The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
Sir James Pilkington rose from behind his well-polished teak desk to greet Rick and Kate.
"Welcome, Colonel Castle. Welcome. And welcome Captain…" Sir James stopped, a bit confused.
Kate smiled at him.
"When I'm on duty commanding my husband's headquarters company, I'm Captain Beckett. There's too great a possibility of confusion if there are two Castle's in close proximity. Otherwise, I'm Mrs. Castle."
Sir James shook her hand.
"And I understand congratulations are in order?"
Kate put her hand to her stomach which still looked as flat and as toned an ever.
"Yes, Sir James. Kate is pregnant with our first child."
"Wonderful. Please, sit down. Can I offer you some coffee?"
"Decaf for me." Kate said, touching her stomach.
"I'd love some." Rick said.
Sir James called to someone.
"Gerald, two coffees and one decaf, please."
In two minutes, a man wheeled in a small cart with three cups of coffee on it and two carafes. They sipped their coffees and finally Sir James spoke.
"I'm very sorry that we weren't able to raise your unit to brigade size as we had hoped. I do understand that you did receive some of the units we'd talked about."
Rick nodded.
"I now have a company of heavy tanks, breakthrough tanks they call them. And I have two self-propelled 180mm guns and a complete air cavalry troop. Plus, I have more staff and support people now because of the increase in the size of my unit.
Rick took a deep breath.
"Sir James, is my unit going to be disbanded?"
"Oh, good heavens, no. Put your mind at rest about that. However, as you're doubtlessly aware we here in the United Kingdoms had to make some changes because of what happened in the Han Worlds."
The United Kingdoms was the most populous, richest, most industrialized and most militarily powerful star nation in all of the Europa Cluster, occupying three planets and one habitable moon in their solar system. The Cluster contained some one hundred and two planets and moons inhabited by humans with over seven hundred colonies on those planets and moons.
The second most powerful star nation was the Han Worlds, three planets circling three suns that were less than a light year apart. For decades, the two nations had fought what was called the Shadow War. While weaker than the United Kingdoms, the Han Worlds were supported by the nation of China, back on Earth. Some two hundred plus years ago, the three powers of Earth, China, Russia and the United States had decided that it would be easier to forget their differences and enforce their rule over Earth and its nearest and wealthiest colonies, the so-called Core. However, there had always been nationalists in each nation that wanted an end to the Triple Alliance and for their own country to rule Earth, the Core and all of humanity.
As a war between star nations armed with nuclear weapons was something no one wanted, the two nations remained officially at peace. However, Han "volunteers" could be found opposing the United Kingdoms all over the cluster. Accordingly, "mercenaries", such as Battle Group Castle, could be found opposing the Han Worlds' volunteers.
Lately, the Han Worlds had added a new wrinkle to the Shadow War. They sold small, fast and well- armed ships to people who turned out to be pirates. All the pirates needed was enough firepower to overawe an unarmed merchant ship and enough speed to outrun any patrolling warship. The Han were, officially, shocked that their ships were being used by pirates and had a plethora of records showing they had sold the ships in good faith. The United Kingdoms had responded by forming the Europa Cluster Defense Organization and organizing escorted convoys wherever they could.
Castle nodded.
"I know that the enemy always gets a vote on your plans, but I never thought anything like this would ever happen."
"Sir James," Kate asked, "There are so many talking heads on the news saying all kinds of things about what happened on the Han Worlds, can you tell us what happened?"
"Well, Captain Beckett, we have spread a bit of disinformation around, but I can tell you what we have gotten. It goes no further than this room, of course."
"Of course." Rick and Kate said together.
"Lieutenant General Ziang was in charge of what's called the Statistical Analysis Unit. Actually, they were in charge of all of the pro-Han Worlds and anti-UK activities in the Cluster. Everything from propaganda to sending large, formed units of "volunteers."."
Sir James laughed.
"Of course, my own unit is called the Administrative Support Activity and does the same things General Ziang did. However, Ziang was a fanatic. A true believer. He wanted China to rule all of humanity. He believed if the Han Worlds could defeat the UK, that China, with all of the Europa Cluster's resources behind it, could over awe or defeat the other two members of the Triple Alliance. Both the government of the Han Worlds and the government of China thought that was madness. Ziang railed privately, and sometimes not so privately, against the "cowardice" of the two governments. Eventually, he decided to mount a coup against the Han Worlds government, invade the Europa Cluster and attack the UK, dragging China into a war whether it wanted to or not."
"How close did he come?" Castle asked.
"Oh, not close at all. He had made sure that the officers of the SAU supported his ideas, but it turned out, the rest of the army and the space navy remained loyal to the government. The coup collapsed."
"But, when the government investigated, they found that entirely too many senior army officers knew about Ziang's plans and said nothing. The same with their intelligence, counter intelligence and internal security organizations. The Han Worlds' government was appalled, and terrified, at how far the rot had spread. They began tearing apart the SAU and the rest of their army, as well as their intelligence, counter-intelligence and internal security operations. And not just in their home worlds. Anyone out in the field who was felt to be too close to Ziang, which was just about all the senior officers deployed, was called home in disgrace. They also held up shipments of weapons, propaganda, funds, supplies of all sorts, and personnel until they could be sure that none of it would go to Ziang's people."
"That would be good for us." Kate said. "So why is the UK cutting back on their "mercenary" forces."
"Ah, well, for one, we aren't cutting back much. We have ended the contracts of a number of actual mercenary units as they are no longer needed. We know that some opposition to us wouldn't exist on a number of planets unless the leaders were well paid by the Han Worlds. Their various rebellions, and whatnot, are rapidly falling apart. Not all of them are, though, so we're keeping our best "mercenary" units to deal with them, or just keeping them in reserve. We know the Han Worlds will eventually get back to attacking us. Unofficially, of course. As everyone knows, our two nations are at peace."
"Do I detect a note of sarcasm there, Sir James?" Kate asked.
"More than just a note. The Han Worlds Space Navy opposed the coup from the beginning and is being rewarded for its loyalty. As you know, the Han Worlds build fast, armed ships which somehow end up in the hands of pirates. In fact, the Han are getting smarter. More and more of the equipment on these pirate ships comes from outside the Cluster. Unfortunately, some items were even made by the UK making it legally impossible sometimes to tell where the ships are from. The Han deny everything, of course. So, not only is the Han Navy getting a bigger slice of the budget, but their pet project, the pirate ships, get a bigger slice as well."
"And that means our own Royal Navy will need a bigger slice of our budget." Castle concluded.
"Not just our navy. We've formed the Europa Cluster Defense Organization to convoy as many merchant ships as possible. However, too many of the member states of the ECDO have miniscule navies or none at all. We're providing small warships at bargain prices for those star nations that can afford to pay and giving some to the poorer nations."
"How exactly does all this affect me and my battle group?" Castle asked, hoping he wouldn't regret the answer he got.
"The bulk of your battle group will be sent to Aurora as part of a peacekeeping force. For once, peacekeeping is actually working. There hasn't been a shot fired or even a rock thrown between the two colonies there in over a year and a half."
"I've never commanded a peacekeeping unit, Sir James."
Sir James smiled. Neither Rick nor Kate liked the smile, although neither of them knew exactly why. But they quickly found out.
"You won't be commanding Battle Group Castle, Rick. You and a small team from your unit and a few others will be off on another assignment. You're going to be the senior advisor to the government of the colony of Saint George on the planet Edo."
Rick groaned inwardly. Being an advisor was often a thankless task. As often as not, your advice would be ignored and when things went wrong, the people you were advising blamed you.
"What do you know about the planet Edo, and the colony of Edo?" Sir James asked.
Castle tried to remember what he knew about that planet and its major colony.
"The planet is almost to the Latin Cluster, although still within the Europa Cluster, and almost to the frontier."
"Ah, the so-called frontier." Sir James interrupted.
"So called?" Castle repeated.
"Ah, yes. A bit of a semantic to do in the government, I fear. You have no need to bother yourself with it." Then Sir James smiled. "Oh, dear. I've aroused your well-known curiosity, haven't I? A man doesn't spend most of his career in scout, recon and field intelligence units without developing quite a sense of curiosity. So, I shall explain so as you won't have to chase down the facts yourself and leave your poor, dear wife alone."
"His poor, dear wife would be helping him chase down the facts." Kate added with a smile.
"To be sure, Captain Beckett."
Sir James stared at the ceiling for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
"We came out here shortly after the Triple Alliance decided unilaterally that they were now in charge of Earth and the Core. We're almost entirely from the English-speaking world, the old UK on Earth, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, some Americans, actually, and bits and pieces from here and there. It took more than a year at the speeds they had then to get here, so we were left alone, pretty much. Of course, we took a look around the Cluster and past what we call the frontier, just in case, but found nothing of interest. We then spent most of our history building up our own nation, exploring the Europa Cluster and helping out new colonies as they arrived in the Cluster. You never know when you might need a friend."
"That's changed?" Rick asked.
"There were always a few ships that would look out past the frontier. There are some intelligent races out there. The most advanced were in the first industrial revolution, but some small companies managed to make a profit. As we became stronger and since we had trouble with the Han Worlds, the Navy has sent patrols regularly past the frontier and we found another star faring race, the Jai Havai. They've been in interstellar space longer than we have, but lack any interest in colonizing other planets and little interest in exploring for its own sake, but they do trade with some non-spacefaring races they've found. We've developed a very profitable trade with them, which means we need more naval units out there to protect that trade."
"So, the idea of a frontier, that is everything beyond the Europa Cluster, is a bit passe."
"And now, Colonel Castle, what do you know about the planet Edo?"
TBC