Shipwreck
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I feel wrecked not owning Castle. Rating: K Time: Far in the future.
He found the Horse Peoples' camp with no trouble. The camp itself had no guards out, but the horse herd had four. Castle stalked them and dropped each one with a shot from his stun gun. He mounted a horse, hoping he could stay on without a saddle, then fired his blaster into the dry grass behind him. As soon as the horses smelled smoke and saw flames, they began to run. They ran straight for the Horse Peoples' camp. They knocked people down and trampled tents. Castle fired into anything that looked flammable, and shot two armed men who had seen his blaster fire and knew approximately where he was.
In seconds he was through the camp and kept the horses running by setting more fires on either side of them, and firing over their heads. The herd started to break up into smaller groups. Castle looked back and saw the burning camp was several miles behind him. He managed to get his horse to stop so he could dismount, then slapped the horse hard on his rump. The horse needed no further encouragement to resume running.
He then took a long, circular route back to his own camp, avoiding the Horse People who were chasing their horses on foot.
"Kate. I'm coming it from the west. Don't shoot." He yelled.
"Okay, come on in." She yelled back.
She heard nothing more until suddenly Castle appeared before her.
"What happened? What did you do?"
He explained it to her.
"Anything happen when I was gone?"
"Janice was just about settled down when you attacked the camp. She'd been crying ever since."
"I hope that we've seen the last of the Horse Peoples' attacks and she can start to recover."
"I need to recover, too."
"From what?"
"This may be another day at the office to you, Castle, but I've never killed a man before. I feel awful."
Kate leaned against him and held on tight.
"This is very hard for me. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I've had all kinds of training on life or death situations, but they were always on a spaceship."
They all went to sleep and for the first time in days, there was no attack on them. And, when Castle woke up the next morning, he found that Kate was snuggled up next to him. He tried to get up without waking her, but failed.
"Oh!" She said. "I guess I fell asleep…Um, well…"
"That's all right, Kate. But it couldn't have been very comfortable for you since I was in my armor."
She shrugged.
"I felt safe."
The rest were waking up and they got ready to move. Castle sent his drone off to look at the Horse Peoples' camp. Not only was it still a wreck, but most of them were still trying to track down and return their own horses. They rode for three days without having any more problems. On the fourth day, they came to a forest. A group of three men were resting their horses by a small stream.
"Greetings, strangers." Said one. "Name's Pully. These are my mates, Trom and Kelt. You're not from around here."
"Our ship had a problem. We landed some miles back. Traded for some horses and are headed for the town on the river."
"You got past the Horse People?" Pully said, with a tinge of disbelief in his voice.
Castle engaged the chameleon function of his armor.
"I'm a soldier. My weapons could wipe out half of this planet." That was a considerable exaggeration, but there was no point in making themselves look vulnerable. "You haven't had any troubles with the Horse People?"
The three men laughed.
"Their gods tell them that the forest here is cursed and that if they enter, their souls will be lost among the trees. As long as you stay in the forest, they won't bother you."
"How far is the city from here?" Kate asked.
"Y'les City? Two days north, then another two days going downstream. There'll be no floods this time of year, so you can travel by the river, no problem."
"Are you headed for Y'les City?" Castle asked. "Wouldn't it be shorter to head north east and head straight for the city?"
"Shorter," Pully said," but not easier. The Foggy Swamp is to the East. Take you a week to get through it and you'd lose some horses. As for us, we're headed west. We're rupallo hunters and the herds will be calving soon. Slows 'em down."
"Thanks for the information." Castle said.
"Always glad to help out others. You never know when you'll need some help yourself."
Both parties rode away.
That night they stopped in a small forest clearing and got settled in for the night. Walter had built a fire and he, Matilda, Janice, Kate and Rick were gathered around it, getting ready to eat their meal.
Suddenly, a red seed pod flew out of the night and exploded in the fire. Castle reached for his blaster, but the exposed skin of his face felt like it was on fire. His hand found the butt of his blaster, but he couldn't force his fingers to close around it. He was paralyzed. He couldn't even move his eyes, but he could see that Walter and Janice at least were also paralyzed. He couldn't hear Kate or Matilda which meant they were paralyzed as well.
He heard Sister Alexis scream and saw Pully and his mates run out of the darkness.
"It worked," Pully yelled. "We got 'em. Their gear will set us up for life, and once were done with the two women, we can sell their asses."
"Maybe the little one, too." Said Kelt.
"What about the man and the two…furry things?"
"We'll kill 'em." Pully said, drawing a knife.
"Please don't hurt me." Sister Alexis screamed. "I'm a virgin, and I've never…" She began sobbing.
"Hot damn. A virgin?" Someone said.
"Please don't tear my habit. It's from Earth and very expensive. Let me take it off."
"Lookie there."
The three moved towards Sister Alexis and out of sight of Rick.
He heard a thunk, a soft gurgle and a moan. Then nothing.
A pair of black clad arms pulled him away from the fire.
"From what they said, the effects will wear off. I'm going to pull you all away from the fire." Sister Alexis said in his ear.
When sister Alexis moved past him, he saw she was carrying Father George's cross, except now the cross had a seven-inch blade protruding from its bottom. The blade was bloody. He also saw that without her habit on, Sister Alexis was dressed in a skin tight black suit that covered all of her except her eyes. He recognized the suit as being a type of armor. Not as good as his own, but much easier to conceal. And something no nun should be wearing.
Sister Alexis pulled Janice away from the fire and put her next to Rick. Then she moved Kate, followed by Matilda and then Walter. When she had moved Kate, Rick saw that Alexis now had a heavy duty blaster in a belt around her waist and another one in a shoulder holster.
"How do you feel?" Alexis asked Rick.
He managed to grunt.
"That's a good sign." She said. "This suit is awfully constricting and too hot." Alexis pulled the suit down her body until she was naked from the waist up.
"That feels much better." She said softly. "Like what you see?" She leaned forward until her boobs were almost in his face. Her boobs were large, round, very firm and capped with large pink tipped nipples.
"Sti'lun." Castle managed to get out.
"What?"
"Stim'lin."
"A stimulant. Of course. I assume it's in your case?"
Alexis began going through Rick's case.
"Here it is. KN8. Is that what you wanted?"
He nodded.
"Your armor should have an injection port somewhere around…There it is."
Castle felt a sting in his arm and was able to move ever so slightly.
"I'll give Engineer Beckett a shot as well." Alexis said. "I don't think giving shots to the others is a good idea. I don't have any idea what the proper amount of KN8 would be for a child and I also have no
idea what it would do to our non-human friends."
Castle managed to turn his head around enough to get a look at Pully and his friends. Pully had been stabbed in the eye and it looked like the blade had gone deep into his brain. Kelt had had his throat slashed and Trom had been stabbed right under the sternum and into his heart.
"Do you think you can stand?" Alexis asked.
"One way to find out."
With her help, he got to his feet. The first thing he did was check his weapons.
"If you can stand guard, I'm going to go pick up their horses and anything else in their camp. It can't be too far from here."
Castle nodded and the nun, or whatever she was, pulled her armor back on and headed into the woods.
"Are you okay?" Kate asked, hoarsely.
"Yes. And you?"
"Okay, I guess. Help me up."
He pulled her to her feet and she leaned against him.
"What the hell just happened?"
Castle chuckled.
"Don't ask me. I couldn't see a thing until it was all over."
"Who, or what, is she?"
Before either could answer, Matilda began to crawl to Janice. Kate went to help her and Rick checked on Walter.
By the time Alexis came back leading three horses, everyone had recovered, more or less.
"I assume you're not really a nun." Castle said.
"Of course, I'm a nun. As I said, I'm a nun of the Jacobite Order. Father George was also of that order." She smiled. "I'm also a member of the Papal Special Forces."
"The what?" Rick and Kate asked together.
"I'll explain. When the heretics took Rome some two hundred years ago, the True Pope, Innocent XVII, left Earth for the planet Jerusalem with some five million of the faithful. There were, however, several other colonies on the planet. The Pope soon found that he had both spiritual and temporal duties. One of the duties was the protection of the colony from others. That meant an army. There was a small battalion of the Papal Swiss Guard which was soon increased to a regiment. The Papal Zouaves regiment was formed next and then the Papal Light Infantry regiment and then the Papal Grenadiers. Eventually, a small units of artillery, armor and aviation were formed. And the Papal Special Forces."
"Okay, so why didn't you just tell us all of this?" Kate asked.
"Operational secrecy."
"Which means?"
"I'll start at the beginning. Dr. Davidson was a brilliant bio-surgeon. He could do more than just change a person's appearance. He could change their fingerprints, their retinal pattern and, of course, their DNA. He was hired by the PIA, the Papal Intelligence Agency, to change some of their operatives. He did so, but Dr. Davidson was corrupt. He took the operatives new identities and tried to sell them to the enemies of the Church."
Sister Alexis smiled at some thought.
"The head of the PIA, Jackson Cardinal Hunt, was furious and made tracking down Davidson the agency's number one priority. But, His Holiness, Pope Clement XX, decided to have the Papal Special Forces assist the PIA."
"Let me guess, "Castle said sarcastically, "the Papal Special Forces and the PIA don't play well with each other."
TBC