(Backpost) Stretch it, bend it, just a lil' bit...

Posted on Thu Sep 3rd, 2026 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant Jack Lashmore & Lieutenant Arianna Frost

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Federation Scoutship
Timeline: Month and a Bit before arriving on Pandora

ON:


“Oooone….” Ari counted as she stood across from him, hands on hips, wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, training slacks and her usual bare feet. “Come on, we’ve got you flexible enough! Oooone…”

Jack’s back was burning, legs slightly apart yet straight whilst bending forward with his back attempting to touch his finger-tips to his toes…surprisingly this had been his greatest issue with their new flexibility regime the past week. And his back was burning like hell at the attempt. “God damn…”

His fingertips seemed to shake mere millimeters from his toes before lightly, brushing his toes the ever-so-slightest of touches. Suddenly straightening up wincing at the effort he seemed proud of himself before noting Arianna appeared to be less than convinced.

Despite how her assessing gaze might have looked, Arianna was capable to separate assessment from appreciation, which was not always an easy thing to do. She circled around him slowly, arms still on her hips. She kept her focus mostly around his lower back area.

Fortunately it was easy to do without needing to cross boundaries. He had no shirt on, just training pants, and barefoot just as she was.

“When you direct where hits land, where do you usually direct them?” She asked, still slowly circling him.

“I’m just happy to brush my toes rather than aim for a spot on them.” Jack replied sarcastically before nodding several times and placing his hands on his hips, stretching lightly side to side. “General combat? Hard to answer, depends on opponent, situation, area…and what the targets doing, distance…you know…everything.”

“Yes, to all that.” She nodded, then stepped a bit closer as she rounded to his back again. “I’m going to feel you up there for a second.”

“...okey-dokey.”

Ari extended her hands towards where his hands on his hips were, and a little towards the back. She gently moved his hands away and felt around the dense muscles. “Rotate down to your lower back slowly, keep your hips still.” She said as she placed her full palms down around the muscle structure.

Jack pondered the wording for a moment then mentally shrugged to himself, utilising what could be best described as spine and the muscles attached to circular motions whilst his hips and legs remained still.

“Okay…” Ari murmured, “you’re definitely stiff. Not because of lack of use, but your muscle is almost rock hard, but it’s not…springy, is what I’d call it?” She looked up at him from around his back, her hands still on his sides.

“Two years in a dilithium mine followed by two years of farm work…the most flexible thing I ever had to worry about was getting atop a horse.” Jack admitted, “I suppose I just didn’t much give a frak about maintenance of it.”

Ari nodded, “oh I wasn’t judging or anything. More just diagnosing where your issue is. Here…” she turned around and lifted her shirt just enough to expose the same section on her back, “place your hands where I placed mine.”

Jack frowned a moment before turning around and stepping around her and placing his hands where instructed. To be fair, he was not quite sure how to analyse what he was feeling or how to translate it to where his own muscles sat in comparison. Though, at least, he gained a little further appreciation of how toned Arianna actually was under the few millimeters of body fat.

Granted, his hands being larger by default, they covered a larger area of her back and waist. Ari then mirrored his rotation. While his strength was solid, hers was more fluid, more adjustable, allowing for faster, more adjustable movement.

“If we can get you close to that, I think you’ll be in business.”

“Can’t fix four years in a week…there was progress today compared to last few at least.” Jack commented as he tried to feel, and visualise what she was displaying in terms of what was moving under the skin. Though in truth, a part of his mind was somewhat more distracted by the wafts of scent from her hair as she essentially stood under his nose.

He also bit back a comment about getting close to that.

“Well obviously it would take more than a week.” She said, though she still hadn’t moved from her spot, “besides, we don’t want the endurance to go away. So we need to adjust for that with you and find what works. But at least now there’s…a goal?”

“What about your goals? You haven’t mentioned any really.” Without thinking of how it would be a little too forward, his mind was just on examining tone; he moved one hand downward to press on the outside of her thigh, and press a little, whilst another examined her shoulder and then a bicep. “...you’re more dense at your core and legs than the upper torso.”


Ari willed herself to stay still, and not react to what he was doing, physically at least. Not for any sense of discomfort, rather the opposite. It had been too long since she had been this close, in this relaxed…or safe…a position with a living, breathing being. And when one lacks what most humanoid beings are wired for, for a while, physical reactions tended to exaggerate.

So, she latched onto words instead, “yeah, after…an accident a few years ago, I had a year off on Medical Leave, then I got benched for a while and the need to keep overall tone grew less. That and…” she then raised her right, dominant hand, “an enraged half-vulcan nearly crushed my sternum at one point, then an enraged Klingon crushed every bone in this one about a year and a half ago. So that’s probably kept me from further upper torso maintenance.”

Jack nodded, “I’m sure modern medicine brought those back to spec density bone wise…there might be some residual pain but on paper, you should be able to work those areas as good as before.”

Still standing behind her, his hand upon her right bicep moved to glide down that arm and then place his palm against the back of her hand, his fingers interlocking between hers then lightly squeezed. “Anything?”

That question just won the understatement-of-the-year-award. She swore internally at herself, and the oh-so-familiar reactions of her body. Mind-over-matter-mind-over-matter-mind-over-matter! Her mind chanted, summoning all of her willpower to play it cool.

“Aside from the bone cracking of age and damage, nah.” She replied, praying that her voice didn’t give her away. “Oh…there was an enraged marine…who broke my nose during sparring too.” A helpful deflection?

“Can’t do anything about the nose…talk to Bajorans for that one.” Jack mused before instructing, “Close the fist with my fingers still there and squeeze as hard as you can and hold it there.”

Ari tried to follow the instruction. With her hand and fingers being smaller and shorter than his, just closing the fist was problematic. Still, she did it, though she had to put in extra effort from her forearm to apply any kind of remotely meaningful force.

Jack’s left hand then mimicked the same to her left hand. “Okay, same here.”

Surprisingly, with the left hand, it seemed slightly easier, and she had to use her forearm strength slightly less to create the same effect.

Arianna was under no illusion that any of what she did was great or formidable. She was well aware of this.

“Which is your primary for finer work?”

Her right hand squeezed, while the left relaxed.

Jack released er hands and stepped to the side and turned only to face her side. “I think the right being weaker at this stage is more mental than physical, possibly subconsciously putting less onto its loads than it can actually handle after it was damaged.”

Now, the next bit he was well aware of boundaries. “I’m going to place a hand on your spine, and another on your sternum…if that’s alright?”

”Sonofa….” Ari swore internally as her iron-clad self control remained intact. She nodded simply, relaxing her stance.

At that moment Jack felt a moment of hesitation hit him, but also forced himself not to do one act that was a habit for most humans when contemplating too hard, and that was to lick their lips once. Clearing his throat as casually as he could muster he pressed one hand against the center of her back and the other as carefully as he could guide and adjust placement, upon her sternum. He applied a little pressure on both, “breath, deep and slow.”

Ari closed her eyes and followed the instruction, feeling no undue resistance, pain, or hesitation.

After a few more of her breaths Jack removed his hands and took not one but two steps back to give her control of her own space back and nodded to himself. “Diagnosis, I think you’ve been taking it light on the problem areas without needing to?”

Ari shrugged, “probably…also, other priorities. And…distractions.” As welcome of a break from her own body’s reactions it was, the distractions she so casually mentioned could send her spiralling into grief again so she climbed out of that hole really quick.

Jack observed her further, head to toe then nodded. “So…equal full body workouts, all areas and agility training. Both of us.”

“Deal.” Ari nodded, finally looking over at him. “How’s your running?”

“I can still do a few kilometers jog…timing I have no clue in truth. I’d assume sluggish, and I haven’t had to do a sprint in a little over two years so that’s likely…bad.”

Ari nodded, grateful for the turnabout, where she could focus away from herself. “Then we are working on that. Part of your request was also mobility, burst speed, reaction times. Obstacles, the lot.”

Jack gestured about the area, “agility yes, mobility…will have to wait for the Pandora.”

Ari nodded slowly. “Mhmmmm….”

“Right.” Jack was noticing these moments of awkward silence were kicking in more often as their time on the scoutship continued. Rather than pry into their meaning Jack, or Arianna found easy exits every time that seemed made up on the spot. “Protein shake?”

Ari nodded, “yes! Chocolate?” She bounced over to the replicator.

“Of course, Bush Bunny.”

Ari chuckled, “oh good, so we both agree it me, and not Tess?” She said as she tapped in orders for two chocolate protein shakes. As the orders materialized in sport-style bottles, she took both out and handed one over to Jack.

“There’s always more than one Bush Bunny - bred like rabbits.” Jack accepted the offered shake.

Ari sent him a mock glare, before she stuck a straw in her mouth and took a sip of the shake, still mock glaring at him.

“...others have great birth-control?” Jack offered in mock defence.

Ari seemed to consider that, nodding her head left to right, before taking another sip. She plopped herself on the floor, crosslegged. “One more thing, for your back.”

“Order a new Jack for it?” Jack asked, sitting before her, meter apart, although he was a touch less fluid in getting into the cross-legged position than she was.

“Oh you will hate this, but your back will be saying thank you.” Her eyes danced a little as she looked over at him.

“Fire, lieutenant.”

Ari set the bottle to the side, a little further away, and moved around, so that she was on all fours, hands spread shoulder width, legs spread hip-width. “Just do this, slowly…” she arched her back, as far as she could before slowly dipping her back down as far as she could into a U shape, willing her back muscles to relax and almost drop as she did so, head looking up at the ceiling. “And repeat,” she said as she repeated the motion. “After a few…” another dip, “you’ll start to feel your muscles relax and give way to fluidity.”

The sound of sucking the end remnants of liquid through a straw filled the area as Jack blinked twice at her, and although he had taken all she said and did in he could not help but, “sorry, women and repeated movements blanked me out.”

Ari chuckled, “just try it.” She said as she folded herself back into sitting, crosslegged position and grabbed her bottle again, watching him with a challenging look.

Jack gave several quick slightest ever nods as if biting back another not-so-witty reply. Setting the empty drink aside he placed two hands, shoulder width apart on the floor and slowly made the adjustments to his foot position to best match her earlier display. Arching back, dipping back, head to cieling…repeat…something cracked…though Jack did not know what. Repeat.

“Up, up, up…” she reached out, just barely touching his stomach, gently pushing up, “up as far as you can, arch up.”

“But Muuu-uuuum.” Jack mock protested though obliged, at least best he could. “I am not a right angle!”

Ari snort laughed, before her hand changed position, and was now gently pushing down on his spine, “now down, slow, relax into it, let the artificial gravity and your shoulders and hips do the rest, let your muscles relax…drop as far down as you can.”

Part of Jack’s mind almost thought to joke and take those instructions too literally and just flop to the floor. Instead, keeping breathing even, he lowered the back to almost a planking position, chest an inch or two from the floor. “If you sit on me, this’ll be a wrestling match.”

That almost sounded like an invitation, and it made her heart skip a beat. Or two…or maybe three, she wasn’t sure at this point. “You’re not flexible enough for that yet, I’m pretty wriggly.” She replied with rehearsed rather than natural ease, as she will-over-powered herself yet again.

“Wriggly’s are good to suck on…sorry, had those lollies on the farm.” Jack smirked.

Called it! “Oh yeah, relative from Earth brought them over to Archernar one time. They were good, but damn sugary!” She deliberately replied away from the inference.

Jack groaned a little as he managed to get himself unplanked and standing. “So, we’re up to, what, episode 87 of Starfleet Is Our Lives?” He gestured to the screens toward the cockpit. Sometime during the trip they had started watching the most inaccurate, overdramatic and utterly stupid soap-opera holo-series depicting a Starfleet crew. It was extremely bad and low-brow entertainment but they had found it entertaining to yell at the screen at every detail and bad decision made.

“Oh for sure, I need to know what happened with Francois and Jean-Pierre. I’m totally invested in their storyline.” Ari got herself up on her feet, bottle still in hand. She finished her shake with a long, loud slurp. The slightly chilled energy now being infused into her system had managed to re-set her sensible mind and raging hormones.

How she was going to make it the next month or so, without losing the battle of wills with herself was anyone’s guess. She could only take it one day at a time.


OFF