. Do not introduce yourself as Lara. "I'm Latuka."

He extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you," and she smiled.

"Where's our other room mate?" she asked, gesturing to the one empty bunk.

Jo'rek pursed his lips. "Ah, Cadet Lumaine was – used to be – until he got expelled."

Lara looked away and made a mental note not to be expelled.