951. Chapter 951

After Captain Kate and the Hurricane

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Not only do I not own Castle, but there never was a Castle episode called Captain Kate and the Hurricane, but you knew that. Rating: M Time: The 18th century.

Previously on Castle: Rick and Kate are married at their Hamptons home in front of all of their friends and family and go off on a wonderful honeymoon. Okay, that didn't actually happen, but don't we all wish it did?

The safe way was a series of switchbacks that went all the way up the cliff. The path was a good six feet wide even at its narrowest point, but the path wound ever so slowly up the mountain. By the time the sun was setting, they had covered less than half the distance to the top.

"There's a wide spot a few hundred feet ahead where we can stop." El Tee said, trotting back from a quick reconnaissance.

They gratefully put down their loads, started fires and began thinking about dinner.

That's when the musket shot rang out.

A few, including Kate, Rick, L'Anie and Ryan took cover behind a large rock. The rest ran back down the trail, out of the range of the musket.

"Bluidy hell." Ryan said, sticking his head up over the rock. "A good soldier can fire three to five shots a minute. He's firing every five seconds or so."

Kate stuck her head up, only to be pulled back by her husband. "Castle! I need to see."

"Okay, we need to see. When he fires, you stick your head up on the left side of the rock for a few seconds, then back down. When he fires again, I'll stick my head up on the right. Okay?"

There was a shot and Kate stuck her head up, followed by Castle, then Kate again and then Castle.

"I think he has some one loading for him behind the rock he's hiding behind." Rick said.

"I think there are two shooters and maybe someone or a couple of people doing the reloading." Kate added. "The first time I looked, the shooter had a red bandana around his head. The next time, there was no bandana, and the man had long, black hair."

"He's maybe eighty yards from us here, so he's at the maximum range for a musket to hit anything with any accuracy. We can just wait until full dark and sneak past him, or them."

Kate shook her head. "All of these switchbacks take us close to the fast way up the cliff. They can climb up and start shooting at us when it's light. It'll take us days to get up this cliff and we'll suffer casualties."

"Beggin' yer pardon, Captain." Ryan interrupted. "But I has an idea."

"Go ahead."

"I wuz interested in that rifle that feller Slaughter had, so I bought me one. I can hit a man at eighty yards easy. Let me try."

Kate nodded and Ryan began loading his rifle. First he used a brass powder flask and poured black powder down the barrel. Then he wrapped a lead ball in a greased cloth patch and used his ramrod to push it down the barrel. Finally, be used another powder flask to pour a small measure of gun powder into the priming pan. Then he covered the pan with the frizzen and pulled the hammer back.

As soon as the slaver fired, Ryan stuck his head up and aimed. When the second slaver stuck his head up, Ryan fired. His bullet struck the rock inches from the slaver's face, but missed him.

"Harder to hit a man's head than a whole man, I suspects." Ryan said, reloading. "But now he knows we can git to him."

Ryan and the slavers traded shots for some five minutes without any result. Ryan thought he might have wounded one of them, but if he did, it wasn't bad enough to slow down the rate of fire.

"Ryan, I have an idea." Castle said as Ryan reloaded again. "Look above their position. There's a big rock that looks like it's balanced on its end. Knock some of the smaller rocks under the big one loose and I bet it'll come down on them."

Ryan looked to Kate. "Worth a try."

Ryan's first shot knocked some pebbles loose. The second shot knocked a small rock loose. That did get the attention of the slavers who began to fire faster. However, Ryan didn't have to stick his head up to shoot at the rock and Rick and Kate joined him, firing their muskets.

"There!" Castle cried. "The rock moved."

The next shot send the rock skittering down the cliff face and slamming into the rock the slavers had taken cover behind. More rocks began falling and soon an avalanche of rocks sent four slavers plummeting down the cliff to their deaths.

"Captain Castle?" Old Ned Walsh, the ship's carpenter, said.

Alexis turned around. "Thank you, but Kate is the captain of the Revenge, not me. "

"Beggin' yer pardon, but under the rules of the Brethren of the Coast, under which we sails, you be the captain as you be in charge."

Alexis nodded slowly. "All right, what is it, Mr. Walsh?"

"Yon King D'Ming has sent us some millet beer. They be about four barrels of no great size, but with our evening tot of rum, t'will be a good evening, Ma'am."

Alexis thought for a moment. "Mr. Walsh, will you please bring Brutus to me and a tin pan from the galley."

"Brutus, Ma'am?"

"Yes. Brutus."

Mr. Walsh found Brutus, a large grey cat by the scuttle butts, searching for a rat. He picked Brutus up and carried him to the galley where he got a tin pan. Then he reported back to the captain.

"Brutus is here, Ma'am." He said, not sure what the captain wanted with a cat.

"Pour some of the beer into the pan, please."

He did so and Brutus lapped in up. Brutus had not finished half of the beer when he fell over on his side and began snoring. Alexis picked him us and shook him slightly. "Sound asleep, or unconscious, Mr. Walsh."

Walsh reddened. "I'll have the beer thrown overboard at once, Captain."

Alexis shook her head and smiled. "No, I have another idea."

That night the crew gathered on the main deck for their tot of rum, as always. A watcher on the shore, perched high in a tree, watched as they drank their rum and then began on the beer. As they drank they sang to the accompaniment of a fiddle and a flute. But then the singing waned and one by one, the sailors toppled over. The watcher saw the redheaded captain stagger towards the quarterdeck, then collapse. He climbed down the tree and ran to the king.

King D'Ming led his warriors down to the beach and into boats. As they rowed towards the Revenge, D'Ming spoke to his men. "Soon we will have their muskets, their cannons and their ship. And the sailors will be out slaves and do as we tell them. The girl with red hair and the blonde are mine." He waited a beat. "Until I tire of them, then they are yours." The men laughed.

As they approached the Revenge, they suddenly saw the gun ports swing up, revealing the muzzles of the cannons. The main deck was suddenly lined with sailors with muskets. The redheaded captain yelled "Fire!"

The cannons, loaded with grapeshot, tore into the boats and the warriors. As many of the pirates had a grudge against King D'Ming, we was the target of many of them. Nothing of him was ever found.

The warriors either jumped into the river or turned and rowed for their lives. When they reached the shore, Alexis ordered her crew to cease fire.

"I think another tot of rum is in order." She said loudly, getting cheers from her men.

The next morning, a boat rowed by women set out from the shore and headed for Revenge. Alexis allowed them to come close and a single woman climbed up onto the main deck. Seeing Alexis, she prostrated herself on the deck. Alexis at once reached down, took her hand and lifted her to her feet.

"I'm Alexis Castle. Who are you?"

The woman, who looked frightened, appeared to Alexis to be a bit closer to Kate's age than her own, spoke. "I am Princess L'Tori. Queen L'Anie is my older sister and King D'Ming was my older brother. My people did not want to attack you last night, but the King controlled the warriors. I have taken over the leadership of our tribe. Please do not attack us. We will repair your ship as we promised and we will not attack you. Please believe this."

Alexis nodded. "I know Queen L'Anie well and I do not believe she would ever have attacked us. She is our friend. So, I believe that her sister will also be our friend. However, I will keep an armed body of men on the ship at all times and I will keep some of the cannons ready and crewed at all times However, as long as you remain peaceful, I will remain peaceful. This I swear."

Princess L'Tori nodded. "I swear this as well."

"And no more beer." Alexis said with a smile.

L'Tori smiled slightly. "No more beer."

Kate and her party reached the top of the cliff and found a huge plain stretched out before them, as far as the eye could see. The plain was covered in animals of all sorts, most of which were unfamiliar to the pirates.

"Look." Rick said. "The striped horses. They're called zebras. The animals with the long necks are giraffes and….elephants! The big grey ones are elephants. That long thing is their nose. They can pick up things with it just like a hand. And lions. We need to be careful of them. And all sorts of deer like animals."

"Dinner on the hoof, I calls 'em." Ryan said.

"How do you know so much about the animals of Africa, Rick?" Kate asked, curious as to how her husband knew such things.

"I didn't spend all of my time at Trinity College, Dublin, studying medicine, you know."

"I thought you spent your time there studying the Irish lasses of Dublin." Kate said, but with a smile.

Rick put his hand on his heart. "I honestly don't remember any women I've ever met before I met you."

Kate laughed. "You do remember you have a daughter, don't you?"

"Alexis is not a woman yet." He said defensively.

"And she has a mother. Do you remember her?"

"Not a bit. But, I do remember Dr. Grant. He was a Scot who had gone to Africa and came back with drawings he'd made of the flora and fauna of Africa. He also drew the landscape and people. I could have listened to him for hours, there in the pub where he held court. He was a wonderful artist and a great story teller. I could have listened to him speak for days at a time."

"And there were barmaids in this pub?"

"I don't recall." he said, doing his best to look honest.

"Did the good Doctor Grant say anything about this particular stretch of Africa that might be of help?"

Castle looked around him. "Not a word. Not a solitary word."

"I'll send some scouts out." L'Anie said. "A large force such as the slavers have will have left a trail that we can follow."

A dozen young men were sent out and in less than an hour, they returned and reported their findings to their queen. L'Anie informed Kate and her men of the results. "They say that there's a clear trail about a half a mile to the north. The slavers aren't making any effort to disguise their trail. Luckily, with this open space, they won't be able to ambush us. We can go rapidly."

"Then let's go." Kate said.

They marched for half a day and when they stopped for lunch, Kate, Rick and L'Anie tried to decide how to best attack the slavers when they caught them. Finally, they decided that the pirates with muskets would form a double line. When the first rank fired, they would begin to reload and the second rank would step past the first rank, fire and then begin to reload. By that time the prior first rank should be reloaded and would step forward and again be the first rank. Meanwhile Queen L'Anie's people would form up on the right and left flanks of the pirates. Once the battle began, they would try to slip around behind the slavers and try to attack them from the rear. Once this was explained to everyone, they moved off.

No more than an hour later, the little column stopped. "There." Queen L'Anie said. "Those birds flying in and landing ahead. They are vultures. Carrion eaters. Perhaps the slavers hunted up ahead."

Unsure of what lay ahead, Kate had the party form up in combat formation. Trying to move a long line of men over even a fairly level plain was difficult and Kate had to stop several times to bring them to order. But, they finally arrived at their destination.

"They weren't hunting." Ryan said, crossing himself.