The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
Rick Castle made it back to his quarters and collapsed on the sofa.
"You okay?" Kate asked.
"Now I know why I never went into the surface navy. I get nauseous. According to the CPO in charge of the patrol craft, it was a nice day. You couldn't tell that by me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to take a bath again without feeling like throwing up."
"Oh." Was Kate's only reply.
It took Castle a second or two to decide that there was something Kate was not saying.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"And if a land gator was chewing off one of your legs, you'd say, "I'm fine.", wouldn't you?"
Kate didn't say anything for a bit.
"It's nothing."
"First you were okay, but now it's nothing. How about you just tell me and that way I won't have to spend half the night worming it out of you. Deal?"
"I threw up this morning after you left."
"Did you see a doctor?"
"Rick, it's just morning sickness. I'll be fine."
"And which medical school did you get your degree from, Doctor?"
"You're making a big deal out of nothing." Kate snapped.
"I make a big deal out of what may be nothing because I love you, Mrs. Castle. I'm going to call a doctor and get an appointment made for you tomorrow." Castle pulled out his personal communicator and talked to someone in the Saint George Department of Defense.
"Perfect. They're sending a car right now to pick us up. There's a military emergency room just down the way. We have an appointment with Dr. J. Davidson."
Dr. Davidson was waiting at the ER when the Castle's arrived. Rick thought the good doctor looked like a rugby fullback, but was not as pretty as most.
"Dr. Davidson?" Kate asked.
"Oh, call me Janet, please, Mrs. Castle. May I call you Kate?"
"Of course, Janet."
"Is this your first child? The two of you?" Janet asked.
"Both of us. First time." Kate said.
"Then you'd both better come with me. We have a lot to discuss."
However, it was Dr. Davidson who did most of the discussing. After an hour and a half, Rick and Kate left.
"See? There's nothing wrong with me." Kate said.
"No, but there are about ten thousand things that could go wrong with you and the baby." Castle said morosely.
"She said that those are very long shots. I'm in good health and the baby is in good health."
"And you'll stay that way." Rick said, hoisting up the large bag he was carrying. "She gave us enough pre-natal vitamins and supplements to keep a herd of Zorkorian moose healthy. And you'll take every one of them."
"Of course, I will." Kate said with a smile.
The next day Rick was working in his office when Sergeant Major Saava stuck his head in.
"We just got a call, sir. Admiral Paredes would like to see you at your convenience."
"That's being polite for saying right now. Any idea what he wants?"
"No, sir."
"I'd better go and find out for myself. I just hope I'm not in trouble."
Admiral Paredes was a tall, too skinny, dark skinned man whom Castle had found to be a good administrator, but who had little combat experience. That was hardly difficult to understand as no one in the Saint George Navy had any such experience.
"Colonel Castle, please come in and sit. Would you like some coffee?" Paredes spoke with a slight American accent, Castle thought. His intelligence briefing had said Paredes' family was partly from the United States.
"Thank you, sir. I'd love some. You grow very good coffee here."
"If only our friends in Sylvestre would learn to appreciate it. The Chinese part of the company seems to insist that everyone drink tea. But, I didn't ask you here to discuss coffee. Are you ready for some diplomatic activity?"
"Sir? Diplomatic activity? I'm a soldier, sir."
'True, but your past exploits indicates that you're not totally unaware of the political aspects of a soldiers' job. Am I not correct?"
"Yes, sir. What do I need to do?"
"We're having a little diplomatic get together in Samland. We've just concluded an agreement concerning our communications with them. We have trouble with comms in our southernmost islands and they've agreed to let us put up a repeater station in Samland. The Secretary of Communications is going there to sign the agreement."
"And why do you need me there?" Castle asked, puzzled.
"They're aware, of course, that you and your team is here and that you intend to help us seriously upgrade our defenses. But they don't know just how far your team will go in doing that. And like many people, they believe the rumors that you mercenaries are just another arm of the UK government."
"Sir, I can neither confirm nor deny…" Castle began.
"And I don't want you to either confirm or deny anything. Just accept what you know to be true: that many people believe you are not really a mercenary, but an agent of the UK government."
"I can't help what people think, sir."
"Indeed, no one can. And when you meet and talk with the various heads of the companies that run Samland, could you be a bit vague as to how powerful your own unit is and whether or not it may, or may not, be coming here? And if you could be equally vague about the types and amounts of weaponry we'll receive?"
"So as to give the leaders of Samland something to worry about?" Castle asked.
"Precisely. Oh, and one more thing. Please bring your dear wife and make sure she's in civilian clothes. We're not sure if they know that your wife is a soldier and someone might let something slip."
"I'm not sure that my wife brought anything suitable for a diplomatic gathering, sir."
"We'll find something for her, never fear."
That did not make Kate happy.
"I'm going to be wearing a dress picked out by some sailor? It'll probably be khaki with olive drab highlights. How could you have agreed to this?"
"Um, because he's my boss?"
That didn't impress Kate one bit.
However, the next day the military tailor used by Admiral Paredes arrived at the Castles' quarters with three seamstresses in tow and several dozen dresses. The tailor was sorter than Kate and slender, very well dressed and sported in Imperial beard.
"Madame Castle? How good to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Kevin Ryan, purveyor of fine bespoke clothing to the elite of Saint George colony. And allow me to say that dressing you will be a pleasure. With too many of the women of this colony, one must hide this and hide that. But we must start, eh?"
He took out two dresses, one grey and the other green and briefly held them in front of Kate.
"No. Absolutely not. The colors do not conform to madame's persona."
He pulled out a red dress and held it in front of her.
"Red is better, I think. Do you agree?"
"The dress is lovely. What's the cloth?"
"Thimbian spider silk. Our friends from Edo colony have a colony of the spiders and I buy from them."
"Thimbian spider silk? I'm sorry, we can't possibly afford that."
"Buy? You are in the service of the government of Saint George for this affair. The government will pay what I say they will pay." Kevin looked at the dress again. "We'll try the other colors, but I'm thinking the red is the one for you. But perhaps a brighter shade, no?"
In the end, Kate chose a deep red dress. Luckily for her, local styles would help conceal her pregnancy.
"The gown is high waisted, the waist being just below the bosoms, Madame Castle." Mr. Ryan said. "And the gown flows loosely to your ankles from there. You will look beautiful for your husband, will you not?"
"Mrs. Castle always looks beautiful for me and to me." Rock said gallantly.
"I'll remind you of that when I'm as big as a house." Kate said, giggling.
"No need. I'll still know you're beautiful."
They flew to Samland and in spite of the fact that the Secretary of Communications was a relatively low- ranking bureaucrat, they were treated like royalty. A limousine, imported all the way from Earth, met them at the airport and drove them to their hotel. As Samland had no real government, just the nine companies, the ceremony would be held in a hotel.
In the afternoon, there was a ceremonial signing of the agreement, with long speeches attesting to a new and glorious chapter in Samland's and Saint George's history. Having worked with politicians on Earth, Kate managed to appear interested. Rick did not.
There was a brief intermission and then a cocktail party. As soon as Rick and Kate entered the ballroom where the party was held, they were approached by a slender Asian woman.
"Colonel and Mrs. Castle, welcome. I'm Katrina Chen, the owner of the Hotel Paradiso. I do hope you're enjoying yourselves?"
"We are." Rick said. "And I must say, you have a magnificent hotel here, Ms. Chen. It's as fine as any I've seen in my travels."
Rick didn't add that the hotels a mercenary usually stayed at were not fine at all.
"I understand that you're advising Saint George on upgrading their armed forces. I hope that they upgrade them soon and keep upgrading them. The hijackings are awful and they must be stopped."
That much Castle knew to be true. Ms. Chen was one of the company owners who insisted that they should concentrate entirely on keeping the mining colony of Sylvestre happy and not bother with activities that could cause problems with other colonies on Edo.
"Can you tell me how things are going, Colonel?" She asked.
"Not really." Rick said with a smile. "Not because I wouldn't tell you, but because I can't. We're examining the needs of Saint George, but haven't come to any conclusions yet. We will be upgrading their navy with more heavily armed warships, selling them combat aircraft and upgrading their ground forces to a battalion sized unit, but that's just for a start. They have an excellent economy and a population of over 800,000. If they wanted to, they could build a very fine military. Very fine, indeed."
Ms. Chen smiled.
"Excellent. Any kind of violence could get out of hand and bother our customers from Sylvestre. I'd hate to see that. "She gave Castle an appraising look. "I understand you command a rather powerful mercenary unit. Something called a battle group? Just how powerful is it?"
"That all depends." Castle said, smiling. "Right now, my unit is doing some peacekeeping for the UK on the planet Aurora. As peace seems to have broken out on Aurora, my unit is currently battalion sized. Say, about twelve hundred people. However, mercenary units have to be flexible. I have contractual agreements with other mercenary units to add to my battle group as needed. Such things as intelligence companies, specialist anti-armor companies, amphibious units, commando units, aerospace defense units, aviation units and so on and so on. I have commanded a unit of divisional size. Say, twelve thousand troops."
"Would your unit or any other mercenary unit be coming here?"
"That would depend on the government of Saint George, but there are no plans that I know of to do so. That said, should Saint George decide to hire a mercenary unit, there are units such as Colonel Esposito's Tercio Corazon Negro that specialize in being a quick reaction force. They could bring a powerful brigade sized force here in a very short time."
"I do hope that's not necessary."
Others talked to Rick and asked much the same questions and got much the same answers. But finally, the party was over and Rick and Kate went back to their suite.
Kate had gone to the bedroom to undress and Rick was looking out at the very bright lights of Samland when a very beautiful and completely naked woman walked into the suite from the balcony.
TBC