Nighttime Fireworks

Posted on Sat Aug 8th, 2026 @ 1:50pm by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

2,983 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Valentine's Day
Location: Holodeck 3
Timeline: After Heartbreak

Henry didn't want to rub salt in any wounds, nor be accused of trying to one-up a thirteen-year-old, but he had a silly date idea and he wanted to run with it while they had some time. He walked Tessa down the corridor and stopped at Holodeck 3, noting it wasn't in use. He tapped his access code and reserved it, pulling Tessa with him. "I want to show you something," he said.

They stepped inside, the holodeck grid still visible. Henry turned to the arch and began typing rapidly. "Okay, quick Earth History Lesson," he said as he worked. "Centuries ago, Earth was split into a couple hundred nation-states. One of them, the one I'm from, was called America. It was big on industrialization, but eventually on entertainment. It spawned an industry around it, and one man managed to not only master the industry, he became the king of it." He smiled at her. "Those animated shorts you enjoy? The ones with the mouse and the duck and the chipmunks? He designed those."

“Don’t forget the rabbit!” Tessa poked him with an elbow, “Or should I say, ‘That wascawy wabbit” She mimicked in a horrible Elmer Fudd voice, “Those are so funny!”

Henry grinned. "Well he built more than cartoons. He built an entire city-sized park. Back then, that was an accomplishment. Now his company owns a couple planets, but the original two locations on Earth are kept as cultural preservation projects." He finished pulling up the program and activated it.

They were standing in front of a wall, above which was a garden, the flowers arranged in the shape of a familiar-looking mouse's face. Behind that, on a second story, was a train station, with the train sitting and awaiting passengers. The light was low as it was already dusk, and Henry took Tessa's hand, bringing her towards a tunnel leading under the station. "The entry is an idealized version of my home about five hundred years ago," he said. "So things may look different when you see Earth in person, but I thought I'd share something unique with you."

There wasn’t much to see just yet, so Tessa just let him lead her as she craned her neck to look at the flowers as close as she could, then hugged herself to his arm. “So he built a curt-sized park? Just flowers and trees and walkways?” She gave a bemused chuff of disappointment, “I mean, it’s all well and good, but that can hardly be too impressive, it’s just landscaping effort. Put enough manpower on that and it’s easy!”

"Yeah," Henry said slowly as they stepped out from under the train station and onto the center of Main Street U.S.A., "it's a bit more than that."

To their left, City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce sat in a large, two story, gleaming white building. On their right, the town square theater was all festooned with banners and decorations for its daily celebration. A horse-drawn trolley was coming towards them as a double-decker bus drove away. There was the firehouse, the trolly garage, the barber shop, the cinema and two long rows of multilevel buildings past the town square flagpole, ending in a castle standing tall in the distance. People were walking about, looking in the shop windows and going in and out of the buildings.

"Welcome to Main Street," Henry said.

Tessa’s eyes opened wide as she stopped dead in her tracks after leaving the cover of the train station. Her shoulders drooped and her head panned the entire view, “Thryn’s throbbing cock…” She whispered as she took one step forward. ”Okay, it’s not what I thought.” Her eyes tore themselves away from the castle that was well in the distance, “How can someone visit all of these places in one day?”

"Well," Henry said, "most of what you see here is shops and places to eat and visual displays of old-world activity. You could do this street in a day. The rest of the park? That can take a few days. And if you wanted to see everything in the preserve? Weeks, easily."

He took her hand and led her towards the town square and the flag pole. Behind them, a loud whistle sounded as the train began to leave the station.

She spun at the whistle and saw the train that they had passed under. While her brain knew it was a holodeck, her heart saw the transportation abandoning them, “Henry, Henry,” She tugged him as she turned, “The train isn’t staying for us!”

"It'll be back," Henry said. "It runs on steam and circles the park." He walked over to a sign by the side of the main road and stood there. "Now, I know you want to see everything, and I want to show you everything, but before we do, we have a dinner reservation."

“Dinner?” That caught Tessa’s attention and she looked up at him again, he having kept them on course, “What do you mean? Dinnertime isn’t for another hour or so…usually. I mean, I’m not going to complain or anything.”

Henry pointed to the castle. "There's a banquet hall inside. You let me dine at your castle, I figured it was only appropriate we dined at one on Earth." He grinned and squeezed her hand as the clip-clop sound of horse hooves appeared. They watched the horse-drawn trolly pull up and stop by where they were standing.

"Now boarding for the castle," a man said, stepping off the trolly.

Henry held Tessa's hand and allowed her to step in first, the empty trolly containing a perimeter of soft, leather bench seats.

Tessa’s eyes opened wide as she automatically allowed Henry to help her into the trolley, panic showing, “Henry, we can’t go eat in the castle like this!” She gestured down to the shirt and skirt she was wearing, neither of them in any way fancy or even more than functional, “We are not dressed for the occasion! If we’re going to have to dine with the nobility, I need a dress suited for it and you should be in something more formal as well!”

"You are absolutely right, Angel," he said, grinning as the horse started pulling them around the town square and back to the main road towards the castle. "Lucky for us, this is a full-service Castle. Suitable attire will be provided upon our arrival. That's why we're getting there early."

“Early?” Tessa asked, as she leaned out the side of the carriage as she watched the various buildings go by. She saw a confectionary and it was only after they’d passed that she remembered what that was, but she tried to jump out as the bakery came into view, only to be stopped by Henry's familiar grip on her hips. ”But we’re eaaaarly!” she whined.

They watched the rest of the shops go by, spying familiar characters on screen in the cinema, a flame appearing in the window of a shop full of glass sculptures, and an ice cream parlor at the end. Finally, they came around the central hub and came to a stop by the castle courtyard.

Henry stepped down onto the sidewalk, helping Tessa out and holding her hand as they walked up the curved walkway to the front gate of the castle.

"Do you remember the story of Cinderella?" he said.

“Daughter of a noble, evil stepmother, forced to clean and snuck out to the ball where the idiot prince was forced to identify her by her feet because she dropped a glass slipper?” Tessa squeezed his hand as they walked, “I mean, how hard is it to dance with someone and look at their fucking face? That would have saved so much less time and Cinderlla could have bitch-slapped those step-sisters of hers.”

Henry paused as a few oblivious children ran by. "Well, you may want to tone down the rhetoric on that one. This castle is based on her castle from a version of her story. She's even in there to greet us once we arrive for dinner. As will some other princesses from our fairy tales." He smiled at her. "You should fit right in." He paused. "Of course, they swear a lot less."

Tessa stopped as she gave him a querying look, “I thought you said they were fairy tales, that they aren’t real?” She glanced around again. “Well, this is a Holodeck, I suppose it could work...but we don’t need to meet her husband-prince, right? I’d feel stupider just being in his presence.”

"I'm pretty sure we can avoid him," Henry said, grinning. "And the purpose of this place is that those characters we imagine can be real." They walked down the long tunnel past the front gate and he stopped by a set of doors on the left. "Here we are. The castle boutique. They'll have you set in no time."

She turned to face him, “You’re going to leave me here? What am I supposed to do, dress up in flowers or something?” She let his hand go and spun, the skirt succumbing to centrifugal force for a moment, “It’d take me too long to make a dress out of flowers.”

"But you'd be the most beautiful garden in the kingdom," Henry said, grinning. He opened the door and escorted her inside. A trio of young woman approached them and the lead one bowed. "My lord, my lady," she said. "Welcome. We have things ready for each of you."

Henry let go of Tessa's hand. "They've got a dress, hair and makeup all ready for you," he said. "I'll see you in a bit?"

"You didn't say anything about being pampered!" Tessa smacked him on the arm, "Next time lead with that and I won't complain!" She turned her back on him and gave a slight curtsy to the lead one and her companion, "I'm ready, miladies, what do you have in mind for me?" She threw a grin back over her shoulder as they took her by an arm each and led her off.

He watched her go, grinning and went to get into his own costume.

A little over a half hour later, his hair was combed and he was dressed in the silk pants, shirt and jacket of a proper prince. His sword was in its sheath strapped to his back, and a shield on his left arm. He stood trying to look noble as the doors to the ladies' side of the chambers opened and Tessa reemerged. He grinned at the black and green dress she had on, and the tiara in her hair. "You look beautiful, Your Highness," he said, bowing.

Tessa gave a full curtsy to Henry, this time in a more human fashion than the normal one she'd shown from Tial, then glanced at one of her boutique assistants who nodded with a smile of her own. She reached out with a bare hand in the expectation that Henry would take it, "And you look quite handsome yourself, Your Highness." She said regally, "Would you care to escort me?"

"Honored, Your Grace," Henry said, taking her hand. He led her out of the boutique and across the walkway into the receiving room of the restaurant. A lovely blonde woman in a blue gown was smiling at them from the end of a long, red carpet. Henry took Tessa to her and bowed. "Cinderella, may I present, Tessa di'Orion, Baroness of Heart's Forge.

Cinderella smiled sweetly and curtsied. "It is such a pleasure to have you dine in my castle, your ladyship," she said.

Tessa returned the curtsy in full form again, reminding herself of her courtesies, "Thank you for the kind welcome, My Lady, it is a pleasure to be here and we thank you for the invitation and welcome."

Cinderella smiled again. "If you'll both ascend that staircase, you'll be attended to immediately."

"She's nicer than in the movie!" Tessa whispered into Henry's ear after they'd passed Cinderella, taking a look behind her to see the hologram already getting ready for the 'next guest' to arrive.

Henry took her arm and led her up the staircase to the expansive dining room. A servant greeted them and escorted them over to a table near the stained-glass windows. Henry pulled out Tessa's chair and then moved to sit down in his own. "So, welcome to 'the Happiest Place on Earth,' as they used to call it."

"This place is beautiful!" Tessa twisted in her chair to look around. Despite knowing that everyone else there was holographic, she still marveled at the details that were in the room. She loved all of the Disney movies she'd seen and recognized the princesses that were mingling with the holographic guests, "Do you think that 'we're going to get to meet Rapunzel? I can show her how I can get my hair to glow, just like hers!"

Henry couldn't help but grin at the smile on her face. He'd programmed random choices for the princesses who would greet them, and hoped she got her wish. He loved how Tessa had gone from 'they aren't real' to fully accepting the fantasy world in so short a time. It was something humans were very good at as well, and he was glad she was having a good time.

Dinner wasn't grandiose, just replicated, but tasted good. They talked about the history of the 'kingdom' and of Earth in general. Henry explained the way the nation-states worked at the time, the formation of the United Earth Government and eventually the Federation itself. At least, he did as best as he could remember from history class. A few centuries of political evolution was a lot for one dinner. They paused to greet the princesses who arrived, and Rapunzel was, indeed, amazed at Tessa's ability to glow. As they made their way back down the stairs, Henry let out a happy sigh and braced himself for her next reaction. "Now, I'll be honest," he said, "all of this was secondary to the grand finale, but I thought it best to get dinner out of the way first."

"Feeding the princesses is always an important factor to remember when it comes to court decorum." Tessa said solemnly, holding onto his arm in the proper fashion, "In fact, if you feel the need to do that again, you can rest assured that this one will never complain, but if this wasn't the main course of the evening, what else do you have planned?"

He led her back out front of the castle to view Main Street. Since they'd got inside, the sun had set, and the entire street was lit up with hundreds of small lights, outlining every building along the entire street all the way back to where they'd entered.

Her eyes opened wide again, the sight completely different from how it had been before. She started to walk faster towards the lighted streetway, but was stopped by Henry as he pulled her in and wrapped an arm around her.

Henry nodded. "It's definitely a sight to behold," he said, holding her tight. "However, that's not the best part, so we'd better get to our seats.

"Our seats?" She looked back at the lights with an almost forlorn look, but went with him anyways. She snuggled into his side as they walked along, a Disney Princess with her Prince, and he still had that sword, which made him even sexier to him.

He led her back down the ramp along the front of the castle and back to the central park area in the street. A small area had been roped off for them with a comfy couch for two waiting. He led her over as another attendant let them into the section, and he sat next to her, the couch automatically leaning back at the perfect angle to see the castle and the sky.

"Humans have invented a lot of crazy things," Henry said, 'but one of the craziest, in my opinion, is fireworks."

Tessa sidled over towards him on the couch, tucking herself in under his arm capturing his other hand in both of hers and clasping it tightly, "What are fireworks?"

"Controlled chemical explosions on small rockets," Henry said. "But the description doesn't do it justice. Just watch." The lights of main street suddenly dimmed, and for a moment they were plunged into darkness before the show began.

Over the next half hour, there were streamers, a constant low-level barrage of explosions that pocked the sky with brief stars and meteors of all colors of the rainbow. Sparklers drifted through the sky, complemented by shapes and patterns of additional explosions that were accompanied by music.

The final launch was elaborate and loud, Tessa's eyes glittered as she'd leaned forward slightly to watch them, trying not to blink during the entire show. Now she turned her face to him and grinned widely, "It's like Urd and Lind and Bey had an orgy!! My brain has exploded! It's AWESOME!"

Henry smiled and held her as the lights along Main Street returned and the other attendees began their pilgrimage towards the front of the park. Henry made no move to stand and continued to hold Tessa tight, nuzzling her ear and kissing her. "Glad you enjoyed it," he said.

"Every time I think I have you figured out, you do something that amazes me, Henry." Tessa said to him, snuggling deeper into his embrace, "Never stop surprising me?"

Hell, I keep surprising myself, Henry thought. "I'll do my best," he said, holding her as the breeze blew the smoke away and the castle stood quietly in front of them.

 

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