Chapter 17, Alexis's in Wonderland
By UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Still not mine. Rating: M in parts. I'll tell you when. Time: After my fic Four of a Kind.
Chapter Sixteen: Panzerlied
If Metford was overjoyed at finding that there was a surviving Roman city in Africa, he managed to conceal his joy. He debriefed Alexis and sent her on her way with some plausible cover story. Well, more plausible that being made queen of a Roman city in Africa on an alternate Earth.
The five were sent off to the lunar mansion to relax for two days.
On the morning of the third day they found new clothes laid out for them. Rick was not happy. "We never actually get to go to a nice place and now we get to go to someplace where we need…."He picked up the clothing…"mixed and matched camouflage fatigues. Kind of worn, too. And the boots are down at the heels as well. I don't like it."
"We got web gear for some kind of assault rifle, I'd guess." Rodgers added. "Pistol holster, canteen, medical kit, maybe a compass or GPS pouch. All kind of worn."
"We do get helmets and protective vests." Kate said, holding a vest up.
"Where the hell are we going?" Castle asked rhetorically.
He found out when they got to the red square.
"A tank?" Castle asked, uncertainly. "It's different from the Bradley Fighting Vehicle we had to hunt zombies with."
"Not a tank." Rodgers said.
"And those weren't zombies, babe." Kate added.
"Go ahead. Spoil my story with your fiendish logic."
"It's an armored reconnaissance vehicle and not one any of you would know about." Metford told them. "It weighs about twenty five tons, a little smaller than the Bradley we got for you. It has a fifty millimeter hypervelocity cannon and a coaxial 7mm machine gun by the main gun. The crew, luckily, is five people. Commander, gunner, driver and two dismounts who ride in the back. For weapons, you'll each have an 11mm handgun, an assault rifle firing a 7mm Short round as well as a machine gun firing a 7mm Long round and a four shot 30mm grenade launcher. As well as the usual medical kits, radios, etc." Metford smiled at them. "Now, we should go get your information virus shots."
Castle thought that Metford enjoyed sending them off to one hell hole after the other, but didn't say anything.
A half an hour later, they had their virus and Rodgers, as usual, was going over the information they had received. "It's our Earth up until Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. In the Earth we're headed for, the French crushed the Russians at Borodino and captured the Russian Czar as well. After that, the Russians surrendered. Instead of losing most of his army retreating through the Russian winter, Napoleon and his army sat in Moscow, fed and housed by the Russians. When Napoleon and his army left in the spring of 1813, he left behind a Russia that was terrified of ever pissing off the French again."
"Which didn't last forever, but it did last for a good two generations." Becks added.
"Then Napoleon took his army into Spain and chased the British and Wellington out. By the winter of 1813, the French ran Europe. But the Royal Navy kept the French out of the rest of the world. The Brits grabbed off the other European colonies, French or not. The Spanish Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, the French Caribbean colonies and everything else."
"Including the US." Castle added.
"They sent Wellington and his army to America and the US became British colonies again." Becks confirmed.
"The Brits and French signed a peace treaty in 1817, which no one expected to last. However, it did, ushering in what's called the Long Peace. Oh, there have been wars. The English had a vast assortment of colonial wars. The Germans rose against the French in 1876 and got thoroughly stomped. The Russians and English fought in the 1890s when the Russkis tried to invade India from their newly conquered colonies in Central Asia. But these were limited wars. Everything went well until 1984."
"1984?" Castle asked. "George Orwell?"
Kate laughed and Rodgers shook his head. "The Brits and the Russians were trying to grab as much of China as they could. Not the China we know, but more like the China of the 1920s. No real central government, just a bunch of warlords. A small skirmish between pro-Russian and pro-British Chinese troops dragged regular British and Russian troops in and before you knew it, they were at war. The French, for whatever reason backed the Russians. The war has lasted for thirty years."
Becks nodded." And the two sides are just about even. The British have the most powerful navy and a technological edge, but the French and Russians have more people. And the current Emperors, Jerome Napoleon III of France and Alexander VI of Russia are two of the biggest losers you could imagine. And because everyone there still believes in the divine right of kings, they run things. They mostly run things into the ground."
Rodgers took over. "The war has been fought all over the world, from the Arctic to the Antarctic using everything but nuclear weapons which haven't been invented. Both sides are falling apart, there are rebellions from their subject peoples and thing are generally shit all over."
"And we get to go to Texas." Castle added.
"The Dominion of Texas." Rodgers corrected. "The Brits didn't let the American colonies become one political unit. Each colony is separate. The US isn't as populous as in our era, since the Brits wouldn't allow any immigration from Europe. However, the Russians invaded from Alaska which they still owned, the French sent troops into French speaking Quebec. And Mexico, never happy with being dominated by the English colonies to the north, declared war on the British and invaded what to us is the Southwestern US."
"And, southerners, never happy about the British Empire freeing their slaves in 1833, also rebelled. British North America is one big, unhappy shooting gallery." Kate finished.
Metford interrupted them. "You've been issued weapons, ammo, food, water and all other consumables. Time to go."
They mounted their vehicle that had been carefully positioned on the red square. There was a flash of blue and the Moon around them disappeared.
"Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles." Rodgers said from the turret. "We're in Texas all right."
"Any idea where?" Castle called over the intercom from the rear of the vehicle.
"According to the map in the on board computer, were about a hundred miles north of the Gulf Coast between Houston and San Antonio, but a lot closer to San Antonio. And those places are little one horse burgs locally. But Metford put this Alexis and her kidnappers headed west from Houston towards San Antonio. We'll have to go look for her there."
They travelled until about an hour before sunset, then stopped to set up for the night. In case anyone was watching them, once it was dark, they moved about a mile away.
"Not that no one's going to notice a twenty five ton armored vehicle moving around." Castle said sarcastically.
"Lessons our chances of waking up tomorrow and noticing we're dead." Rodgers said quietly.
"I guess."
Each one had to take a two hour turn on watch as they had to sleep outside. Their vehicle was just too crowded to allow them to sleep inside. Rick had the last watch and was just about to stand up and wake the rest when a hand went over his mouth and a knife was at his throat. "No talk." A voice whispered in his ear.
It was over in seconds. Armed men poured into their camp and took the sleepers prisoner, stripping them of their weapons. One man, who appeared to be their leader spoke to them in a language that they didn't understand.
After about a half an hour, Castle could hear the sound of approaching armored vehicles, the clatter of the treads and a squeal when the vehicles changed directions. A tank came up over a hill, followed by other armored vehicles. The tank stopped some twenty feet away and a tall, spare man in camouflaged fatigues jumped from the turret and approached them. He stopped, smiled at them and bowed slightly from the waist. "Good morning." He said with a distinct British accent. "Allow me to introduce myself, Major Heinrich Zoeller, commanding Kampfgruppe Zoeller. And you are?"
They had a cover story all prepared and Rodgers began to tell it. "I'm Captain Rodgers, Louisiana Police Regiment. Your men should have our IDs. " While most of the South was in the hands of rebels, New Orleans and much of Louisiana was held by British troops and local loyalists. The Louisiana Police Regiment had been raised out of various military and civilian police as a para-military internal security force. Rodgers went on. "We're searching for an Alexis Castle. She's been kidnapped."
Zoeller laughed. "She must be a fascinating young lady to bring Louisiana Police so far from home. I'd love to meet her."
"One of her relatives is an intelligence asset A quite important one, or so I've been told."
"But you have no idea who that asset is, of course."
It was Rodgers turn to smile. "Need to know."
Zoeller laughed again. "And no one who actually needs to know ever gets to know, isn't that always the way of it?"
Rodgers nodded. "Are we your prisoners, Major?"
"Prisoners? Oh, bloody hell, no. I'm the commander of the Third Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, King's German Legion. We're British, old boy. Surprised you didn't know."
"Obviously we didn't need to know. And, frankly, it's hard to tell who's who anymore." Rodgers tried to put enough disgust in his voice to be convincing.
For the first time, Zoeller looked closely at the other four. "I say. Who are these people with you? The young ladies especially."
Rodgers put his arm around Becks protectively. "This is my wife, Rebecca Rodgers."
Becks smiled. "Everyone calls me Becks."
"That's my twin brother, Rick Castle and his wife, my wife's twin sister, Katherine Castle."
"Call me Kate."
"I'm the little sister. Simone Renoir. From Nawlins."
"You're twins and you have the same first name and different last names? Odd, I think."
Rodgers explained their cover story, how their father had died before their birth and the mother soon after, then they were adopted by different families who gave them the same first name. "It is a bit odd, sir, I'll admit."
"Oh, it's about to get a lot bloody odder, Captain. A lot bloody odder." He turned to a radioman who was squatting behind him. "Call Captain MacBeth and get her here, if you please."
Zoeller smiled at them as if he knew some funny joke that they had no clue of.
It turned out he did know something they didn't. Castle saw her first, striding towards them, dressed in combat boots, a Black Watch kilt and a camouflage shirt with a Glengarry bonnet perched on her head. Her hair was short and the same shade of reddish brown as when he had first met Kate Beckett. But there was no doubt in his mind that they had found another Kate Beckett.
"You wanted me, sir?" She asked.
"I think I may have found some relatives of yours. Captain Caithlain MacBeth, may I introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Castle, she's Kate, Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers, she's Becks, and Miss Simone Renoir. Captain Macbeth commands, well, what's left of the Second Battalion, Royal North Carolina Highlanders. Well, what do you think, Caithlain?"
Whatever expression Caithlain had on her face, Castle was sure it wasn't joy at meeting what she must have thought were long lost relatives. She just stared at them coldly. "It's no secret that my father got around and had a liking for the ladies. If that's all sir, I need to get back." Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked off.
"A difficult woman." Zoeller said.
Rodgers thought it best to change the subject. "A kampfgruppe is a temporary unit, Major. How big is your unit?"
Zoeller nodded. "We used to be a brigade, 17th Mechanized. But the West Kents and half of our artillery were sent north eight months ago and are still mucking about in Kansas or somewhere north of that. Six months back we had a series of fights with a Russian motor rifle regimental tactical group. We eventually smashed 'em, but they wore us down. We have two small companies of tanks, twenty three of them all together and two companies of the Highlanders in infantry fighting vehicles. We have some heavy mortars and other odds and sods. Plus we have a company of Cristeros, devout Mexican Catholics, mostly Indians, who have rebelled against Mexico and fight with us. They're the ones who caught you. We use them as scouts and they're bloody good. But, we're about a battalion all together." Zoeller's face brightened. "And we have an air drop scheduled for this afternoon. Ammo, fuel, food and other consumables. You can probably call the aircraft and send a message back to your lot in New Orleans."
Rodgers frowned. "I didn't get sent out here because the regimental commander loves me. All he wants to hear is either that I'm dead or the mission was a success." Colonel Montrose., the commander of the Louisiana Police Regiment was known for being totally ruthless about building his own wealth and power. He was equally ruthless at keeping spies, saboteurs and guerillas out of Louisiana. And no one thought he was a nice person.
Zoeller just nodded and walked off.
"What the hell is the King's German Legion?" Castle asked.
Oddly, Simone knew that one. "The first four British King Georges were also the Kings of Hanover, in Germany. Remember, Germany wasn't unified until 1871 in our timeline. When Napoleon over ran Hanover, a lot of people fled to England and were recruited into the British Army. They were called the King's German Legion. I'd say the same thing happened here, but since Hanover is still part of the French Empire, the British still have the Legion."
After the airdrop, Castle went to look for Caithlain Macbeth. He found her in front of an armored vehicle, sharpening a knife. "Hi."
She didn't look up. "What do you want?"
"Just to talk to you. It looks like we're related."
"Fuck off. I have no family."
"Look, I'm just trying to…"
She was standing with the knife at his throat before he realized what was happening. "I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to do to me what men have always wanted to do. Now fuck off or no one will ever find your body."
Castle fucked off. He hadn't gotten more than fifty yards when someone called to him. "Sergeant Castle?"
He remembered just in time that he was wearing police sergeant's chevrons. "Yes. What is it?"
The speaker was a tall, spare but muscular black man. "Corporal Brown. It's about Captain Macbeth. I'm her radio operator. She ain't a bad lady, she's just had a hard life. Her momma's an actress and her daddy left soon after she got pregnant. Never married her momma. The good folks, "Castle noticed that Brown used the term "good folks" sarcastically, "called her momma a whore and the Captain a bastard. Most of the men she's known have done nothing but tried to spread her legs since she was twelve."
"How'd she end up here?' Castle asked.
"Us North Carolina loyalists got whupped good at Albemarle. We retreated to the coast and the Royal Navy took them off the beaches. They were so desperate for anyone who could shoot that they gave her a rifle. Most of the "good folks" had rebelled against King Charles, so she as happy to shoot them. Been shooting them ever since. I wouldn't mess with her."
"Have you seen my wife?' Castle asked.
"No." Brown shook his head. "But I heard she and her sister look just like the Captain, except one woman has only one eye. That true?"
"Very true. And to me that means Captain Macbeth is family. And family means a lot to me. I'm not trying to mess with her. I'd like to help her if I can."
The corporal shrugged. "Your funeral." And walked away.
Castle walked back to his friends and told them what he had learned.
Kate, Becks and Simone looked at each other. "She's not going to want to talk to any man, but maybe we can get through to her."
Simone nodded. "I have some idea of what her life has been like. I want to help her. We should help her."
Rodgers looked up at the sky. "Sundown in a half an hour or so. We should eat and then go to sleep. We don't want to be walking through a darkened camp in case there are trigger happy sentries around. You can talk to MacBeth tomorrow."
They were woken before dawn by a sudden turmoil in the camp and one of Zoeller's officers calling to them to wake up. "Radio from command. San Antonio is under siege by Mexican troops and some Texas renegades. We need to chase them away before they shoot the town to bits." He smiled at them. "Nothing we haven't done before. They're an infantry heavy force, but little in the way of artillery or anti-tank." He glanced at the sky. "Or anti-air. "He pointed to four contrails high above them. "Royal Texas Air Force are going to pay them a visit. Should help." He began to walk away, then turned back. "By the way, as a recon vehicle you'll be in front with the rest of the recce people. And a squad of Cristeros will be riding on top of your vehicle. We leave in five minutes."
They bolted down some cold rations and all three women bitched about the lack of time to make coffee. When the Cristeros arrived, they asked that one of their number be allowed to ride inside. She looked to be in her early teens and was quite pretty.
As Castle was seated next to the machine gun strapped to the vehicle bulkhead, the girl sat next to Kate on a bench seat. She smiled shyly at them and then took out a Bowie knife and began sharpening it. As they bounced and rattled their way over the Texas prairie the day got hotter and everyone began to sweat. Rick and Kate noticed that their young passenger spoke some Native American language, a bit of Spanish and no English. But as she sharpened her knife, field stripped her assault rifle, and her pistol, cleaned hem and then reassembled them, she kept up a stream of happy chatter that neither Rick nor Kate understood.
The heat made Castle tired and the bouncing kept him awake. He was hungry, hot tired and needed to pee. The Cristero girl looked like she couldn't have been happier.
At noon they stopped for a meal and to pull whatever maintenance needed to be done. While they are, they looked up and saw four contrails heading back to the east. One turned and flew a circle over them and then raced on after its friends.
One of Zoeller's officers came by to brief the Cristero officer in Spanish, then turned to Castle and his friends. "The RTAF gave them a good pasting, but with only four aircraft, they couldn't do that much. We'll stop tonight about fifteen miles short of San Antonio and laager up for the night. We'll go after them at dawn.
After dinner, Kate, Becks and Simone went to talk to Caithlain Macbeth. Rick and Rodgers stayed by their vehicle. While they waited, some of the recce troopers near them sang softly in German.
"Ob's stürmt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht,
"Der Tag glühend heiß, oder eiskalt die Nacht,
"Bestaubt sind die Gesichter, doch froh ist unser Sinn, ja, unser Sinn.
"Es braust unser Panzer im Sturmwind dahin "
After a couple of verses an NCO came by and told them not to make any noise.
"What song was that?" Rodgers asked.
"Panzerlied. The song of the tankers." Replied a young, blond haired man. "We sing it before battle. For luck."
Another soldier spoke. "And Sergeant Wohl always stops us. For luck."
The soldiers laughed.
It was a half an hour before the women came back. "How did it go?" Castle asked.
The women sat down. "Not good at all." Kate said. "North Carolina is full of the socially very conservative types. Being born out of wedlock is a terrible thing to them. It means Caithlain's mother is a whore as far as just about everyone is concerned, and Caithlain is the bastard daughter of a whore."
Simone spoke. "She's been treated terribly her whole life until she was nineteen. She's hardly ever met a man who didn't try to rape her. I suspect that she has been raped, but she won't talk about it."
"What happened when she was nineteen?" Castle asked.
"The North Carolinians rebelled against the Crown. The local British garrison wasn't big and most of the local militia went over to the rebels. That's when someone handed Caithlain a rifle and let her start shooting her oppressors." Simone said bitterly. "Couchons! Pigs!"
"You know you're not really a Frenchwoman from Nawlins, right?" Rodgers asked.
Simone just gave him a dismissive smile.
"We tried to tell her about how happy we were with our…men." Kate remembered that Rodgers and Becks weren't actually married.
"She didn't care." Becks continued. "She said that sort of thing would never happen to her. She'd never be able to trust a man enough to have any kind of a relationship."
"She has walls." Castle said. "Damn it! Jesus, does she have walls."
Before they could discuss Caithlain Macbeth and her problems any further, one of the sergeants came over. "You should all get some sleep. We sent a recon patrol of Cristeros out to check out San Antonio. Unless things are seriously screwed up, we'll mount up well before dawn."
Well before dawn turned out to be 3AM. Sergeants moved through the laager, waking everyone up. "Wakey, wakey. Hands off you cocks and into your socks. We move out in twenty minutes."
Everyone complained about not having any coffee, however, the Cristeros gave them some cold rice and beans for breakfast.
Zoeller came by and called them over. "Captain Rodgers, I have a mission for you. We had a helicopter come in last night with aerial photos of San Antonio." Zoeller opened up a map. "Here, to the south of the city is the enemy logistical base. Their vehicles, and supply dumps are here. I'm taking the bulk of the kampfgruppe around like this to flank them and over run their supplies. "But here," he tapped the map, "is a company sized force of the Mexican Army which will be on our flank. I want your vehicle to accompany two platoons of Cristeros, get on this hill here, and fire down onto them and keep them off of our backs. Any problems?"
Rodgers shook his head.
A dozen Cristeros crawled on top of their vehicles and several dozen more arrived in two pickup trucks and a large boxy armored personnel carrier with a very large machine gun on top. Their friend from yesterday got in with Rick and Kate and smiled at them, chattering in her own language all of the time.
"She should be going to a dance or something, not into a battle." Castle complained.
"I know, babe, but we can't do anything about it."
Heavy mortars began the attack. Looking down, Rodgers could see the Mexican company below them come suddenly alive as the rest of their battle group roared towards the Mexican supply dump. In the back of the recon vehicle, the young girl began to pound on the rear ramp and yelling, obviously asking to be let out to join her comrades.
"Can't we keep her in here?" Castle called up to Rodgers.
By way of an answer, the rear ramp dropped and the girl ran out. Castle and Beckett exchanged glances, then went after her.
"Castle, grab the machine gun. I have the grenade launcher."
Castle wrestled the weapon loose from the bulkhead and ran after Kate. "You know we really have nothing against those people down there."
"Except if they get up here, they'll kill us." She pointed down the hill. The enemy was moving up the hill, firing as they went. Castle sighed and let off a short burst of fire. And another. And another.
The counter attack fell apart almost as soon as it began and the enemy began to retreat, and then a rout began. They were running, throwing away weapons and equipment to run faster.
The Cristeros remounted their vehicles and some jumped on top of the recon vehicle, shouting and pointing to the retreating soldiers. They wanted Rodgers to chase them. As Castle and Beckett crawled into the back, their friend got in as well, smiling as is she'd had the best day of her young life. Castle had never seen anything sadder than that.
They rolled across the prairie, but Castle could see very little through the periscope. Finally, they stopped and the ramp dropped. The girl ran out. Castle and Beckett stepped out and looked around. There was evidence of a firefight all around. Bodies, dead and wounded, dropped weapons, spent shells, bloody bandages and unnamable trash.
"You lot!" A man yelled. "Over here. Yes, you two."
A soldier was working on several wounded men. He looked up at them. "Take this one in that stretcher over there and go to the aid station." He pointed to a collection of vehicles some hundred yards away.
They grabbed a soldier and put him gently on a stretcher.
"Not him, you idiots! He's only got a half a head left. He's dead. This one!"
They dropped the corpse and picked up the living and carried him away. When they had delivered the wounded man to the doctors, another soldier grabbed them and pointed to another wounded man. "Take this one over there." He pointed vaguely to a row of stretchers. No one was attending to those wounded.
"No one's treating them." Castle said.
"We can't save them. They've been given morphine to make their last few minutes comfortable. Now take him over there, damn it."
They put the soldier down gently. Castle's eyes strayed to another soldier, dressed in a different uniform next to him. "Crap! Javi? Javier Esposito?"
This Esposito had no legs at all from about the knees down and had dozens of small wounds in the torso. He didn't react to Castle, just looked at the sky.
"Javi?" Kate said softly.
"Go to hell, you British bastards."
That voice was familiar. Castle looked into the familiar blue eyes of Kevin Ryan. "Ryan?'
"Go fuck your…" He said no more.
Another soldier walked over and knelt by Esposito. "Nuevo Leon Light Infantry, First Battalion." He glanced at Ryan. "San Patricio Battalion. Saint Patrick's." He looked up at Kate and Rick. "Irish renegades who fight against the British Empire. Saves us from hanging him." He frowned at Rick. "You called him Ryan. Did you know him?"
Before Rick could speak, Kate tapped her hand against her police sergeant's stripes. "Louisiana Police Regiment. We knew him professionally." Then she led Rick away.
"Esposito keeps dying in front of me. And now Ryan." Castle said softly. "This is…"
"DADDY!" A girl's scream cut off what he had been about to say.
He whirled around just in time for Alexis to leap into his arms. "Daddy! You're here. You're here. And Kate, too."
The fact that this Alexis knew Kate told Castle that this was not the right Alexis. But, still, they had saved her. He walked her over to their vehicle and explained who and what they were.
"I thought it was some kind of nightmare." Alexis said, holding on tightly to Rick. "This Earth is just so...odd. . But you say it's an alternate Earth?"
Castle pulled her towards their waiting vehicle. "We can go over this whole thing later when we have you safe. When we have us safe, too, actually."
They climbed in the back and Castle called Rodgers on the intercom. "Let's get out of here and back to the Moon. We've got the Alexis we came looking for. No reason to stay."
"Negative." Came the reply. "These people helped us. The Cristeros went tear assing through the scrub. Good places for ambushes. We should give them some support."
"Really?" Castle asked, but he knew the answer already.
They pitched and rolled over the prairie and through the scrub. Castle heard the main gun fire twice and there were perhaps two dozen bursts from the coaxial machine gun. He could hear Rodger's running commentary. "Looks like a firefight ahead. Maybe a couple of platoons on each side going at it. I'm going to…Oh, shit! It's that crazy bitch MacBeth. She's standing up in plain sight and just begging to get shot. She's standing on a pile of rocks. I can get to about twenty feet from her. You willing to go after her?"
Castle and Beckett looked at each other. "Yes!" They both yelled.
As soon as the vehicle stopped and the rear ramp dropped, the two charged out. As Castle ran towards Macbeth, he saw her exchanging fire with someone behind a stunted tree. There were already two enemy bodies in front of the tree. What MacBeth didn't see was that another enemy had carefully crawled around to her side and was prepared to fire. Both the other soldier and Castle fired simultaneously. Castle killed he man with a burst the machine gun he still carried. Macbeth suffered a perforated canteen. Kate fired her grenade launcher at the tree, killing the last soldier.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Castle screamed.
"What do you care if I die or not?" MacBeth screamed back. "What have I got to live for? So that I can wonder if every man who looks at me is wondering what I'd look like naked and tied spread eagled to a bed?"
"I care because you're obviously family and I love my family."
"Liar! You don't love me. You couldn't."
"I can and I do. Ask my wife how I feel about family. Ask my two sisters in law. Ask anyone in my family. I love you, Caithlain MacBeth whether you like it or not. I. Love. You."
Castle saw that Caithlain was staggered by the words. Then he saw she had been staggered by a bullet. "She's been shot!"
"She's been hit in the chest. Just like I was." Kate yelled. She pulled open Caithlain's shirt. "No, not as bad as when I was shot. We have to get her to a hospital ASAP." Kate looked back at the hospital they had just left, now a mile or more away.
"Not there." Castle said. "We can get her back to the Moon. They have much better medical care right there."
They patched Caithlain as well as they could and carried her to the waiting vehicle. In all he confusion of battle, no one noticed an armored vehicle disappear in a blue flash.