Deadenders
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle reached a dead end with Season 8, but it's going strong here. Rating: K Time: The far future.
"Aurora is an old planet. The mountains have been worn down to hills over millions of years and their oceans are now landlocked inland seas. Less than fifty percent of the surface of the planet is covered by water and the seas aren't as deep as oceans on Earth type planets. So, Aurora is kind of a desert world, except it's at the far edge of the goldilocks zone and cooler than the average Earth type planet."
"The most advanced civilization was on what's called the Great Steppe, so that's where the colonists landed. The locals, who had no real name for their race as a whole, are now called Ka Rara. Ka means people of in the local language and Rara is a corruption of Aurora. The colonists weren't numerous enough or well-armed enough to frighten the Ka Rara. All the colony had was a few police type weapons. But the Ka Rara found the colonists quite useful. They learned more about metal working, medicine, agriculture and lots more. So, they began adopting humans into their clans. My family is called the Ka Sal, from our name and we're part of the Ka Reng clan. That means the people of the hot springs."
"Finally, about sixty years ago an Earth survey ship showed up. Needless to say, they were shocked to find a human colony on an inhabited world. They told us Aurorans that we'd have to move, and that Earth would send ships to make us move."
"How come you're still there?" Ryan asked.
"Two things happened. One, the Ka Raras didn't see us as interlopers but as members of their clans. They called together their warriors, armed with flintlock muskets, and were ready to fight when the ships from Earth arrived. That put the Earth expedition in a quandary. They couldn't turn modern weapons on the Ka Rara. That would be totally against their principals."
"Principals haven't stopped governments from doing what they wanted to do very often." The male Sergeant Park said.
"True, but we had something else. Aurora has the largest collection of Ancient ruins anywhere, including a massive wall eighteen meters long, five meters tall and two meters thick, and covered in Ancient script of some sort."
Ryan nodded.
"The Ancients have been gone from this part of the galaxy for a hundred thousand years or more. What little we know about them indicates they were far, far more advanced than we are. That kind of an Ancient treasure trove would have made Earth stop and think."
"And stop and think they did. They'd need an expedition of hundreds of people, if not a thousand. Those people would need to be fed, clothed, housed, have medical care available, have good contacts with the locals and so much more. So, they decided that the best thing to do would be to leave us human Aurorans in place."
"So, what's the problem that you need soldiers for?" Javi asked.
"By the time the Earth ships arrived there were already "border incidents" with the Xanks which turned into a full-scale war lasting for nearly fifty years. The war is over now, but problems remain. There are people like you that have no place to go. Some aren't welcome back home for one reason for another. One planetary government had a bright idea on how to get rid of their undesirables. They loaded some two thousand on a ship, gave them weapons and dropped them off on Aurora."
"I admire your notion of a fair fight if you propose to take on two thousand people with a big squad." Javi said.
"Most of the ones sent to Aurora are criminal gangs and none of them were bigger than maybe twenty people. None of them would cooperate with each other. There are also some political fanatics, religious sects, and assorted nut cases. All I need is enough people and weaponry to convince these small groups to stay the hell away from my uncle's ranch."
"How many people do you have right now?" Ryan asked.
"Just me."
Ryan looked at his friends.
"Let us talk it over for a while."
Javi laughed.
"Man, if we do go, that'll piss Dr. Parish off something fierce."
"Who's Doctor Parish?" Castle asked.
"A real live MD, but all she has is a little sack full of meds and her medical computer. She wants my stash really bad. Wants me to work for her, but she thinks I'm just some dumb ass medic good only for cleaning bed pans."
"You'd think a doctor could find a way off this planet."
"She's like us. She has friends who don't have skills other planets need and won't leave her friends behind."
"Maybe I could offer her a fully equipped clinic just like yours, she come along. Her friends might be useful. Where is she?"
"Three streets to the north, all the way to the end. But be careful. The deadenders around here can be dangerous."
"So can I." Castle said, leaving the tent.
Castle went three streets to the north and then headed for the end of the street. Halfway there, he saw a man sitting in front of his tent in a rocking chair. On the ground beside him was a scantily dressed blonde. The man smiled at Castle, but then called to someone inside the tent.
"Mr. Slaughter. We have company."
The man who came out was huge and muscular. His body was oiled and all he wore were a pair pf leather shorts.
"This street belongs to Mr. Vaughn over there. If you want to keep going, hand over all your valuables."
"Sure thing." Castle said, reaching under his shirt. Instead of valuables, he pulled a small black gun. He fired at Slaughter, the gun only making a soft "pop". He then turned and fired at Vaughn. As he did so, Slaughter took a step towards him. Then he wobbled, took a step to one side, then collapsed. Vaughn had tried to get out of his chair, but also collapsed.
The blonde raised her hands.
"Please don't kill me."
"Oh, they aren't dead. This is an air pistol, and it shoots tranquilizer darts. The big one will be out for maybe twelve hours and the other one for maybe eighteen."
As he spoke, Castle hit a switch and swung the barrel downwards. He inserted two new darts into the gun and snaped it closed. As he walked away, he kept his eyes on the blonde, but she just stayed there with her hands in the air.
He finally arrived at the last tent on the street.
"Doctor Parish, are you in there?"
He could hear movement inside the tent and then five women came out. They were armed, sort of. They all had steel reinforcement rods that had been sharpened to a needle point.
He looked over the women. One was a gorgeous brunette, the next one was an attractive blonde, in the middle was a curvy Black woman, then a young redhead and finally an older redhead. It looked to Castle as if the two redheads were perhaps mother and daughter or grandmother and granddaughter.
"Turn around and get the hell out of here." Said the brunette.
Castle smiled and shrugged.
"Okay, I'll go. I just thought Dr. Parish might be interested in a nice medical clinic, but if she isn't…"
"Wait." Said the Black woman. "Are you serious?"
"Where would you get a complete clinic?" Demanded the brunette.
"I know a guy."
The women laughed.
"Do you expect us to believe that?"
Castle opened the bag he'd brought with him. He took out a 9mm pistol, four magazines and a hundred rounds of ammo. He tossed the weapon and the ammo to the brunette.
"I got in here with that weapon, which is very illegal to have, and I also have…" He reached into the bag again and brought out a submachine gun. "…one of these. That's the kind of people I know."
"Why do you need a doctor?" Dr. Parish asked.
"I've already recruited Kevin Ryan, a medic, and can get him his own clinic, but a real doctor would be nice. You have, what, three or so years of schooling?" That wasn't completely truthful, but he was sure Ryan, and his friends would agree to come with him.
Parish glared at him.
"I have the full four years of school. I know that before the war medical training took many years longer, but they needed trained people badly."
"What do you plan?" Asked the brunette.
Castle explained about his home planet and the problems it faced.
"Another damned war. Can't you people think of anything else to do?" Parish snapped.
"I'll be happy to stop shooting at people when they stop shooting at me."
"These are my friends. We've been through a lot together. I can't just up and leave them."
"So, what can they do? Aurora is a whole planet. There are lots of things that need doing."
The older redhead spoke.
"My name is Martha Rodgers. I'm an actor, a singer, a dancer, a musician, a comedian, in fact I do anything to entertain the troops. I've spent my life at that, but now no one wants an old actor."
"There's one good bar and restaurant on Aurora. People pretty much have to make their own entertainment and although it's been while since I was there, the quality was pretty low. Mostly drunken sing-alongs."
"I'd be the only professional entertainer on the whole planet?" Martha said, sounding interested.
"As far as I know."
Castle turned to the younger redhead.
"What's your story?"
"I'm Alexis Rodgers, Martha's granddaughter. I was training to be a ships' navigator. I was within six months of graduating from the five-year course when the war started winding down. I was discharged from the navy without ever graduating. Now that the war's almost totally over, there are all kinds of experienced navigators looking for work. No one wants to hire an almost trained navigator."
Castle thought for a minute.
"A navigator essentially rides herd on a sentient level computer to get through FTL space, right?"
"That's very crudely put, but accurate, I guess."
"Aurora has a three-hundred-year-old sentient computer. We've managed to keep it running and basically, it's about all that's kept us from falling into barbarism, but it's getting less and less sentient. I'd bet you could handle the computer."
"A three-hundred-year-old computer? Is the operating system there? Does it function?"
"It does."
"I could handle it."
He turned to the brunette and the blonde.
"What's your story?"
"Ann and I were in the Constabulary."
"So? There should be lots of places that could use a trained police officer."
"We were in financial crimes investigations."
Castle though for a moment and then smiled.
"Okay, now that makes sense. Over the course of a very long war, some people, a lot of people, get sticky fingers. Most of it was pretty low level. Someone would sneak a steak out of a military warehouse to share with their family. Somebody else would grab a nice warm military jacket. Individually not so much but multiply it by millions of people over fifty years and it's a lot. Plus, some people in government did much more than that. There was a hospital over at Malabar that sold lots of medicines in the black market. The people behind that did very well for themselves until they all got executed. So, people in planetary governments are afraid you'll show up with evidence of their wrongdoing and turn you in, or worse, blackmail them for what they made."
"That seems to be the problem." The blonde said.
"Given the size and poverty of Aurora, I doubt anyone stole much, if anything. And they don't have much of a government to find out who you are and what you did. And if you're handy with weapons, I can use you."
"We'll think about it and let you know." Dr. Parish said.
"I'll be at Ryan's tent."
TBC