((Backpost)) (No) Sonic Vibrations

Posted on Thu Sep 3rd, 2026 @ 5:36pm by Lieutenant Jack Lashmore & Lieutenant Arianna Frost
Edited on on Thu Sep 3rd, 2026 @ 6:21pm

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Federation Scoutship
Timeline: Two 'n' a bit Months prior to present

ON:

“Oh what the hell??!!”

Ari startled, hitting her knee, and nearly falling out of her chair. She’d dozed off in the end, despite not really wanting to sleep.

“What?” She climbed out of her chair and righted herself. Then she groaned as her stiff body protested. “What’s wrong?”

“What kind of half-assed operation are you running here?!” Jack bellowed from the rear compartment of the scoutship, followed by the sound of duranium panels hitting the floor. “Oh Jesus Christ, look at this.”

“Stop yelling, for god’s sake.” Ari stepped into the rear compartment. “Suka blyat!” A swear word left her mouth, “you have got to be joking!”

The sonic shower…

Jack was indeed standing by the sonic shower unit, panels torn off its outer wall to reveal that none of its isolinear chips nor gel-pack circuitry had been installed at all. Jack stared at Arianna then gestured indignantly toward the empty casing. “Exactly -how- long are we meant to fly this bucket?”

“Too long for no sonic shower.” Ari sighed, “a little over two months.”

She looked down at her feet, hands on her hips. She took a deep breath, exhaled, then another, and another before she straightened out.

“Okay, well, we’ll have to do it the way we did it during the war then. The Miyazaki was on extended ops for six months, our power grid was shot to hell, we had to ration our showers to one a week.” She sighed and stepped over to the replicator. At least that one was still working properly. She typed in a few commands and pulled out a container with neatly wrapped white-silver looking cloths inside, suspended in a liquid of some sorts.

“We used a worse version of these.” She turned around and showed him the container.

“Yeah yeah…” Jack sighed and then knelt down into the sonic showers unit, under its mirror and began to wipe his hands across its floor. “Not even the shower waste unit works.” He was attempting to pile up cuttings of his hair and what was once his beard from the floor.

It was only then that she noticed that he was a) clean shaven and b) he’d cut his hair too. Involuntarily, her heart skipped a beat as she observed him briefly before she schooled herself and her features. “Hey, there’s a human under there. Who knew?” She added lightly as she turned back to the replicator.

Moments later, she turned back with a bag, a small hand broom and a pan and handed them to him.

He accepted the pan and broom whilst swearing under his breath. Frustration was his guiding light at that moment more than anything else. As Jack continued to clean up, he had to ask, “flight checks are one thing… but might want to run a full auxiliary systems check. If we’re missing this, who knows what else.”

Ari nodded as she set the bag down next to him. “Good call. Give me a few.” She stepped past him first, further back into the compartment, tapped a command at the side of a door and looked inside, light turning on. “Oh, thank god.”

She didn’t wait for replies before she walked past him again and returned to the front. She sat in the co-pilots chair and set off the diagnostic.

Filling the discarded bag with hair Jack sealed the bag shut and unceremoniously tossed it, the pan and the broom into the useless sonic shower before making his way to the cockpit. At that point he was clean-shaven yet still in stained jeans and an almost beige, formerly white singlet; somewhere in the rear compartment, he had left his shoes, socks, shirt and coat.

“Okay…what -don’t- we have?”

“Well the good news is, the dunny’s workin’.” She said, looking at the readouts. “Main library’s there, but anything that’s not catering to ship ops…we’re fat out of luck.”

She hung her head, hair covering her face. “I am going to strangle him…”

“...cook me dinner first at least?” Jack had of course, assumed she was talking to herself about being stuck with him, with no music, digital books or anything to distract herself from him.

“Hum?” She lifted her head up and looked over at him, genuinely confused. “What?”

“Nevermind,” Jack sat upon the pilot seat, “domesticate you later.” He drummed his fingers upon the console to hidden beat for a moment as he thought. “Okay…” fingers left the console and he swiveled in his chair to face her. “Guess we need to create a gameplan and structure to not go insane.”

Ari swiveled her chair to face him, “yes, but first. Coffee. Also…cook you dinner first? What was that about?”

Curiosity was her normal state of being. Just because she asked for clarification, didn’t get it, didn’t mean she was going to let it go. She didn’t wait for an answer however, she stepped back to the replicator, looked over in the sonic shower with a longing look, before she noticed the bag with the pan and broom. She picked them off the floor and put them into the replicator and recycled them.

“How do you take your coffee?”

“Non-replicated the past two years…but I suppose that’s not happening. Flat White, some sugar.” Jack then addressed the lingering request, “cook me dinner before you strangle me, dinner before foreplay, always.”

Ari snorted amusedly at his answer, “not you! That knucklehead Irish friend of ours!’ She said with a sigh, “I don’t alienate allies, especially not when there is payback to be had. But, noted!”

“Long black, one sugar. Flat white, one sugar.” She placed the order. Two mugs materialised, and she took each by the handle before carefully walking back over to him and handing him the flat white mug.

Jack accepted the mug with a light nod and sipped once, leaning back in his chair, thinking. He almost voiced his opinion on a certain topic but figured it best left unspoken; Alex, their friend, and Jack had deliberately kept himself on radio silence from anyone left from his past…too much… stuff…stuff and damage. Well, one person he could not easily escape, a certain El-Aurian who would forcibly show up without notice every few months at the cabin.

“Ok, so…” He cleared his throat and forced his mind elsewhere as he set the mug down beside the console. Arianna. Okay, he was focusing on that a little too long to, probably staring in silence much uncomfortably too long. Gods he spent way too long at the cabin. “Right…so.”

Staring blankly at the consoles read-outs he forced himself to think of something, anything. “System operations intact, yeah? Well, there’s a few thousand pages to catch up on.”

Ari took a sip of the coffee, closing her eyes for a moment, keeping them closed for those moments that Jack tried to find something to say.

“Yeah, we also have a PADD with the Pandora specs, crew files and mission op profile.” She pointed up towards the back towards the other compartment, next to the one Jack had stowed his duffel into. “We also…kind of, have music.”

“So…that covers us for what? A week?” Jack then arched a brow, “Music? Kind of?”

Ari chuckled, “I have a flute. And I can play it.” She said with a shrug and took another sip. “How’s your physical readiness? I’ve just had…a year off, and I’ve been working out at home in my off hours.”

“So…essentially, a year of nothing but?” Jack nodded to himself, that would explain the butt. He shook his head at that thought, then like a typical Australian/Driaan citizen, nodded immediately. “Nah, yeah. I’ve been waltzing the estate, herding meat and stacking hay for the past two years. I’d say I can wrestle an Ox...like I could wrestle it, it’d still kick my ass.”

Ari blinked for a moment, before shaking away a thought of Jack wrestling an Ox. She blinked the other thought off as well, the one that always carried a pang of sadness along with it. Another sip of coffee. “How about we see how we go through the week and figure out more things as we go along.”

“Yeah, okay.” A simple reply. Jack picked up his coffee and nodded in silence. Arianna was a stranger, he was not about to get into whatever her brain was cooking with that odd look of happy then sadness. “Wait..” Jack frowned. “With the limited operations files, what's that mean with the replicator? Basic drinks and rations? Or can we actually replicate items as well?”

She took another sip and shrugged, “mate, I have no idea. I’ve been on this thing for less than a day, forty-five minutes before I landed this thing at Dartmouth. Let’s experiment?”

Jack shrugged and stood up and walked to the back of the scoutship to its replicator, mug of coffee in hand, taking a sip before he stood, ignorant of the device and thought for a moment. Something basic, but not survival basic… “pen and paper?”

Nothing.

“Marshmellows.”

Nothing.

“Starfleet Officer’s handbook”

Oh of course that bloody thing materialised.

Jack sighed, “Yeah, I think we’re limited.”

Ari stepped over, her own mug in hand. “Computer, within current library limitations, what foodstuff can the replicator create?”

-=/\=-The onboard standard replicator unit has default production base code implemented. Base Code includes fifteen hundred recipes of Federation member species to cater for all basic dietary needs. File one, Algae Supplement A, file two, Algae Supplement B, File three…-=/\=-

“Computer, stop.” Jack sighed.

Ari, however, wasn’t done, “Computer, is the replicator able to take manual input? Can we program recipe’s in there?”

-=/\=-Affirmative. Data matrices are required via either supplied isolinear link or input of an original item to be dematerialised into the library-=/\=-

Ari nodded to herself. ”Okay…okay…” Her eyes darted sideways one way and the other for a moment as she thought through a rough idea of a plan. ”To be continued.”

“Okay, well, we’ll be experts on supplements by the time we get there.” She gave him a sarcastic smile as she finished her coffee and put the mug back into the replicator.

“We should also talk routines. Since we have both had time off, we’re not following standard Alpha Shift rotations….” She added as she went over to one of the bunks and sat on it.

“Seriously?” Jack glanced her direction. “It’s two of us on this bucket for over two-months. I’m not going to pretend we’re on starship until closer to target. Sooner put my head into that replicator for dematerialisation at that prospect…it would be quicker, and probably more enjoyable.” Jack gestured to the replicator before adding, “This bucket should let us know if issues arise, and to be fair, most issues it cannot really handle anyway, with or without us following protocol. As far as I see it, this is just a fucked up, auto-piloted, and soon to be smelly passenger flight.”

Ari started pinching the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for the duration of it and exhaled as he finished. “If you go back…” she said slowly, “you’ll find that what I am actually asking is, what is your daily routine, and I’ll tell you mine, so that we can try and make both at least partially work, because I know that we are not following standard ship routines, because we have both had time off. I never said we should follow ship routines. We’ll go nuts if we do.”

Finally, she looked up, willing herself to stay even keeled and neutral. Getting at each other’s nerves wouldn’t serve either of them.

Jack slowly sipped what remained of his coffee during all of that. Even-keeled and neutral in delivery. Well, that was not exactly a new record for him, he -had- already frustrated the woman.

“Generally…eat, sleep, shit and piss.” He placed the mug into the replicator. “My deal with the estate owner was more of an extortion than anything else. I had dirt on them…but I worked when I wanted to…which turned into most days whenever I walked in at my chosen, random time.”

“That almost sounds ideal…” Ari said quietly, interlocking her fingers, elbows on her knees, looking down at the floor.

“I’ll operate around whatever routine you need.” Jack clarified. “Work-outs, and the like.”

Ari nodded, “I usually get up pretty early, even during my off time. Usual bodily functions, work out, read, play music sometime. I’m okay just saying nothing and existing too.”

“So, I’m easy to adapt too.”

Jack nodded, “so no religious times of prayer or anything like that, thank, excuse the pun, god.” He, however, gestured to the rear of the shuttle. “Mecca’s that direction, by the way.”

Ari chuckled, “nah, I’m a heathen…I mean, atheist. My mum’s orthodox catholic, dad’s…something, brother’s a heathen, like me.”

“I’m Lashmore.” Jack replied as if that clarified everything.

“Discount, gotcha.” She winked at him and chuckled.

Jack eyed the direction of where he stowed his duffel bag at that comment. “I was technically a prince, y’know, so, technically everyone else is the discount. But, like most royalty, probably best led to a guillotine.”

“Pity, I was going to say, discount Aussie is better than half-price Aussie, which is what they call us Archernari Aussies back on Earth.” She replied as if he hadn’t professed his royal status to her.

“Half-price prince then. So I suppose I only need a hug to unbecome a toad. Too discount to be a prince frog needing a kiss.”

“Fishing for favors already, are we?” Her eyebrows waggled in good humor.

It was at that moment Jack realised he was approaching flirting. Nope, no, barely know her. Like that ever stopped him before…he forced himself into distract mode and went to grab a mug that had already dematerialised…so to mask that action the grabbing hand went to scratch at his belly. “So…if your work-outs are yoga, I’m already saying, I’m out.”

Ari gave him a dirty look. Did she really look like a person who did yoga?

“Ouf, below the belt there mate.” She said with a chuckle, leaning her neck side to side, feeling the tired bones crackle. “No, no yoga. Mostly just security standard workouts. I normally also do kata’s but alas…space…” she spread her arms and slowly turned as if to prove the point. “Don’t worry, I can solo all that. You’ll have your peace to do yours too.”

“The security sets are good with me, I’ll join that.” He did, however feel the need to exit the conversation as….well, he did not know exactly why. There was an alarm ringing in his brain and he could not quite identify what the old warning was. “But today…I think I’ll just….” What was there to do in silence? He pointed casually toward the cockpit and headed that direction, “relearn these LCARs layouts.”

“Okay, I’m going to take a nap, I am stiff as a board. You have fun, wake me up when you want to use the back compartment.” Ari unzipped her uniform jacket and took off her shirt, and was left in the sleeveless under-shirt. She folded them carefully and put them in the storage compartment under the lower bunk. She then took off her shoes and did the same with them, before settling on the bunk, facing the room. And she was out like a light.

“Two months…” Jack sighed to himself in the cockpit. “We’re gonna kill each-other, or more, she me.”


OFF