Shipwreck
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I feel wrecked not owning Castle. Rating: K Time: Far in the future.
"In case you're interested, none of your weapons, swords and spears, could possibly penetrate my armor and my weapons can kill all of you in no time, so we won't be surrendering anything."
"What do you want?" The leader asked, sullenly.
"This is your lucky day. I want to trade."
"Trade for what and with what?" The leader was now showing some interest.
"I need six riding horses, complete with saddles and tack and eight pack horses, complete with pack saddles. I've noticed that in addition to the horses you're riding and those with packs, you have a remuda bringing up the rear."
"What do we get in return? Our lives?"
"Oh, I have a much better deal than that in mind." Castle drew a pistol and shot the man nearest him. He fell off of his horse at once.
"What the hell?" Yelled the leader. "You gonna kill us?"
"He's not dead, just unconscious. Check him for yourself."
One of the men got off his horse and checked the fallen man.
"He's alive, Brill."
"So?" Brill asked Castle.
"You have twenty men. I have twenty stun guns. They can knock a man over at two hundred yards and small game at twice that range. You'll get two hundred shots from each pistol. And, "He reached into a pouch by his side, "I can give you five of these." He held out what looked like a black blanket. "This is a solar power converter. Plug the pistol in here, "He pointed," and spread the converter out to catch the sun and in an hour or so, your pistol is charged. Take care of the pistols and they'll last longer than you will."
Rick smiled.
"One other thing. You all could shoot at me with the stun guns and I wouldn't notice it."
"Twenty of them, you say?"
Castle nodded.
"Actually, I'll make it twenty-one. A leader should have two pistols."
"You got yourself a deal, mister."
Brill wasn't a trusting man and had each man ride two hundred yards away and be shot with the pistol that man would be given. He also checked the solar power converter.
Castle then made a discovery. The only person who had ever even seen a horse before was Janice, and she had ridden nicely broken and gentle horses.
Brill and his men had to help load the packhorses with the food, water and other supplies they had and gave them advice on the care and feeding of horses. Eventually, each party rode off in their separate directions.
By the time it was time to quit for the day, everyone except Janice was exhausted.
"I think my butt's died." Castle said, slowly dismounting.
"Your lucky." Kate replied. "Mine's killing me."
"Why do humans own these torture devices?" Walter asked.
"Unlike manufactured vehicles, they're self repairing up to a point, self replicating, and can find their own fuel."
"I'm going to lie down on my stomach and not get up until tomorrow." Matilda said. "Perhaps not even then."
"You can't." Janice said. "We have to care for the horses. We need to unsaddle them, rub them down, check their hooves and they need to be fed." The girl stood up on her tiptoes." That looks like wild oats over there. They can graze for a while."
When the horses were cared for, the people took care of themselves. After dinner, Castle opened his case and took out a dozen long thin rods.
"What are those?" Kate asked.
"Proximity sensors. When I get through with them, I'll put them all around the perimeter of our camp. They'll use sonics to keep the horses inside the perimeter and if anyone tries to come in, it'll set off an alarm. Otherwise, we'd have to stand guard all night."
It took a few days, but they managed to learn how to ride without too much pain and how to care for the horses.
But, they had other problems.
A gentle buzzing woke Castle up. The sensors in his armor showed three man-sized targets headed for the horses. He pulled out a blaster pistol, then thought better of it. He switched to his stun gun, engaged the chameleon feature on his armor and quietly moved towards the intruders.
Three men quickly climbed onto three horses. Castle, just as quickly shot them off. He dragged the three back to the others and woke Kate up. The three other adults also woke up at the commotion. Janice didn't wake up.
Rick tied up and examined his prisoners. They appeared to be an older man and two teenagers. He wondered if the boys were his sons.
"Why are you trying to steal my horses?" he asked when the three finally woke up.
"They are our horses." The man said. "The gods gave us all of the horses in the world, but some were stolen from us by evildoers. The gods demand that we take our horses back."
"I'd recommend you not try to take these horses back. I might not be so generous with your lives next time. I'm going to leave you tied up here and turn you loose in the morning. If you try anything, or even just disturb my sleep, I'll knock you out again. I understand there are predators around here. You might wake up as something's breakfast."
However, the next night a group of five men tried to steal horses. Rick stunned them and let them go the next morning with a stern warning. It did no good. The next three nights men tried to steal their horses.
"Why do you keep trying to steal our horses when you know you'll fail?" Castle asked one of the thieves.
"It is a matter of honor. The gods are angry that we, the Horse People, have failed to reclaim our horses from just one man. You are also a challenge. No one has ever stopped so many of the Horse People from reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. Whoever succeeds in getting a horse from you will be hailed as the greatest of the Horse People."
Again, Castle let the horse thieves go in the morning. However, he had to change their tactics.
"I'm getting worn out as we all are from the constant raiding of our horses. I've changed the perimeter sensors to give off a loud alarm when they're breached. That'll get everyone up and everyone is to start shooting. Try not to shoot each other."
"Will we be using blasters this time?" Kate asked.
"Not this time, but we'll have to if this keeps up. In addition to keeping us up all night, it's upsetting the horses and we're moving a lot more slowly than I had expected."
"Do we get blasters now?" Walter asked.
"I'll start training you tomorrow." Castle swore. "Damn! That's more time we lose."
That night they were again attacked and again, all of the Horse People were left stunned. When they woke up, Castle gave them an ultimatum.
"I'm tired of this. Your gods may want you to take my horses, but my gods want me to keep them. From now on, we won't stun you anymore. We'll shoot to kill."
It did no good. The next night a force of eleven thieves tried to make off with the horses. Seven died and the rest ran.
"I don't like killing people who have no real chance against modern weapons, but we ran out of options."
"If I may, I'd like to administer the last rites to the dead." Sister Alexis said.
Castle could see no point in it, but allowed her to go ahead.
The next night they were attacked again. This time the Horse People didn't go after the horses, they went after the people. At least twenty of them attacked.
Castle had no time to keep an eye on everyone else as the attackers had correctly figured he was their most powerful enemy. Their weapons, swords, spears and maces couldn't penetrate his armor but enough of them piled onto him to knock him down. He began to methodically kill his opponents.
He did see out of the corner of his eye that another blaster was at work, which meant Kate was still in the fight.
He kicked the last dead body off of him and jumped to his feet. Kate had shot one man, but he was still coming for her with a spear. She shot him in the head and he dropped.
Castle saw that one of the Horse People was dragging a screaming Janice off. He raised his blaster rifle to fire, but Matilda jumped between them. He cursed and ran towards them. Before he got there, Matilda slapped the man across the face, but the seeming slap left his face a bloody mess. A second slap opened his throat, severing his jugulars. He too fell.
Castle turned to Walter who was wrestling with one of the Horse People. Kate was on them in a second, pushing her blaster into the man's chest and firing.
He looked for Sister Alexis who was standing over a man who was writhing on the ground.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Alexis was saying.
"What did you do?" Castle asked.
"I wasn't always a nun, you know. When I was in parochial school, some of the boys were….overly familiar with me. I yelled at them to stop and I slapped them. They just laughed and ran off when a priest came to see what was happening. But, Sister Maria Theresa taught me that kicking a boy hard between the legs would discourage them. I fear I kicked this poor man too hard."
"I'd say you didn't kick him hard enough." Kate said, joining them.
"Is everyone all right?" Castle asked, looking around.
"Miss Janice is very upset." Matilda said, holding the sobbing girl. "It'll take a bit to settle her down."
"What did you do to the man who grabbed her?"
Walter held up his hand, showing a set of nice sharp claws.
"We are civilized, but we were left with some of our untamed ancestors' physical traits."
"Okay, it'll be hard, but we need to get some sleep. I doubt we'll have any more visitors tonight. You," he said to the stunned Horse Person, "go now."
No one got much sleep and Castle was up at dawn, working on something from his case.
"What is that thing?" Kate asked. "It looks like a plate."
"It's a recon drone. I'm betting they're not too far from us, so I'm sending this out to look for them."
It took until the early afternoon to find the Horse Peoples' camp. Castle smiled and it wasn't a friendly smile.
"As soon as it gets dark, I'm going to pay our friends a little visit."
"Are you going to kill them?" Sister Alexis asked, obviously opposed to that.
"I'll try not to, but that's up to them, more than me. Kate, after I leave, I want you to watch the readout from the drone. I'm leaving you my sniper's rifle and I'm giving Walter and Matilda blaster pistols. If you see anything, at least anything that doesn't look like me, start shooting. It doesn't matter if you end up shooting at a bush blowing in the wind, just as long as the Horse People know we're ready."
After sundown, Rick walked out of the perimeter of their camp, turned on the chameleon function of his armor, and disappeared.
TBC