Castle's Team
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Go Castle! Yeah Team! Oh, I don't own any of this. Rating: K Time: After my story Castle's Recon.
Author's note: I managed to get the correct chapter seven in so that the story can now be read as I intended.
"I was born in the year 1603, in Paris, France. I was trained as an opera singer. When I was twenty-five, I was in love and had the beginnings of a wonderful career and life. Then I met a man. No, not a man. A vampire. His name was Dracula. As you know, Vlad Dracula was a real person, the leader of a country in Europe. He was also a vampire. He turned me into a vampire and I hated him for it. I left the man I loved because I could not stand for him to see what I had become. The only reason I had for living was to find and destroy Dracula. It took nearly four centuries, but I found him and helped to destroy him. I wished to die by being exposed to sunlight, but that failed. I had come into possession of the Judas Chalice, made from the thirty pieces of silver Judas received for betraying Christ. Did you know that Judas was the first vampire?"
Castle confessed he had no idea.
"The Judas Chalice changed me. Made me a more efficient vampire, I suppose. I have no trouble with sunlight now. So, I have wandered about through the centuries, never able to really settle anyplace. Someone who lives for, say, a hundred years and still looks twenty-five would attract attention. I have a great fear of being held in some laboratory for centuries while people who don't understand what it means to be a vampire do tests on me."
Simone began to cry.
"I have allowed myself to fall in love with a few mortal men. They grew old, grew feeble and eventually died, but I remained eternally twenty-five. I cannot take that kind of pain any more."
Castle didn't know what to think.
"I don't know if you are a vampire or something else, but I do know that you're a damned good doctor and we're lucky to have you. You can be in this command for as long as you want."
Simone dried her tears and then impulsively kissed Rick. Then she pulled back.
"I do have the occasional meaningless fling, but you deserve so much more than that, mon capitaine. Thank you for allowing me to stay."
"Thank you for coming here, Surgeon-Captain Renoir."
Simone left.
Lieutenant Saava had seen Simone enter Castle's office and he saw her leave.
"Was Surgeon-Captain Renoir upset, sir?" He asked Rick.
"I chewed her out a little bit for going into a combat zone with no flak jacket, no helmet and no weapon. I was a lot gentler with her than I would have been with anyone else, but I guess I upset her."
"Could just be a delayed reaction to what a dumb move she made, sir. It looked like she had been shot when she fell, or so they tell me."
"No, she just tripped. We're damned lucky she didn't get hit. She's a fine doctor."
"And a fine person, sir."
"And that."
Two and a half months later, Lively advised Castle that a ship, probably the Ilsa had come out of FTL and entered the Haven system.
"It'll take that old scow the better part of a day to make orbit. I'll send LSM 402 down and you can put your search teams aboard her and take off when you need to." Captain Bullock told Rick.
"Good. I have them all picked out. Rook 6 Actual out."
When the Ilsa made orbit, Lively closed in on her and Bullock radioed the captain.
"This is HMS Lively. I have been advised that you are bringing an armed force to invade Haven. As Haven has a treaty of alliance with the United Kingdoms, we cannot allow that. We will allow the people to land, but no weapons of any sort will be allowed. Stand by to receive a boarding party to ensure that no weapons are landed."
The captain of the Ilsa radioed back.
"You have no right to do this. We are a peaceful merchant ship. This is piracy. I will not allow this."
Bullock responded.
"I should advise you of a few things. First, the government of Carinthia has been advised of your actions. They have advised us that we may take any actions we deem necessary. Second, I have been authorized to use deadly force to complete my mission. Your ship has four landing craft. Should they try to land without being inspected, I'll destroy any that try. Your ship is not designed for landing on a planet, but if you try anything that I believe represents a hazard to my ship or to the colony of Haven, I'll destroy your ship. Understood?"
Bullock could hear yelling in the background, which he assumed was from the Euro passengers. But, the captain of the Ilsa agreed to allow the boarding party to come aboard.
A heavily armed platoon, under the command of Lieutenant Saava, boarded the merchant ship.
"Have the Euros stand by near the landing craft. Once we've inspected the lander and removed any weapons that may be there, we'll insect the Euros and their baggage. Only then will the lander be allowed to leave for Haven. When the first lander returns, a second group of Euros can land in that lander. This will continue until all of the passengers have been landed. Understood?"
"Understood, but we have four landers. It would be more efficient if we could…"
"Your efficiency is not our problem." Saava said. "You will use one lander."
The lander was searched and weapons, ammunition and other warlike supplies were soon found. The Euros had not counted on the Tarkai's excellent sense of smell.
"There's a pistol or a submachine gun bolted to the back of each seat against a bulkhead." Rifleman Peebo said. "We'll have to start taking the seatbacks off. "
"Do we have to put the seat backs back on?" Someone asked.
"No. Let 'em bounce around."
Lieutenant Saava walked up to the captain of the Ilsa, Captain Woll.
"Some of your passengers must have a death wish. My men have found assault rifles and ammo boxes in the engine compartment of the shuttle. They weren't secure and once they hit turbulence in the atmosphere, they'd bounce all over, probably wrecking the engines. If you want your shuttle to survive, you might want to let us know if they made any other suicidal decisions."
Woll looked around to make sure no Euros were around, then handed Saava a piece of paper.
"You didn't get this from me, understand?"
"Get what?"
When the lander had been searched, the passengers and their baggage were next. There were a lot of insults directed at the Tarkai, but nothing else.
Saava talked to the shuttle pilot.
"These are the coordinates you're to land at."
The pilot looked at the piece of paper he had been given.
"That's not where the Euros want me to land."
"It's where I'm telling you to land. Land elsewhere and Lively will destroy you. It's a patch of open prairie abut fifty miles from the nearest Euro held area. Your passengers have plenty of food and water. All they have to do is march straight east, they have a compass, and they'll be okay."
"Why not land them where they wanted to go? What difference does it make?"
"We don't want a bunch of armed Euros boarding your shuttle and trying to surprise us. Now go,"
He went.
While the shuttle was gone, Saava's troops went over the second shuttle and recovered weapons hidden in it.
Eventually, all of the passengers were landed and began the long march to their friends. Saava and his platoon returned to Haven with enough weapons to arm a Havenite militia and then some.
Castle met with Brother Daniel and the other members of the government of Haven once Saava and his platoon were back.
"I must say, Captain Castle, you're allowing the Euros to land and join their brethren showed a degree of Christian charity I had not expected. I must congratulate you." Brother Daniel said smiling.
"I'm afraid Christian charity had nothing to do with my decision, Brother Daniel. The Euros now have some two thousand extra mouths to feed and no increase in their firepower. That'll put more pressure on the Euros to come to an agreement with you, and the United Kingdoms."
"Oh." Brother Daniel said, obviously disappointed. Then he smiled. "Be that as it may, there are now two thousand people who are alive and not dead. The Lord works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform."
Castle wasn't at all sure he'd been an instrument of the Lord, but he said nothing.
But, the grinding war of attrition went on. Then there was a change.
"Captain Castle, Green 6, Lieutenant Saava, is coming in with Recon Team Laurel. They have prisoners and some rescued Havenites. Lieutenant Saava says he wants to speak to you ASAP."
"Thank you, Private Brown. I'm on my way."
Private Charity Brown left without all the fuss she previously had inflicted on Castle.
Castle headed to the helipad and watched a troop carrier land. First off were four Havenites, who appeared to be worse for wear. Next were eight Euro prisoners. Then Lieutenant Saava and finally Recon Team Laurel, led by Sergeant Gorad in full chameleon suits.
"This is Mr. Elija Carpenter, sir. We picked him up and the others when we ambushed the Euros. He needs to tell you what he told us."
Carpenter stepped forward.
"Praise the Lord, Brother Castle. Praise the Lord. I am Elija Carpenter. Our Lord Jesus was a carpenter and I have the honor of carrying on that tradition. I knew my prayers would be answered and these fine Christian gentlemen were guided by the hand of the Lord."
At this point, Surgeon-Captain Renoir showed up.
"There are injured and I was not notified? Why is this?"
Carpenter fell to his knees.
"By the Lord. An angel come down from Heaven. We are indeed blessed."
Then he began singing.
"By the rivers of Babylon
"There we sat down
"Yeah, yeah, we wept
"When we remembered Zion
"Then the wicked carried us away in captivity
"Required from us a song
"Now how shall we sing the Lord song in a strange land?
Then he began to cry.
"Perhaps it would be best if Sergeant Gorad told you what Mr. Carpenter said to him?" Saava said.
"That would be best, I suppose." Castle said. Simone was comforting Mr. Carpenter and the other three Havenites, who appeared to be his wife, son and daughter.
"We ambushed ten Euros moving north. There were ten of them armed with one rifle, one shotgun and two pistols. We dropped two and the rest surrendered. Eight were from the Ilsa and two from the original invaders. They also had the four Havenites and seeds for various plants and some farm animals, chickens and pigs. According to Mr. Carpenter, the Euros are trying to move their whole outfit out of the range of our choppers. The idea is that their Havenite captives will teach them how to raise their own food so they'll be self sufficient. The idea is that sooner or later, we'll go home. Then the Euros back on Earth can send another couple of thousand heavily armed people to take over."
"Where the hell are they going?"
"Someplace above the Falls of the Jordan, sir. Carpenter said they're setting up on a tributary of the Jordan River. It's the second tributary to the west. He doesn't know exactly where they're setting up. I guess the Euros still haven't learned to keep their mouths closed."
"They managed to arrange this without our intel picking it up. They are learning." Saava said.
Castle turned to Simone.
"Captain-Surgeon Renoir, so you have everything in hand here?"
"Oui, mon capitaine. My people are coming to assist me."
"Lieutenant Saava, get these prisoners into the POW cage. We'll interrogate them later. Now, we need to go to headquarters. We have maps of the whole continent made from satellite photos. That should tell us what we're dealing with."
TBC