And the Children Shall Lead

Posted on Wed Dec 6th, 2023 @ 2:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Petty Officer 3rd Class Fulvia Benvenuto & Corey Valleroy & Connor Valleroy & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Timeline: Halloween Early Evening

How could she do this to him?!

The Captain surely knew what she was doing. This wasn’t lesson learning. This wasn’t command training. It was a joke. Volunteer? More like he was voluntold. An order in not so many words.

Complete. Utter. Bullshit.

Why did this ship have so many children on board anyway? They were in the middle of nowhere, exploring the dangers in far off nothingness.

And yet here he was. Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen. Looking ridiculous in a white uniform from some science fantasy program from centuries earlier, and with his face painted blue. At least his costume for the party tonight would use similar red contact lenses.

He had help, thankfully. Shit rolls downhill, as they say, so Benvenuto, having paid off her debt to Trarim but still owing much to him, was in a cheesy witch costume and was filling up some of the activity stations with candy. And helping herself all the while.

At 1830 hours, the doors opened, and eager children started to trickle in.

Corey came in, followed immediately by Connor. Corey was dressed up as a wizard, Connor as a scarecrow. They were eager for the festivities to et going. Rumor had it among the kids on board that one of the adults had actually managed to snag some real candy for the party, and so there was a certain amount of anticipation for that (replicated sweets weren't too bad, Corey supposed; most of the time you wouldn't even know the difference if you didn't know whether something was replicated or not if you didn't know beforehand, but there was just something about knowing that a particular food item was the real thing...).

The kids weren’t misinformed. Indeed the candy was real. Procured via the talents of their Iotian crewmember, who was filling the last of the treat bags with authentic sweets, still in branded packaging. It was hard getting a transport from the Federation core worlds out this far, but not impossible. “Step right up!” Fulvia called out. “You’ve not been lied to! We have the good stuff! But first, you need to cross…Commander Espersen’s Tunnel. Of. Dooooooooom!” Behind her was an entrance to a small tunnel maze she and some colleagues had put together. Nothing too scary, but it set the tone right.

“I did not approve that title,” Alexander mumbled to Fulvia.

“Go with it, sir,” she whispered back.

Tessa walked in, clearly uncomfortable with the fact that she'd been invited to something that she'd no idea what it was all about. She had on a white shirt with a blue-checkered vest and red sparkling slippers, with a blue checkered bow in her hair. She felt quite ridiculous with it on, but the smile that Amelie had given her when she'd declared it perfect for her had convinced her to put it on. "I was told that there was a party going on here for those not yet eighteen?" She asked.

"Very nice of you to join us, Miss di'Orion," Alexander said sincerely. "Yes, there are games, sweet food and soft drinks, and there is the haunted tunnel--"

"Commander Espersen's Tunnel. Of. Dooooooom," Fulvia re-emphasized. "You have to say it right, Commander."

"Yes, well." The XO didn't rise to his junior officer's bait. "Tradition is to dress up, eat candy, and be a bit scared."

A strangely sharp pain tore through Alexander's heart when he'd realized the last time he'd seen a Dorothy costume. A young girl in a very similar dress and red shoes. Her older brother the tech geek as a man of metal. A girl in between them in age dressed as a witch. He did his best to remain neutral and diplomatic, but the blue makeup and red contacts did a lot of the heavy lifting there.

"I believe the Rouen kids should be here shortly," he added, hoping for the best.

“It’s rather quite difficult to scare me, My Lord.” Tessa pointed out, “But please, if you don’t want to call me Tessa and use Miss, there’s no reason to use the ‘di’ prefix. Orion is perfectly fine. Tessa Orion, the rest is honorifics and lineage, I’ve gotten used to the idea of not using them all the time, only for formal occasions. I’ve finally gotten Amelie to use my name, Louis is a work in progress. I lapse into formality because the situation here is… Unknown.”

Silencer was there for a couple seconds before her eyes opened a touch more, “Oh! I’m supposed to…” She tapped the heels of the slippers together twice, “There’s no place like home!” She laughed, “We watched ‘The Wizard of Oz’ a couple nights ago, rather an interesting story… It’s about a girl who goes to a magical land, kills the first person she meets, then teams up with three strangers she finds on a road and goes off to kill again! Is that a common storyline in your tales?”

“It is,” Alexander said, chuckling. “It’s also a story of overcoming your weaknesses and that not everything is as it seems, but I like your take better. The character I’m dressed up as is from a saga, which began with a young man beginning what we’d call a Hero’s Journey. Or, from this character’s point of view,” he indicated to himself, “the young man gets radicalized by a religious zealot and becoming a violent terrorist.”

"Shilani" Tessa muttered in her own language, then clarified, "Essentially religious hunters of Bey'a'Dande who go after those priestesses that violate the strictures of Her Grace, the ones who kill for the love of killing." She shook her head lightly, "A necessary evil, right?"

"Up to a point," Alexander agreed.

"Hey, Cmdr. Espersen," Connor called out, "good Tunnel of Doom. That jump scare near the end almost got me!"

It was a strange feeling to hear positive feedback from children. The First Officer and young people generally didn't get along, but this new environment (whether Halloween specifically or the Chimera more generally) seemed to bring even the most antithetical spirits closer together. The Chimera was, after all, a ship of the Lost and the Damned. And in that loss and damnation, was there not some sense of unity?

Alexander Espersen, one of the most disliked Starfleet Academy instructors of the past quarter-century, dressed in blue-face as someone who in another world could easily be his brother. Alexander Espersen, who an hour ago felt such annoyance at his Captain that he considered plotting some revenge in time for the next holiday. Alexander Espersen, now discussing old stories with a literal princess and sincerely amused by the antics of the ship's youngest.

"Be sure to check your bag of treats, young Mister Valleroy," the XO called back. "If it has a pink gumball, it means you get three tries to knock Petty Officer Benvenuto into the Dunk Tank of Ruin."

"Hey!" Fulvia called over the crowds. "I didn't agree to no dunk tank of ruin!"

"Commander's Orders. Or Grand Admiral's Orders. Your pick." Knowing the majority of candy bags (if not all of them) had pink gumballs meant that the evening would certainly be fun for him.

And hey, maybe he would take pity and switch places with her. Let the kids have their fun with him.

Maybe.


END