Deadly Planets

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I don't own a lot of things, including Castle. Rating: K Time: This begins at the end of my previous story, Deadly Planet.

Castle's command began marching towards the small village. The Moreans were in front so that the villagers would recognize them as friends. However, a bell began to ring frantically in the village.

"That's the alarm bell, Captain Castle. They've seen us and they're worried." Corporal Jhana said,

Castle stopped his troops and checked the village through his field glasses. "Shit. I can see people running into a big building and coming back out in uniform and with rifles."

"That'll be the village militia. Part time troops armed with older weapons. They have bolt action rifles and one old machine gun. If it works."

"I see people running to action stations on the warship." Ryan said.

"That's an old corvette, the Puncher. The seas around here are shallow and full of reefs and sandbars. The Puncher is pretty much the only ship that can navigate around here without running aground. She mounts a 77 millimeter cannon as her largest weapon."

"There's what looks like a fort just past where the moored ship."

"Fort True Wood. It has a few old guns and damned little ammunition."

"We'd better find some way to let them know we're friendly pretty quick of they'll start shooting." Castle said. "They're at the edge of the village and are forming up into a sloppy skirmish line. If they start shooting…" He didn't want to think about what would happen if they started shooting.

Corporal Jhana walked to the front of the group and began to sing and the rest of the Moreans joined in.

"Morean ladies, cease your dreaming,

"Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming,

"See their warrior pennants streaming,

"To this battlefield."

The Morean Marines kept singing as they marched towards the village, with the rest of Castle's command following behind.

Well, not all of Castle's command followed behind. The giant Theokrates Kanakredes strode to the middle of the Moreans and sang the song with them in a surprising mellow baritone, but very loudly.

"You can sing, Kanakredes?" Castle yelled over the singing.

"Of course, Captain Castle. What kind of great lord cannot sing of his many deeds to put fear in the hearts of his foes? Do you not have a minstrel to sing your praises?"

"No." Castle yelled.

"You do now." The giant said merrily and began singing again.

Castle could see that the song was having the desired effect. The Morean militia was lowering their weapons and he could see a runner heading back to the village.

As they approached the line of militiawomen, one came out waving a white flag.

Jhana called to her. "Cousin Dara! It's me, Jhana."

Dara walked towards Jhana, then threw her arms around the corporal. "By the gods, girl. When you disappeared, we thought you dead. And all your squad." Dara looked back at the group following Jhana. "You have quite a….By the gods! Are those men?" The last sentence was screamed. That was enough to bring the rest of the militia, some hundred women, running to see for themselves.

One skinny and greying blonde ran up to Castle and reached for his crotch to see if he really was a man. With one hand Castle held Kate back and with the other, pushed the blonde away.

"You'll have to take my word for my being a man." He said.

"What?" The blonde said. She turned to Jhana. "What are they saying?"

"Castle, they can't understand us. Everyone who went to that planet got some kind of treatment that allows us to understand others. But they didn't. Our Moreans will have to translate." Kate said.

Kanakredes quickly learned the Morean word for "Silence" and bellowed it as loudly as he could, which was louder than anyone had heard the word before. Suddenly there was silence.

Jhana spoke. "We have been on a great adventure and have met many people, including men. Now, we must go to the village hall to report what has happened to us to our leaders."

Castle quickly arranged his command so that the human men were on the inside, surrounded by his other soldiers. They in turn were surrounded by the Morean militiawomen.

Word must have spread quickly that men were coming as the streets were lined with women, all gazing in awe at more men than they had ever seen in their lives. One little girl was trapped behind several adults and was yelling that she wanted to see, too. Kanakredes leaned over and picked her up, putting her on his massive shoulder.

"There, young one, now you have the best seat in the house. The best seat for what, you ask? Why to see the famous Captain Rick Castle, of course. The man who goes to other planets as easily as your folk walk into their sitting room. Captain Castle, who fears neither man, beast nor machine. Cannibals? They run from Captain Castle. I have seen this with my very own eyes." As they walked through the village Kanakredes kept up a nonstop and totally false report of Castle's adventures.

Although none of the villagers had any idea what he was saying, the sight of the giant walking through the village with a small girl on his shoulder fascinated them all.

The village hall was the seat of government, the headquarters of the militia, the local temple of worship, a social hall and whatever else was needed. It was jammed with every woman in the little village which Castle was told was named Greenport.

A half a dozen older Moreans sat in heavy wooden chairs on a raised stage. They, Jhana told everyone, were the village council. There was a brief discussion when a younger woman, in uniform, got up on stage and demanded to be seated.

"That's Lieutenant Bortha, of the Great Clan of Pompee. She's the commander of the Puncher and is the only representative of the national government here."

Eventually, Bortha was seated and an older Morean banged a staff on the floor and called for order. Eventually, everyone quieted down.

The staff wielder looked at Jhana. "I am Kirsa of the Great Clan of Jully and the head of the village council. It appears we cannot understand our guests, so Corporal Jhana of the Great Clan of Jully, please explain what has happened since we last heard of you and how you came to be here with such an odd group and so many men."

Jhana began explaining and it seemed that every other sentence, she was interrupted with questions.

"Please, "she said, "allow me to explain things in order, then ask questions."

She proceeded with only the occasional outburst. The surviving Morean Marines each testified that what appeared to be men, were in fact men, as they had good reason to know. The explanations of how they knew grew quite clinical. Pornographic, even.

The news that Earth had population of four billion men brought a crescendo of yelling from the assembled women. The news that some of the women with Castle's command had a man all to themselves brought a lot of nasty looks directed at Kate, Anna and Janice. They gave nasty looks right back.

Eventually, Jhana made her report to the village council and all the questions had been asked and answered. The village council withdrew to a back room to deliberate.

"What do you think they'll do?" Castle asked Jhana.

"I assume they'll contact the national government. What else can they do. With this many new men…"

"This many men, minus three." Kate broke in.

Jhana nodded. "More men than have ever been in this village."

"I thought there was no House of Men in the village because it was too small." Castle asked.

"Twenty years ago, they sent men to the smaller villages as a test. The men hated it since they were deprived of the luxuries of the big cities. The experiment was called off after less than a year. Even then, this village only got ten men."

Jhana spoke no further as the village council returned at took their seats.

"I understand that there are several here who are skilled in the healing arts. If they would please come forth, we wish to speak with them in private."

Ryan, Anna and Tal, the medic from Color Sergeant Breede's unit stood and walked to the stage. Ryan got his bottom pinched as he walked up, angering both him and Anna.

It took over an hour before the three medics came back out, but the village council remained behind closed doors.

"What did they want you for?" Castle asked Ryan.

"They wanted confirmation that the human worlds we know of all produce about the same number of men and women. About all we could do was to point out that all of those worlds used men as soldiers. If everyone was as short of men as they are, nobody'd have male soldiers. That seemed to convince them."

"Anything else?' Kate asked.

"They wanted to know what we thought the problem here was. We're the women somehow unable to produce an even number of male and female babies, or did we think there was something wrong with the men. We told them we had no clue."

"If it's the men, it could be a problem." Castle said.

"How?" Anna asked.

"We have forty-six human males. If the problem is the local males, we'll be the answer to their prayers. They'll put us to breeding an equal number of boys and girls."

"There's an easier way." Anna said. "Before I went into the military I worked in a hospital. Among other things we did artificial insemination. It's not that complex. One man could impregnate the whole village, depending on a lot of things, of course. I don't even know if they know about artificial insemination."

"I have no intention of my unit being turned into a stud farm for this planet."

"I agree. "Kate added.

The buzz of conversation died as the village council returned to their seats. The head of the council rapped her staff on the floor to signal for silence. "We have come to a decision. As it appears that our new friends, all of them, both human and non-human, have no other place to go, we welcome them as our guests. Would that be a problem for…."She looked down at a scrap of paper…"Captain Castle?" She pronounced the last two words very carefully.

"We're glad to be your guests." Castle said, not that he had much choice. "However, I command a military unit. As you've been told, we were told we'd all be sent back to our home worlds. All of us, or part of us could literally disappear at any time. I'd like to base my command in this building and I need to keep them sharp, which means training."

Kirsa nodded. "That is perfectly acceptable."

"Male soldiers?" Came a mutter from the crowd. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"In keeping with our guests' traditions, those men who have a permanent relationship with one of the guest women are off limits to all village women. Should one of our new human male friends wish to have sex with any or all of the village females, that is their prerogative."

That excited the Morean women.

The head of the council went on. "We have agreed that as we may have a solution to the problem of our unbalanced births, it would be improper for us to notify the national government of these new men until this is proved one way or another." She looked around. "If there is nothing further, this meeting is adjourned."

Castle noticed that Lieutenant Bortha, the commander of the Puncher, looked very angry. He made a mental note to talk to her as soon as he could.

"Captain Castle?" Rick found Alice standing next to him. "I think I have an idea of what went wrong."

TBC