((Back Post)) Library of the Stars

Posted on Thu Sep 3rd, 2026 @ 5:40pm by Lieutenant Jack Lashmore & Lieutenant Arianna Frost

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Federation Scoutship
Timeline: Touch under two months prior to present

ON:

It took almost a week, week and a half before the scoutship received any communication, bar the standard transit handshakes. It’d been a week, week and a half, right?

Truth be told, Ari wasn’t sure. Days had started melding together pretty quickly. By the end of the first week she had to check the ship’s chronometer in order to know what time and what day it was.

As she was keeping watch, while Jack slept in the back compartment, a console came to life, receiving…text communication of all things.

-<^>- You both still alive? -<^>- The message said.

Ari straightened out from her half-reclining position and stared at the message. A dozen annoyed responses spiralled through her mind. She’d tried to contact him the first night after they’d left. Nothing.

She’d tried again every few days since.

Now he comes back. That man had some gall. Ari logically knew, that Commodore Alexander Night of Internal Affairs was a busy man, running multiple operations and cases and handling hundred of people. He couldn’t be at their beck and call all the time.

Seems today, all he had time for was a text.

Or was he avoiding what he knew would be blowback for the half-baked plan thrown together and shoved at them.

-<^>- I am going to strangle you.-<^>- Ari typed back.

A few moments passed. -<^>-Oh?-<^>-

Ari sighed and typed again. -<^>-No sonic shower and bare bones library?-<^>-

Another few moments passed, -<^>-Oops.-<^>-

-<^>-...Really?...-<^>- She typed back biting the inside of her cheek, trying to remain cool headed.

-<^>-What, you still hadn’t patched in into a comms buoy and downloaded an update? It’s been over a week, Ari. I taught you better than that.-<^>- Came an unphased reply. -<^>-I can’t do much about the sonic shower, it was the only ship I had available that could pull a long range run that you needed. For the rest, pick your game up!-<^>-

Ari sat there staring at the message, balking at it almost. The nerve of that man!

What irritated her the most was that he was right. She had dropped her game. She was sharper than that. She should have been sharper than that. The year off, wrapped up in her own pain and brooding had made her lax, soft, her edges dulled.

-<^>-You’re right.-<^>- She typed back finally after a long moment of staring in frustration at the text, willing some sort of reaction from it, yet getting none, of course.

This time the message came back quick, -<^>-I know.-<^>-

She could just feel the smug amusement in those words, shining blue eyes, a megawatt smile and the annoying confidence and good humor he bombarded people with.

-<^>-Seriously though, is he still alive?-<^>- Another message came.

Oh, right, she hadn’t actually confirmed that they hadn’t killed each other yet. Annoyance softened a little as logic kicked back in. He was checking in on them both. His people, and at least she thought so, his friends. Doing what he could from the position he was in.

-<^>-Yes, alive and kicking. Haven’t had the desire to strangle him yet.-<^>- She typed back, a small, unconscious smile on her face. It hadn’t actually been a terrible week and a half. Once they settled into a weird mesh of routines, and had more than passing conversations, she’d started to relax a little, and found herself not minding the sometimes grumpy presence.

Despite what he thought of himself, Ari found that Jack was quite a smart man and a lot more eclectic than she’d originally considered. Whilst in some of their conversations he challenged her, she didn’t actually mind at all. It was refreshing and it kept her mind sharp.

Perhaps it was starting to do more than that, a little niggling feeling in the back of her soul occasionally reared up, then got squashed as quickly as it came.

-<^>-Good. I’ll check in again before you get to Pandora.-<^>- The message said and then the communication channel was cut.

No frills and no long goodbyes. Always efficient and to the point, that man.

Before she forgot she brought up a map, and located the nearest comms buoy. She sent a connection request. Then came the access codes, and soon after, the download began.

“Thank…god…” She exhaled as she leaned back in the co-pilot’s chair, feet propped against the locked side of the console, head leaned back as she took in a deep breath and then exhaled again.

“Realised this was all just a bad dream?” Jack asked as he approached the cockpit, yawning, wearing nothing more than a singlet and a pair of starfleet slacks.

Ari didn’t move, just adjusted her head a little so she could see him. “No, more like the dream just got better. Look…” She pointed to a readout to the left of her stretched-out legs, by the wall console.

The database download was at 87 percent.

Jack blinked twice at the read-out. “Okay, well…we’re retarded.”

“Mhmm, very much so,” she retracted her legs and straightened out. “Felt very dumb when Alex reminded me of it. He…uh…texted us, finally. Though I’m still deciding if it was because he’s busy or if he’s avoiding confrontation. Either way, we’ll at least have something to pass the time.”

Jack oddly found himself not in any quick hurry to exploit the data uplink or the new recipes in the replicator as he sat upon the spare cockpit seat, yawning again. “Well, joy-joy.”

Ari looked over at him, eyebrow raised. “Nyees, I can tell you are positively dripping with it. You good? Or do you need a pick-me-up?”

Jack glanced at her and stared at her in mock incredulity. “I just woke up. You can toss the most gorgeous Orion Woman into my lap and I’ll not give two-shits until I’ve had my coffee.”

Ari nodded simply and left it at that, then checked the download. 94 percent. She said nothing more to him, leaving him to his devices until he fixed up his grump-o-meter. Or didn’t, she was good with silence too.

A few minutes of silence passed before Jack finally sat back up and moved to the rear compartment of the scoutship. A minute later, he returned with coffee in hand and sat a little slower than before, either mindful of the mug of liquid in his hand or realising he had kind of come across as a bit of an ass…for not the first time on the trip so far.

Another minute or two of silence, Jack had drunk half of the coffee before setting the mug on the cockpit console and sighing. He seemed to nod slowly to himself, as if calculating some great math problem in deep thought, before admitting the depth of his thought. “I’m sorry…that was not you, or the fact I had no coffee.”

Ari looked over at him sideways, “buy me a coffee and consider it accepted.” She said, glancing at the finished download and then over at him. “We officially have options now.” Her lips formed into a smile. “Thank fark.”

Jack reached forward to grab his half-drunk coffee and then settled back into his chair, overly comfortable, and sipping very slowly. No real answer given to her request for a coffee, except for maybe finishing his first.

”Seems like it’s still you.” Ari thought to herself in amusement before she turned back to the library console and tapped a few commands. A list appeared on it and she made an upward swipe motion, and the list went up. Once she found her target, she tapped in another command and moments later, in the background, and old style glam rock tune began to play.

She didn’t turn back, instead kept going through one list then another. Waiting. Patiently, almost casually even.

Jack seemed to nod lightly to the beat as he finished his coffee. “So, you really are an Intelligence officer…trained by Alex. You like Sex and Pistols.”

“Thank you!” She replied cheerfully, “yes, yes and yes. Though I get the most of the last. The rest is pretty sporadic.” Then she thought about it for a moment. “Sounds like a damn dating profile, doesn’t it?”

“Sounds better than my old one. I just left most of it blank and put up a topless picture of myself…might work for yourself too.” With that said he stood up, continuing to hum to the old earth Sex Pistols song playing as he made his way to put his cup into the replicator, then replicated, “Coffee, long black, one sugar, hot.”

“I’m more of fish-I-caught-by-”myself” type of profile picture.” She replied lightly, going with the joke. Although she suspected he wasn’t joking. Ari certainly was though.

“Any good holo-movies in that upload? I haven’t paid much attention to whats been the latest thing last few years…they’re probably up to Dominion Avengers 8 now…” Jack asked as he sat back down at the cockpit and offered her a mug of black liquid addictive drug stuff.

Ari took the mug, “ta.” She didn’t drink from it immediately, she wasn’t a psychopath to drink steaming hot anything and burn her tastebuds. That was just dumb on so many levels.

“I heard there was yet another reboot-remake-resomething of the Justice League…Gang…Assembly…” She said, trying to remember the name, “the rival production super hero thing.” Then she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Let me guess…they changed Captain Federation into a Bolian and a lesbian now?”

“No that’s the Dominion Avengers production.” She countered and waved it off, “you actually had a shirtless dating profile? Sorry I’m still stuck on that.”

“More out of morbid curiosity…” Jack seemed to stare into nothingness for a moment, “and it only prompted obese curiosity in return.”

“You are a weird, weird man, Jack Lashmore.” Ari chuckled as she blew on her coffee, trying to cool it sooner.

“Building a profile on me already? Write that part down.”

“It’s already in there!”

“Recite it.”

Ari cleared her throat, “Subject Jack Vladimir Lashmore is an unusual individual, often defying standard societal expectations.” She recited in perfect Queen’s english. “The accent was my flare.”

“Seems short.”

“Oh that was just that one thing, there was more.” Ari smirked and took a sip of the coffee. “I did my homework.”

Jack eyed her, his voice even, almost in an officers authoritarian way for just a split moment. “You’re answering in a way to deflect a true answer. What else?”

“Plenty, but not for prying ears.” Ari replied lightly, taking another sip again.

Jack sighed, whilst his face did not change direction his eyes looked towards the console then to her, eyelids squinting barely a millimeter. For a moment, darker thoughts entered his mind, that were hard for him to consider being untrue and just his imagination. “Okay then.”

He sat more forward facing to the cockpits window, not gruffly, just in a natural way.

”Not having much luck today with you, am I?” Ari thought to herself, though not in amusement but sympathy.

She took a longer sip of the coffee and let the silence settle in between them again. This was where connection with people was so difficult, once people knew what she was. This was why she kept to herself and was happy with her own company.

Jack was silent, unmoving, but his mind was all over the place. Ever since the Driaan Operation that had been a problem. Less focused thoughts, thoughts always leading down pathways that only led to the worst possible outcomes in his mind. He never was like that before Driaan, before prison. The one thing he did know was that he had just talked himself into a silent prison at that moment. If his thoughts were right, he wouldn’t know what he would do with that. If his assumptions were wrong at that moment…he would look like an ass, but more importantly probably upset her.

“What’s real here?” He did not change his position and remained relaxed in his chair staring forward.

Ari sighed, leaning back in her own chair, legs propped up against the console again, head leaned back, looking at the ceiling. “Before you run away from me again…so that I can answer you properly. Please specify what you want an answer to. We could debate the state of reality and the human existence…but we both know that’s not what you are asking.”

Jack took a moment to process, but likely more to process his own thoughts and questions rather than her reply. Not that her reply offered any ease to either. “First…you and,” a pause and the next name was almost bitter, “Alex, then the Pandora. Is the PADD you gave me accurate at all? Or am I once again being reeled into some bullshit?”

“Alex trained me, when I got re-assigned from the BAT, and he’s been my friend, occasional boss and…ocassionally a warm body since…’78, there about. The latter…has been forever and an age. The Pandora…that’s all real. It’s my…redemption…arc if you will, too. A hard place seemed softer than a rock…so here I am.” Ari said quietly. “Yes, I read your file. I read it on the way to Dartmouth. That still only tells me some things about you. If BAT taught me anything it’s to read between the lines. And that people are a lot more complex than anyone gives them credit for.”

“And you…” Jack paused then figured, screw-it. “Intelligence is usually on it’s face, dishonest and an act. Have I met you, or an act?”

“I am, and have always been Arianna Chelsea Frost, born on Achernar, daughter of Valeria Frost and Christopher Frost, younger sister to Robert Frost. Yes, I am also an Intelligence Officer, have been one for 18 years. I’ve also been the most hated versions of it. Counter Intelligence, Special Operations and the worst of them all, Internal Affairs. Worst of all, I bloody loved being IA. I didn’t join for the shadows and secrets. Whilst they are necessary, I joined to uncover the same, not to bury the truth. As diametrically opposite as that sounds.” Ari leaned her head back down, took a long sip, held the bitter liquid in her mouth before she swallowed again.

A sigh, in Jack’s mind the majority of that answer seemed almost like one rehearsed, stating facts. Or that was his sudden paranoia. He visibly clenched his jaw, though not in anger. “Arianna Chelsea Frost wasn’t always that, and no one joins the Academy to join intelligence. Rewind to that state of mind, who were you?”

A chuckle escaped her at that, “security. Security Investigations after I graduated. Only ever served on one ship, the USS Miyazaki, a Nebula war-horse. The war did a number on her, and us…the crew I mean. After the war I transferred out, on request, when a spot came up at the Behavioral Analysis Team at Fleet Sec HQ. This is all verifiable.” She said with a sigh, “you’re still not asking the questions that will set you at ease. You’re thinking that all of this is just a re-hearsed story and I don’t bloody well blame you. I can only tell you that I’ve heard these questions a dozen times before, and it all ends up the same way…people decide to believe me…or not. I’m only hiding what is classified, nothing else.”

“...yeah and that’s going to be hard for me to get past. Not because of you.” Jack stared to the side part of the curved window opposite her thinking that might mask his indecision and sudden influx of mixed feelings and fear. Though, one would note, the console lit up enough to have his reflection clearly seen. “Since D…what put me in prison everything I thought I knew was a lie. Not just work, but everything before and after turned out to just be bullshit. Everything I believed and knew. And tied to every bloody thing is intelligence, and Alex.”

A shuddered sigh. “And this is all my bullshit which I just now pathetically realised I’m projecting onto you as if you’re the symbol of all of that. So…forget it.”

Ari shook her head, still looking up at the ceiling, if one looked closer, there was slight shimmery mistyness in her eyes. “Except I am the symbol of it. I’m just not here to trigger you. So…on behalf of us…hopefully…decent spooks, I apologize.” Then another sigh, as she leaned her head down again to take another sip. “No, I am here to prove to my own leash-holders that I am still useful, and not a damn security risk. A mud-puddle of my own making, that has turned into quick sand, and I’m holding on by a branch.”

Jack sighed, in one mind that made a lot of sense. In another, it was still one of top five false stories one would expect. He had to pick one to nibble on at least. Seemingly decided he stood and walked to the back of the compartment and tapped a few commands into the replicator. For a moment, there was sounds of glass, a little swearing, then further sounds of replicating and glass sounds. At least the data download worked.

He returned with a clear bottle and two glass, setting them on the deck between their two chairs at the cockpit and poured both glasses. He then straightened, offering her one of the glasses. “Hard to tell with something squirming in quicksand, if its a snake or someone needing assistance. Don't bite me when you accept this branch?”

The acrid scent was powerful enough to reach her nostrils from all the way over there. “Well I never said I was squirming, just that I was in it.” She reached out and accepted the glass. She took a sniff and grimaced.

“I am not doing this in twenty seconds. My throat is still sore from last time.” She looked up at him as she pulled her legs down from the console and straightened in her seat. “I may be the second and third Earth nationality professional drinker, but I’m not an idiot.”

“You’re speaking to a professional idiot, however.” Jack sat at his chair with his own glass in hand. “Folks these days blocked any form of known general alcohol to be replicated, but they did forget about some early Earth cleaning products. Here’s to synthetic Voda mixed with methylated spirits.”

Ari gagged, “I know what it is, my eyes are bloody watering!” She pointed to her increasingly wet eyes. Still, she raised her glass to him, “nazdarovye, tavarishch.”

“Bottoms up,” Jack sipped his own and grimaced and almost cough/sneezed into his free arms forearm. “Yeah, that’s bloody awful. But will make time flow better.”

“Oh neurr.” Ari chuckled and took a sip of her own then gagged again. “Let’s never drink this again when we get to the ship.”


OFF