The Pilots and the Frontier
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: After all this time, you know what this means, right? Rating: K Time: About three years after my story the Pilots and the Passengers.
They all went outside to see what the commotion was all about. What they saw was a very large Kzin walking though the main street of the Sky Cave. He was accompanied by a female Kzin and both of them were stopping to talk to the people on the street. This was unusual behavior for a Kzin as they usually were unable to avoid trying to intimidate any strangers they met.
"Who is that?" Kate asked.
"Oh, that's my uncle Loony." Spotty said sadly. "He's…unorthodox."
Loony saw Spotty and Moecious and the rest and hurried over to meet them.
"Hello there, Spotty. How's my favorite nephew?"
"Just fine, Uncle Loony and how are you?"
"Tip top. Couldn't be better. What a lovely place Skinny has here. And Moecious, how good to see you again. How's the bartending going?"
"Just fine, Loony."
"And look at the lovely human ladies. Oh, you must forgive me. This is my dear wife, Lady Loony. I believe this must be Lady Kate Beckett and her husband, Sir Richard Castle, and Ladies Simone, Jane, Andine and Lindane. And this little fellow must be the famous Quinncunx."
"Famous is as famous farts." Said the Quinncunx, actually bowing to Loony.
"I must be off." Loony said with a smile. "Skinny wants to see me. Has a job of some sort, I believe."
The two Kzin headed off down the street, but still stopped to talk to everyone they met.
"He's not your usual run of the mill Kzin, is he?" Kate asked.
"Not a bit. Some people think he acts like a human politician." Spotty was unable to suppress a shudder.
They had little time to think about the odd cousin Loony. Within hour, a courier arrived from the Patriarchy ordering Skinny to return at once with his cruiser. It seemed that both the Patriarchy and the Empire had accepted Skinny's actions as what he said they were, a personal attack to gain wealth and glory by a young Kzin. And action that was quite common in the old days, if less so now. However, everyone was certain that one day either the Empire or the Patriarchy would end up owning the Sky Cave.
In the meantime, they needed every ship they could find to fight the Pannonians.
Uncle Loony was left in charge of the Sky Cave with the troops Skinny had brought to back him up. Silla was taken to the Patriarchy on the Blood Rock while the Pika-Don headed straight for the Kzin home world. Moecious would advise the ICIO of what happened to Silla so there'd be no slip ups that would lead to any them being found to be intelligence agents. Moecious would make sure that the ICIO office there knew that Skinny had his eye on Silla. That should ensure that ICIO would want to keep her.
"That's as much firepower as I've ever seen in one place." Rick said as the arrived at the Kzin's home world.
Kate nodded.
"You could just about walk from one ship's hull to the next all the way to the planet."
"Hulls, mulls and culls. But who has the cinders?" Quoth the Quinncunx.
They were directed to land and report to Imperial Intelligence. The debriefing was quite pro forma as everyone was concentrating on the upcoming battle against the Pannonians. The harried Intelligence officer readily accepted that Skinny had found the location of the Sky Cave and took off on his own to capture it and that Rick and his ship had just gone along to keep an eye on things for the Empire.
Skinny arrived two days later and rode down in a shuttle to talk to Rick and his crew.
"I've gotten a message from my uncle, Duke Bloody Nose. He wants to see me and he wants to meet all of you."
"Why?" Rick asked.
Skinny shrugged, something he'd picked up from humans,
"He's a smart old fellow and wants to know as much about everything as he can. Plus, he's a duke, the head of the clan, and runs an entire planet for the Patriarch."
"So, he's used to getting his way."
"Duke Bloody Nose doesn't sound so bad. Not if someone bloodied his nose." Kate said.
"He got the name in a duel to the death when he was younger than I am. His sword was broken, but he killed his opponent by biting his neck until he bled to death, thus getting blood all over his nose. And other parts of him."
Skinny's clan kept an estate on the Kzin home world, although the clan had an entire world, and indeed, solar system of their own. In the old days this was done so that the Patriarch could keep a close eye on his turbulent nobles. Now the nobles wanted to have a high-ranking clan member as close to the seat of power as possible.
The estate looked like something out of Earth's Middle Ages, all curtain walls, turrets, merlons and crenellations. However, the guards at the drawbridge were armed with the most modern weapons.
The main hall of the castle was jammed with Kzin and in the center of them was Duke Bloody Nose, a good foot taller than any Kzin there and dressed in the uniform of a Vice Admiral of the Patriarchy. Skinny was announced in Kzin and then in Anglic.
"Duke Skinny and Sir Richard Castle, Sir Moecious, and Ladies Kate Beckett, Simone Renoir, Jane Avril, Andine and Lindane."
The Quinncunx had stayed with the ship.
Duke Bloody Nose headed straight for Skinny. As he did, Skinny began to bow low enough so that the back of his neck was exposed to his superior.
Bloody Nose stepped forward quickly.
"You don't need to do that, young fellow. You're a duke now same as I am. But I am the head of the clan, so a simple bow will do. Your other friends can simply salute."
They bowed and saluted and then Bloody Nose went directly to Rick.
"I've heard a great deal about you, Sir Richard. You, Sir Moecious, Duke Skinny and Sub-Lieutenant Spotty will sit by my side at the feast which is starting now."
Spotty bared his neck to Duke Bloody Nose.
"Sub-Lieutenant? I've been promoted?"
"Of course, you've been promoted." Bloody Nose roared. And with that, he led them to the feast.
While Rick, Moecious, Skinny and Spotty told of their adventures, Kate and the rest of the ladies found themselves far down the table, next to several Kzin noblewomen.
"Kzin males are what humans used to call "male chauvinist hogs. They think females are useless except in bed. Who do they think runs the estates while they're at war?" said one. "I'm Duchess (Growl), I fear I have no human nickname, but I'm the mate of Duke Bloody Nose."
"Can we call you Duchess Bloody Nose, then?" Kate asked.
"That will do. I've heard the most wonderful tales about you and the other ladies on Sir Richard's crew. Is it true you grew up on a planet that had lost contact with civilization and you had to kill to keep from getting enslaved?"
"That's true."
"You must tell me all about it."
Duchess Bloody Nose and all the other Kzin noblewomen gathered around Kate and the others. Kate began with a description of Kate's World and went on from there.
Much later, Rick and Kate relaxed on the bed in their suite in Duke Bloody Nose's estate. Rick ran a finger lightly over one of Kate's nipples, causing it to engorge.
"We should put a bed like this in the Pika-Don." He said softly.
Kate raised her head and looked around at the Kzin sized bed they were in.
"Fifteen feet by twenty. We'd never get it into the ship, not and leave room for anyone else."
"Fine with me. I'm tired of having everyone know what we're doing when we're off shift. And this bed gives us plenty of room. I wonder why it's so big, though? You could put two Kzins in this thing and have plenty of room left over."
"Lady Bloody Nose told me that it's not uncommon for Kzin noblemen to have concubines. A male Kzin could have two or three concubines with him in a bed this size."
"Or four if they were careful." Rick added.
"Thinking about concubines, are you?" Kate said, raising one eyebrow.
"Who? Me? Never." Rick quickly changed the subject. "What did you and the rest talk about to the Kzins?"
"Apparently Kzin females are second class citizens. They wanted to know what it's like to be a female Imperial Navy officer. I'm afraid I've given them some ideas that'll upset the status quo."
Rick laughed.
"I have some ideas that won't upset the status quo." He rolled over on top of her.
The next day, Duke Bloody Nose and a number of Kzin naval officers inspected the Pika-Don. They were all literally salivating at what they saw.
"By the Gods," Said Bloody Nose, "we need some of these for our own. This same technology can be applied to larger ships, can't it, Sir Richard?"
"Anything up to a battleship, sir."
Nearly all the ships from the Empire and the Patriarchy were present and ready to go. The last ships to arrive were four brand new Pika-Don class scouts. Rick was surprised to find that the Pika-Don itself wouldn't be joining in the attack on the Pannonians.
"You've got your orders, Commander Castle." A harried captain in personnel told him. "You're headed for the Spican Marches. That's a long way away and the sooner you get going, the sooner you'll get there."
"Do you know why we're being sent there?"
"No," Said the captain and made a shooing motion with his hand. Castle shooed.
So, the Pika-Don and its crew made a long trip to the Spican Marches, arriving at the provincial capital and the main base of the local fleet, Paradiso.
"Paradiso?" Said Rick. "That means Paradise. We'd better be prepared for a real hell hole. Too many planets are named by speculators who are trying to lure dumb colonists to their miserable planet."
However, Paradiso turned out to be as close to paradise as one could want. The weather was usually balmy, the insects avoided humans, the plants were aromatic and the population quite friendly.
Rick reported to the local office of Imperial Navy Intelligence.
"Captain Castle, I'm Captain Ray Montgomery. I understand you took a long trip to find the planet with all the transuranic metals. You'll be going on a longer trip this time."
"How long? I have a young daughter and I was hoping to get to see her before she forgot who I and her mother was."
Montgomery looked at a file on his desk.
"Lily Castle? She's here along with her, um, babysitters? Their names are Buggsy, Muggsy, Puggsy, Gina and Marie."
"They're here? When can I, I mean, we, see them?"
"I'll arrange transportation for you and your crew."
Rick and Kate jumped off the naval bus in front of a large and obviously expensive house off base. No sooner had they hit the ground than Lily came running towards them.
"Mommy! Daddy!" She ran to her parents and they hugged each other.
"We missed you so much, Lily." Kate said, tearing up.
"Yeah. We sure did."
"I missed you too, but Uncle Buggsy, Uncle Muggsy, Uncle Puggsy, and Auntie Marie and Auntie Gina tried really hard to keep me happy."
The Castles looked up to see the three Vorlags coming out of the house. Once more, they were dressed identically. Now, they were dressed in white, from their shoes to the Panama hats on their heads.
The rest of the crew piled out of the bus and hugs and handshakes were exchanged all around.
The Quinncunx was the last off the bus. He looked around and said, "Happy we are to see interior bounds of great glee and fast removals."
"Where are Gina and Marie?" Rick finally asked.
"Dey's jus' puttin' on da finishin' touches fer a feast da likes o' which ain't been seen around here in a drannits age." Buggsy said happily.
Author's note: The wise human was that well known American philosopher, Al Capone.
TBC