Story

Castle slept sound on his bunk, a pleasant dream keeping him from the harsh reality he would soon wake into and have to bear with until next he fell into the pleasant world of the imagination. But unfortunately for Castle this morning was not going to allow him to rest as he required, a sudden jolt through the ship sent him flying from his comfortable bunk and pleasant dreams, into the cold world of which he called home. Castle flew across his small room and into the wall opposite his bed.

"Good morning!!!!" Castle exclaimed as he removed his pancaked face from the wall, "Owwwwww!!!"

Castle gathered himself and sat up, his hair in a matted mess and his face red from contact with the wall.

"Oh, I'm going to kill that Cilia!!!" he grumbled as he rose from the cold metal floor of his room, assembled his thoughts, clothed himself and strapped his customized flintlock pistol to his right thigh. Before he left his room Castle stood in front of his mirror and fixed his hair issue, slicking it back off his brow and away from his face, into a somewhat neat pile. He then moved away from his mirror headed for the ladder which led to the main catwalk of his ship the Bella Nuote. Just as he was about to grasp the first rung of the ladder the ship jolted once again, flinging Castle into the wall of the confined ladder well.

Once on the main catwalk Castle turned right and ascended the staircase which led to the cockpit then stepped through the double hatch. Cilia was the only person in the room and she was sat in the pilots chair fighting with the controls. Cilia was a young woman at the age of 29, she was tall, slim and rather good looking in her one piece flight suit she constantly wore. Cilia had brunette hair and green eyes which were emphasized by her pail skin. Overall she wasn't bad on the eye, but her mouth was something of a problem, she never stopped with the smart remarks. Which was a problem with some of the other crew members, except for Castle who rather liked the confrontation.

"I don't remember asking for a wake up call hostess!" Castle stated as he crossed the room to Cilia's chair.

"Ah there you are captain!" Cilia replied with a cheeky smile, "You sure took you time getting dressed! I mean Jordan was out before you and she wears more layers of guns and explosives then you do hair product!" Cilia paused thoughtfully, "Speaking of which how much hair product do you go through in a year?"

"About as much as you go through in that secret stash of chips!" Castle replied, a sly grin on his face. Then suddenly the ship jolted again only this time the jolt wasn't just a jolt, it was an explosion off the right of the ship, a cloud of shrapnel protruding from the initial explosion.

"What was that?"

"That was one of your wake up calls! Should you have decided to ignore the first two!"

"I'm still trying to get over the first!" Castle muttered to himself.

"Actually it was a missile from our friendly neighborhood pirates . . . ."

"And you've waited until now to tell me!!!" Castle growled.

"Thought you could use the sleep!!!" Cilia said and looked up a Castle a massive grin on her face. The grin slowly turned into a look on intrigue, "Have you done something new with your face?"

"Just do what I pay you to do, and fly the Goddamn ship woman!!" Castle remarked then exited the bridge, Cilia lowered her head back to the sky's in her window with an amused smile on her face.

"Oh and that last explosion!!! Some of the shrapnel must have gone through the right engine!!!! I not getting anything else from it!!!" Cilia called after Castle, the smile still on her face.

"One of these days!!" Castle yelled back, "One of these days, I'mma Through you off my boat!!!!"

"Naaaaa!!! You love me too much!!!" Cilia yelled in cheeky reply and jolted the ship on purpose.

At the point of the last jolt Castle was next to the the ladder well which led down to the a storage area below his feet, Castle was thrown to his left and down the ladder well. On his collision with the solid metal grated flor of the ladder well Castle let out a barley audible cry of pain, he muttered about spacing Cilia as he regained his feet and climbed back up the ladder to the main deck and catwalk. As Castle finally reached the top of the ladder Jordan walked by, guns knives and explosives strapped to every part of her body.

"Jordan . . . . What are those for!?" Castle questioned.

"Well, we are under attack by pirates, so I thought . . ."

"You are not using explosives on my ship!!!!" Castle stated then muttered to himself, "She's falling apart enough with put your help!"

"Ah!! Come on!!! I promise I won't damage your ship" Jordan replied, then in a level more to herself, "Much!!"

"This muttering thing has got to stop, ok! But, no you are not using explosives on my boat!!!" Castle stated forcefully, "Take them off and meet me in the bay!!"

"Why?" Jordan asked dumbfounded.

"Cause we are going to get boarded!" Castle replied as he turned right and began to head to the ships right engine room, Jordan let out a sigh the returned to her room from which she had come to remove her explosive weapons.

Meanwhile Castle was only two steps from the engine room.

"Anatra!!!" Castle yelled into the large room, "What in the hell am I paying you for!! We ain't getting nearly enough juice from this engine as we should be!! And I don't know about you, but I for sure don't want my boat becom'n a piece of pirate treasure!!"

"I hear you Castle!! But it can't be done!!" a young but experienced voice replied, "The shrapnel from that last explosion for straight through the gear box and the filters!!! I've patched the problem with a feed from engine two but we ain't gonna get nothing more outta her!"

Castle descended the stairs into the engine room the turned right to follow the catwalk around to the back of the inner workings of the engine. All the time hearing little noises coming from various directions, rustling, wrenches, drills and various other noises, the most notable being the swooping and rustling noises. Anatra was a fast one and when in her consort zone (dark confined spaces) she could appear anywhere, from anywhere and disappear once more into thin air. Castle slowly lowered his right hand to his holster, but just as he was about to remove it a colt folded steal and aluminum blade pressed against his neck. This blade belonged to a special dagger he had only ever seen one of and it owner happened to be Anatra.

"Hand off your gun! Please!" Anatra's soft voice beckoned from behind.

"Ok, you got me again!" Castle replied, as he removed his hand from his gun and turned around to face his opponent. Anatra was by far the most interesting and beautiful of Castle's crew. Castle had picked her up during the massive space war for unity and government, he had been fighting for the unification forces, until he found Anatra, only a baby in a facility he was to evacuate. She was like nothing he had ever seen before the appearance of a human with the addition of wolf ears, light sensitive eyes and a long opposable tail. This was the turning point for Castle, Anatra had been a test subject along with many others in the facility, he turned on his men and the scientists, killing every last one and he defected to the freedom fighters. Where he met Jason and Cilia who were still part of his crew till this day. Anatra was now 17 years of age and looked up to Castle and that would never change for her. Anatra was beautiful and not to tall, however the scars of the past still remained in the form of a barcode on her left arm just above the wrist.

"How is it you always get behind me?" Castle questioned.

"Well you are in my engine room!" Anatra replied, then the ship jolted again only this time it was a different jolt, a docking jolt.

"You keep them away from my engines!! I don't particularly wish to stay here for long!" Castle stated then rushed out of the engine room headed for the rear docking port.

"Ain't non of them pirates getting near MY engines!!" Anatra yelled after him.

Castle raced through the corridors leading back to the main catwalk, as he passed the Med bay he spotted Michael and threw on the brakes.

"Grab your rifle Doc we got guests!"

Castle then continued his race to the rear hatch, picking up Stacy and Rob on the way each person bringing their own weapon to the battle, that was to be had. But as they raced thought the kitchen/ living area the secondary docking hatch, slammed open and pirates pored through the hatch way, guns blazing.