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.

Trip arrived first and took position facing the crowd at the main building. Koss arrived and stood facing Trip. There was twenty minutes of droning by various Vulcan priests.

Then Soval called.

"We are ready."

"Wait one minute there." Trip called out. "Koss and I have to get the rules straight, right T'Pre?"

Koss turned his head around to look at T'Pre.

"Rules for a fight to the death?"

Trip took two quick steps forward and kicked Koss in the balls as hard as he could with his steel toed shoes. Koss bent over in agony and Trip kicked him in the head, straightening him back up again, sort of. Trip kicked him in the balls once more and Koss fell to his hands and knees. Trip kicked him in the side of the stomach where he knew the Vulcan heart was. Koss shrieked in agony. Trip bent over Koss, keeping his back to the crowd. He slid the lead bar out from behind his belt buckle and hit Koss as hard as he could in the head. Then he slipped the bar behind his belt again.

He grabbed Koss by his feet and dragged him to the Great Pool. He managed to lift the Vulcan to the edge of the pool and pushed his head under the water for perhaps fifteen seconds, then lifted his head up."

"Koss is unconscious. He probably has a concussion." Trip yelled. "I can hold his head under water until he drowns. According to my interpretation of the rules, if one participant can no longer fight to the point where the other fighter can kill him at will, the fight is over. Does anyone dispute my interpretation?" He looked right at Kaar.

Kaar nodded.

"You have won, human. We will leave."

Trip pulled Koss back and let him drop.

"Does anyone here know how to treat a concussion?"

"I believe you're the only one, Healer." T'Pre said.

"Shit." Trip muttered. Then he said, "Okay, I'm going to my vehicle to get my stuff. Could someone take what's-his-name inside."

He walked back to where he'd parked. He took the lead bar from under his belt buckle and hid it inside. Then he grabbed some towels and wiped as much of the oil as he could off of him. He put on a shirt, grabbed his medical gear and went to the main building. There, he found T'Pre covering Koss with a blanket. She'd apparently shooed everyone out of the room.

"It is necessary to keep a concussion victim warm." She said.

"Pretty much."

He used the medical computer to diagnose Koss. The computer selected three medicines to use on a human concussion patient. Trip didn't know if this would kill or cure a Vulcan and frankly didn't much care. He injected Koss with the three.

"It'll be a few hours before we know if this works."

T'Pre nodded.

"We shall have to wait."

"You know, you gave me a lot of help with my fight with Koss. Kinda like you wanted me to win."

"I did, Healer."

"Why?"

"Two reasons. One, when Kaar took over the leadership of his clan from his mother some thirty years ago, he raised the price of water to an extortionate degree. Soon farmers couldn't pay for water and had to sell their land. The only person they could sell to was Kaar. Caravans had to stop at his city for water and he grew richer and more powerful from the taxes on them."

"And you didn't want that to happen to T'Okar. What's the second thing?"

"T'Pol has been reading of the great things our remote ancestors did before they stupidly blew their society apart. She learned of great cities, centers of learning, spacecraft to our moons and nearby planets and much, much more. She is the one that arranged for us to buy the solar power plant which you repaired. You are a healer and an engineer. You can help her with her dream to improve T'Okar and all of Vulcan."

"You sound kinda ruthless, T'Pre. I'd best not make an enemy of you."

"Correct, Healer. I think you are ruthless as well. What did you have in your hand when you hit Koss in the head?"

"Are you going to tell anyone about that?"

T'Pre grinned ever so slightly.

"No, if you don't mention that I put something in Koss' breakfast that would slow his reactions."

Trip laughed.

"I think we're going to get along just fine, T'Pre."

Three hours later Koss woke. Kaar loaded his son onto a cart and left T'Okar in a very bad mood.

T'Pol approached Trip.

"As you know, there was a wedding planned. We have everything necessary except for someone to wed me."

"I suppose we could find someone." Trip said trying to keep a straight face. "There are many unmarried males in this town."

"I had one in mind."

"Who?" He asked.

She took his hand.

"Come. There is just time to get you properly dressed. I have some of my father's clothing that should fit you."

He followed her with no problems.

The wedding was conducted in ancient high Vulcan which his translator could make no sense of, but with T'Pol's help he managed to make all of the appropriate responses.

They had two days together before things changed for T'Okar and everyone in it.

"First Mother." T'Pre said, breaking into their bedroom just after dawn. "We have company."

Trip pulled the covers up and over him and his wife.

"What is it?" T'Pol asked, not happy at being interrupted.

"I believe it's a spaceship."

Trip and T'Pol jumped out of bed and began dressing. Trip now parked his vehicle inside the main building and had almost all of his things moved inside. He grabbed his protective vest and handed it to T'Pol.

"No." She said. "You must take it. If that is the ship of the slavers, you are all we have to protect us. If you die, I will not survive to become a slave."

"At least run. Head for someplace safe."

"My place is here with my people and with my husband. I cannot leave."

Trip swore under his breath, put on the flak jacket and grabbed an assault rifle and three bandoleers of ammo. Then they ran to the roof.

Trip pulled out his binoculars and looked at the ship which had landed about a kilometer south of the town. He watched as hatches opened and men ran out of the ship.

"I don't think those are slavers. I see a few humans, but most aren't."

"That's good, isn't it?" T'Pol asked.

"Maybe. Those are soldiers. There are a hell of a lot of them and they're well-armed. If they're looking for trouble, we're sunk."

"What can we do?"

Trip pulled her close and kissed her.

"All I can do right now is tell you I've never met anyone like you and I'm proud and honored to be your husband."

She kissed him.

"I could not be more pleased to be your wife."

He resumed looking at the ship and the soldiers.

"Something's happening."

"What? She asked.

"A group is coming towards us under a white flag."

"What does a white flag mean?"

"They want to talk."

"Is that good?"

"Maybe. They could just want to tell us how they want us to surrender."

He examined the oncoming soldiers more closely as they came nearer.

"Okay, the one in the middle is the boss."

T'Pol was handed a telescope by a woman.

"How do you know he's the boss?"

"To his left is his radio operator. See the antenna? The mic is hung on the right side of the radioman's web gear where it can easily be grabbed by the commander. If the human on the far left was the boss, he'd have to reach all the way across the radioman to get to the mic. No, the one on the far left is a soldier."

"What about the non-human on the other side of the boss?"

Trip examined that one.

"Even though he's non-human, I've seen his kind before. He's a long service non-commissioned officer. But it's the one on their far right I'm curious about."

"She's a human woman, isn't she?" T'Pol asked. "Do you think she's the commander's mate?"

"No way to tell."

"Is she a beautiful human female?"

Trip had to keep from laughing.

"She's nowhere as beautiful as you are."

"We should go back so that we can meet them properly." T'Pol said, walking away. Trip followed her.

Castle walked towards the biggest building in the town. He hoped that the soldiers here, however many there were, could figure out that if anything happened to him and his people, the rest of his troops would level the whole place. Not that that would do him any good personally.

When they reached the steps leading into the building, a Vulcan was waiting for them.

"May I assist you?" He said.

"I'd like to talk to whoever is in charge."

"Please go up the steps."

At the top of the steps, they went inside. There they found a very beautiful Vulcan woman with two Vulcans seated on either side of her. Standing by her side was a human with a protective vest on and an assault rifle over his shoulder.

Now we know who's in charge of the local troops. Rick thought. I wonder if he's armed the Vulcans? Maybe they're not as peaceful as we've been told.

The woman spoke.

"I am T'Pol, First Mother of the T'Okar clan. These are the members of my council, Soval, T'Pre, G'Afa, and Masso. This, " She pointed to the human, "is my husband, Charles Anthony Tucker III."

"May I ask who you are and why you are here?"

"I'm Richard Castle, Chieftain of the Free Tarkai clans. This is my radioman, Corporal Tarn, my sergeant major, Sergeant Saava, Warrant Officer McRoberts and my medical officer, Surgeon-Commander Renoir. As for why were on this planet, we're looking for dilithium crystals."

"You will not find any here." T'Pol said.

"That's not why we're here at T'Okar."

"Then why are you here." She demanded.

"Please, madame Tucker, perhaps we can agree to be more…friendly?" Simone said with a smile.

T'Pol immediately felt jealousy.

"If you are trying to be friendly with my husband, please be aware that Vulcan women are very protective of their husbands."

"Oh, I do beg your pardon. I was merely trying to lighten the mood caused by so many grim and macho soldiers. It is so much better if we can all be friends, non?"

"Are you Chieftain Castle's mate?"

Simone looked downcast.

"Alas, pauvre Simone has no man. My relationship with Richard is strictly professional and platonic."

"Perhaps you will tell us why you are here at T'Okar."

"You've been raided twice by pirates led by a woman named Hoddy Ringo. The first time your troops killed all of the pirates, but the second time you let one get away. Ringo is coming after you."

He looked at Trip.

"I assume your husband is in command of your military."

Trip grinned.

"I'm not just in command; I'm the entire military."

"Just you? Are you a soldier?"

"No, Chieftain. I'm a starship's engineer. My ship went bankrupt, and I came out here to try to find some dilithium crystals so I could get passage off of Vulcan. I do have some military training. I'm from the colony of Pensacola on the planet Wexford. After I graduated from the engineering academy, I had to do two years in the colony's militia. I'm not that good, but the slavers, as we call them, are worse."

"I know. We've had some fights with them. They were hired to bully unarmed spacers and passengers, or unarmed colonists. Fighting is not their thing. My men are soldiers. But there's a very large force coming to T'Okar. We have a satellite in orbit. These are photos we took early this morning."

He handed the phots to Trip.

"That's a hell of a lot of slavers, or pirates, heading to us." Trip said.

"There are about a thousand pirates. They have minimal logistics. They only have nineteen motor vehicles and about a hundred animal driven carts. They have about four thousand Vulcan slaves as porters. All headed this way."

TBC