An Intergalactic Halloween

Nick couldn't help but have a sense of wonderment and admiration at the sight of the children of various species simply trick-or-treating together. It made him think back to when the holiday had first been introduced to the intergalactic community.

One of the boons of being in the Federation was that whenever a new race became a part of the community, like the humans did less than a century ago, they brought with them their own traditions and celebrations to be added to the mix. Still, not a single human could have predicted that Halloween, a holiday considered relatively mundane and satirical by most humans, would quickly become one of the most celebrated traditions throughout the Federation.

The aliens loved Halloween; in many cases even more than the humans did. Each species of course had their own traditions, many of them deeply spiritual or deeply imbedded in their heritage. But, to many of them, the act of spending the day pretending to look like and be something else, and paying homage to the occult was a completely revolutionary ritual. It was this uniqueness and mystery surrounding the holiday that had gathered such praise and excitement from the aliens every time October 31 came around. In a way, it was they who had revived Halloween to its former hype.

The thing that Nick found the funniest was the fact that most of the children on the station never wanted to dress up in costumes that pertained to their own species. Dressing up as pirates, cowboys, superheroes, and fairy princesses was a thing of the past for this new generation of human children. Now, the human kids were dressing up as vithian tribal warriors or argon space rangers, or garrkron emissaries, while the alien kids were now the ones dressing up in the traditional human costumes.

The next few hours followed in a similar fashion; a seemingly endless stream of human and alien children and young adolescents coming to his door for candy before moving on. He even had to have Jan refill the candy bowls a couple times each simply from the sheer number of trick-or-treaters participating.

Luckily, by the time five o'clock rolled around, the trick-or-treating had finally begun to dissipate, with children arriving at his door with less regularity. By now, the sorting and dispensing of candy had begun to rather exhaust Nick and he therefore resolved to leave the bowls out in the corridor for any remaining trick-or-treaters to dig into of their own accord.

He shut the door to his apartment and let out a sigh of relief of being liberated of trick-or-treat duty. When he then looked down at his watch, he realized that it was quickly approaching the time of the Halloween party that Eiza had invited him to. He looked down at himself with a frown, knowing that he had about a half hour to pick out a costume to wear, lest he never hear the end of it from Eiza of he showed up only in his casual clothes.

"Hey Jan?" he asked his automated system.

"How can I help you, Nick?" it replied.

"Is there anything you can cook up in terms of Halloween costumes?"

"My apologies; I can accommodate most requests, Nick, however, it would take at least a day for the costume to be delivered to the apartment, I'm afraid."

"Hmm, well then do you think you could dig something up that I may have worn a few years ago? I'm sure I still have something lying around."

"Please specify," Jan replied.

He thought to himself, trying to recollect what he'd worn in past years and what may still fit him.

Chewbacca? Nope, that would probably insult the vithians. Dawg the Federation Bounty Hunter? Nope, only humans watch that show. Globbus the slime monster? No, way too predictable. Hmm, Dracula...? Now there's an idea. Eiza had compared him to a reclusive vampire so it did seem appropriate. Maybe now would be a good year to whip out one of the classics...

"What do you think about Dracula, Jan?" he asked her.

"According to my records, Dracula was a fictional horror genre character first conceived by Bram Stoker in 1897."

Nick laughed. "Always a stickler for literalism, Jan. I meant, what about the costume, you know, to wear for today? I'm pretty sure I may still have it put away in the storage unit."

"Very well, Nick. I will retrieve it for you. Just a few moments please."

Jan's machinery sorted through his closet while Nick limped his way over to the bathroom. Once inside he opened up his cabinet and drew out two painkillers for his leg, swallowing both of them down. He didn't anticipate that he would be busting a move on the dance-floor tonight, but he wanted to cover his ass regardless.

After he took his pills, he applied a generous portion of baby powder to his face in order to add aesthetic appeal to his vampire costume. Walking out into his bedroom with his new makeup job, Nick saw that Jan had already laid out his old Dracula outfit onto his bed in its entirety. He drew on the outfit piece by piece, from the black silk pants, to the cape, to finally the iconic vampire fangs.

When he was fully dressed, Nick looked at himself in the hanging bedroom mirror with a grin. In a childlike display, he raised the hood over his head and bared in his fangs at the mirror, letting out a drawn-out hiss, chuckling afterward.

"Ohh Jan. How zu I look to you, my dear. Am I zust drop-dead handzom to you?" he asked in a foolish Transylvanian accent.

"You appear to have a speech impediment, Nick. I would recommend seeing the doctor at once," Jan replied.

Nick laughed at the comment, glancing down at the hilarious reflection of himself in the mirror again. A Dracula costume was slapstick and obnoxious enough as it was without it being worn by someone who had improvised it in five minutes flat.

"Bram Stoker, you poor Irish sap. If only you could see what a mockery your sacred creation is being made of now."

Nick gathered his room key and wallet and prepared to depart. "Jan, I'm heading out for a couple hours, don't wait up for me."

"Have a pleasant night, Nick. Shall I ensure that the room be clean in the event of any guests arriving later tonight?" the female computer voice asked.

Nick turned from the door, looking up at the ceiling with a sly grin. "As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, Jan, I don't think that will be necessary. Besides, you're the only woman for me anyway."

Nick strolled out the door, shutting it behind him as he made his way for the elevator to take him to the lower dining hall. As the "vampire" departed its lair, the few trick-or-treaters passing by on that hall looked with amusement at the twenty-six year old Dracula that was breaking the ever-popular tradition of humans wearing alien costumes. At one point he saw an arachnid-like alien wearing a Dracula costume of his own; the costume having been modified to accommodate all eight of the creature's legs.

Nick smiled as he stepped inside the elevator. "He wears it better than I do," he said to himself.

The elevator closed its doors and descended at high speeds to the dining hall situated twenty stories below. Despite the elevator actually moving at the speed of a roller coaster, its occupants couldn't even tell that they were moving at all.

After a very short downward trip, the elevator doors drew open to reveal a highly-decorated corridor leading into the main dining center. Along the walls, vibrant hologram images displayed blinking and shifting images of ghosts, ghouls, jack-o-lanterns and other known Halloween antiquities. The overhead lights along the ceiling were an orange color and were dimmed low to keep the darkness intact for the sake of the holiday.

Nick walked toward the hall where costumed guests were being ushered in by a human woman with four (surprisingly realistic) prosthetic arms attached to her torso to make her look like a multi-limbed alien. The other usher was a garrkron dressed up as Elvis Presley, uncaring at the fact that his black wig and white outfit not at all coincided with his scaly olive skin and tentacles.

Nick approached the human usher, giving her a casual smile through his fake fangs. She gave him a smile and a friendly wave, her extra pairs of prosthetic arms automatically mimicking the behavior of her real arms.

"How do you do tonight, 'Count Nicholas'?" she greeted him with a grin. "Dracula I see; we surprisingly don't see much of that around here anymore."

Nick shrugged, "I was in the mood for a classic this year. Once upon a time it was commonplace for humans to dress up as vampires. Everything's reversed now apparently."

She nodded at him with a smile, handing him back the ID that he had presented to her. "It's a good costume choice, Mr. Meyers. Anyway, come on inside and enjoy the party."

He thanked her and walked into the room, doing his best not to make his usual stagger known to the party crowd as he entered. Luckily the painkillers had immediately started to kick in and gave him that extra boost to suppress the aches in his leg as he strode into the bustling dining hall.

Nick gazed in wonderment around the crowded, dimly-lit room. The dining tables had been pushed off to the side and were being used to hold a multitude of catered foods, some of them appealing to the human eye and some of them not. And of course, two entire tables alone held the alcoholic beverages. Unlike the food, the drinks were all the same; a clear fizzing drink dispersed into dozens of champagne glasses.

Nick grinned at this prospect. "Half a dozen Federation races with one key unifying factor: booze."

Nick approached the beverage table, taking up one of the glasses and sipping at it. Across from him at the other side of the room was a hefty, multi-limbed argon standing at a turntable set; the source of the thumping, electric dance music resonating through the room. The alien's multiple limbs allowed him to dictate the pace of the music with ease.

In the center of the room, a mix of adults both human and alien danced to the tandem of the DJ's music. On the ceiling, a series of orange strobe lights shone down on the frenzy of dancers. Below the dancing guests was a completely clear-glass dance floor that gave a god's eye view of the dazzling sea of stars and a couple planets in close proximity to Alpha Draconis. Nick found this fascinating, although most of the other guests on the dance floor didn't even seem to take notice of it.

As Nick was finishing the last of his drink he accidentally gulped the remainder of it down as someone roughly slapped him on the shoulder.

"How ya doing, wobbles?!" a boisterous Italian-accented voice rang out behind him.

Nick rolled his eyes and craned his neck. "God how I hate that damn nickname," he said through clenched teeth.

He spun himself around to come face to face with a spiky-haired human man wearing a black leather jacket and blue face paint.

"Mickey; I'm alright I guess. Enjoying the party?" he asked his coworker.

Mickey shrugged. "I can't complain, although I would like to end the night with a Halloween treat of my own if you catch my drift," he grinned, licking his lips as he eyeballed the rear end of a slim female vithian that passed by.

Nick met his gaze and chuckled. "You know, Mick, vithians don't take too kindly to furry fetishists."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that I am a man of many fetishes then, isn't it?" Mickey chuckled, propping his arm up on Nick's elbow. "Well, now that you're here, I'd better let the other dock boys know that you've finally crawled out of your hole for once."

Mickey led him over to the back corner of the room; Nick fell in step with his coworker despite his slight limp. In the corner, there was a group of about half a dozen or so human and alien males dressed up in Halloween costumes, some of them being original while others were being worn by at least a handful other guests in the room. When they took notice of Nick's unexpected arrival, they raised their drink glasses and gave obnoxious cheers.

"Hey boys, look who I found; Count Wobbles!" Mickey howled ceremoniously.

His coworkers laughed and let out the string of comments that Nick had been anticipating.

"He's finally gotten up out of his coffin I see, eh Dracula?" an older dock worker asked with a laugh.

Nick shrugged and waved off the comments sarcastically.

"I guess I set myself up for this by wearing this costume today didn't I?" Nick sighed, smiling.

"Anyways, how we doing today, boys? Anyone drunk as a skunk yet?" he asked them.

One of his coworkers, a burly argon towering over Nick, responded to the question by downing his entire drink in one sitting. Some of the human dock workers followed his example, of course most didn't possess the resilience of an argon and could therefore only take down a fraction of the beer that their larger colleague had.

Mickey snickered at the sight. "As you can see, we'll all be at skunk status soon enough. Welcome to Alpha Draconis, ladies and gents," he said.

Nick looked around the room again. The alien and human partygoers continued to dance vigorously on the clear-glass dance floor. Past that, he saw that at the head of the room was a separate table where about a dozen people were sitting, laughing and conversing amongst themselves. Because of the costumes, it was difficult to determine who each of table's occupants were, but each of them had an aura of prestige surrounding them that was unmistakable.

Nick tapped Mickey on the shoulder and pointed to the head table.

"Who've we got at the VIP section?" he asked him.

Mickey nodded with a grin. "Ah, the gods that are untouchable by us mere mortals. Let's see who we got here."

He pointed first to the two vithians at the side of the table. "That there is Admiral Gannimar of the Vithian council fleet, and his, ahem, mate," he said, referring to the male and female wolfish aliens.

He moved further down the table to the next figures. "Next is the garrkron grand emissary, Aethia and her..." Mickey hesitated, "Partner."

Nick looked at the scaly green-skinned female at the table sitting next to an attractive human woman with brown hair. He remembered the frenzy amongst the human media the day that the prestigious garrkron diplomat had married a human female. It wasn't so much the controversy of a wedding between two females, since the human public's overall view on homosexuality had evaporated a long time ago. More so, there was so much hype due to the fact that this was an interspecies marriage and that the garrkron came from a wealthy family of aristocrats back on her home planet, and her human lover came from poverty. It had been sheer happenstance that Aethia had visited a human colony on diplomatic duty and had met and eventually come to grow closer to the human woman that would end up becoming her partner.

Mickey moved on to the next couple of people at the table. Nick immediately recognized the familiar face of the man whose hologram image had been tauntingly waking him up this morning.

The human administrator, Rutherford Dietrich sat at the center of the table with his wife. Both of them were dressed up as a king and queen and both of them had the same satisfied grins.

"Obviously you already know our enthusiastic station administrator. Enough said about that," Mickey said, moving on to the next prestigious person.

"And next to him would be the gracious gentlemen that threw this party, Admiral Carmine Davidson," Mickey continued, pointing at the clean-cut, black-haired human situated in the center of the table.

Nick had some familiarity with this sector's human fleet commander. His previous line of work prior to his leg injury had caused him to cross paths with the young admiral on several occasions, although he'd never met him personally. Davidson's reputation preceded him however; his work in putting down one of the rebellions in the Omega sector was well known throughout the Federation.

Mickey continued on, talking about the VIPs with sarcasm while the other dock workers threw in their own slew of jokes about them as well. Nick looked away across the room and his eyes were drawn to something else entirely now.

Directly across from him, past the moving figures on the dance floor, was a lone figure sitting in a chair watching the party. Nick moved himself to an angle that he could better see as he gazed at this lone entity.

Time itself seemed to ebb away and stop as he looked upon the figure of a female sitting alone across the sprawling party, looking upon the dancing guests with envy. The female looked like no other that he'd encountered, which in itself was saying something because of how many Federation species he'd come across in his line of work.

The lone female was donned in a white human nurse costume, particularly one that an early twentieth century nurse would have worn. This however, was hardly a detail that Nick was captivated with at the moment. The female had a distinctive violet skin tone that contrasted with nearly everyone else in this room, including the aliens. Nick could also tell, despite the fact that she was sitting, that this female had a slim figure and appeared to be taller than the average female human.

Nick shook his head and turned away as Mickey knocked him on the back of the noggin.

"Hey, you even listening, wobbles?" Mickey asked.

Nick cleared his throat, turning back to the female humanoid situated on the other side of the room.

"Mick, do you have any idea who that is?" Nick asked, pointing to the distinctive female in the nurse costume sitting alone.

Mick met his gaze and squinted, before his eyes lit up with realization. He grinned, propping his arm up on Nick's shoulder as he always did.

"That, my friend, is the most terrifying monster on this entire station," he replied. The other dock workers behind Nick and Mickey voiced their agreement.

Nick frowned, looking between Mickey and the rest of his coworkers incredulously before looking back at the female figure.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

Mickey looked at him curiously, turning back to the other dock workers and giving them all knowing glances.

Turning back to Nick he said, "You really don't know, do you? You don't know what she is?"

Nick shrugged. "No...I, I mean, I've never seen someone like her around here before. What...what species is she, Mick?"

Mickey gulped. "Her race is called the Yvon. They are the most recent addition to the GASF."

Nick's eyes widened at this, as he looked back and forth between Mickey and the female. "A new race to the Federation? When did this happen and how come this is the first time that I heard about it?" he asked.

"They joined five years ago when you were still out working in colony development. The yvon have only just recently started to interact with the Federation races though," Mickey replied.

Nick turned and looked at her again with curiosity. He noticed that not only was she sitting by herself, but there appeared to be no one even within her general vicinity either. Several people passed by her but seemed to keep their distance as if she were the bubonic plague.

"You called her a 'terrifying monster' before. What did you mean by that?" Nick asked Mickey.

Mickey scratched his chin as he looked at the violet female. "Supposedly the yvon are like cannibals or vampires or something. There's rumors going around that they feed off of living sentient organisms to survive. Pretty sick shit that I've been hearing," he replied nervously, sipping his beer afterward.

Nick looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Cannibals, is that so? Come on, there's no way it can be that simple. The Federation wouldn't just let a race of murdering sociopaths join their ranks. Those rumors you heard are probably just that, rumors."

Another one of his coworkers shook his head frantically. "No no man, it's true. I heard that the first Federation ambassadors that were sent to the yvon home planet never returned," the man gasped dramatically.