People Puzzle [1/3]

Posted on Thu Apr 16th, 2026 @ 8:58am by Captain Jaro & Lieutenant Noxe (Cogenitor 125) Tome

834 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 0: 48 Hours and Counting
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: T -30 hours

Noxe rang the chime. She'd been needing to speak to the Captain-a part of her worried she was in trouble (or WOULD be) from the incident on the Lorien. Part of her was in need in reassurance that she wasn't. Of course.

She looked down at her tunic. Ship shape as always, but she wanted to check for any mustard mishaps or hot-dog-water spills. That had been the special on the refueling station they were currently docked. Noxe didn't quite understand exactly what a Chicago dog was, but it was tasty nonetheless. She was glad to see she was still pristine.

The bridge of a ship, he had been told, was the brains of the vessel while it was under way. When that wasn't the case, Jaro generally tended to avoid spending too much time in the adjacent ready room. Still, the occasional quiet time to handle the incomprehensible amount of paperwork a ship the size of the Amazônia produced while docked was mind bending. And that was in spite of the quite capable Yeoman HQ had seen fit to assign them.

When the door chimed, he wasn't sure if it was some emergent crisis providing a convenient excuse to forego bureaucracy for the rest of the afternoon, or whether it was another stack of PADDs for his attention delivered with a sheepish grin. He knew there was a Jeffries tube access behind one of the panels. He could escape. Technically. But then again, he would probably do better to reserve that maneuver for an actual emergency. Like his mother coming to visit.

Resigning himself to whatever fate had in store for him on the other side of the door, he gave the age old voice command of "Enter", reminding himself to turn it into something with a bit more soul in the future.

Noxe nodded, though she realized he couldn't see her.

"It's me," she said. "Uh, Lieutenant Tome," she clarified. But obviously, he knew that. "I mean. You know that. Anyway. I just came by to....check in." She nodded. "Oh," she said, taking a seat, gingerly, perched on the edge like a person ready to flee at a moment's notice. "Uh. How are you doing since the...Lorien?" She asked. She was struggling, honestly, and combined with Frontier Day, she was on course to resign. Maybe.

He only now noticed how tensed up his back and shoulders had become from hours of paperwork. He took a moment to stretch his arms over his head before leaning back into his chair. “Honestly speaking, Lieutenant, I’ve been better. You and have both been through the mandated counseling sessions, read the books, told ourselves it’s fine. But honestly, it isn’t. I miss our old ship, the crew, and,” he paused for a second, “I miss my friend of 10 years. But I also think that it is ok to feel that way. After all, wouldn’t it be weird if we could just carry on like nothing happened?”

Jaro stood up, suddenly feeling that restless urge to move, if only within his ready room. “I’ve been told that ‘just need to get back out there’. And part of me really wants to believe that. The other part of me is a bit more skeptical. Still, this is the job. And we’ve both taken this assignment.” He paused himself, noticing how he wasn’t just moving, he was pacing.

“Anyways, how about yourself? Can I get you something to drink?” He asked, pointing at the wall mounted replicator panel.

She shook her head. "No, thank you, Sir," she said. She felt guilty for the last part...she'd scuttled the ship that Specter was on. Kind of. A version of him. She didn't really know. But she tried to understand: better for the all than the one. And Lt. Tarn. None of them had been shielded.

"I miss Zyhara. She was my friend. She's doing well where she's at now," Noxe said. They'd spoken via rely earlier that week. She was settling to her new assignment, while Noxe had spent their refueling time hiding in her quarters, avoiding redshirts, and playing with baby Zhuk. "Yes, sir, we did. But unlike you, I have little other options. The Fleet is the only place I am safe for now," she said. "Why did you promote me? Why not bring in someone with more experience?" The question she truly wanted to ask. She needed to know. "I messed up on the Lorien...like the Wizard behind the curtain. That's a Human expression, you know?" She asked. Of course he'd know. She had only learned it recently; before his reassignment, Telen had made her watch The Wizard of Oz because he thought the flying monkey were cool. She'd been a little scared, in all actuality. The whole movie had some sort of-what was the term?-uncanny valley thing to it.

[TBC]

Captain Jaro
Captain
USS Amazonia

Lieutenant Noxe Tome
Chief Operations Officer
USS Amazônia

 

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