Captain’s Log: Oct. 31, 2017, 4:16 pm. Earth time.

Oh my…this is going to be SO easy!  All that hard work preparing costumes and disguises for this mission…..completely unnecessary.  Just look at this place.  The natives here are CRAZY!  All day since we landed they’ve been running around dressed up in outrageous costumes, as monsters and zombies and hookers and well…even aliens.  I think we’re gonna fit in here, just fine.  But hooo-boy, when I get back home, I’m going to tear the advanced team a new one.  Their intelligence reports painted such a boring, conservative picture of this species…SHEEESH, were they wrong!?  Why, just now I saw a tiny little demon girl approaching our safe-house door…..hang on…’DING—DONG!’…..”Trick or treat!!!”

***John’s illustration was originally published in the October 2014 issue of Analog Magazine for a story by Joyce and Stanley Schmidt.  Stan is an old friend and was the editor of Analog for about 3 decades.  You can find their orig. story in the archives at analogsf.com.  This was originally posted on Halloween in 2015 (my 4th post ever), but most of you will have missed it.   Happy Halloween!  -Marsha