Lt Jovenan – Jolan'tru
Jovenan
((Administrative Building, Ki Baratan, Romulus))
Jovenan: This is embarrassing.
She hadn’t whispered that or otherwise tried not to be heard, but the others didn’t seem to mind her solemn struggle. The fairly plain, unadorned Romulan civilian set of clothes was far from the Starfleet uniform, the Edo rompers or even the human civilian clothes Jovenan had occasionally worn. As she was still pondering how stupid she must have looked like with the awkward shoulder pads in her new, mostly brown shirt, the rest of the team continued with accessing the Romulan PADD.
Gnai: There was mention of network terminals... Perhaps that is what might help in the search for... Other disguises? Safer rooms?
Ensign Gnai and Doctor Sadar moved to a terminal, perhaps hoping to gain more information from there. Jovenan folded up her Starfleet uniform to a neat pack, keeping her combadge in her hand.
Adea: How’s the disguise going, Jovenan?
Sighing, she took her uniform from the table. Getting rid of the obviously Starfleet clothes was one step, but the rest of her features wouldn’t have fooled anyone to think she was anything but a human-looking alien in poorly fitting Romulan clothes.
Jovenan: I could do that, but need I remind you that I don’t look like a Romulan even in these clothes? I have the wrong hair colour and style, wrong ears and eyebrows and forehead. I would still be spotted immediately.
Sadar: Which would make replicators our first priority. Both in order to finalize the Lieutenant’s disguise, but also to get ourselves outfitted… I’m starting to feel quite challenged by the lack of a simple scanner too.
Jovenan was perhaps easiest of them to disguise as a Romulan – although she still asserted that Doctor Adea with his black hair would have been better choice, regardless of the colour of his eyes – and she still didn’t look like one. The fact that they would need to do the same and more to both Doctors and somehow to Ensign Gnai made their long-term plans rather ridiculous.
Adea: I mean, we could stick a hat on you. That should cover the hair and brows.
A hat? That would work for a while, but considering their overarching plan, they shouldn’t be relying on the Romulan security never stopping them and taking off the headgear. But, one would need to suffice until they could… do what? Cut and dye her hair? Do a surgery on her and attach stuff to her face and ears?
Gnai: The resemblance to a Starfleet officer is gone though, sir. That is something.
Jovenan smiled a little at Ensign Gnai. It was something.
Adea: Look through those, see if there’s a handy cap, woollen hat or jaunty fedora. ::he turned back to the other two officers:: How’s it going with the PADD?
Jovenan: ::nods:: I’ll try find something.
Jovenan left her uniform on the table near the team, keeping the combadge with her, and walked to the lockers the Commander had pointed out. An administrative office, as this on looked like, probably didn’t have a wide selection of headgear to choose from, but she hoped to find something. The first of the lockers didn’t seem very promising, containing typical office knick-knack.
Sadar: I’m afraid I’m having no luck with the PADD thus far, Sir. The map-component is still plenty useful, but for the purposes of finding something specific? ::voice dies out:: And the map will become useless once we leave the building, so it won’t help getting us closer to the Senate.
Gnai: What is the mission here exactly, sir? This is all very confusing. ::pause:: Should return to 2401 not be the goal?
Jovenan stopped digging up the contents of the locker and turned to the others. The previous explanations to Ensign Gnai had to be brief due to their time constraints, but it had the right to know now what they were set to do here. Her eyes shifted from the Ensign to the Commander as she expected their superior let out the unpleasant news.
Adea: Ah. Ensign, um, we need to ensure that the Romulans join in on the war against the Dominion. On our side - we think that the death of Senator Vreenak is what caused them to join in our timeline. We need to… give that a nudge.
Jovenan: There’s no guarantee on what the future will be like if the Senator isn’t assassinated, but Betazed in just a few years from now was dystopian. We have to make sure our timeline is restored.
An awkward silence fell over the room. Ensign Gnai’s skin and, er, tentacles flashed in different colours, the meaning of which was unknown to Jovenan who didn’t know much about Galadoran biology, but the silence it had engulfed itself in spoke words. She wasn’t sure how it would be regarding her as its new department head having asked such a task of it. She might never regain its respect.
Beep-boop.
Jovenan turned her head around to see where the sound had come from. When she realised it was the PADD the others had been studying, she had a deep breath and returned to look for something to hide the top of her head.
Sadar: Found it.
Adea: ‘It’, Lieutenant?
Jovenan eventually found a black sash, which she tied as a headband covering her ears, forehead, part of her eyebrows and most of her hair, especially as she stuffed it all under it. It looked probably entirely ridiculous, but it had to do. Having done that, she joined the others to look at what Doctor Sadar had found.
Jovenan: Let me see.
Gnai: Response
Sadar: Well, in terms of our immediate destination, the PADD lists something that resembles a workshop or laboratory on the fourth floor of this building. As for the city itself…
Jovenan didn’t like the sound of “workshop or laboratory”. Sure, she realised they must do something to make themselves, or at least some of them, appear more Romulan, but the closer they actually got that, the more it sounded like prothesis and a haircut. She tried focusing on the little map Doctor Sadar had produced.
Adea: Well done, Lieutenant.
Indeed.
Being a geography nerd, this wasn’t the first time Jovenan had seen the map of Ki Baratan. However, she remembered the general features like the sea and the channels better than any details, so she focused on the map, refreshing her memory and gaining the new information as much as she could.
Gnai: Response
Sadar: ::nervous smile:: Seventh time is the charm? ::gingerly touches her chin with a grimace:: Ow.
Adea: Let’s not split up - take a few to memorise that or figure out a way to take it with us. Then we’re heading up to the workshop - fingers crossed they have a medkit and more disguises.
Jovenan raised her eyes to Doctor Adea who was swinging his cane at the ceiling for some reason. She then looked at the map once more and pointed out some places to the others.
Jovenan: These are public transport hubs. That over there is the Senate, and if I’m not mistaken that’s the local, um, barracks. Try to remember the street network in case we need to, erh, abort the mission and flee. It also helps creating the image of the city in your head.
Sadar/Gnai: Response
The Commander looked at each of them and adopted an expression Jovenan interpreted as a smile. She responded with somewhat similar face, pressing her lips to a straight line.
Adea: Right, let’s get moving… A moving target being harder to hit and all.
Jovenan handed her folded-up uniform to Doctor Sadar and grabbed the PADD from the table.
Jovenan: I should probably go first and look out for any locals. If we’re lucky, they might not realise I’m not one of them. Just… get ready to come help me if they don’t.
Sadar/Gnai: Response
Nodding, Jovenan walked to the door and opened it. Alone but surely observed from afar by her colleagues, she walked down the stairs, passing the place they had stopped the previous Romulan. Occasionally, she would look up to see if the rest of the team were still following her, but she had to remind herself that if there were any Romulans seeing her, her odd behaviour would only alarm them of the team. However, a flight of stairs and there hadn’t yet been a person in sight.
Then, she heard steps approaching from below.
She halted, her heart racing, hoping that the others would realise that she had stopped for a reason. Soon, a figure emerged from behind the corner, walking up stairs from a lower floor. The Romulan woman, also in civilian clothes, looked up from her PADD as she noticed Jovenan. Jovenan was trying to contain her internal panic.
Jovenan: Jolan’tru.
Other than “D’deridex” and “Tal’Shiar”, Jovenan had now exhausted her Romulan language knowledge. She hoped the universal translator wouldn’t let her down now.
Romulan: ::dryly:: Jolan’tru. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.
Panic, panic, panic!
Jovenan: I’m new. I only started out here last week.
Romulan: Ah, I see. ::raises an eyebrow:: Where are you from?
Once again, being a geography nerd was coming to Jovenan’s aid, but she knew next to nothing about the people who lived in these places. She could pick up a place anywhere from the planet’s map, but if the Romulan woman had any reason to doubt her answer, their mission would be cut short before it properly even began. Her teammates relied on her answering correctly. She felt like she would faint out any minute.
Jovenan: Near FelKoth, in the western Umrika.
Romulan: ::smirks:: That explains it. If I were you, I would lose that ridiculous headband. Vichrahk won’t be as tolerant of it as I am.
Jovenan: I will. Thank you.
The Romulan woman turned her eyes back to the PADD and walked away. Jovenan looked behind her as she walked across the corridor and entered a room. Only after the door shut after the Romulan, Jovenan inhaled once more. After a few seconds, she carried on. Eventually, she reached the fourth floor and the workshop/lab they had talked about. She opened the door, finding, to her relief, no one inside. She leaned against a wall inside, slowly sliding to sit on the floor, and with shaking hands she tapped her combadge.
Jovenan: =/\= Coast’s clear. =/\=
Adea/Sadar/Gnai: Response
Jovenan looked up from the floor as her colleagues entered. She managed to point out devices on the other side of the room.
Jovenan: Those look like replicators. Ensign, could you look if there are any tools or equipment around here we could use while Doctor Sadar tries to get the replicators work?
Adea/Sadar/Gnai: Response
She turned to Doctor Adea, not yet making a move to stand up.
Jovenan: E-even I might need a haircut and prothesis. I’m not sure if I can do that again.
Adea/Sadar/Gnai: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11