City
Chapter 1
"You wanted to see me, Captain Romanova?" Kate asked as she came up to her. The captain's given name was Shura, which meant Defender of Mankind, something that Kate thought fit her well.
"Yes, Beckett. I've assigned you to Richard Castle, our Veterinarian. You'll keep your normal job, but you will support him however necessary."
"Vet, sir?" Kate didn't understand. She wasn't a vet by any stretch of the imagination.
"After the attack, we need to double up. He's our only vet, and we need him. Without him, we don't eat. So I'm assigning you to him."
"Yes, sir."
"Report to the Stockyards ASAP."
"Yes, sir." Kate was dismissed, so she left and met with her assistant Zoey, letting her know that she would be in charge whenever she was away. Then Kate headed out, taking a train to reach the Stockyards. Her field was Hydroponics; what did she know about animals? Kate went through various stops until she came to the Stockyards and got off. From there, she walked.
"You must be Beckett. Captain Romanova told me to expect you, that you would be here to help me," Rick told her the second he saw her.
"That's me, Kate Beckett. I'm not sure how much help I will be, but I'm here."
"Great, follow me." Rick led her out to a barn-like building. "Come on, girls, get in here," he told the cows. One by one, they entered the barn and moved into place. Rick grabbed a long palpation sleeve for his arm. "We have to check these heifers to see if they're pregnant. What I need is for you to keep track of each one. You enter what I tell you on this chart." He handed her the chart and a stylus.
"No problem, I can do that." Kate watched as he put his arm into the back end of a cow. "Don't you have some kind of device to do that?"
"I do, but after the attack, we're at half power, and since it uses power, I can't use it. So I get to do it the old-fashioned way," Rick said as he guided his arm deeper into the cow's intestine.
"This heifer is pregnant. About three months." Rick pulled his arm out, stripped off the palpation sleeve and put on a new one, then inserted his arm into the next cow. "This one is pregnant. Also, about three months."
Rick did that for all twenty-four heifers. "They're all pregnant. That's a good bull."
Kate grimaced at the smell. "It really stinks in here. Is it always this bad?"
"This is nothing. Next up is the heifers we use for meat. I'm going to see if they're pregnant. Think good thoughts because these cows are what we eat. They have almost none interaction with humans and will take a lot more work," Rick warned her. Kate followed him to another section of the Stockyards and saw brown, hairy cows.
Rick instructed her on what she needed to do. "Because we're at half power, it's necessary to do this the old-fashioned way. We use a chute to trap the cow by the head. You get to lead the cow into the chute, and I'll trap her there. You put this bar behind her hindquarters to hold her in place. Then I'll check to see if she's pregnant."
Kate thought she understood. "O-kay."
"You need to be very careful," he cautioned. "These meat cows aren't used to being handled. They will put up a fight."
Kate got the first cow into the chute, put the bar behind it, and watched as Rick inserted his hand in its butt.
"The bull's been busy. She's pregnant. About three months," Rick told her, and she wrote it down.
The next cow put up more of a fight. The heifer didn't want to go into the chute and didn't want to stay there, so she fought being confined.
"She's pregnant. About three months, too." Rick pulled off the palpation sleeve and released her.
The rest were a mix. The cows were easy or difficult, but Rick and Kate finished in a reasonable amount of time.
"They're all pregnant," Rick told her, "which is very good."
Kate didn't enjoy working with the meat cows any more than she did the milk cows. It still stank to high heaven. "What's next?" she asked, hoping this was enough.
Rick gave her a crooked grin. "Pigs are next."
"Pigs, great." Kate expected the worst, and she wasn't disappointed. It smelled nastier than the meat cows.
"It looks like she's had her piglets," Rick noted. He stepped into the pen, picked up a piglet and handed it to Kate, who held it.
"It's so cute!" Kate looked up at him and smiled.
Rick just shook his head. "All babies are cute no matter what type they are." He patted the sow. "You're a good mama." The he took back the baby and put it at a teat.
Kate did a quick count. "There are eleven of them."
He nodded. "Yep, we're going to eat well in a couple of years."
Kate stared at him. "We're not going to eat these piglets, right?"
"That's what the Stockyards are all about, Kate. We raise animals for food. Though because of the attack, we'll have fewer mouths to feed."
"Yeah, it was bad," Kate acknowledged.
"The chickens are next. Those are easy. Come on. We need to see and make sure they're feeding and check on the chicks."
Kate followed him into an area filled with chickens. Chickens were everywhere, so it seemed. Then Rick took her to the chicks. "They're adorable." But, he told her couldn't pick them up, only look at them.
"Everything looks good here. So on to the horses." Rick exited the building.
"Horses. We have horses?" Kate hadn't expected that at all.
They had four horses, two fillies and two stallions. "This is Maggie." Rick led her up to Maggie and stroked the horse's head.
"Hi, Maggie." Kate reached up and ran her hand over Maggie's nose.
"Maggie has been having trouble eating. I'm reasonably certain her teeth are too sharp and require grinding." Rick looked her over again, then went to get everything he needed to take care of her.
"Aww, you poor sweetie." Kate held her halter and petted her. She realized she liked horses.
He showed up with a pail of water with something in it and a pole. "I need you to hold this." He put it on the horse's nose and twisted it. "Now, hold this." Rick handed it over to Kate.
He took the device out of the pail of water and stuck it in the horse's mouth after looking in it and confirming what he feared. He ground Maggie's tooth down while Kate held onto the rod. The filly didn't like it and let them know by moving her head. "Steady, steady, girl. This won't hurt a bit." Rick ground the tooth and checked the rest.
Rick stepped back. "Okay, you can release her." Kate let go of the rod. The horse shook her head and took off at a trot to get away from them. "You're welcome," Rick called after her.
They stayed where they were for a while, watching the horses. "Is this your normal day?" Kate queried.
He shook his head. "Not really. I don't do pregnancy checks every day."
"No, I meant, are you here every day?" Kate clarified.
"Every day." A muscle in his jaw twitched as Rick pulled himself together. Talking about this was difficult for him. "I used to have some help, but they died in the last attack."
"A lot of people died in the attack. I heard we lost two of our four Cruisers." Even thinking about it was hard for her.
"I was told we lost one of them by ramming the attacking ship, allowing us to escape. They sacrificed themselves to save the rest of us," Rick said, looking away from her.
Some of the color left her face and she swallowed hard. "I didn't know."
"We're down to just two Cruisers for defense now which isn't good," Rick told her. He pulled himself together. "So, what did you normally do before this?"
"I worked in Hydroponics," Kate told him. "I'm lucky and got to keep one of my assistants. Do you have any idea how many people we lost?"
Rick thought for a moment. "We lost 120 people when they rammed that ship. Beyond that, I haven't heard though the attack on the city likely did damage somewhere. Thankfully, the Cruisers did their job. We had time to renew our FTL, or we wouldn't likely have escaped."
Kate frowned. "Why we don't have weapons escapes me. Our only defense is the Cruisers we carry with us."
"We're lucky we're even here. Earth was dying. We're the only City Ship ever to be built. I'm exceedingly grateful I don't have to decide where we go next." What Rick just told her was something she already knew.
"There may be other ships. We don't know if we're the last one," Kate persisted.
"Another City Ship?" He shook his head. "Not likely. Additional Cruisers, perhaps, but where would they go? They don't have the food we have or the water capability we have. Nor the machine shops that we have. Certainly not the proficiency that we have," Rick argued fiercely.
Kate hung her head. Rick had a point, and it was sad.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Kate had places to be still.
"No, that's it for today. Thanks for the help."
Kate gave a slight nod. "Call when you need me." And she took her leave of him.
~oo0oo~
Kate went to Hydroponics to check on things and heard, "Ohh, you stink!" Kate spun around and saw her assistant, Zoey. She had said it.
Kate eyed her. "I spent the day at the Stockyards helping our one and only vet. Captain Romanova assigned me, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember. But give me a break, Kate. I was barely awake." Then Zoey made a face. "That explains the smell. I've been put on double duty too. I get to help in Fabrication." She rolled her eyes. "Joy."
"It sounds like we'll all be doing double duty for the foreseeable future. I came to check in and then head to my room." Kate yawned; she was beat.
"We're all good here," Zoey assured her, so Kate left and went straight to her quarters.
Kate didn't rate having quarters all to herself. It was just that her roommate was one of the dead, so she had it all to herself now. Jennet had been nice enough as roommates went. She was going to miss her.
Kate stripped down, took a shower to rid herself of at least some of the horrible smell, and stumbled into bed.
~oo0oo~
Kate woke up to the howl of alarms going off. "Not again!" She got out of bed, dressed hurriedly, and went to her assigned station.
Now blast doors were there to seal parts of the ship from other sections. It was so that no part of the ship could be damaged and affect every other parts of the ship. It also meant Kate didn't have far to go. She joined others and was joined by more who were all talking.
Then they were given the all-clear. "It was just a drill," someone grumbled. He was mad that he was up so damn early. Shaking her head at his behavior, Kate left and trudged back to her room, glad it was just a drill. She didn't need it to be another attack.
She changed her mind since she was up and dressed. After she grabbed something to eat, she headed for Hydroponics and put in some work. As far as jobs went, it was cushy. What she was responsible for was monitoring the plants, harvesting some of them for food and planting new ones in their place. Kate wondered what it was like in the Stockyards. Just what did they eat? Surely not the pregnant cows or pigs. She made a mental note to ask him next time.
~oo0oo~
Kate saw Castle as she entered the Stockyard. "Hi."
"Hi." Rick looked over what she was wearing and nodded his approval. "I see you came dressed for it this time."
She looked down at herself. "I thought this would be better suited. Um, may I ask a question?" Kate wanted an answer.
"Sure, ask away," Rick told her and looked at her. He slowly realized he was learning to like her. She wasn't bad on the eyes, either.
"What do we eat? Surely not pregnant cows! Please tell me we don't do that."
"No, of course not. The twenty meat cows we tested to see if they were pregnant are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. There are meat cows bred exclusively for slaughter. Speaking of which, you can help me herd a few to slaughter." Rick took off walking at a fast pace, and Kate had to hurry to catch up to him.
"Now these cows are for slaughter," Rick pointed out once they reached them. "Our job is to select a few for slaughter. Mostly it's just herding a few to a different pen. It's easy. Come on, I'll show you." Rick went out into the crowd of beef cows, flapped his arms and made noises. Kate followed his lead and did the same.
"There, that's enough for today. This week, actually. We need to do the same for the pigs. But chickens are a totally different thing," Rick told her.
The only difference between the cows and the pigs was that they slapped the pigs to get them moving.
"Now for the chickens. You're going to enjoy this." Rick smiled at her and headed for the chickens.
Kate watched as robots did all the work when it came to chickens. They herded them into an area. "And that, as they say, is that," Rick said.
"Interesting. Who does the actual slaughter?" Kate asked since all they did was herd them into an area.
"Machines, robots, really. They do the killing and the cutting. Nasty job, that. Not one I want to do. Thankfully, it's all automated from this point on."
"OH!" Kate liked that part of it. "So what's next?"
"Horses, and no, we don't eat horses. Not really sure why we have them, but we do. So I take care of them. Come on, you can help me with one of them. I think she has colic."
~oo0oo~
"All right, I want you to hold onto Moriah while I look her over," Rick said, and Kate took hold of her head.
"Just as I suspected, colic. Wait here." Rick walked off and returned with a hose, a large bucket of water, and a plunger.
Rick got in position and looked at Kate. "I want you to hold her head while I put this tube up her nose."
"What are you doing?" Kate asked him, while he went ahead and fed a tube up the horse's nose. Of course, the filly didn't like it and moved her head.
"Colic is a blockage," Rick started to explain. "You see, a horse can't vomit. So if there's a blockage, I have to feed a tube up its nose and down into its throat, checking to make sure I don't head for a lung instead. …When I'm sure I reached the blockage, I force water down the tube to flush out the blockage."
Kate didn't understand why the other end of the tube was in Rick's mouth when suddenly, he jerked it out and out came a brown substance. He spat and spat.
"Found it." Rick started pumping in water until the bucket was empty, then he pulled the hose out of her nose. "There, all done. Now Moriah can eat again." He petted the filly's nose. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?" he crooned to the horse, not expecting an answer.
Kate thought she had it. "I get it. It's like a siphon. You siphoned out some of the blockage, which was the brown stuff."
He grinned. "Very good. Maybe I'll let you do it next time."
Kate shuddered. "No thanks, I'll leave it to the professionals." Meaning Rick.
She watched him clean the hose for the next time. "Do we ride the horses?" Kate inquired. "What I mean is they have to be good for something, if not food."
"Of course. Have you ever been riding before?" Rick asked.
"Who me? No, I've never been on a horse before. Never really been all that close to any animal before. It's not exactly necessary in my line of work," Kate said.
"If you don't mind my asking, where do you sleep?"
"I have quarters here in the Stockyard. I rank right up there with Captain Romanova, so my quarters are rather large compared to everyone else's." Rick shrugged a shoulder. "I need to be close to the animals." He looked at her and arched an eyebrow. "Why? Do you want to see my quarters?"
"NO!" Kate blurted, then pulled herself together. "No, I just wondered where yours were, is all." Rick looked at her but didn't question her any further.
"It's feeding time, so you can help me with that," Rick told her.
Kate moved hay for the horses, watched him dump grain for the cows, and saw him upend and empty slop for the pigs. "What is that?" Kate was startled by what he was feeding the pigs.
"Pigs are omnivores, Kate. They'll eat just about anything from dead bodies to food waste to grazing grasses. In this case, I'm feeding them leftovers from yesterday's meal. The stuff you scraped off your plate doesn't go to waste. I feed it to the pigs."
Kate wasn't sure she believed him. "Dead bodies?"
"Yep, dead bodies right down to the bone. Don't ask if you don't want to know," Rick advised her. She didn't need to ask if he fed any of the dead to the pigs.
"I don't want to know." Kate's face scrunched up in disgust.
"It's food," Rick explained patiently. "We waste nothing on this ship. Honestly, we can't afford to waste anything and recycle everything we can."
Kate knew that. There were recycle bins everywhere meant for anything and everything. Nothing went to waste on this ship. But did he really feed dead bodies to the pigs? Kate decided she didn't want to know the answer to that question.
"What do you feed the chickens?" They seemed to be left out of this feeding.
"Theirs is all automated, for which I'm grateful. Yes, it uses up power, and we're at half power, but chickens get priority since much of what we eat is chicken. Speaking of chicken, come with me, I think you'll enjoy this." Rick smiled and headed for a different section.
"Where are we going?" Kate didn't understand. They were leaving the Stockyards.
"You'll see," was all Rick told her, and kept walking.
"Hey, Doc!" Rick was greeted by a woman who sounded happy to see him
Rick introduced them to each other. "Beverly, meet Kate Beckett. Kate's been assigned to me. She's helping me with the animals. Kate, this is Beverly. She's in charge of the dogs on this ship."
"Good, you can use the help. You're right on time. We have puppies," Beverly led them into a room. "These are Golden Retriever puppies."
Kate looked down at the puppies and felt her heart melt. They were just so adorable!
"They were born yesterday. I would have called you, but they all came out just fine on their own," Beverly told him.
"Good, that's good. I like it when things work out like that." Rick was happy, relieved he didn't have to do a C-section to get the puppies out.
"There are…" Kate did a quick count, "eight of them. Sounds like a lot."
"Thirteen has been the maximum so far. Sadly we only have a select few breeds. The price we paid." Beverly murmured that last sentence.
"I'm amazed we even have dogs. I'm not sure I've ever seen one." Kate paused briefly, "Outside of Earth, that is."
"We have Golden Retrievers, Collies, black and chocolate Labrador Retrievers, and Rottweilers. They're all we have. We don't have sheep or goats or a lot of animals. These puppies are only the second litter this mother has had," Beverly said.
That explained why Kate hadn't seen any dogs. They were very rare. She also knew why they didn't have a lot of animals. They didn't exist when the ship was launched. They only had what was on board. What remained on Earth was only a fraction of what it used to have.
And even then, they made sacrifices. Like horses, they weren't used for food, and there weren't many of them. If they couldn't be eaten, then they weren't included.
Yeah, they had sacrificed a lot of animals – a whole lot.
