CH41 (120)
Leon phoned up Rick since Elena wasn't answering her phone.
"Leon to what do I owe the pleasure?" Rick answered his phone knowing who was calling.
"I'm looking for Ell but she's not answering her phone." Leon wasn't worried. He knew Ell could take care of herself.
"Her and Kate are out on a case. Someone has been killing sabertooths. Hunting them down in the National Park service area. Alexis is with them since she works part time as a Park Ranger. She's more familiar with the area." Rick explains. Twisting his head wondering why Leon needs her so badly. Plus Alexis was worried that Tigger was being threatened.
"Are they going to come to you first when they are done?" Wondering how late she would be.
"That's the plan. You two want to come over for dinner? I can call Andre and see if I can get them to come too." Rick would know how much to cook. Besides it increased the number of guys in the house.
"I'll pick up Bern from daycare and be right over, thanks." Leon and Elena had a baby boy who was now 2 years old. Bern was short for Bernard.
After hanging up with Leon, Rick called Andre and invited him and the kids over to join him, the girls and his brother.
Alexis and Andre had Maggie followed by Roderick almost 2 years later. Since it was a boy, Andre got to name him.
The two shuttles landed almost at the same time. Leon and Bern were just reaching the house when Andre was landing.
Emily and Kali who were only just barely teenagers now scooped up the kids and took them to the entertainment room. "Can we take them swimming later dad?"
Leon and Andre answered for Rick with a "Sure, just make sure you keep your eyes on them." They weren't strong swimmers like Emily and Kali were.
"Those three could be a while Leo. (Rick had shortened his name for him) They are thinking that the sabertooths are being hunted at night. What's on your mind?" Rick was curious, not that he wasn't glad to have them over.
"I got an interesting phone call today. They wanted me to use my association with the Castle's to get a new ship designed." Leon tells him.
"How thoughtful of him." Rick was speaking rhetorically of course, and Leon and Andre could hear it.
"They have a plan for a stealth scout ship to search out the enemy and keep them out of our systems. That way our planets don't get bombed or attacked." Leon informs them both. And then proceeds to tell both of them about the design parameters. Leaving out the part about being in combat.
"Take the fight to them and damage them." Rick understands it.
"I suppose it makes sense. … But what if what they find out it is a trap when they get there?" Andre asks.
"A scout ship would prevent that, … in theory." Leon explains.
"So what is it they think we can do? You're the only person that is a part of our family that is associated with the military." Rick didn't see how a Castle was going to help them.
"They think you might know someone who would listen to you and assign a design team to research the feasibility of the ship." Leon explains, not really sure why he isn't afraid of telling Rick but terrified of telling his wife.
"Actually, we do." Rick looks shocked. "Lucy?"
"Message sent based on parameters discussed. You are likely to get a call before the end of the day." Lucy advises Rick.
"You're still going to have to explain it to Ell. This doesn't get you off the hook." Rick warns him.
"Yea, I'm still working on that part." Leon starts looking at the floor. Ell was likely to be mad.
"Well I know what we can start with. …. Chocolate ice cream." Rick arches his eyebrows a couple of times while grinning.
"An overdose of chocolate! …. Why didn't I think of that?" Ell had it almost as bad as Kate.
"This way Kate won't kill you either. … we're going to have to time this perfectly. We may only have a minute or two. Between when they both start eating and when their minds shutdown.
You're going to need to pray that when they both snap out of it they remember they love you, … and me." Rick wasn't really worried about that part. Still there would be a price to pay.
"I have a trip to make. There is an item or two I need to get that might help." Leon is thinking.
"Such as?" Rick asks since he may already have it.
"Chocolate Macadamia nut coffee and a vanilla milk shake." Leon tells him.
"I've already got both. Kate is addicted to the coffee and the girls only like vanilla milk shakes. … why those two?" Rick didn't get it.
"Ell is addicted to both. Chocolate and vanilla are the opposites of each other. She loves the difference between them." Leon explains.
"You know where the coffee machine is." Rick heads with him to the kitchen to start gathering things for dinner.
Rick even made desert for after dinner. Chocolate mousse.
2 cups chilled heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
Everyone was in bed when Kate, Elena and Alexis came back. They were mildly surprised to find everyone sleeping in. It had happened before. The girls were excellent baby sitters.
The three easily slipped into bed with their sleeping husbands after taking a peek at their children.
All three woke in the morning to the smell of chocolate coffee.
Kate arrived first. Her nose was working overtime. Taking in a deep breathe thru her nose. "Hhhmmm, what are we celebrating?" Kate watched every move Rick made while he poured her a cup.
"I smell something." Elena shows up, and watches Rick pour her a cup.
"Chocolate macadamia nut. … My favorite." They both start sipping. And are both soon melting a little.
Leon has smelled it too and finally makes an appearance, and starts grinning.
Kate goes to Rick and Elena has moved over to Leon. Both start apologizing about coming in late last night.
"Did you at least get them?" Rick asks.
"No, we'll probably have to go back out tonight." Kate tells Rick. Leon is hearing something similar.
Emily and Kali don't have school since it is a weekend, so they spend the day babysitting. Just that the parents are not actually gone.
The guys have spent the morning deciding on who can play pool better than the other, while the women spend it getting a tan.
After eating lunch. "You three ready for dessert?" Rick asks them. And opens the freezer and pulls out a container.
"Ice cream!" Alexis was interested. "I'll get the bowls." Alexis knew just where everything was.
Rick pops the top. "Oooooo, chocolate ice cream." Kate and Elena are drooling.
Two spoon fools later they are both in heaven. Alexis isn't far behind them, though any flavor of ice cream would have done it for her.
The guys took the girls out on the boat while the women took a nap since they were going to be up all night. Being filled with chocolate ice cream only helped.
The kids took a nap before dinner while Emily and Kali spent that time working on their tans.
Rick put dinner together. "Are you and the kids going to be here in the morning or are you going home babe?" Elena asks Leon, while watching Rick cook dinner.
"We'll be here when you get back." Leon reaches across to give her a quick kiss.
"You're not needed on your research project?" Elena knew it was important to him.
"Not till Tuesday. Hopefully you'll catch them by then." Leon was hoping they would anyway.
Elena leans across to kiss Leon. "It'll be good to have you to come home to. I suppose I could meet mom someplace, it's just that this is easier. Plus we get to plan what next to do together." Elena kisses him again.
"Plus you get dad to do all the cooking." Alexis points out. Getting a fist bump with her husband.
Elena starts laughing. "There is that." Not that Elena was a bad cook. Rick had taught her a few things, but almost no one stood up to Rick.
Andre looks sad. "We are still sorry you two." Alexis had cried in his arms for hours a few days ago.
It had been a dark day for the Castle clan. Martha had finished her day. She had taught her one class during the day then went up on stage that night. When she got home she had called up Rick and told him about her day.
Martha loved what she was doing. She didn't have enough energy anymore to do more than one show a day. She had pushed herself that day to both teach and do a single show. Rick could hear how tired she was.
Rick had wanted her to get some sleep and call him back in the morning, however Martha had shut him down. She wasn't too tired to talk to her son. The last time she had actually seen him, Kate or Alexis in person was that summer when she had traveled to Athos to be on their ship yet again.
Martha loved their ship. It gave her a chance to just relax, let her son do all the cooking and spoil her grandchildren. "The best day of my son's life was when you crashed. I don't think I've ever properly thanked you Katherine for all you've done." Martha was blinking back tears, talking to Kate.
Kate hugged her. "I love him Martha, more than I was sure I would ever love anyone again. Rick and Alexis have done a lot for me too." Kate's tears were starting to join with Martha.
"You two are perfect for each other dear. You two are adorable together. Maybe after I'm gone I'll find out who sent you and get to thank him or her." Martha then kissed Kate's cheek.
"That won't happen for years to come Martha. You've got more energy than any person I've ever met." Kate kissed her cheek back.
That however hadn't come to pass. Only a week ago they had gotten a call that Martha had passed away that evening in her sleep. Alexis had flown over to the island home immediately after leaving the Garden that her and Andre owned and operated.
Then things only got worse.
Jim had only remained on Athos for two years before moving back to Callisto. He had wanted to keep busy and construction was still in its infancy on Callisto, while it wasn't on Athos.
Jim had come from Callisto to Athos last summer just like Martha. Kate had called her dad every couple of days since he left to go back to Callisto.
Their latest talk had centered around the mine construction as well as the space elevator. Every planet had one. It was the primary method to get supplies out into space where ships were built.
The space elevator on Tellus was the largest. The station out in space had become the beginning of a large space station.
The planning for the station was rather bold. It was going to be huge. There would be a large globe in the center. It was one mile in length from north pole to south pole. Around it was going to be a ring attached at the equator in a number of places.
The ring itself was 3 floors in depth while being 300 yards in depth.
Attached to this ring were going to be 6 spokes that poked out into space. At the end of each spoke was a circular building. Each of these were hundreds of yards in diameter and each was made up of 3 floors.
These circular building were where destroyers, cruisers and any other ships would dock at. There would be space for three ships to dock at each building.
The station was part research and part military. The ring itself had a hundred of the 5-inch auto cannons on the top and bottom, each side. The ring itself would be solely used for the military. There was space for 300 fighters in total. It also held the Marines that were stationed here for station defense.
The circular buildings were all for research as well as concourse areas for docked ships. There were 50 dual barrel Gatling guns on top and on the bottom of each building. Between each ship dock were the torpedo tubes. There were 30 tubes on each of the three floors for each building.
(You do the math)
The central sphere was for housing and the three power cores. It seemed like every square inch of the station was covered with solar power panels. These panels were used to power the 12 main lasers per power core.
The theory that was still in the testing phase on a small scale, was that the lasers would shoot into a central core area that would heat up the central core. The gases in the central core would in turn feed power to the electrical generators.
Each central core had 12 generators around the equator of the core. These central cores would provide all the power for the station.
The Earth military people had wanted a Battleship. Tellus however took all of that and put it into a space station, only a lot bigger. The Earth people had wanted that kind of fire power to be mobile, however they could also see the need for some kind of planetary defense.
It was going to take 22 years to complete construction, with another 12 years to fit out the station.
It was planned to have something similar while smaller for the colony planets. Those were still in the design phase.
Jim had just finished a long day coordinating contractors for the construction of those two sites. He had called Kate that night. Like Martha, he had come to Athos every summer to see everyone in person and sail around on their ship.
"I never placed you as sailing on a ship Katie." Jim had to admit. They lived on a desert planet after all.
Kate chuckled. "Neither did I dad. Just one more thing Rick and Alexis have brought into my life." It wasn't the summer home back on Earth that Kate had fallen in love at, however it was still a very isolated location. It was simply surrounded by water.
"How are you and Rick doing Katie?" It had been years since they had found each other.
"We're great dad! I'm still amazed how Rick makes me feel like we just fell in love." Kate loved him, really loved him.
"If I remember you used to moan about him acting like a child sometimes. He seems to have rubbed off on you." Jim couldn't help but put an elbow into her ribs, via long distance.
Kate was forced to laugh. "His perpetual 12 year old self is where he finds all the fun in our lives." Then Kate sobered up so to speak. "I can't help but love him dad. I know there are some people who want a vacation away from each other. My time away from him feels more like torture than calming." Kate confides. Her dad needed to know she was happy.
"Your mom and I started out trying to talk ourselves out of what we felt for each other. Then when we broke down and came together, that's pretty much how we felt too. We wanted to spend our time with each other, not separated from each other."
"I saw that when I was growing up. The Quellers and the Walkers seemed to be the same way." It was part of what made them all one big family.
"Your mother would be proud of you Katie. … You made detective, fell in love, have a family and you're obviously happy." Jim truly was impressed and was smiling at her.
"Yeah, I'm happy dad. After I lost Kali, mom, the Quellers and the Walkers I was sure I would never be happy again."Kate's tears started.
"I'm still really sorry Katie. You shouldn't have lost me too." Jim felt bad about that. He was her father and he loved her, but he abandoned her just when she needed him.
"I'm fine dad, really. … I'll talk to you tomorrow and see you this summer on Athos dad." Kate was looking forward to summer yet again. Get more of her family together and take time off from being a detective.
"I look forward to it. … I love you Katie." Jim was beaming again, which Kate thought looked good on him. It was so much better than when he was drunk.
"I love you too dad. I'll talk to you in a couple of days." Kate beamed back. Glad her dad was back, thanks mostly to Alexis.
Kate however never did get to talk to Jim again after that. He had gone to bed after that long day and his conversation with his daughter and like Martha had died in his sleep, on the very same night.
A huge black cloud had descended over the Castle home on Ariel the next day. It took weeks to feel better again.
It was the first time Emily, Kali and the other kids had experienced death. Jim and Martha didn't live on Ariel so it only started to sink in when they didn't get to talk with them every few days. The coming summer trip on Athos was likely going to cement in that feeling of loss.
Summer this year wasn't likely going to be as much fun as the previous years.
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ww dot outrightgeekery dot files dot wordpress dot com/2013/11/starbase-1 dot jpg
Like last time replace the word dot with a real dot and remove all the spaces if you want to see a picture of the planned and under construction space station.
Where it came from isn't going to be too hard to tell if you look closely at the ships docked at it.
Enjoy!