The Pilots and the Passengers
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: You guessed it. I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: An AU future, and see below.
Author's note: This is a sequel to The Pilot, and The Pilots.
Author's note: Some sci fi fans may note some things that I have borrowed from other fandoms. Can you find them all?
Richard Castle was bored. He had been stuck at Catawrayannis Base on Llynathawr for over a month. He was supposed to be the pilot of the hottest ship around, a recovered Commonwealth era scout ship that was far more sophisticated than anything the Empire had. But he was sitting on his ass in the base visiting officers' quarters while a horde of geeky techs poured over his ship in a hangar the existence of which was considered top secret. Didn't they realize that he had actually flown the ship and knew far more about it than a bunch of outsiders?
He was about to sigh when the door to his quarters opened and in walked his wife, carrying two packages.
"Hi, babe. How'd the shopping go?" He asked.
"Great. I've never had women friends before. I'm learning a lot from Simone and Jane."
Simone and Jane were, as near as Castle could figure out, a pair of free lance spies who worked for the ICIO, the Imperial Central Intelligence Organization, but called by the Imperial Navy, I See Idiots Only. But he was happy that Kate had friends. She had grown up on a planet that had been devastated by the collapse of the old Commonwealth. Her whole life, after the death of her parents, until she met Rick, had been a constant round of combat to avoid death or sexual slavery.
"What did you get?" He asked.
"Some sexy lingerie. Not that you'd care."
That stopped Castle. He just sat there as his wife headed for the bedroom.
"Of course, I care. I want you to have nice things. Sexy things."
"So, you say! Simone and Jane have told me that there are dozens of things you could be doing in bed to increase my pleasure. And don't try to tell me you don't know what they are."
Castle shot to his feet and headed to the bedroom.
"What do you mean? I do everything I can to satisfy you. Everything. If there's something I'm not doing, tell me what it is."
When he got to the bedroom, Kate was faced away from him.
"Kate, I love you. Just you. I'll do anything for you. Anything. Just tell me."
He walked around her and saw she had both hands over her mouth. Then it struck him. She was trying not to laugh.
"Kate!"
"Castle, you are so easy." She threw her arms around him and kissed him with all the passion and love that she could manage.
"Very funny, Mrs. Castle."
"I thought so, Mr. Beckett. But, I did have to take off my underwear to try on the new lingerie, and I somehow forgot to put them back on."
Castle lifted the front of her blouse and found that she indeed was lacking a bra. He bent down to kiss her left boob when his phone rang.
"Don't answer it." Kate said, breathing heavily.
"I have to. It's the base." He took a step back. "Lieutenant Richard Castle."
"Lieutenant, this is Ensign Ryan. You and your wife, Ensign Beckett, are wanted at the base headquarters at once. There'll be a car in front of your quarters in ten minutes to pick you up."
"We'll be there." Castle said, unhappily.
"We have to go?" Kate asked.
"Yes, but maybe we'll run into Simone and Jane and they can demonstrate to me what I've not been doing."
"Meanie." She snapped, but with a smile.
They were both dressed and ready to go in nine minutes and were waiting for the car driven by a bored enlisted man. Arriving at the base headquarters, they saw that Simone, Jane and Moecious were just exiting another car. All three waved at Rick and Kate, who waved back.
There is a saying, that probably dates from before space travel, that everyone has a perfect double somewhere. In Kate's case that double was Simone Renoir. She looked exactly like Kate, not just her face, but her entire body, except for her hair which was a slightly darker shade of brown than Kate's. She also wore her hair shorter than Kate did and it was a bit curlier.
Jane Avril was also tall and slim, just like Kate and Simone, but had long, straight black hair and a killer smile. Both were from a French speaking planet somewhere in the Empire. They were both dressed in stylishly cut coveralls: Simone in blue; Jane in dark green.
Moecious, they had found, was a Vorlag. His race was descended from something analogous to an Earth wolf and it showed. He was eight feet tall, covered in brown fur with a thick bushy tail. He retained his ancestors' fangs and claws, and while normally a peaceful saloon keeper, he was perfectly capable of lethal violence. His clothing today was remarkably restrained, for him. He wore something he called a zoot suit. Waist high pegged pants, a light blue shirt with a wide, hand painted tie, a coat with huge shoulder pads and a wide brimmed hat with a feather in it completed his outfit.
"Have you been called to headquarters, too?" Moecious asked.
Rick just nodded. He hadn't quite forgiven Moecious for hijacking his ship, with him and Kate still aboard, even though it turned out they both worked for the Empire, just different intelligence departments.
"Yes, we have." Kate replied.
"Wonderful! Maybe we'll be going on another mission together." Moecious enthused.
"We didn't exactly go on a mission together the first time." Rick replied. "You sort of hijacked my ship."
Moecious just shrugged. "We're all on the same side."
Sure enough, they were sent to an office deep within the headquarters building. There they found Captain Zek, an Imperial Navy intelligence officer and a woman they knew only as Martha, who worked for ICIO. Martha was an older, conservatively dressed redhead.
Also, in the room was a non-human officer, in uniform. If Moecious was descended from a race of wolves, this person was descended from a race of tigers, right down to the black stripes on his orange fur. Like Moecious, he retained his fangs and claws. He was a bit shorter than Moecious, but looked a bit heavier. Rick guessed the bulk was muscle.
Rick was curious about the uniform he wore. It appeared to be a standard black Imperial Navy uniform, but the trim on it was red rather than the Navy's silver. And, he didn't recognize the rank badges on the being's red shoulder boards.
It became obvious that Moecious and the newcomer knew each other.
"Moe!" The tiger yelled, leaping to his feet and throwing his arms around the Vorlag.
"Skinny! Good to see you! Are you coming with us?"
"Wouldn't go with anyone else."
He two pounded each other on the back with blows that would have crippled a human.
Captain Zek cleared his throat loudly. The two stopped greeting each other and sat.
"May I introduce Commander Raw…al…arrr..."
The tiger held up a paw to stop Zek. "Please. It's impossible for humans to properly pronounce my name. Please refer to me as Commander Skinny, or just Skinny."
Zek nodded and introduced Commander Skinny to everyone else. Then he turned to Rick and Kate.
"Congratulations. You've both been transferred to Imperial Navy intelligence. Temporarily, at least. But, perhaps we can make that permanent, later."
Rick couldn't think of anything that would be worse.
Commander Skinny spoke." Perhaps it would be easier if I explained the mission and gave some background on me and my race. I am a Kzin, from the planet you call Kzinti. We are a race of hunters and warriors. Many centuries ago, we began interplanetary flight. There was another inhabitable planet in our solar system and we attacked and conquered the race who lived there. That whetted our appetite for conquest."
"We live in a tightly packed globular star cluster called the Kzin Marches by humans. It's the last place of any interest before you get to the Betelgeuse Wilderness, a huge expanse with very little to recommend it. But, the nearest star to us was only .8 light years away. We picked up radio transmissions from a planet around that star and determined that it could support Kzin life. So, we built a fleet and invaded. Alas, we only had slower than light ships, but we were able to get there and conquer that planet. And so, we conquered a total of fourteen planets in our cluster."
"Then we ran into humans. Our tactics have always been very simple, scream and leap. That is no subtlety, just attack without consideration for our flanks, the enemy's intention, logistics or anything else. Humans not only outnumbered us by several hundred trillion people, but you had FTL ships. We attacked you and were decimated. We attacked again, and again and always lost badly. Finally, the surviving Patriarch decided we'd have to surrender."
"Humans were surprisingly nice to us. We had to give up our conquests, but we were given a half dozen uninhabited planets to settle, which gave every Kzin Family their very own estates. We joined the Empire eventually, and like most non-human Imperials, we did so by a treaty giving us certain rights, and responsibilities. Among them, our own Navy, subject to Imperial command at the highest level."
"That's very interesting." Rick said. "But how does this concern any of us?"
"One of our early conquests was of a race called the Quiqui. They are an old race, and totally pacifist. They didn't fight us a bit. Very disappointing. However, their recorded history goes back over a hundred and fifty thousand years. Sometime in their early history they were contacted by another starfaring race. They gave them much information, but, alas for us Kzin, nothing on FTL drives. However, they received some fascinating information about a machine of great power, somewhere towards the Galactic Center. The machine is so vast that it can easily be seen from over fifty million miles out. The directions to this vast and powerful machine aren't very clear, but we should be able to find it by following the directions."
"What exactly does all this have to do with us?" Kate asked.
"According to the ancient records, the machine needs a key to start." Skinny reached inside his uniform jacket and removed a holo. "This is the key."
The holo was of the Quinncunx.
When Castle had first seen the Quinncunx he had thought it was a three-foot tall pink bowling pin. Only later did he find that the Quinncunx had short legs and feet like a duck, as well as a head with a large beak which he usually kept tucked under his arms. The Quinncunx also spoke nonsense sentences. Occasionally, one might almost make sense. At the time, Castle hadn't understood why the ICIO would want such a useless animal. Now he knew.
Martha spoke. "I am still of the opinion that the Empire is entitled to the Quinncunx and whatever information the Patriarch has on this mysterious, all powerful machine. The treaty between the Empire and the Kzin Patriarchy is quite clear. A small Imperial Navy task force could easily accomplish this."
Skinny smiled. "However, the Patriarch disagrees. He believes that this information is now part of Kzin's racial and historical heritage and cannot be taken by the Empire. The Patriarch has asked the Emperor to adjudicate this matter, as is the Patriarch's right under the treaty."
Zek took over the conversation. "The Emperor is a figurehead, of course, so he'd turn the matter over to the House of Planets. The idea that the representatives of twenty-five thousand separate worlds could do anything isn't in the cards. The House of Planets would turn it over to the Standing Committee of the House. They'd decide they had more important things to do and would give it to the Policy Board. They'd set up a committee to study the matter and about the time that Mr. and Mrs. Castle were dandling their grandchildren on their knees, a decision would be made. If we were lucky."
TBC