Freebooter
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle and Star Trek: Enterprise belong to vast corporations. UCSBdad is not any kind of corporation. Rating: K, but maybe more. Time: Some vague time in two alternate universes.
Author's note: If you are a Castle fan and know nothing about Star Trek Enterprise or are a Star Trek Enterprise fan and know nothing about Castle, don't worry. This story is so Alternate Universe, you wouldn't recognize anyone anyway.
"Lieutenant Richard Castle reporting…"
That was as far as Rick got before his commander spoke.
"I know damn well who you are, Rick. Sit down and grab a beer." Colonel Black Jacques Schram said through his trademark black beard. He gestured towards the beer cooler sitting on the porch of his quarters.
"Thanks, sir." Castle sat and grabbed a beer, tapped the top of it and felt the beer can cooling. Then he opened it and took a long drink.
"I've spent the whole damned day talking to those penny-pinching idiots at the Treasury. The whole damned day." Schram said, waving at the sun now setting. "Have you ever thought of just going rogue? Just taking your troops and setting up someplace as a freebooter?"
Rick was a bit shocked at such language, but he was used to his commander losing his temper and making threats he never intended to follow through on.
"What's the damned sense of being a mercenary soldier if you have to spend your whole life arguing with civilian idiots?" Schram asked rhetorically.
Strictly speaking, Schram wasn't a mercenary. At the end of the twenty-first century the three most powerful nations on Earth, China, Russia and the United States had formed the Triple Alliance. The Alliance had taken over Earth and Earth's nearest extra-solar colonies, the so-called Core.
People in many Earth nations had objected to this naked power grab and left Earth to form their own extra-solar colonies. One such group had come from the English-speaking nations of Earth: The United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even the United States. Small numbers from other nations joined them. They had formed the United Kingdoms in a solar system that contained three habitable worlds and one habitable moon.
The Triple Alliance felt that getting rid of possible dissidents was a positive, but as several centuries passed, the United Kingdoms became the richest, most technologically advanced and militarily powerful star nation in the Europa Cluster. The second most powerful star nation in the cluster were the Han Worlds. In and of themselves, the Han were nowhere near as powerful as the UK, but they had the backing of China back on Earth. For decades the two nations had engaged in what was called the Shadow War. Since both sides had nuclear weapons, an open conflict between the two was avoided. However, the Han would send "volunteers" to help any pro-Han or anti-UK movement. Nations attacked by the Han "volunteers" found they could recruit "mercenaries" that officially had nothing to do with the United Kingdoms. No one really believed that the "volunteers" and "mercenaries" weren't a part of the regular forces of the two star nations, but it was a convenient fiction.
"Ever hear of a woman called Hoddy Ringo, Rick?" Schram asked suddenly.
"No, sir."
"She's a damned pirate. And a damned good one, at least she was."
"Dead?" Rick asked, wondering what this had to do with anything.
"No, worse luck. But her ship, the Bloody Bucket, tried to attack a large freighter heading to join a convoy near Catalonia. She didn't see one of our guided missile frigates hiding behind the freighter. Her ship pulled right up and the frigate unloaded on her. She was damned lucky to be able to run away. Her ship was damaged but still operable. When the frigate joined the convoy, the escort commander sent a frigate and a destroyer after the Bloody Bucket. Found her, too. Damaged and abandoned. Hoddy Ringo had made her escape on a captured merchantman."
"Why was a merchie around?" Rick asked, still curious as to what this had to do with anything.
"That's Piracy 101, Rick." Schram said with a laugh. "Capture yourself a nice, fast merchie and keep it. The passengers and crews of the ships you take are valuable for their ransoms. Plus, there can be high value cargo you can't keep on your warship. Put them all on the merchie where they'll be safe out in the middle of tens of thousands of cubic light years of absolutely nothing."
"So, she's still at large?"
"Ever hear of a planet called Vulcan?" Schram asked, seeming to change the subject.
Rick thought. He had heard the name but couldn't remember a damned thing about the planet.
"I've heard the name, sir, but that's all."
"It's a non-human planet damned near to the Latin Expanse, but still in the Europa Cluster. Two thousand and more years ago, they were a technologically advanced people. They had explored their own solar system, had research stations on several of their moons and planets and had a couple of experimental FTL ships."
"They should be better known then."
"They were a violent race." Schram said. "They ended up having a full-scale nuclear war. All that's left of their cities are overlapping radioactive craters. They didn't quite wipe themselves out, but the society was blasted back to the dark ages."
"What's happened since then?"
"Some philosopher named Suran, Surak, or something, went around teaching them to control their tempers. Made them into pacifists. Deputy Minister Reynolds said the current Vulcans make Gandhi look like a Hell's Angels."
"Who?" Rick asked.
"I had to look up the damned reference, so you can, too."
Castle shrugged.
"And we care because?"
"That's where Hoddy Ringo landed. Her captured merchie has about five thousand pirates on it. She'd branched out into raiding poorly defended colonies. She's turned to mining dilithium crystals. Smugglers land and buy what she mines."
"So have the navy nuke her."
"There's a dilithium mine run by Jose Obregon Mining, Metals and Manufacturing, better known as JOM Cubed. It's too close to Ringo's operation, plus there are locals in the area. The Navy is stretched too thin to blockade the planet. So, you have a company now?"
Castle sighed. He could see where this was going.
"I have two oversized infantry platoons and two undersized weapons platoons. I'm hoping to get more Tarkai to recruit a full-sized company. Since my company has become the reaction force for the air cav, instead of just scouts, I've needed to bulk up."
"You'll get what you need and then some, Rick."
"Trip, the captain isn't back yet."
Trip Tucker, the chief engineer of the freighter SS Enterprize, rolled his eyes. Sam Elias was the biggest worrier on the ship. Hell, probably the biggest on the whole damned useless planet.
"The skipper walked across the ramp with Melody to spend some time with the JOM Cubed people. They probably snagged a guest suite there and are shacked up for the night."
"Well, they should be back by now." Elias whined.
"Leave them alone and they'll come home, dragging their asses behind them."
"Still…" Sam began.
Trip checked how much beer was in the can. Just enough for one long swig. He took that long swig and stood up.
"You can wait up for them, Sam, but I'm going to bed."
"I think…" Sam began.
"Good night, Sam." Trip said louder than necessary.
Trip was woken up early the next morning by the sound of people yelling. Deciding something must be wrong, he got up and quickly dressed. He walked down the passageway to the ship's office. It looked like the whole crew was gathered there.
"What the hell is wrong?" He asked Bobby Tyler, the engineering apprentice.
"The captain and Little Tune are gone."
"Hell, the two of them are just hungover somewhere."
"No, they're gone. JOM Cubed said they left last night. Took a shuttle up to a ship and left."
"Why the hell would they leave?" Trip asked.
"The two have been robbing our customers blind." Yelled Ike Swanson, chief of hydroponics. "That shipment of genetically modified rice we sold on Szechwan? It was supposed to go to Luang Prabang."
"Those fusion engines we picked up at Essen were supposed to go to Carinthia, not Firenza.." Someone yelled.
"Oh, shit!" Someone in the office yelled. "The bastard mortgaged the damned ship."
"He can't do that." Trip yelled. "He doesn't own the ship."
"Well, he did and we're four months behind on the payments."
Jerzy Polanski, the navigator, came out of the ship's office.
"It's worse. The captain cancelled the ship's insurance seven months ago and he also cancelled the crew's salary payment bond at the same time."
That got to Trip. The salary payment bond insured that the crew would be paid even if the ship went into bankruptcy. Trip was owed slightly over thirteen months pay and it now looked like he'd never see any of it.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Someone yelled.
"We'll send a message torp to the Brotherhood." Ike Swanson said. He was the union steward for the Brotherhood of Spacers for the ship.
"What'll we pay with? The ship's broke. Those two crooks took everything."
"The Brotherhood will pay when they get the message. JOM Cubed know they're good for it."
Polanski went off to send the message. The rest of the crew worried about what they'd do. In five hours, they found out what they'd be doing for a while.
"There's a ship inbound." Polanski said. "According to JOM Cubed it's full of lawyers waving writs and cops with arrest warrants."
"We haven't done anything wrong!" Someone yelled.
"No, but they can get at us. The captain and Melody, our cargo master, are gone."
Before anyone knew what to do, the ship was full of more people screaming and waving papers around. And, by the next day, two more ships had arrived. All bearing bad news, lawyers and cops.
The next day was nothing but chaos. Each lawyer and each police officer thought his, or her, case should take precedence. That led to a lot of screaming with the police threatening to arrest the lawyers and the lawyers threatening to sue the police. Ike Swanson finally managed to impose some sort of order.
"I've heard from the Brotherhood of Spacers." He yelled. "They've advised us to cooperate fully with the authorities and all the lawyers. But we need to get organized. I've contacted JOM Cubed, and they've agreed to make a large meeting area available for us. The ship's too crowded to allow everyone to take part."
The lawyers and police agreed as they were tired of the endless arguing.
"Okay. "Said Ike. "We'll all leave the ship."
"We can't do that." Trip said. "Except for a few exceptions, we need at least one officer aboard. Otherwise, the ship can be considered legally abandoned and subject to salvage."
"He's right." Said a hot looking redheaded lawyer whose cleavage made Trip wonder why he'd signed onto a ship where all the women were spoken for. "Section Nineteen and Twenty of the Treaty of Tordesillas says…"
"We're lawyers. We know the law."
"Who'd know enough about salvage law to take the ship?" Yelled a cop.
"How about JOM Cubed?" Trip replied. "We owe them docking fees we can't pay. If they get salvage rights on the ship, their claim supersedes everyone else's."
Ike Swanson nodded.
"You're right, Trip. So, you can stay aboard while we go to JOM Cubed."
Everyone laughed and headed for the JOM Cubed facility.
Trip watched as everyone left. Once he was sure that no one would be coming back, he headed for the lowest cargo hold. The Enterprize was a small freighter, and they often had to land on a planet, unlike larger vessels. They also often had to deal with unfriendly locals, so, they had an eight wheeled armored vehicle in the hold. Trip opened it up and looked inside.
He noticed that the ship's two cats, Skull, and Crossbones, were watching him.
"Don't worry, guys. I'm not going to bother you or anything of yours. But I'm not going to get paid, and I have to look out for number one. JOM Cubed has their own ships and they're not likely to need a ship's engineer when one gets here. I could be stuck on this miserable desert planet for years."
Trip winked at the cats and went off, whistling.
TBC