957. Chapter 957

After The Wrong Stuff

Episode 7.16

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Mars is one more planet on which I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

They drove for eight days and each time they came to one of the caches, they found all the supplies they needed and more, waiting for them.

That was not the case on the ninth day.

"I don't understand it." Vaughn said, examining the supplies. "The air tanks are empty and the water has all leaked into the sand."

"We could go back to the last supply cache." Kate suggested. "As you said, there's twice as many supplies in each cache as we need. Then we can make it to the next cache."

"Go back?" Vaughn said sharply. "Never. We have a timetable to keep. I need to climb Olympus and get back to Earth. I have important business there. Come with me." Vaughn turned and strode back to his vehicle, with everyone following behind him.

Once inside, Vaughn called up the map. "As you can see, there are three separate routes to Olympus Mons, each with supplies a day's travel apart. There's one to the south of us that's only few hour's drive away. Captain Beckett and Mr. Castle can retrieve the supplies tomorrow and we can proceed to the next supply cache." He glared at one and all. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have important work to do."

Kate and Rick were both happy to get away from Vaughn, so they headed south at first light the next day. They found the supplies easily, checked them and loaded them into the Rover. They got back to the camp and checked in with Vaughn. They found him in an argument with the four Hanses about what route to take up Olympus Mons.

"Herr Vaughn, that is foolish." Cried one Hans.

"It is not foolish." Vaughn raised his voice. "Going up the north side is obviously the quickest way, and that is how we're going to climb Olympus Mons."'

"It is the quickest and possibly the most dangerous way." Hans said. "It's an almost vertical climb. We have no idea what the mountain is like."

"No idea?" Yelled Vaughn. "Of course we know what it's like. It's an extinct volcano. The rock is basalt. We will climb the north side. Period."

"Basalt?" Cried Hans. "Basalt, perhaps. But even if it is basalt, it is rock that has been subject to the weather, winds and temperatures of Mars for millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of years. You are a fool to pick a route based on nothing but a map."

"And you are a coward!" Screamed Vaughn.

Hans leaped towards Vaughn, his fists clenched and his face red. Luckily, the other three Hanses caught him. As they did, Vaughn slapped Hans across the face. Hard.

"Get him out of my sight." He screamed. "He can stay with the women when we get to the mountain. And he'll never work as a mountain guide again. I'll see to that."

Vaughn stormed off into his bedroom with Lisa as the three Hanses tried to calm their friend down.

"I hope he breaks his damned neck on that mountain." Hans yelled." it would be worth it to go down with him just to watch him die!"

Rick and Kate excused themselves as best they could and headed back to their Rover. Castle got out the food he'd brought and did his best to cook Beckett the best meal he could in their microwave.

"Here we go, Captain Beckett. Kobe beef, corn on the cob and snow peas. And a nice glass of red wine."

She smiled at him. "Thank you. I'm really glad you came with me. In addition to everything else, it's given me another look at how unpleasant the rich can be."

"Oh, have you met some unpleasant rich people before?" He asked innocently.

"There was this one fellow who used to really bother me, but he was nothing like as bad as Vaughn. "

"What happened to the other rich guy?"

"He disappeared some time ago. Luckily I ran into you at about that time."

"Always glad to be of help." He raised his glass in a toast, which she returned.

If Vaughn was unhappy at the first damaged cache, he was outraged when they arrived at the next cache the next afternoon.

"This is sabotage." He screamed, looking at the supplies scattered all over the Martian desert. The air tanks were smashed, the water long gone into the desert, and the food and fuel were all mixed together. "The on board computer said this landed perfectly and we find that it crashed. The computer was of my own design and built under my personal supervision. Now, everything is destroyed. How could anyone have done this to me?" He looked at the Hans he had struck the night before, who was grinning happily. "If you did this…."

Hans laughed. "How could I have done anything? I'm but a poor mountain guide. Hardly in your league as a tech expert. My guess would be that you screwed up. Yes, you must have screwed up."

As Hans laughed, Vaughn strode angrily back to his vehicle with Lisa following behind.

Kate and Rick walked over to the Hanses. "We're closer to the southern supply caches now. Castle and I'll drive over and retrieve the supplies, assuming there's anything there. If not, we'll have to consider turning back."

All four of the men laughed. "Do you really think Vaughn will turn back for anything? He'll climb his damned mountain even if it kills him and the rest of us. "

"If he's right and this is sabotage, or if he somehow screwed up the supply drops, he'll have to. Even he can't get by without air."

They found the supply cache in perfect condition. They loaded up all the supplies they could cram inside the Rover or hang from the top or sides and headed back to where they had left the others.

As they came over the hill by the temporary camp, Kate slammed on the brakes. "What the hell?"

"What happened?" Castle asked, then saw what she had seen.

Vaughn's vehicle was gone and the Rover used by the Hanses was on its side and damaged. Worse was a space suited figure sprawled by the damaged Rover.

"Captain Beckett? Is that you?" They heard over the radio.

"Lisa? Where are you? What happened?"

"I'm several hundred yards to your right. Please, please take me with you. Don't leave me here."

They could see her come out from behind a large rock formation and start running to them. She wriggled through the air lock and tore off her helmet. "Thank god. Thank god." She moaned. "I thought I was going to die out here."

Castle got Lisa a shot of Scotch to settle her down and after a few minutes, she was able to tell them what had happened.

"After you left, we were all outside, checking to see if there were undamaged supplies left in this cache. The Hanses started to tell Vaughn what you had said about having to turn back if we ran into any more sabotaged or damaged supply caches. Vaughn wouldn't hear of it. He said we were going on no matter what. All of them got angrier and angrier. Finally Vaughn struck one of the Hanses. I don't know which one. Vaughn couldn't have hurt him since they were all wearing environmental suits, but that was enough for one of the Hanses. He grabbed a mountaineering axe and drove in into Vaughn's suit. He started losing air and headed back for the vehicle. As he ran, all four of them ran after him, knocking him down and hitting him with the axe. Finally, he stopped moving. I ran away and hid. They called me on the radio and said they wouldn't hurt me, but I was afraid. I was so afraid."

"Then what?" Castle asked.

"They overloaded the fuel cell on their Rover. It blew up and then they took off in Vaughn's vehicle with all the supplies that were in it."

"We'll call the colony and let them know what happened. They'll alert all the outlying research teams." Kate grabbed the radio and did so.

"Where could they be going?" Castle asked. "There's only one way off of Mars and sooner or later they'll run out of fuel, food, water and air. Then they're dead."

Lisa shook her head. "I don't know. I think they just lost it and killed Vaughn, then took off with no real plan. I just don't know."

"They seem to be headed for the northern supply caches." Kate said. "We'll follow them and try to catch them. I have my sidearm with me, and I'll use it if I have to."

Castle looked around. "There's still some supplies on the destroyed Rover. We'll need them. Vaughn's traveling five star hotel has more food, water, air and fuel than we do. And we should put….You know….Vaughn somewhere."

Kate nodded slowly. "Tie him to the roof."

Vaughn's heavy vehicle left tracks that were easy to follow on the deserts of Mars. What they couldn't figure out was where the four Hanses were going.

"They're not headed back to the main colony and there's nothing the way they're headed." Kate said, checking the course of the vehicle they were chasing against a map of Mars.

"Maybe they're headed for some secret company project Vaughn's." Castle suggested.

"I don't think he had any projects outside the main colony." Lisa said. "But he was always very secretive. Maybe there is something out there."

"There'd better be, for their sakes." Kate checked the map again. "None of the supply caches that Vaughn had dropped are this way and there are no teams out here they could raid."

Castle checked the map. "Alexis' project, looking for fossils, is out this way, but they'll miss it by seventy or eighty miles if they don't change course." Rick had a horrible idea." You don't think they plan on taking hostages do you?"

"If they are, Castle, they're doing a lousy job of it." Kate smiled at him. "Don't worry. Alexis will be fine."

"Maybe, but I'll worry anyway."

Another twenty miles passed and Kate checked the map again. "They're headed for a deep canyon just ahead. If they don't turn soon, we'll have them. They'll be backed up against the canyon with nowhere to go but to us."

Another fifteen minutes brought them to the edge of the canyon.

"The tracks go straight to the edge and…."Castle began.

"They drove into the canyon." Kate finished.

The three dismounted the Rover and walked to the edge of the canyon. Far below them they could see the remains of Vaughn's vehicle. Parts were scattered all down the side of the canyon, but the bulk of the vehicle had broken in two at the bottom of canyon. Using her binoculars, Kate counted four bodies that had been thrown from the wreck.

"We'd have to go down over five hundred meters to get to the remains and there's no way they could have survived that drop. It's too dangerous for us to try to get to them."

Rick put his arm around Kate. "Do you think it was suicide? They figured they couldn't get away with it and decided to just…..end it all?"

"We'll probably never know, Rick. We have just enough fuel to get back to one of the northern caches. I can't see the Mars Colony sending out a dangerous and expensive mission to recover the bodies of four killers." She checked the position of the sun. "Come on. There are a couple of hours of daylight left."

The return journey was long and arduous, but they made their way back. When Kate returned to the Mars Colony, she found that the murder of trillionaire Eric Vaughn was huge news on Earth. The various government agencies involved deluged Kate with demands for information. She was spending all of her days answering the same questions from different government agencies. "Can't they talk to each other?" She grumped.

Her evenings were usually spent with Rick, relaxing in his company. She found that she enjoyed being with him too much to worry about a broken heart. Plus she was just beginning to accept the possibility that Rick might not break her heart.

When the next ship arrived from Earth, they went to see Lisa, who was preparing to return.

"I can't say it's been a pleasant time, Captain Beckett, but I'll be glad to get back to Earth."

"I doubt that. I'm sending you back to Earth as a prisoner to face charges for five murders."

Lisa was shocked. "That's absurd. I told you what happened. You have no proof that anything other than what I said happened."

"Actually, we do." Rick said. "Beckett was concerned how a killer could possibly get away on Mars. There's just one spaceport and the colony is so small that everyone pretty much knows everyone. It would seem to be impossible."

"It is impossible." Lisa shouted. "I didn't kill anyone."

"Kate and I kept wondering, but we were right about one thing. The Mars Colony wasn't going to send out an expensive and dangerous expedition just because we had some suspicions." Rick smiled at Lisa. "But we had other options. My daughter is a genius, you know. And her camp is a lot closer to the wrecked vehicle and the bodies than the colony. I asked Alexis to go to the wreckage. She could enter the canyon from the canyon floor so there was little danger."

He laughed. "Did I mention she's a genius? She's a medical doctor, in addition to everything else. She determined that the men had all died due to a blow to the left side of the head. You're right handed, aren't you, Lisa?"

"That proves nothing. The blows could have been inflicted when they fell into the canyon."

Castle shook his head. "Time of death was about the same time as Vaughn died, not more than a day later. And Alexis found sedatives in their bodies. You did the cooking for Vaughn, didn't you? It would have been easy to bring the Hanses some of Vaughn's gourmet food, well dosed with sedatives. Then when they fell asleep, smashed them in the head, then gone off and killed Vaughn. From the looks of his body, you had a lot of fun making him pay for the way he treated you."

"The Hanses drove off in Vaughn's vehicle. We followed them." Lisa insisted.

"A vehicle that was driven by an artificial intelligence. One programmed by you. We checked you out." Kate said." You're not just some bimbo, you're a top computer specialist with one of Vaughn's companies. You sabotaged his supply drops so Rick and I would be gone while you did your killing, then you put the dead Hanses in Vaughn's vehicle and sent it off to its doom. They have some very good computer people back on Earth who've been looking at the computer records. They can prove that you sabotaged the supply drops."

Surprisingly, Lisa laughed. "Do you know how Vaughn got ahead? He was a liar, a cheat and a crook. Oh, he was a genius, all right, but he had his own spy service set up. If someone developed something he wanted, he'd bribe, steal, blackmail and even kill to get his hands on it. And in spite of all his money, he was cheap. He'd promise a woman millions if she'd put up with his sexual perversions and cruelty. Then he'd laugh at them and kick them out. He told them that they were just prostitutes, and he didn't have to pay them a cent." She laughed again. "But that's not a confession of anything. We'll just have to see if what I know about Vaughn and his companies is worth something. As you said, I'm very good with computers and Vaughn was very arrogant. He was convinced no one could hack into his computer."

That night, after seeing that Lisa was taken aboard ship as a prisoner, Rick and Kate ate dinner as his place. As he was serving her ice cream, he spoke.

"There's a dance tomorrow night. Some of the Russians are quite accomplished musicians. And I hear that there are a couple of really good Italian singers. Sounds like fun to me."

"Why, Mr. Castle. Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Why, Captain Beckett, I believe I am."

"I'd love to go with you."