In My Spooky Era

Posted on Thu Oct 30th, 2025 @ 8:06pm by Captain T’Kal & Chief Petty Officer Chloe Delacroix & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Ozias Nikolaidis

1,220 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X05: Nightmare on Ark Royal Street
Location: Lounge
Timeline: SD 8983.3 (31 October 2290, 21:50 hours)

Last time on Star Trek: Ark Royal

"Sorry for being awfully late" she said as she went to find some beer or at least something drinkable, and someone she could socialize with.

It was an excellent start to what would become a Halloween night none of them would ever forget.

And now the continuation...


“So, I went and explained my costume to Lieutenant Inda,” Cid said. “I mean, a duotronic circuit board with all the 1-D-25 chips replaced by 1-D-28 chips? What’s scarier than that! If I saw that on even one junction board I’d shiver,” she said. “But Lieutenant Inda said I couldn’t have spare parts to use for my costume, so I had to give that up. So now, I have all this research saying I need to look scary, but the scary thing I want to do is a no go. But now, here’s someone coming along dressed like the thing I wanted to be. Not fair,” she pouted, glancing behind them.

She was talking with Jack Pumpkinhead, or at least Petty Officer Livingston dressed as Jack Pumpkinhead. She and Oz had begun making their way to the halloween party and picked up a few more party-goers on the way, now creating a small, eclectic crowd of fancy-dress enlisted people and commissioned officers. Towards the back was a crew member dressed head-to-toe as the incorrectly-stocked circuit board and she didn’t like it for several reasons.

“Man, your new girlfriend is a trip,” Ensign Sokal chuckled, whispering to Ozias from their place up ahead in the group.

'Girlfriend?' Ozzie replied absently, covered in copper paint and beginning to itch. His glasses didn't really fit with the costume, but he needed them to see so he peered over them quizzically at Sokal. 'Cid? She ... isn't my girlfriend,' he said firmly, Not that she isn't cute though, Ozzie thought to himself. Looking back at her, wondering who she was referring to, then back to Sokal. 'But she's great to spend time with.'

"Oh, I've no doubt," Sokal said, grinning.

“Clearly you figured it out,” Livingston said, glancing behind them for the offending partygoer, but couldn’t pick them out of the group.

“Well, kinda. I was working by the warp core, talking to myself, trying to come up with something,” Cid continued, unaware of other conversations, “and Ensigns Forelle and Seckel offered to team up with me. I’d go as someone called ‘Lady Godiva’ and they’d pair up to be a horse. That sounded like a Terran thing, so I figured I’d go ask Oz about it. He didn’t seem to like the idea, and said that costume wouldn’t really suit me.”

“Need your eyes examined, mate,” Sokal said, elbowing his walking buddy in the ribs.

“And he suggested I pair up with his costume instead, and now I’m a Greek God named….” she paused, glancing down at her black tunic, tights and leather boots, all tied around her with faux iron chains. “Hefetsus?” she said looking up at Oz towards the front of the group.

'Uh, Heh-faye-stus,' Ozzie corrected automatically, with barely a thought. As he realised what he'd done he reddened across the back of the neck. Correcting his friends was a bad habit he'd sworn to expunge, but hadn't quite yet it seemed.

“Hephestus, right, like I said,” Cid said. “Still cool though. He built stuff, so it kinda works for me.” She smiled and held up the large anvil mallet she was carrying.

As the group entered the party, a few of them broke off. “Good talking with you!” Cid called, then turned back to Oz. “They were nice,” she said. “That jerk in the back was quiet. He work in your department? Didn’t strike me as one of my coworkers.”

'There wasn't anyone from my department ...' Ozzie said, not wanting to say he'd been preoccupied with Sokal's jibes. 'No, I definitely didn't see anyone from Sciences, I thought they were all Engineering ...'

“The one dressed as that misaligned duotronic circuit board?” she said. “The thing I wanted to go as? No one in Engineering I recognized.”

'I didn't see anyone dressed like a circuit board,' he said softly pursing his lips in thought, puzzled that someone else would decide on Cid's fairly unique take on a costume. 'But Lowe's Rigelian lizard-bird costume was pretty eye-catching ...'

"True, it was." Cid frowned. “Guess you missed him,” she said, looking around for him, but not finding him. She shrugged and turned back to Oz. “Okay so…how’s this work? I mean I know how a party works, but do we have to, like, play the characters or something? Not a lot of Halloween stuff at a Martian, Catholic orphanage,” she said, grinning.

'Well, no, we're not acting out a story,' Ozzie replied lightly, but taken aback for a split second at how different Cid's upbringing had to have been for her not to get the concept. 'It's just fun to dress up in costume, have a few drinks and good food with your friends. Having the costume allows people to be a little bit more relaxed, let it hang out a bit more. It's like when you're wearing a mask, no-one quite associates it with it being really you. You get me?'

"Yeah, I get that," Cid said. "Of course, at my size, even in a mask everyone knows it's me," she snickered.

The lights in the lounge suddenly cut out with a loud thunk, making Cid grab Oz's arm and squeak in shock/fear.

A spotlight came on, illuminating a corner of the lounge where a fog machine generated a fine mist, obscuring the figure that had just beamed in.

A bassline started playing over the sound system. Building louder and louder until lyrics came in.

Ooh, look what you made me do
Look what you made me do
Look what you just made me do
Look what you just made me-

Out from the fog stepped a woman in a sparkling black unitard, the left cut out and bare; the right, the arms, and the body covered in a design of shiny gold snakes. Her hair was long, wavy, and dirty blonde. Her lips a dark shade of red that screamed ‘look at me’.

The Captain knew how to make an entrance.

The music stopped and the lights were restored to how C’Hira had them. T’Kal nodded to her quartermaster, who handed her a glass of punch. “Good evening ladies, gentlemen, those outside the binary, and invited monsters and ghouls,” she said, her voiced pitched to be heard across the din. “Welcome to the first Ark Royal Halloween Party. Since we left Spacedock nearly four months ago, your service to this ship has been exemplary. And so tonight, in the traditions of Halloween that I have come to understand during my time among Humans, I encourage you all cut loose and enjoy yourselves. But keep an eye out for monsters.”

She nodded back to C’Hira, who restarted the background music and resumed mingling.

To be continued...

 

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