Deadenders
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle reached a dead end with Season 8, but it's going strong here. Rating: K Time: The far future.
For once, nothing bad did happen.
Castle stopped the column about a thousand yards from the Quinn place, not wanting to accidentally get shot at and advanced under a small white flag with the six girls.
In less than a minute, the whole Quinn family, plus employees of both races came running out. They grabbed the girls and hugged them.
"Rick Castle? Is that you?" Asked Oliver Quinn, the eldest Quinn.
"It is. I'm back on Aurora for good. We ambushed the outlaws who took your girls and killed the O'Hallorans and took their girls."
"Don't worry." Said one of the women. "We'll take care of them like they were our own."
"I would like to introduce Captain Strelkov to you. He and his men are settling on Aurora."
Strelkov was introduced with his past as a member of a penal unit forgotten by Castle. They were all invited to stay for celebratory dinner. Strelkov accepted but Castle declined.
"I've been trying to get back home for far too long now. If I leave now, we can get there by noon tomorrow. I'm going to radio my uncle and tell him to expect us."
Castle and his people took their leave and headed for his home. Sure enough, they arrived just about noon. Rick stopped at the top of a small hill and looked at the ranch.
"It looks like a fort or something." Kate said.
"When humans first got here not everyone was welcoming. Or rather, there were plenty of nomadic clans that had always raided their settled neighbors and decided to raid us. We had a lot more good stuff to steal. That started the trend of building a walled compound. When the war with the Xanks began, people were afraid of an attack. There used to be more gates and open spaces in the walls around the ranch, but not anymore."
They drove up to the ranch and a heavy wooden gate was opened. They drove in, stopped and were immediately surrounded by humans and Ka Raras.
When Castle jumped down from the truck, a lovely, long-legged woman with long, shiny black hair and startlingly blue eyes, grabbed him around the neck and hugged him.
"Rick, I've missed you so much."
Kate took a step backwards.
I should have known. She thought. Of course, a man like Rick Castle would have a woman waiting for him at home. He wasn't flirting with me with the coffee. He was just being polite. I should have known better.
Kate took another step backwards.
"Okay, let me introduce you to my family." Rick said. "This is my uncle Mike." Mike was tall, rangy and greying at the temples.
"This is my aunt Mary."
Mary was a willowy blonde whose hair was turning silver.
"And this lovely young woman …" he said, putting his arm around the woman…"is their daughter, my cousin, Lilly Castle. And last but not least is her younger brother, Jake Castle."
Kate was glad that no one was paying any attention to her face turning red with embarrassment.
I should have known. He's been gone for years. What woman would wait that long?
"Rick, Lilly isn't a woman yet. She's only sixteen." Mike said.
"Close enough." Lilly shot back.
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
"You don't." said Mary and everyone laughed.
Next to be introduced was Miss Sally, a tall, big boned and muscular woman who looked to be in her fifties. They would find out that when Miss Sally arrived on Aurora some dozen years ago, people said that on the last planet she was at she was called Hell Raising Sally. But on Aurora she read the Jerusalem Catholic Bible, watched the weekly Mass broadcast from Alphaville, and occasionally engaged in esoteric religious debates over the radio.
Also present were to brothers, Anselmo and Armando Bahamonde. They were fiftyish, slim and wiry. There were seven male Ka Raras, six females and about a dozen children. They all had adopted the clan name Ka Sal. There were another ten Ka Rara riders out looking after the cattle herd.
"Let me show you around the place." Uncle Mike said. He pointed to the buildings along the western wall. "Those are for the animals. First are the stables for the horses. By the way, Rick, we got all of the horses you acquired."
"Glad to hear it."
"Next to the stables is our small herd of dairy cattle, then the pig stye and finally the chicken coop. Now against the northern wall are our food supplies. We have oats, alfalfa, corn and hay for the animals. Then we have the food for the humans and Ka Raras. We have several big freezers with frozen meat and a few other things. You'll find out what they all are when we feed you."
He pointed to a tower at the corner of the northern wall and the western wall.
"We built that tower in the last three years. It sits out from the walls so we can shoot along the north and west walls. We also put in crenelations all along the walls. They're the things that kind of look like gapped teeth. It allows a shooter to shoot without exposing his head to anyone and everyone outside. As you can see, there's another tower on the southeast corner."
He led them towards a door leading to the structure on the eastern wall.
"Please come in. This is the bunkhouse. You men will be staying here along with our riders of both races. You'll notice there are curtains that can be drawn so the Ka Rara ladies can have privacy when they need it."
The bunkhouse was quite neat with whitewashed walls, wooden floors and single beds and lockers all in a row, Kate noticed there were several computer terminals, game consoles and a large bookcase filled with books.
"Now we'll go into the main house." Mike said, going through another door.
"This is the living room and dining room. We've had to move more tables and chairs in here so you'd have someplace to eat, but please feel free to come in here anytime you wish."
The walls here were also whitewashed and the floors were wooden, but they were covered with many colorful rugs. The living room had two large couches and five comfortable looking chairs.
"To my right is my office. Please feel free to come see me at any time unless I'm on the radio. Reception isn't that good sometimes and I may have to really concentrate to hear what's being said."
"Uncle Mike. I brought some new, military radios. I'm planning on putting one here and distributing the rest to ranches near here and to the Ka Rara towns."
"Is that necessary?"
"At least one friendly group is keeping track of what's going on out on the Steppe by listening to radio chatter. The military radios are encrypted."
"Okay, new radios."
Mike pointed to the left.
"Over there is the library. Feel free to browse at any time."
Kate peeked in and was surprised to see floor to ceiling bookshelves and a half a dozen comfortable chairs.
"Rick used to love to come in the library when he was a lot younger. He'd take naps while pretending to read."
That got a laugh from everybody but Rick.
"I was reading!"
"Now against the eastern wall are bedrooms for Mary and I and next to that is Rick's bedroom. Across from the library is Jake's bedroom and across from my office is Lilly's room."
"Where Dad can keep an eye on me." Lilly said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Mike ignored the comment and went on.
"The kitchen and the pantry are in the back, nearest to the courtyard. Upstairs are more bedrooms. Since Miss Sally is a lady, she sleeps upstairs."
That got a few chuckles. Miss Sally may have been a lady, but she'd been known to knock men out with one punch if they were overly familiar.
Mike went on.
"Miss Beckett, Miss Hastings, Miss Chen and Miss Wells will sleep upstairs, as will Dr. Parish while she's here. Pick any empty bedroom. They're all the same and all have a separate bathroom. Now, let's go into the kitchen and downstairs."
Downstairs was a series of rooms made out of concrete.
"We dug these rooms underground when we were afraid that the Xanks might attack. The main room here is the power room. We have a fusion power plant. It should last for another one hundred and forty years or so. The next room is the pump room. The first thing my grandad did when he built this place was to drill for water. He found an aquifer, so we have enough water for the livestock and people here and for our crops. The crops themselves are outside the complex to the east."
"Uncle Mike." Rick said. "Is there anything in the attics above the women's bedrooms?"
"A few things. Some furniture we have no use for but is too good to throw away and some old clothes. I'm not sure what else. Why?"
"I'm planning to mount a 15mm machine gun in each tower as well as put a mortar pit inside the walls. You have a light machine gun I understand, and I'd like to cut a firing slit in the roof above the bedrooms and mount it there. The easiest way to attack us would be through the crops before harvest time since they'd keep anyone from seeing the attackers. "
Uncle Mike nodded.
"There are two more rooms past the pump room. We have our spare weapons and ammo as well as medical supplies and emergency food there. However, in the other direction we have one very large room. We thought Doc Ryan could set up his clinic there."
Ryan examined the place with Dr. Parish and agreed it would do fine.
Uncle Mike led them all back upstairs and out through the kitchen.
"Next, we have our workshop. We have both wood and metal lathes, a very small foundry and a three-dimensional printer as well as other tools. And against the south wall is something that even Rick doesn't know about. Lilly, if you'll open the hangar door?"
When she did, Rick was amazed.
"You have a helicopter?"
Uncle Mike laughed and nodded.
"When that navy ship had engine trouble and landed here, they dropped off everything, including this helicopter. It'll carry a full squad and it'd be really useful if we had a pilot."
"I'm studying how to fly it on a computer program that came with the chopper." Lilly said quickly.
"I'm not sure that the best way to learn how to fly. We'll have to wait until someone shows up who was trained to fly these things."
"Someone has." Kate said. "I'm a certified pilot although I've never been checked out on this model and Ann is a trained crew chief."
"Miss Beckett and Miss Hastings, you just became our helicopter crew."
"Please call me Kate."
"And call me Ann." Hastings added.
"Okay, and everyone should call me Mike."
The tour over, everyone got busy moving everything into their new home. They moved not just their personal belongings, but everything in the trucks. The weapons, ammo and ration packs were stored in the basement and Doc Ryan and Dr. Parish got busy setting up the clinic.
Rick was checking out the towers with the Grant brothers while Pappy Walden and Sonny Santino planned their mortar pit. Chen Water Lily came to Rick and offered to help with the gun slits in the roof. She said she had some ideas.
In the end, they cut three gun-slits through the roof tiles that had been made from native rock. Instead of leaving the slits open, Chen devised a way lift the tiles out of the way to fire the machine gun and also suggested much smaller vision slits so that sentries could watch the surrounding without opening the larger gun slits. Although the tiles were quite thick, Chen suggested adding sandbag parapets inside the attic for further protection.
When they were done, Chen smiled.
"Now I have to look into your toilets."
TBC