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.
The Pika-Don was stopped in interstellar space to decide what to do.
"Our intelligence shows that we're about a week away from one of the new Commonwealth's major planets, and only hours away from a very small mining colony of theirs. "Rick said. "I propose we go to the major colony. It's supposed to be a near duplicate of Earth with a population of some seventy million humans. That data may be old, of course."
"We came here to make contact with them, so we should go where they are." Kate said.
Moecious and Spotty both nodded in agreement.
Simone and Jane exchanged glances.
"We agree." Simone said.
"We'll make it unanimous." Lindane said.
"Uni must, and so to lead." The Quinncunx said softly.
They entered the system and headed for the one inhabited planet, making sure that they appeared as unthreatening as possible. An easy thing for such a small ship to do. Once again, Castle played diplomat.
"Greetings. I am Captain Richard Castle of the His Imperial Majesty's Ship Pika-Don, from the Terran Empire. We are a peaceful vessel exploring this sector of the galaxy. We mean no harm. Please respond."
They got a reply almost at once.
"Come to a full stop and prepare to be boarded."
"Certainly. We understand you may be a bit concerned."
The Pika Don slowed to a halt.
"That's quite a reception committee they have for us." Spotty said. "Looks like three battle cruisers and ten, no eleven destroyers. They look old fashioned, like copies of old Commonwealth ships, but built with a less capable technological base."
"There's a ship approaching us." Andine said. "I'd guess it's a ship's boat carrying the boarding party."
The boat docked and six heavily armed and armored men came in.
"You two!" One pointed at Moecious and Spotty. "You're free now."
"I'm not free," Moecious said. "However, you'll find my services are reasonable."
"I mean you're not a slave anymore."
"I beg your pardon. I'm a bartender. Well, I'm also a chef, an event planner, a dance instructor, a party organizer, and so much more."
"I'm an officer in the navy of the Patriarchy of Kzin and most certainly not a slave." Spotty said coldly.
"Slave, save, rave, pave, cave, nave, and wave." The Quinncunx said happily.
"They must be brainwashed or have some sort of control device on them. You three, come with us." The leader said.
Moecious and Spotty looked at Castle, who nodded. Spotty picked up the Quinncunx and all three headed for the airlock.
"If you have any Malakkan rum and some orange juice, I can make you a Malakkan sunset, if you'd like." Moecious said as they left.
It was four hours before they returned. Spotty, still carrying the Quinncinx, was the first through the airlock.
"Are you alright?" They all asked at once.
"We're fine. They just examined us."
"Fine!" Screamed Moecious. "Does this look fine to anyone?" Moecious turned around. The fur on the last six inches of his tail had been shaved off. "I've been humiliated. Mutilated. Devastated." He turned to scream at the now closed air lock. "See if I ever make a Malakkan Sunset for anyone of you!"
"It's not that bad." Rick said. "It could have been a lot worse."
Moecious sat, being careful to keep his tail under him.
"Easy for you to say, you have no tails at all, let alone a magnificent bushy tail like mine. Like mine was!"
"I think it would be best if we made no further mention of this." Lindane said. Everyone agreed.
Hours dragged by until they got another comm call.
"The commander of the ship will make himself ready to be transferred. That's an order."
Kate grabbed the comm mic and yelled, "Why don't you take your orders and shove them up your ass?"
Rick grabbed the comm mic.
"This is Captain Castle. I'm ready to go." He turned the mic off and spoke to Kate. "I appreciate the feeling, Babe, but we are seriously outnumbered here. This may not be the best time to tell them how we feel."
"If you don't come back in one complete piece, I'll do more than tell them something." She said coldly.
Castle was met at the airlock by three well armed and armored soldiers. They escorted him to a ship's boat. There he found six more soldiers waiting.
"This is a little excessive, don't you think? There's only one of me and I'm unarmed."
"So you say." Growled someone. "Do you expect us to take your word that you don't have some hellish device hidden on you?"
"Really, I'm fresh out of hellish devices."
When they got to a large warship he was very thoroughly examined, presumably for hellish devices. None were found.
"This looks like it might be a light cruiser." He said conversationally as he was led through a series of corridors.
"it is." One of the guards snarled. "If you try anything, the battleships have orders to reduce this ship and yours to atoms. If they can."
On that unfriendly note, he was led to a conference room filled with what appeared to be senior officers.
"I'm Vice Admiral Thoms, intelligence. You will answer our questions truthfully. Understand?"
"Certainly."
"What did you hope to find on your spy mission?"
Castle almost laughed.
"Do spies usually show up and announce who they are and where they're from? I'm just looking around out here. Exploring."
"You would of course be trying to catch us off guard by showing up openly." Someone said.
"Or I could be exactly what I say I am."
That didn't seem to impress anyone.
"How many planets has this Empire of yours conquered?" That was Thoms again.
"Very few actually. Most planets are quite happy to join the peace and prosperity of the Empire."
Thoms smiled.
"Then how about the Kzin? You conquered them."
"No. They attacked us several times and got beaten badly each time. They finally decided that if they couldn't lick us, they'd join us. The Kzin Patriarchy is a member of the Empire with representation in the House of Planets and their own military, subject to Imperial control."
"I'm sure you allow your conquered races some tiny crumbs of dignity." Castle didn't see who said that.
"How many planets are there in this Empire?" Back to Thoms.
"There are some twenty five thousand planets that have membership in the House of Planets, plus tens of thousands of other worlds, some inhabited, but most are uninhabited."
That created quite a stir. Castle thought that they hadn't expected the Empire to be that large.
"How large is the navy of the Empire?"
Castle shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but…"
"You're not sure?" Yelled Thoms. "A serving officer and you don't know how large your navy is? Do you expect us to believe that?"
"As I was trying to say, no one knows how big the fleet is. Not counting the other uniformed services, the Imperial Couriers, the Imperial Engineers, the Imperial Constabulary, the Imperial Survey Service, the navy numbers about one hundred and twenty thousand ships. However, ships are constantly being commissioned, taken out of service, transferred to other services, and so on. By the time anyone collects all that information, it's already out of date."
That seemed to cause more concern.
The interrogation went on for many more hours until Castle was finally returned to the Pika-Don.
"Are you okay, Babe?" Kate asked, sounding worried.
"I may die of boredom telling them the same thing over and over, but aside from that, I'm fine."
After two days they were contacted again by Thoms.
"We have decided to let you return to your Empire. We don't want to give them an excuse to attack us, although I personally doubt they'd need an excuse, but the High Council has decided to let you go."
"You realize that the Empire is about a thousand light years from here, don't you? And even if anyone wanted to come this far to take over your little Commonwealth, it'll be centuries before the Empire is through re-establishing what the old Commonwealth held?" Castle said, wearily. He was really tired of these people.
"We have our own sources of information." Thoms barked. "We know that the Empire is a violent, expansionist threat to not just all humans, but all intelligent life. Be warned that we will fight you to the last man, woman and child in our Commonwealth. We know your Emperor will never be happy until he's crushed every independent planet in the galaxy under his boot."
"The Emperor rarely wears boots." Jane said. "I read that in Modern Fashion magazine."
"And on that cheery note, we'll leave." Castle said.
They headed for Du Laric to make sure that Tada and his family had arrived safely and were doing well. Chupallo wasn't there, but they did manage to contact Tada through the planetary database.
"Captain Castle. It's so good to hear from you."
"How are you doing, Tada. Are you and the family okay?"
"We're fine. Please come and see us. I'm the chief engineer on a steam boat now. It doesn't compare to Pika-Don, of course, but I'm quite proud of her."
Castle agreed to land on the southern island where Tada and his family now lived.
"Does anyone know what a steam boat is?" He asked after the comm.
"Most boats travel on water, although I've heard some aerial vehicles called airboats." Lindane said. "We'll just have to see."
Lindane found out what a steamboat was a few hours later.
"This engine uses steam to move pistons to move a shaft to power a paddle wheel?" She said, not sure she had the unfamiliar words correctly.
"Exactly. But now let me take you to my home. Latad has a present for you. And, the children should be home from school by now. They never would have had any kind of an education when we were slaves. But now, thanks to you, they can study anything they want."
Latad did have a very surprising gift for them. She had woven a large tapestry that showed the crew of the Pika-Don, standing under a green alien sun, striking shackles from the wrists and ankles of Tada and his family.
"I know that's not exactly how it happened," Latad said, "But I took some artistic license to make you look as heroic as you really are."
"Really are, feely are. Rarely freely are." The Quinncunx said.
"It's beautiful." Kate said. "We'll treasure it always."
"Now let's have lunch." Tada said.
They left Du Laric behind and headed for the planet Llynathaw and Cattawrayannis Base, their home station. As soon as they arrived, Castle was ordered to report to Admiral Zek, the head of Imperial Navy Intelligence for the Glimmer Reach Sector. With him was an enigmatic woman known only as Martha who worked for another intelligence agency, the Imperial Central Intelligence Organization. Castle noticed that neither looked happy.
"We have some bad news, Captain Castle. We had some quite interesting intelligence assignments for you and your crew, but I'm afraid you're going elsewhere."
Castle managed to avoid cheering at finding that he was leaving intelligence.
"I serve the Empire in whatever capacity they require, sir." He said dutifully.
"It seems our friends, the Kzin, wish to begin upgrading their fleet using the super metals that you and your crew discovered. The Patriarch even went so far as to make a personal request to the Emperor. We had to grant their request. You and your entire crew, and the Pika-Don, will go to the Patriarchy. You'll be based at the moon now governed by your former crewmate, Duke Skinny."
"Sir, I do have to pick up my daughter and her babysitters from the Spican Marches. And I believe that Duke Skinny would like his younger brother to check on the Sky Cave. It is still under his control, is it not."
"It is. You'll have to talk to the Kzin liaison officer here about that. That's all, Captain Castle."
Castle thought that Zek had lost all interest in him as soon as he was no longer under his command. That suited Castle just fine.
When he arrived at the Kzin liaison office, he made an interesting discovery.
"Good day to you Captain Castle. You may refer to me as Captain Slick. I understand you want to go to the Sky Cave, which remains Duke Skinny's fief?"
"Yes, sir, I do."
"Oh, no need to call me sir. We're the same rank after all."
"We are?"
"Yes, you were promoted to Captain in the Patriarchal Navy when you were promoted to captain in the Imperial Navy. Didn't Admiral Zek tell you?"
"It must have slipped his mind." Castle said, gritting his teeth.
"All of your crew has been promoted one rank in both navies as well. You should be able to get the official news from your personnel people."
After confirming their new ranks, the Pika-Don headed for the Sky Cave as fast as they could. When they got word that the younger brother of Duke Skinny was arriving, they were welcomed to the Sky Cave with open arms and went straight to Uncle Loony's office.
Spotty saluted.
"Good day, sir. How are you?"
Loony laughed.
"Relax youngster. I'm fine, and still running this place for your older brother. I understand you've had quite an adventure?"
Spotty was happy to tell Loony all about their voyage, but was interrupted by several Kzin that needed Governor Loony's attention to something.
"Why don't you all come back for dinner tonight at the governor's mansion?" Loony asked.
"I'd like to visit the Jolly Spacer if that's alright." Moecious said.
"Go ahead."
The arrived at the Jolly Spacer and went inside.
"It's bigger than when we left." Moecious said. "Someone must have bought the place next door and expanded."
"Technically you did since you still own the place, Moecious." Said a distinctly Vorlag voice.
"Larry!" Cried Moecious. "You're running the place?"
"Along with our little brother Curly. Hey, Curly, get over here."
A young Vorlag detatched himself from one of the gaming machines and came over.
"Good to see you, Moecious."
"Good to see you too, Kid."
"These are my two brothers. Guys, this is the crew of the Pika-Don, the best ship in the galaxy."
Once everyone was introduced, naturally, Moecious, suggested lunch and a few Vorlag pale ales.
The crew was surprised when the waitress turned out to be a large grasshopper-like alien named Mary, who wore a crisp white apron, just like Marie had worn.
The three Vorlags discussed the way the business had gone since Moecious had left and the plans they had for it. Being Vorlags, lunch lasted until it was time to go to dinner at the governor's.
"Say hello to Governor Loony for us." Larry said. "He's a bit odd for a Kzin, but he's a great governor. Someday the Empire will take this place over and put all the crooks out of business, but until then, we're making money honestly."
"Something bothering you"?" Kate asked Rick as they walked to the governor's palace. "You look preoccupied."
"It's just the names, Larry, Moecious and Curly. I've heard those names before."
"If it's important, you'll remember."
But he never did.
The next day they headed for the Spican Marches and the planet Paradiso. There they found the rest of their friends, and most importantly, Lily.
"Mommy! Daddy!" The little girl screamed as she ran out of the house and into the arms of Kate.
"I've missed you so much, Lily." Kate said, starting to cry.
"I missed you and Daddy. And I missed Uncle Moecious, and Uncle Spotty, and Aunties Simone, and Jane, and Lindane, and Andine."
"Andine, almondine with best butter and scotch." The Quinncunx said happily.
"I missed you too, Quinncunx. Uncles Buggsy, Muggsy and Puggsy and Aunties Gina and Marie have been really nice to me, but I miss my mommy and daddy." Lily was starting to cry now.
They were joined by the three Vorlags and the two females and eventually they all went into the house for lunch.
"How are things going, Buggsy?" Rick asked after they had eaten.
"Da ice cream bidness is well established here an' we is lookin' for new worlds ta conquer, so ta speak. Duz youse t'ink dat da Pat-Ri-Arky could use some talented ice cream en-trep-anoors?"
"Come with us to Duke Skinny's moon and we'll see."
"Have you heard anything about the war with the Pannonians?" Spotty asked.
"Dem bums got creamed." Muggsy said. "Dey shot up da whole Pannonian fleet an' da orbital shipyards, too. Nobody's gonna have ta worry about none o' dem Pannonians fer a long time."
"Da Zenetian Pirates got clobbered too." Said Puggsy. "Da Empire took over almost alla dere territory. An' da Empire has bin kickin' butt here in da Spican Marches, too."
"I hope that when we all get to Duke Skinny's moon, we'll have a nice peaceful couple of years." Rick said.
When they arrived at Skinny's moon and landed, Skinny himself greeted them.
"My friends. It's so good to see you again. And I hear my little brother did well."
"He did very well indeed, Duke Skinny." Rick said.
"Oh, please. We're old friends. Call me Skinny."
"The moon has changed a lot, sir." Spotty said.
"Yes, we have nearly fifty thousand settlers now, an orbital shipyard, some mining operations in the other moons, a complete regiment of my personal guard, and another light cruiser. Plus, we'll be developing the next generation of warships for the Patriarch. But, we have to take you to your quarters. I hope you'll find them to be suitable.
They were more than suitable.
"Wow!" Rick said when he saw their new home.
"Are you rich or something?" Kate asked.
Skinny smiled.
"I do okay. But, I saw something like this in a vid from Earth. It's called Spanish colonial architecture. It's a rectangular building built around a large garden in the center. The ground floor are offices for when you have to get to work, which won't be a while yet. The upper floor is your living space. It has twelve bedrooms, and the same number of baths, a kitchen, a dining hall and a smaller dining room. In addition…Oh, let me show it to you. I think Lily will love her room. "
Several days later, Rick and all of his friends were sitting around the garden, soaking up some sun and some Malakka Sunsets that Moecious had made.
Muggsy, Puggsy, and Buggsy were busy helping Lily build something they called a Dagwood sandwich for lunch.
Lindane sat quietly, reading a pad and occasionally taking notes.
The human women were talking about clothing while Spotty played some sort of game with Marie. It was a first person shooter game and to Spotty's great disgust, he was losing.
"Don't worry, Spotty. I've played this game thousands of times. I'm playing it like a game with rules and you're playing it like it's real life, which it isn't. You'll figure it out."
Spotty nodded and made a move which caused his game icon to be disintegrated.
Rick suddenly remembered something Moecious had said to Roderick Morgan, the Grandfather.
"You told Grandfather that you Vorlags had been trying to civilize us for a long time and that you thought we were worth the trouble."
"So I did."
"We're it worth the trouble, Pilgrim?"
"Eh. What trouble?"
The End
Author's note: Next up is short Caskett story, Not Guilty, set in a somewhat AU period just after the last episode of the first season. After that? I have some ideas, but nothing definite yet. I have a few thoughts about a sequel to this one, but they're headed for Duke Skinny's moon. What could possibly go wrong?