Rift 48

It is now one week later

Rodgers exited his pod after talking with his daughter. She had stopped at a colony planet to pick up some necessary supplies before she would go silent and remain in FTL for the duration of her trip. They wouldn't talk again until she dropped out of FTL in this system. As he stepped out he found Snohbal sitting on the beach looking out at the waves. All of the others were inside enjoying what he had been invited to – Movie Night. It had coincided with him getting a signal from Alexis so he'd left.

"No movie for you?" He'd found the movies to be entertaining. This planet may be a bit backward, however, they did appear to have good imaginations and weren't afraid to put them to use.

Snohbal shook her head. "Waiting for you," she answered and saw a quick look of surprise on his face. Rodgers saw her pat the patch of sand next to her so he sat down next to her.

"Why a Hunter? Why hunt demons? I mean, I get that they're all evil in the extreme. They thrive not on just death but the fear that they can spread. I just don't see how lucrative hunting them can be. There can't be that many of them out there." The only sure way of leaving her realm was with a prince or one of his generals. And leaving her world by being summoned didn't seem to happen as often as she might have feared.

"Demons aren't the only things I hunt. And you're right, there isn't much money in hunting demons exclusively. Fortunately or maybe not, people are only too willing to steal what isn't theirs. Those that can afford it hire people like me." Most of what he did was to secret away what had been stolen.

"How many demons have you actually encountered? It can't be that many." Snohbal didn't see it being more than a handful.

"Okay, you got me. I've only ever hunted down three of them. One was a spider much like you described. It had large, long forelimbs ending in razor-sharp claws. It was amazingly easy to capture."

"It sounds like a Bebilith. They have a fondness for demon flesh. They're not really a hazard to other life forms. They pin the demon to the ground using those same forelimbs and then bite them. Since all demons are immune to poison, it instead injects a necrotic fluid that accelerates rotting of the flesh. It's this flesh that it feeds on." She involuntarily shivered after she remembered seeing one munching on a demon that it had captured.

Rodgers was astonished. There were only a handful of people that knew much of anything about demons. "Impressive." He looked her over again. He not only liked what he saw, but he liked what he heard. Yes, she sounded like she was grossed out as though she'd actually seen a demon, but that obviously hadn't stopped her.

"Professor of demonology…remember." Snohbal smiled and leaned across to kiss his cheek. She wanted to test him. "What else?"

"One was huge, easily twice my size. It was a purplish black and had a bare hide made from what looked like scales. It had red eyes, a large mouth filled with fangs, and four arms that each ended in razor-sharp claws as did its feet." This time it was Rodgers who shuddered as he remembered it literally feeding on all the blood that it was raiding in a clinic on some planet.

"Sounds like a Blood Fiend. Most are a purplish black, though a few are red. They love the taste of blood. Anyone's blood. Interesting that it would it would be drinking that blood. By drinking the blood of another creature it can turn that person into a creature just like it. Then together they hunt down even more blood. There was probably another one close by that you missed." She didn't mean to be insulting, it was just that if there was one, there was more than one.

Rodgers went on the defensive. "There was no mention of another one. Maybe they just got lucky that it found an easy target."

Snohbal was willing to concede that he might be right. "It's possible. In which case they and you got lucky. Its arms are heavily muscled."

They were silent for a time as he took occasional looks at all of the skin she had exposed. "Why Snowball?" It was an unusual name on any planet.

That had her smiling. "I was born and raised in an area that was hot all the time. I think my mother wished for a place colder. Even today I don't understand the reasoning for how it's spelled: S-N-O-H-B-A-L."

"Well, it doesn't suit you. You're anything but cold." He instantly started kicking himself. Of all the stupid things he could have said.

"Thank you. If you want, you can call me Sno like Kate and Lex do." Sno leaned across and kissed him. This time she lifted a hand to the back of his head and pulled him closer into her kiss. She used her strength and pushed him down onto the sand. She got up a little and straddled him, then placed both hands on his head and kissed him even harder.

Rodgers took the opportunity to run his hands over all that skin. When his hands ended on the tie that held her bikini top in place he froze. Sno broke from the kiss. "Pull." Then she went back to kissing him.

That was all he needed so he undid the tie and her top fell away a little exposing her breasts. She stopped kissing him and sat up so he could see her breasts. When all he did was look, she reached out, took hold of both his hands and placed one on each of her breasts.

Rodgers took the hint and started palming her breasts. Sno hummed and leaned down to kiss him again while he kept his hands on her breasts.

She sat back up and covered his hands with hers. "Sno, I thought you and Lex were…together." He'd kept his distance partly because he could hear the screams coming from the boat.

"Lex prefers men which are in short supply around here. And to be honest, so do I. However, I'm not very choosy and she's a good lover…for now." She leaned back down to kiss him.

Snohbal had to admit that she really wanted a man inside her. Lex's tongue and lips were extremely nice, but she missed having the feeling of having a man inside her.

They didn't take it any further; Sno turned her head to look back at him and smiled as she retied her top into place. She headed into the house while Rodgers chose to stay on the beach.

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The following morning Lex was sitting in front of her screen going over various intercepts that she'd gotten from reading the German communications. Translating it was simple and easy.

"What's up?" Rick inquired as he entered. After all, she'd called for him.

"It looks like the Germans have formulated a plan. They intend to attack and possibly invade these islands here off of Alaska, the Unalaska islands in particular."

He was willing to bite. "Okay, why there?"

"It's the home of Dutch Harbor, the home port of all United States fishing in the Bering Sea. Losing access to this area will cost the U.S. untold millions. Though to be honest, I don't think that's their main objective. I think it's meant to draw a response from the United States and finally force them into a larger conflict. Turn the Cold War hot, so to speak." Lex turned to look at him.

"And what is it we can do about it?" It was too far away and they didn't have the firepower to do anything about it.

"Based on what I can find, we need to have a talk with this man and his staff. He's been an outspoken critic of President Bracken. As such instead of being asked to resign or accept retirement, he and his staff were sent off to Anchorage."

"Effectively exiled and as far away from Bracken as he could send him. Do you think he'll listen and just what are we going to tell him?" Rick was willing to try.

"We did give them that heads-up about South Africa. Based on what I've intercepted those B-1Bs did a number on their strike force. Enough that it was forced to withdraw. If we can prove that we were behind that intelligence, he might be more willing to listen. In addition, we have an ace in the hole, or in this case, in orbit." She began smiling at him.

"Is his ship capable of doing what I'm thinking?" Would he help them was another question entirely.

"His ship alone can shoot down a good number of ICBM's everyone fires off at whoever. Once Alexis and her ship get here it'll double the firepower. More if she's already upgraded her ship." Lex was sure of it.

"So we can put an end to them trying to turn this planet in this timeline into a radioactive ball of dust." Rick liked it but he wanted a backup plan, someplace to go if things went sideways. "We should get everything packed and ready to rush the door and back into the stairs, just in case."

"I'll leave that to you and the others. I'm going to put together a message and arrange for a time for us to talk. With your permission." Things were getting really involved and Lex was no longer comfortable making all these big decisions on her own. She needed input from Rick with his military experience.

"Create your message; let me get to work on what to take and how fast we can evacuate. Then call us and we'll talk about it. All of us." Rick patted her shoulder and actually leaned down and dropped a kiss on her head.

He was still adjusting to seeing what his Alexis was going to look like when she was this age. She might be Castle's daughter, but when he looked at her, she felt more like his daughter.

It was only a couple of hours later and Lex had another visitor. Kate walked in with a hand on her burgeoning belly. "Got a minute?" A couple more months and there was going to be a baby amongst them.

"Sure." Lex quit what she was working on after quickly saving it and turned to face Kate.

"Are we still making plans to go to Miami so I can have this baby?" It was first and foremost on Kate's mind.

Lex got up, retrieved what she wanted, and handed them over to Kate. "Your fake birth certificate, fake passport and fake drivers license as well as your medical insurance cards.

You and your husband are on vacation from New York City and got caught in Miami. I chose New York since you both know that city the best. I've even purchased a place there so if they look up the address they will find yours and Dad's names on the sale." Lex was actually proud of herself.

"The loft?" Kate was hopeful since she liked that spot and knew Castle loved it.

"Unfortunately no, it's presently owned and occupied." She'd thought about that already. She searched her mess, located a folder filled with information, and handed it to Kate. "Here you go, photos and all the information you'll ever need to know. I like it so hopefully you and Dad will like it." She hoped they both did anyway.

The Gingerbread House

8220 NARROWS AVENUE

Bay Ridge | 82 & 83rd St

The particulars: Interior space: 5,764 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms. First floor great room, dining room with fireplace and music conservatory all with cherry and mahogany flooring and hand-sculpted wood reliefs. The music conservatory hosts the great stone hearth, the essential core of the architectural style, accented by carved stone columns and sculpted stone reliefs.

Exterior footprint: A 20,000 square foot lot spans a city block, and includes a quarter acre parade ground green space. Pocket gardens surround the property. The terracotta tiled kitchen with separate staff service area, leads to an outdoor dining patio that connects to terraced patios. A ground floor patio, surround by a stone wall with water feature and a stone archway connects to the three car garage.

Lex watched Kate starting to smile as she looked at each picture. At first Kate had feared that Lex had found them something that was modern and slick, filled with hard lines and hard corners. Even worse, filled with everything white. This place was anything but that. It was maybe a little too masculine for her taste but she could fix that. "We actually own this?" Kate was ready to love her for this.

"Yep, it even has Dad's car and your car. Or at least they should have been delivered by now." She went looking for another folder that held all the information they would need.

1929 Cord L-29 Phaeton

2011 Ferrari 458 Italia

Kate sucked in a breath and felt tears start to form in her eyes. Stupid hormones. "It's gorgeous, Alexis." Kate wiped at the tears that had escaped and wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tight.

Six bedrooms were maybe too many, but the place had a yard for their kids to play in. It was even fenced so that they could possibly have a dog. Then it hit her. Just what she did she mean by KIDS? As in more than just this one? The more she thought about it, yes, more than just this one. "Thank you, Alexis. I'm going to go show Castle." Kate let go of her and started to turn away then hugged her again. "I do love you, Alexis. I know I put your dad through hell early on, but I'm glad you stuck with me through it all."

Lex smiled widely as she watched her real stepmother walk away. "I'm glad, too," she whispered to the empty space where Kate had just been.

She prepared for when Rick, Kate, and Alexis showed up. Word was going to get out fast. Then she got ready for Jim and Johanna as well. By this time she had a plan for Rodgers and Snohbal. She just hoped both would go for it.

She wasn't finding what she wanted when her dad came bursting into the cabin. She was still sitting when she was enveloped by her dad's arms, hugging her tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Castle switched to kissing her forehead. "I love the car, the house…everything!" It was better than the loft and more than he ever dreamed of having.

Lex grinned and started giggling. "I'm glad you like it, Dad. I thought of you and Kate and what the two of you would both like. I can just see you showing off the car to everyone."

"I'm already starting to think up who would love to have it so I can show it to them. Just how did you manage this? Neither of us even have a job yet." And he was pretty sure he didn't have any money. She was ready for that question and handed him another folder that had their financials including life insurance and medical coverage in it. "Please tell me you didn't rob a bank, or several banks to get this much." Castle thought he knew his daughter better, but it just kind of spilled out.

"Actually the money didn't exist until I put it into your accounts, so I didn't steal it from anyone. Though with a little work I might manage to steal from Bracken." Lex wasn't sure about that one since this method had proven to be easier. "I'll leave the house out in the Hamptons to you and Kate. Everything is signed and paid for. It's all yours." She was quite pleased with herself.

Castle thought about that, but was wary of doing anything that involved Bracken. He was thinking that SOB was out of their reach preventing them from being able to do anything about him. Still he would talk with Kate about what to do.

"You're amazing, pumpkin." Castle went back to hugging her tightly. "What about you and the others?" He didn't want her to be just helping them; it wasn't fair.

"I already have that covered. This is Jim and Johanna's and here's my idea for Rick, Kate, and little Alexis." She held up each of their folders. "As for me, I have a plan. But I need to wait and see." Her idea wasn't up to her. She just needed to convince them.

"And Snohbal?" Rick wasn't willing to leave her out of this. She'd helped them and seeing her walking around as a human was helping him adjust to her more easily.

"That plan's already in motion, so we'll see." That wasn't up to her, either.

"Rick, Kate, and Alexis are next; if you would go get them for me, Dad?" Lex really wanted to hear what they would think of her idea. She would have to come up with another plan otherwise.

"Deal. Thanks again, pumpkin. It's such a joy to have you back." Castle hadn't enjoyed 1876 quite as much without her. He found the idea of living then as being more of a dream than being practical.

It only took minutes for Rick to walk in with Kate and Alexis. "We heard you wanted to talk with us."

"I'm trying to think into the future for all of us, here in this world. Unless you want to go back into the stairs and take your chances?" Lex made sure to offer that option to them first.

"Not really." Kate wasn't in favor of going back into the stairs. However, neither of them had talked about their future being anywhere.

"Okay, hear me out." She wasn't sure they were going to go for it. "I was thinking this place was yours." She waited for the questions and automatic rejection. Except there were none. So Lex plowed ahead. "Kate can finish law school and maybe do it in Miami instead. I can find you a place to stay while she's in school. We can press for Rick to be placed in command of a small research and naval base located in that German base we invaded. Kate can sail all over the place to serve her clients. Be that in Cuba, the Bahamas, Miami, or some other islands.

"This place has everything you need. None of the children are ready for school yet and it will keep the door that allows access to the stairs in our family's hands. Should anyone decide they want to take their chances in the future they'll have that option."

Kate opened her mouth then closed it. Rick looked ready to open his mouth to say something but didn't. "You'll inherit all of the B-5s if you stay here. Maybe the others will take one or two, but you'll inherit the majority of them. We can fill the trailers again using the suitcase. Rick can keep his set of wristbands." She was more than willing to let him keep one set while she kept the other.

"Alexis will be school age soon." His fears of being stranded on the ship had gotten him to agree to go into the stairs in the first place. He had to think of the future – their future.

"I thought you might think that, so I've already arranged for a place in Miami for all of you. You can come here during the summer, or for holidays, or other times. Keep this place in the family and use it as a family vacation spot. What we do about all the B-5s will need to be worked out." She handed them another folder and waited for them to look it over.

Club Tower II Condo, Penthouse1

"It's three floors!" That was the first thing that Kate noticed.

"Living, dining, and kitchen all on one floor; three bedrooms on the second floor and an enormous outdoor deck on the floor above." Rick was amazed.

"It's a lot of white." Kate wasn't a fan.

Lex solved that issue in one word. "Paint."

"There's a servants' quarters on one of the floors." He wasn't sure even he liked the idea of servants.

"The B-5s' charging chamber," Lex suggested, knowing they might not like having strangers in their home.

Kate pointed out a potential deal breaker. "There's no pool." After all Alexis almost lived in the pool now and Kate wasn't sure she was going to grow out of that.

"It's incentive to come here during summer or holidays. The B-5s can be your crew for the boat and keep both places clean like they do here. You might even be able to take a B-5 with you into the naval base where you work. I'll leave that up to you."

In the end all three walked away looking over the folders Lex had handed them without committing to her plan. She returned to her computer to try and find something in Miami that was closer to what she had found for her dad and Kate.

It appeared the Kates were more alike than she had thought.