The Auditor Cometh
Posted on Sat Jan 25th, 2025 @ 5:25pm by Commander Arianna Frost & Master Warrant Officer Trenton Mayhew
1,401 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
S1E6: Where Skies End
Location: Overwatch
Timeline: MD 13
Tags: J
Ari hated Ops duty. It was mundane, it was boring, it was...so regular. Taskmaster knew exactly what to punish her with, didn't he?
She was going over the daily arrivals and departure's list, one of the few things she generally always did, even back in the day, some months ago, when she was intel liaison. Familiarizing herself with everyone coming and going to the station. Knowing things. That was Ari. She was a knower of things.
She hated not knowing. Akiva had reported in when he arrived to Hebron, as per agreed protocol. But that was all she knew. With everything that had happened to him recently, she deeply wanted to know how he was doing. But she knew he needed the time, and that direct communication, without the protection of the QEC wasn't advisable. Safety was paramount.
Then a blinking light to the side of her work station caught her eye. She put the PADD down and stepped over to the side console and opened up the alert.
"What the fuck?" What did she just see?
There was a muffled thud, somewhere behind her but seemingly enclosed and then a muffled, "oh for fucks...really?" Silence, followed by three slow, defeated knocks from - somewhere?
"Security alert!" Arianna instructed calmly, "security to Ops! Ferrofax, lock down inbound and outbound transporter function and cut flight clearances, please." The alarm started blaring, as she took a phaser from its designated spot and a tricorder, attempting to locate the source of the sound.
How the bloody hell did someone slip past the new security system?
Three more knocks. "I know you're there, blondie." The muffled voice came, from...the east bulkhead?
Ari mouthed, "what?" She moved closer towards it.
Three more knocks - south maintenance hatch. A sigh, then louder "SC 0351-2373JVL."
Arianna blinked. Starfleet Personnel code?
She reached the bulkhead and pressed the controls to open it, and then stepped back quickly, phaser pointed at the person behind it.
On hands and knees within a Jefferies tube a less than clean-shaven smile looked up to her with a wink, "Commander."
Of all the people, of all the places. It just had to be here, didn't it? "Out." She instructed coolly as she stepped back further, pleased to see other staff around her also training their phasers at this man.
Jack slowly crawled out, both hands half-assed raised in casual dismissiveness, he seemed dressed in a typical security officers uniform rather than his previous assignments red, though he wore a navy longcoat further adorned with Starfleet insignia and United Federation of Planets cufflinks. Straightening he slowly turned around placing one hand upon the back of his head whilst the other curled into a pointed finger and indicated his lower back for inspection.
"Commander, we have tracked a security breach to this location." Master Mayhew had barged into the room at the head of a fireteam of armed Marines, then paused at noting the primary team had already arrived. It was a sight that brought pride to the Master-at-Arms. He nodded with approval, then leveled his own phaser at Jack. The tracheal implant in his throat gave his voice a menacing and mechanical tone. "You are hereby detained with lethal force authorized under Special Order 66715. State your name, rank, and orders, or I will burn you down where you stand."
"SC 0351-2373JVL." Jack replied, back still turned. The finger pointing to his lower back indicated the area again, almost sternly. "You might want that PADD before you open fire."
Mayhew was just curious enough to play along. He nodded to the lance corporal who retrieved the PADD and handed it over. After taking a step back to give himself plenty of clearance, Mayhew lowered his phaser while he read. It didn't take him long to holster his weapon. "Stand down, men."
The fireteams looked at one another. This was a clear violation of Mayhew's own enhanced security protocols that had been set up for their own protection after—
"I said stand the fuck down," Mayhew snapped at them all.
That order got through. The Marines lowered their weapons and awaited further instructions.
"Commander Frost, this man is from Starfleet Security," Mayhew informed Ari. His previous outburst with his Marines. "It seems this station is under another surprise audit."
All of the men groaned. The last time they'd had an audit, it ended in weapons fire.
"Go on," Mayhew said to them. "Back to your posts."
As the room cleared out, Mayhew looked back to Ari and Jack both. "I will inform the station commandant of the situation. But first..." Giving Jack a suspicious side-eye, he said, "Our security measures detect ships before they even clear the plasma storms. The computer network is air-gapped from the outside. Each section is hermetically sealed off pending biometric scans to confirm authorization. Just how in the hell did you get on this station... sir?"
Jack lowered his hands but only half way, turning to face the group and raising a finger as if to indicate he needed a moment he gestured to the communications console, "Speaking of security, we'll all have problems in a moment if I don't give an all-clear first, may I?"
Ari nodded to Jack. Then she looked over at Mayhew. "The only way he could have circumvented our security measures. He was told how." She said reaching over for the PADD. "You did your job admirably, Mister Mayhew. It will be noted in your file, and your men's." She said, still maintaining her cool, neutral tone and expression.
Now, the question was, who told him? Was it Taskmaster or one of his ilk? Or was this an unexpected ally? Admiral Night maybe? Whilst Ari recognized this man, she could not afford to relax yet. Akiva had entrusted her with the station, the secrets and the staff. If she made the wrong call here, it would spell utter disaster and death.
"I'm Commander Arianna Frost, Deputy Administrator. This is Master Warrant Officer Trenton Mayhew, Master-at-Arms." She said pointing between them, looking expectantly at Jack, inviting him to play along.
"Master, Commander." Jack replied simply as he slowly made his way, hands visible to all, approaching the communications station. Once there he kept his hands slow to be tracked as he opened a private tight-beam transmission. "We're all clear this end, Sub-Commander, thanks for the lift." Without waiting for an answer he closed the channel and relaxed a little. "Figured best not tell them their blueprints were off a touch."
"Appreciate it," Ari replied in a dry tone that may have just as well been sarcasm. She made a deliberate motion of looking at the PADD that showed Jack's orders, "now, Commander...Jack...Lashmore, is it? What are our orders? Are we being stood down as you conduct the Audit, or are we walk-talk-observe mode?"
Jack arched a brow toward her, "you have active people in the field, yes? If anything, for their safety maintain standard operations." He clasped his hands together and glanced around the remaining group. "I'm not going to give a speech or be the asshole in your way, but I do demand cooperation."
Arianna nodded. She knew the deal. She'd demanded the same when she originally came to Memory Theta as part of the Internal Affairs Audit. "You will have our full cooperation sir. I cannot confirm active field ops at this time, sir. Your briefing docket will provide clarification. On standard ops, yes, we do have active field ops."
He only replied with a wink at that. Jack eyed Trenton a moment before nodding to himself. "Right well, none of this is going to work without a bed and office, aye?"
Frost nodded, looking over at Mayhew, "Mister Mayhew, could you please escort the Commander to the sign in area and get him cleared into the system and assign him office space and quarters please?" Then to Jack, she said, "I'll inform the crew to be available to you at your convenience."
"Much obliged." Jack replied with nod to her before placing his hands together behind his back and straightening his stance, awaiting Mayhew's guidance.
"Yes, ma'am." Once again, Mayhew had been relegated to administration's butler even though there was a non-zero number of other people who could do the task. His cleft chin flexed as he steeled his jaw. "Right this way, sir."
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