Posted by Commander T’Aria (XO / Navigation Officer) in MainSIM - Shuttle Hangar (Attn. Away Team)
Step 1: Prepare

The away team soon found themselves propped against stiff biobeds with tingly faces lighted by holographic sketches, their fate in the hands of their medical staff.

Within moments, they transformed their Vulcan comrades into passable Romulans. They altered the incline of their eyebrows and thickened them with synthetic hair. Then, they moulded their ears into a sharper point and hardened the skin of their temples until it formed a ‘V’-like crest. It took a little blending and a lot of green-tinted powder to make the skin believable to wandering eyes.

Meanwhile, an NE scoured the Romulan databanks, cross-referencing with known Federation sightings to replicate (believable) clothes. He laid their uniforms beside them with the half-hearted joke that “they would be fine so long as there weren’t any Romulan Fleet buffs lurking around Ketha”.

After their make-over, they wove through the belly of the Bird-of-Prey until they found the armoury where they equipped themselves with medical equipment, Romulan disruptors and a communication device that provided a safer alternative to their easily traceable communicators.

Kastarak looked at himself in the mirror after the slight make-over. He hadn’t expected needing this facial reconstruction, but he understood the logic about it. On one hand, Romulans – as far as could be ascertained – displayed a high degree of variety of facial features, with some looking fully indistinguishable from Vulcans and others, particularly from the northern regions, had the more stereotypical V-lined forehead. If he, and his comrades on the away team, would look fully Romulan, with no hint of Vulcanness in their appearance (But what about demeanour…? Could that be faked?), the mission would be more likely to succeed.

He gazed onto himself. It was uncanny. He felt a repulsion within his gut, followed by embarrassment for innate racism towards Romulans rooted in the trauma of the destruction of his planet. It was illogical to hate all Romulans, to be repulsed by them, for the genocidal actions of the renegade ship from the future. Yet, it was a feeling he could not shake off at this moment. Or, maybe he could, but he decided to let it linger, the anger, the hatred, the repulsion – these emotions felt good and cathartic at his very moment. He hated the face he saw, and he grinned.

Taken aback by his grin, it was as if he had a Romulan twin demon coming at him. He quickly purged the emotions now, they were growing too fast and too intense. Moments later, at a serene state of mind, he found himself observing himself, practising facial expressions. He mirrored them more on Symar’s unmasked expressions than on humans (even if the differences would only be subtle, but better be safe than sorry so to speak). It looked somewhat genuine, perhaps he would need to let emotions in to make it appear more genuine. That was a concerning thought, but it would be logical to use emotions to convey emotions. Klingons were highly attuned, after all, at seeing all kinds of subtle hints in people’s (even aliens’!) demeanour and expressions, as their culture prepared them for fight and hierarchization of honour at every given moment.

Step 2: Depart

T’Aria rounded the corner and adjusted the small kit attached to her hip, occasionally lifting her gaze to ensure they hadn’t strayed from their path to the hangar deck where their shuttle awaits.

“Romulan disruptors do not have a stun setting,” she continued the rundown as the shuttle hangar doors came into view, “keep them holstered. It is unclear whether the Klingons are amenable to Romulan presence on Qo’noS, so keep all devices powered down until we secure Rianna.”

“Yes, commander,” Kastarak said in deference. He was fully prepared.

It would be radio silence until the need for the crew’s aid arose. Even then, it was a long shot that the ships’ sensors could pick up on their signal through the dense Qo’noS atmosphere.

“Is everyone prepared?” T’Aria asked as they reached the shuttle hangar.

— T’Aria

(OOC: Feel free to add! This is very much an outline.)

“Yes, commander,” he said once again, in a lower tone than usual, refusing to look directly at T’Aria. To Kastarak, she looked hideous, almost evil. It gave him a sense of paranoia. He decided to explore that feeling, as it would be one characterizing Romulans – at least from his knowledge of Romulans, a paranoid nation.

What if T’Aria was secretly Romulan too? She and Symar had been close. T’Aria had, after all, demasked a few times infront of Kastarak. She was capable of expressing, and indeed analysing emotion. Vulcans aren’t attuned to that… And did Symar and T’Aria have an affair? They had spent time in each other’s quarters. Wasn’t that how she had caught that Romulan virus too? Maybe because she was Romulan.

Kastarak felt a chill through his body. This emotion was not conducive. He needed to purge it, and he needed to have done it seconds ago, before growing too intense. It was far too intense now.

If any body would look at Kastarak now, they would see him activating his forehead muscles – accentuated by the facial reconsunction – and a darkness would be seen in his eyes, his teeth clenched, and cheak muscles tensed up.

He did not like who he had become.

Finally, the release of serenity came, and he felt a rush of oxytocin through the body, the relaxation of his muscles, and the clarify of mind. He looked at T’Aria again, and saw his friend. A small feeling of good came upon him, which confirmed the truth, and he shut that feeling down too.

“I am ready,” he said, confirming a third time that all was well.

– Ensign Kastarak (codename: “Rateg”)