Chapter 1
"In the cool of the evening when ev'rything is gettin' kind of groovy,
I call you up and ask you if you want to go and meet and see a movie,
First you say no, you've got some plans for the night,
And then you stop, and say, 'All right.'
Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you."
The Classics IV – Spooky
=/\=
For Commander Charles Tucker III, Halloween was the most wonderful time of the year.
Better than Christmas or Thanksgiving, it was the epitome of everything he loved – horror, pretending to be someone he was not, and rigging elaborate pranks. It was a holiday that, to him, had everything.
And so in 2161, he worked as hard as he could to make it the best Halloween ever on the NX-01.
He arranged with Chip Masterson, the guy in charge of Movie Night, to show a horror film every single night. There were some amazing pictures, like Hitchcock's Psycho, and some gore fests like Friday the Thirteenth, the 1980 slash fest. Rosemary's Baby made an appearance, as did his favorite, the old James Whale Frankenstein. It was all leading up to October thirty-first itself and the corker, John Carpenter's Halloween.
Much of the time, it seemed, there weren't too many takers for these films. Psycho drew a crowd, and so did Rosemary's Baby. Frankenstein had its fans. But the nastier and bloodier tales, like Child's Play from 1988, were only sparsely attended, and he could not figure out why.
For the thirty-first, he had done his best to line up a date. There were women he could approach and there were others where it was just not a good idea.
He had two exes on board – T'Pol, the Vulcan Science Officer – she was also the First Officer – and the Communications Officer, Ensign Hoshi Sato. There had been less time with Hoshi, but he had become overwhelmed and had proposed. She had, as politely and as firmly as possible, turned him down. As for T'Pol, she had wed another, and then that marriage had dissolved, but their lives had been turned upside-down by a movement called Terra Prime. The movement had created a cloned child, a combination of his and T'Pol's DNA. When the infant, named Elizabeth, died, that also effectively killed whatever was left of that relationship, along with any slender hopes for reconciliation.
It was, perhaps, for the best, as the Romulan War had intervened. The Enterprise had been called away to fight, and some of the battles had been truly nasty. The Armory Officer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, had been particularly affected, and had suffered some shell shock. In some ways he was lucky, as there were crew members who had made the ultimate sacrifice. And now Reed was on a charming little planet called Lafa II. Reed's recovery had been facilitated by his great love, and she was expecting their son. The boy was scheduled to be born via Cesarean, on Halloween itself. Reed was gone to that planet and would be out for a while and then back again afterwards, for a few years of paternity leave.
The captain, Jonathan Archer, was affected by the Romulan War but not overly so. Without a love to help him recover, he had taken to studying laws and legislation and diplomacy. Others had coped in their own ways. Charles – Tripp to his friends – had retreated into the fiction of horror films.
=/\=
"You think we'll get a crowd tonight?" he asked Chip as the latter, a tall Communications Ensign, stood in front of him at the lunch chow line.
"I dunno. That film's pretty nasty in terms of frights. I am thinking the ladies might not like it." He eyed the new Science Ensign, Lucy Stone, when he said that. She looked back for just a second, brown eyes flashing, before she got a seat with the Botanist, Shelby Pike. The two women looked again and then pretended to study their lunches.
"I said, 'Maybe some honey'll wanna be protected from the big, bad celluloid horrors'," Tucker reiterated. "Sheesh, Masterson, you'd think you'd never seen a woman before."
"Listen," Chip said, "I figure it has to do with the end of the war a few years ago. It's finally sinking in with all of us that things are kinda safe. I guess it's instinct and we're all looking to, I dunno, pair bond."
"Well, you have already pair bonded with Deb Haddon, who's liable to deck ya if you get too chummy with anyone else," Tucker said. "And I think Miller's got the eye for Stoney anyway."
Andrew Miller ran the Bio Lab. He approached the table with Shelby and Lucy and seemed to be chatting both of them up. As for Deb Haddon – a Security Ensign – she came over and dug a finger in Chip's ribs. "Can I cut the line?" she asked, smiling at him. She was pregnant, and they had recently married.
"Uh, sure," he said.
"Why do ya always give in so easily?" she asked him.
"'Cause you're trained to kill me in, like, I dunno, at least seventeen different ways."
"Eighteen if you count a heart attack at Movie Night. Say, why are you picking so much horror lately?" she asked.
"It's not me; it's Commander Tucker."
"Really?" she asked, turning to Tripp. "You got something against films that, I dunno, don't scare the crap outta ya? You don't want me to give birth after Scene Two, do ya?"
"I like horror," he explained as they got close to the food. "It's a misunderstood genre. Uh, light on the potatoes, and maybe extra spinach, please," he told the server, Brian Delacroix.
"Sure," replied the Food Service Ensign. "Breast or thigh?"
"I'm a leg man m'self," Tucker said. Much like Masterson, he eyed the women a bit, too. Nearby, there was Amanda Cole, a MACO Corporal, with Julie McKenzie, another Corporal.
"Uh, Commander? Bring your plate back here so I can fill it."
"Oh, uh, sure, sorry 'bout that, Del."
"No prob. Light potatoes, heavy spinach, two drumsticks. Make sure to take a roll. You want gravy?"
=/\=
Captain Archer had called a meeting of the senior staff for that afternoon. Commander Tucker came, of course, and made sure to not sit near Hoshi or T'Pol. Too awkward. The pilot, Travis Mayweather, was a safe selection for an adjacent seat. On the other side was Malcolm's fill-in at Tactical, Ensign Aidan MacKenzie – no relation to Julie. Rounding out the meeting were Doctor Phlox, a Denobulan, and the head of the MACO contingent, Major Strong Bear Dawson. "We're getting close to putting this ship in mothballs," began the captain, "so I'd like for everyone to start putting together a report about your own departments. Write about what worked, and what didn't. I'm not looking for finger-pointing. It's more like, once the NX-01 is done, there will be a new ship. Admiral Gardner has told me it's going to be named for Zefram Cochrane. It'll have the same speed as the NX-01, but it should have a few different tricks up its proverbial sleeve. And it would help if that ship could leave space dock better prepared than we were."
"Aren't you going to be on that new ship?" asked Hoshi.
"I am," Jonathan confirmed, "but I want to hear from you whatever you think ran like a top, and what stank up the place. Engineering," he looked at Tucker when he said that, "can only do so much."
"Hey, I just work with what I got," the engineer said.
"Shouldn't the heads of the sub-departments make the same recommendations?" T'Pol inquired. "Ensign Miller and Ensign Pike should forward their observations about their responsible areas within the Science Division. Ensign Stone could provide a fresher perspective as well."
"Good idea," encouraged the captain, "so Commander, get input from José Torres about the transporter, and from Colin Myles or Emily Andreiou about the warp containment field."
"Aye, Cap'n," said the engineer.
"Should I contact Lieutenant Reed?" Aidan asked.
"No," said Captain Archer, "I get the feeling he's not thinking too much about work right now. What's the time difference there?"
"Four hours earlier," Hoshi said, checking a PADD. "I'm thinking Lili is having the baby right about now."
The captain smiled. "Let me know if you get a report. So, uh, Aidan, your observations will be fine. Talk to Ethan Shapiro and Tristan Curtis about the Armory and Security, and Cecily Romano if you need information on Tactical targeting."
"Yes, sir."
"Major Dawson?" asked the captain.
"Sir?"
"I think Julie McKenzie and Amanda Cole can help the most."
"Right," said Dawson, "I was kinda counting on that. Plus there are reports from Hayes before he died."
"Right," said the captain. "Travis, get input from Shari Jeffers about stellar cartography. And have Felicity Reese help with piloting issues."
"Yes, sir," said Travis.
"I'll work with Chip Masterson and Maryam Haroun," Hoshi volunteered.
"Right," said the captain, "Doc, I think you're on your own."
"I don't know," said the Denobulan. "I suspect the Derellian bat can provide some input," he joked.
"When is this all due?" Travis asked.
"January first. But I want you to get a jump on it. Look at logs, but also dig back into your memories. I want the Cochrane to be excellent from the start. Oh, and Tripp?"
"Yeah, Cap'n?"
"You're in charge of the first cut of this. I'd like you to go over the draft reports before I get anything final. I don't need to impress upon you how important this is."
"Got it, sir."
"Dismissed."
=/\=
Movie Night was, again, sparsely attended. Whether that was due to the captain's orders to the senior staff, or the film's subject matter, it was hard to say. "C'mon!" Tripp exhorted Travis, "It's Halloween! If you can't watch a film called Halloween on October thirty-first, then when the hell can ya watch it?"
"I don't know. Look, I've got to get a jump on things. The captain didn't say anything about anyone joining him on the Cochrane. I figure this is a chance to impress."
"Impress? Travis, you've been the pilot of the NX-01 for how many years?"
"I know," said Travis, "but I've never been promoted. I'm just, I'm a little worried, is all."
"If it were up to me, you'd have nothin' to worry 'bout."
"Well, thanks, Tripp, but I still worry. I, uh, at my last leave, I met a girl, Ellen Warren. It's still kinda tentative. And I, you know, I need to have a good job and all that."
"Even if you don't get on the Cochrane – and lemme tell ya, the cap'n would be a fool not to take you – you'll do something for Starfleet, Travis. You'll impress Ellen even if, for some crazy reason, you don't impress Jonathan Archer."
"Uh, thanks. But I still want to do this. I don't get a chance to write much for work. I want to stretch myself, and show that I really can do it. You know what I mean? And you'll kick back anything that doesn't look good, right, and give me a chance to fix it before it goes to the captain?"
"Well, sure, Buddy. But it's –", he cut his own protest short when he saw that Travis meant business.
There were two dings, signifying PADD messages. They both fumbled for their PADDs. "Hey, Lili had the baby," Travis said, reading the message.
Tucker clicked to open the accompanying photograph. "Will ya look at that, the first parent on the NX-01. Well, the first successful one," he said, thinking of Elizabeth for just a second. He shook off the melancholy and compartmentalized it, like he always seemed to. "The baby's got Lili's light coloring."
"And he's got Reed's cheekbones. Look at that; you could cut a diamond with those!"
"Yep. Declan Reed. Who'd've thunk it?"
"Look, I gotta go," Travis said. "That report won't write itself."
"Right," Tucker said, and he headed to Movie Night alone.
=/\=
"I was working in the lab late one night He did the mash!"
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
Bobby 'Boris' Pickett – The Monster Mash