The Pilots

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: You know I don't own them. Rating: K. Time: In an AU future.

Author's note: This is a sequel to The Pilot. I will try to cover all the necessary information from that initial story. However, you might wish to read The Pilot and then nominate the author for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Also, you might see some familiar faces in this.

"I told you we'd meet again, furball. You and your friends. You only have one way out and that's right past me, so hand over the Quinncunx and you can live."

"I guess you have us, Slaughterer." Moecious called, but as he did so, he lifted Jane and Quinncunx up onto a ledge above them, then putting Simone, Kate and then Rick beside her.

"I'm sending it out now." Moecious called, but took something from his pocket and threw it into the cavern. Whatever it was spread a fine mist through the cavern. The Slaughterer and his men fired blaster bolts into it with no result.

"That's not going to do much good." Simone said as Moecious hopped up beside them.

"Wait." Moecious said.

Soon they could hear squeals coming towards them, then the squeals turned to a high pitched roar and a furry tide swept through the tunnel.

"The mist makes the doomkitties think there's good eating ahead. They might manage to kill the Slaughterer if we're lucky."

"The doomkitty is what you killed back there?" Castle asked.

"Of course."

"The desert has too few ice cubes." Quinncunx said portentously.

"We need to go on this ledge. It'll be tougher than the way we were going, but it'll have to do. And if we're lucky, the doomkitties will eat the Slaughterer and his men."

"The doomkitties will probably be poisoned if they do." Simone snapped.

The ledge narrowed to a foot across, but then widened out and entered a cave. Castle thought the trip back would be easy until they ran into a solid wall of rock.

"This is where it gets a bit difficult." Moecious said. "There's a handgrip about half way up for me. I'll reach down and pull Captain Castle up and then boost him up to the entrance of the tunnel above us. That way he can catch the ladies and pull them to safety."

"I hope you don't expect me to pull you to safety." Castle said.

"Safety is the umbrella of kindness." Quinncunx said happily.

"I'll manage." Their furry friend said.

And manage they all did. In a few more minutes, they were back at the elevator to the pub and then in Moecious' office.

"I have to get out of the spacesuit." Jane Avril said. "It's heavy and it's too damned hot."

'Come to my room." Simone said. "My clothes should fit you well enough." She turned to Rick. "Captain Castle, I believe we should leave now, n'est pas?"

"That would be best. There's nothing of ours in our room, so we'll wait here."

The two women were back in five minutes, both wearing light summer dresses that showed off their long legs. Castle thought that Kate's legs were better. Jane was tall and slender and now wore her long, black hair loose. Simone carried a small suitcase and Jane carried Quinncunx.

"Today is the beginning of carrots." Quinncunx said angrily.

"I'll go with you to the ship." Moecious said. "The Slaughterer may be around. The doomkitties might have refused to eat him. And, I have to take care of my customers."

They had no trouble getting to the docking bay. They stopped and contacted the control desk to let them know that the Free Ship Love Nest would be leaving in a matter of minutes.

Once the passengers were aboard, Castle turned to Moecious to say goodbye. That's when he saw the gun in the bar owner's hand. There was a high-pitched whine and all went black.

When Castle came to, he was laying on the deck of the ship. He tried to move, but his whole body felt numb. He looked around and saw the three women were near him. He saw that they were breathing and felt better.

Quinncunx must not have been shot as he was standing by Jane. He stared at Castle. "Woe, woe is meat." He said.

He must not have been out long as he could see they were still in the docking bay. Moecious had managed to squeeze himself into the pilot's seat and was almost ready to take off.

"How unfortunate." The furry thief said to no one in particular. "The Slaughterer survived and he and his crew are running to his ship."

The engines started up and the ship shot out of the docking bay and left the Sky Cave behind. Moecious had part of the viewscreen showing what was aft of them. Castle saw another ship shoot out of the Sky Cave and head for them.

Castle saw that the damned hijacker wasn't using the ship's speed as well as he should. Castle wanted to yell at him that he could go much faster, but his voice didn't work, nor did any other part of him except his eyes.

Slowly, but surely, the Slaughterer gained on them. There was an incoming comm and The Slaughterer's face appeared in a corner of the viewscreen. "So, you hijacked them, furball? When I catch you, I'm going to enjoy taking you apart piece by piece. But I'll keep the women around for some fun. Maybe I can feed parts of you to the man."

"You still have to catch me, you know." Moecious said mildly.

"Catch as catch soup." Quinncunx said quietly.

Before the Slaughterer could reply, Moecious hit full power and shot off to the left. The Slaughterer didn't react fast enough and slammed into something and spun off through space.

"Oh! Worse luck. The slaughterer didn't…"Before Moecious could finish the sentence there was a huge fireball aft of them. "Ah, but he did."

"But what butts we'd see but for butts." That was Quinncunx.

"Now for you four." Moecious said. He walked over to Castle. He felt something sting is arm and darkness returned.

He felt a soft breeze on his face and then the sounds of machinery and men yelling. On the second try, he managed to open one eye. He could see that Kate was breathing, but couldn't see Simone at all. He managed to turn his head a bit and saw that Jane's leg was moving slightly. He also noticed that he could see far more of her legs than was appropriate for a married man. Her legs twitched and he could see she had on scarlet panties. He turned away.

He tried to move and found that both his hands and legs were manacled and attached to the deck.

"Ah, I see you're coming to." Moecious said happily.

"I thought you were our friend." He managed to croak.

"I am your friend. If we weren't friends, I'd have used a blaster on you and not a stunner." He actually looked upset at the accusation. "Look, you would have just used your ship's speed to run away from the Slaughterer. This way, he's dead along with his whole crew and his ship is destroyed. It would have taken me forever to talk you into letting me pilot the ship, so I acted."

Castle shook his head. That almost made sense.

"Moecious, is that you in there?" A voice from outside called.

"Indeed, it is. Come right on in."

The speaker was an older redheaded woman, conservatively, not to say, expensively dressed.

"You bitch!" Yelled Simone. "You were going to pay us for Quinncunx, but instead you hired this thug to steal it from us."

"Nonsense." Said the older woman. "Moecious was simply a back up plan. I intend to pay you what you're owed, plus a nice bonus for your trouble."

That seemed to satisfy Simone and Jane, but not Castle. He looked over and saw that Kate was glaring at their two captors. Jane had managed to pull her dress down.

"Scarlet eyes amid the leaves." Quinncunx whispered.

"There's other news. I managed to destroy the Slaughterer and his ship."

The woman smiled. It was a predatory smile, Castle thought. "Good. He's been a thorn in our side for far too long. A thorn in everyone's side."

"And I got this ship for us. Humans don't realize how good our vision is. As soon as I got inside, I could see the Commonwealth logo all over the place. I knew we'd want it."

The woman reached up and scratched Moecious behind the ears. His face was infused with joy. "I'm afraid we'll have to give it back, old friend. The Castles are Imperial Navy officers temporarily assigned to Naval Intelligence."

"What?" Rick bellowed. "Who are you?"

"My name is Martha, which is all you need to know, and I work for the ICIO."

"You work for I See Idiots Only?" He yelled.

"I work for the Imperial Central Intelligence Office. We don't like the other term." She said coldly.

"Him too?"

"Of course." Moecious said.

"Naval Intelligence sent us to the Sky Cave to have a look around? And you have an agent in place? Why didn't you tell us?"

Martha shrugged. "We never told Naval Intelligence since we don't like sharing with them. Need to know, you'll understand."

"And why does ICIO need a talking, pink bowling pin?"

"Need to know, again."

"The only thing I know about need to know is that the people who actually need to know something never seem to need to know."

"Now, Moecious, if you'll release these four, we can let them get cleaned up and fed, and then rest a bit. Then Lieutenant and Ensign Castle can take you back to the Sky Cave. And the two ladies, if they'd like to earn a bit more money."

"NO!" Castle screamed. "I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with this lunatic, walking, talking, fur rug."

"Oh, come on. It'll be fun." Moeicious said.

"Doom laden words." Quoth the Quinncunx, "Nevermore."

The End

Author's note: Jane Avril was a French dancer in the late 19th century made famous by French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I imagine she's a very old friend of Simone's.

I'm still working on Deadly Planets and To the West, sequels to Deadly Planet and To the East respectively. I have about 12000 words done on To the West and about twice that on Deadly Planets.

I really do want to do a sequel to this story, but I have no idea what it'll be about. I have some sort of ideas for two sequels to Vengeance, and an idea, no more than an idea, for a sword and sorcerer story with Caskett. I have figured out the plot to To Love and Die in Manhattan, a different take on To Love and Die in LA. However, I haven't written anything yet.

I guess I need to get writing.

Stay safe.