Friendly Planet
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own neither Castle nor planets. Rating: K. Time: After my story Deadly Planets.
Author's note: I wrote Deadly Planet in 2019 and Deadly Planets in 2021. Since then, I have been trying to come up with a fantastic sequel and finish involving friendly alien bartenders, sexy vampires, evil supervillains and massive battles. I've tried very hard and this is what I've come up with. You might want to read the first two stories. I'll be waiting patiently right here.
"I do thank you for your offer, Captain Castle. However, I have pledged by life and my honor to see the rightful king of England, Scotland and Ireland, James II of the House of Stuart, returned to his rightful throne. I must lead my battalion in search of my liege."
That was Lieutenant Colonel Sir James Munro, who had led a battalion of musketeers from Earth in the year 1693 to another planet almost three hundred years in the future. Castle had tried to explain how impossible it was to march to another planet, but Munro seemed to be unable to wrap his head around that fact. Castle could hardly blame him. Castle had enough trouble wrapping his head around that fact.
Colonel Munro rose and extended his hand to Castle. They shook hands.
"I do thank you for your assistance, Captain."
Sergeant Major Theokrates Kanakredes, who was also the unofficial bard of the company, cleared his throat. The massive bear-like alien held out two pistols in his huge hand. To Castle they resembled the Smith and Wesson .44 magnums Dirty Harry had used in the movies, but the script stamped onto the barrels was unfamiliar to all.
"Captain Castle would like you to take these weapons to aid you in your search for your lord."
Kanakredes explained how the pistols worked and gave Colonel Munro some three hundred rounds of ammunition.
"My thanks, again, Captain Castle. When I find King James, I'm sure he'll be fascinated by these."
Colonel Munro mounted his horse and his battalion marched off to the beat of drums and the shrill of fifes. They watched until the last, red-coated soldier was out of sight.
"They won't last a day on this damned planet." Rick said.
"They might." Replied his wife, Kate.
"How do you figure that? They're armed with muzzle loading muskets. A World War Two platoon could wipe them out in no time."
"It's just that I know how bookies and gamblers think. No bookie would want to see a Super Bowl winning team play a high school junior varsity squad. Everyone would bet on the pros. The bastards who run this place do it to make money on bets. I'll bet they have some way to keep sure things from happening. Sure things like Sir James against a platoon of SS panzer grenadiers."
"We were attacked when we first got here by a bunch of fliers armed with matchlock muskets, even more obsolete weapons than what Sir James has." Rick countered.
"Okay, but we were being accustomed to being ready to fight anyone we met, plus the anti-Great Game people were looking after us."
"One way or another, we'll probably never know." Rick shook his head. "Anyway, we have to decide what to do next. We're right back on the same damned planet we started on. Do we stay here, or do we move?"
"You move to the east." Said a new, but oddly familiar voice.
Castle looked up and did a double take. There was a perfect copy of Alice, the construct that had been sent by anti-Great Game people to help them. He quickly checked that Alice was just to the right of him.
"You're another construct, like Alice. Made from human DNA?"
"Correct. Like Alice, I'm fully functional and will not be deconstructed when my mission is over. Now, you should…"
"You should try sex." Alice yelled. It's great."
"I do not have time for…"
"What's your name?" Rick asked.
"That's not important."
"It is to me."
"I don't have a name."
"We'll give you one. Since you're a copy of Alice, maybe we should start with the next letter of the alphabet, B. Barbara? Beth?"
"I'm nothing like her." The new construct said.
"Maybe something with Z? The only name I can think of that starts with Z is Zoe. Is that okay?"
"Yes! It's fine. May I speak now?"
"Sure."
"The anti-Great Game has been trying to get you home, but as Alice previously explained, manipulating the space-time continuum to send people back to their home worlds isn't easy."
"No kidding." Rick said sarcastically. "We've noticed."
"The space-time continuum machines are set to automatically move people from their home worlds to here. Sending them back has never been done and it's more difficult than we thought. Mistakes were made."
"Mistakes were made?" Castle said loudly. "You're damned right mistakes were made. We got sent to all kinds of planets where people still wanted to kil our asses. We got put with people from alternate Earths, including what would have been a Japanese World War Two carrier battlegroup, except they were allied to the British Empire against the Christian Chinese Empire, and they flew old Vought Corsairs made by their good friends, the Americans. Those mistakes killed people."
"We're sorry for that, but please remember we have been trying to help you. If not for our help, you'd probably all be dead by now. And we're still trying to get you home. And we do have a possible way to get you off this planet and to a safe one."
"Great. What's the plan?"
"I can't tell you or anyone until the final preparations are made."
"Just great."
"You need to move to the top of the hill. You have two more teams coming to join you. You need to let them know where you are, otherwise, they'll miss you."
"If you're trying to get us off this hell hole, why are you bringing new people to me?"
"The Great Game sent them. We've arranged for them to come near you and made them willing to trust you."
"Okay. Sergeant Major, head em' up and move 'em out. To the top of the hill."
They stood on the top of a wooded hill. Below them was a grass covered valley perhaps a half a mile across, then another wooded hill.
Zoe pointed across the valley.
"The first group will be coming to the valley in about ten minutes."
Ten minutes passed and then twenty.
"Maybe they got lost?" Rick said. "Or maybe they're dead?"
"They're coming." Zoe replied. Then, "There, farther up the valley."
Castle could see them, nine men in camo.
"They're headed away from us. Who has the signaling mirror?"
"You mean my shaving mirror?" Bill Milton said, handing it over.
"Damn. The sun is behind me."
"Don't worry." That was Sharon Hayes, an Army veteran from the Iraq War turned Texas deer hunter.
"I'll use the compact I use to help keep me gorgeous." Sharon was not exactly gorgeous, but her time here had taken her from stocky to slim. She used her compact's mirror to focus the sun on the signaling mirror. The men in the valley saw the flashes and headed for Castle.
"The camo pattern looks familiar, but I can't quite place it. They are carrying M 51 assault rifles, and one has an M 240 machine gun."
He kept studying them.
"They look to be Asian. Not Chinese I'm thinking."
It wasn't until he could see the kukri knives they all wore on their belts that he knew who they were.
When they were about twenty meters away, Rick called out to them.
"The Gurkhas are upon us."
The leader broke into a grin and called back. "The Gurkhas are upon you. Are you Captain Castle?"
"I am. And you are?"
"Corporal Thaman Gurung, Second Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, reporting, sir. This is my section."
"Glad to have you with us, Corporal. How is your section organized?"
"Lance Corporal Pun is in charge of the machine gun team with two ammunition bearers and the rest are the assault team, sir."
Castle nodded and thought for a moment.
"Usually, I'd put your machine gun team in my weapons platoon, but I think I'll leave Lance Corporal Pun where he is right now. I might have to move the team in the future, however."
"How long have you been here and what's happened to you?" Rick asked.
"We've been here three days, sir. We'd only been here for a few minutes when a Buddhist bonze, a holy teacher, came to us and told us to find Captain Castle and serve with him. He gave us a map and a compass bearing and then…just disappeared."
"On the second day we were attacked by what looked like giant ants armed with samurai swords. We killed them. I measured one and he was ten feet tall. Later that day we were crossing a valley and were approached by a large group of horsemen. They looked like the Indians from your motion pictures. They wore leather clothing, had feathered bonnets and painted their faces. A few looked like they might have been non-humans, but it was hard to tell. They had no firearms but seemed to know what they are. They didn't attack and by this morning they were gone."
"Okay, we're expecting another group in a bit. Relax and eat. You do have food, don't you?"
"Yes, sir. We got food, water, ammunition, batteries and everything we needed every day."
"I've never worked with Gurkhas before, but I know your reputation. I'm glad you're here."
"Yes, sir."
When Corporal Gurung led his men off, Kate, Janice, Sergeant Major Kanakredes and Zoe came to Rick.
"Who are these Gurkhas?" Kate asked.
"They began serving in the British Army back when the Brits ran India, maybe two hundred years ago. The British still have a brigade of them. They're from Nepal, a country wedged between India and China in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Gurkhas are professional infantry. On Earth, most soldiers enlist for two, three, four and rarely for five years. Gurkhas enlist for fifteen years. After fifteen years most go back to Nepal with a pension. Those who make NCO or have other skills can stay for longer. I understand that when the British go recruiting every year, they have around seventy or more qualified applicants for every open position."
"Seventy or more?" Said Ryan, the medic, who'd moved over by Rick. "Man, would recruiting sergeants love that. But are you sure about that? You said you'd never served with them before."
"Gurkhas have been enlisting in the British army for centuries, and in many cases, sons follow their fathers into the military. Imagine you're young Corporal Gurung as a toddler. You live in a small village in the foothills of the Himalayas in a multi-generation household. After dinner your grandpa and his buddies, along with your dad and his brothers, other ex-soldiers from the village, come to sit around and tell stories. Maybe there's a Gurkha soldier from the family home on leave. Maybe grandpa's old enough to have served in World War Two. Maybe in North Africa, Italy or Burma. Others can talk about the end of empire wars in Malaya, Borneo, the Falklands and all the way up to the war in Afghanistan. By the time Gurung is eighteen, he wants nothing more than to join his father's old unit and so do all the other boys in the village. The Gurkhas may be the best light infantry on Earth."
"Glad they're with us." Ryan said.
"Captain Castle, the other team is headed up the valley towards us." Zoe said. "They see us and are headed here."
Castle got his binoculars and looked them over.
"Human, I think. Not from Earth."
As they got closer, he made another discovery.
"I think they're all women. Tall, slim hipped and small breasted, but women."
Then he got another surprise.
"This is weird. I think we have two sets of twins, one set of triplets and one set of quadruplets headed to us."
TBC