Empire

Chapter 20

Epilogue

It has been three years

"DADDY!" Two very happy girls came charging at him the second he walked into their suite onboard the only ship they had ever known. They were only three and small for their age so they had no trouble running around all the boxes that dotted the area.

"HEY!" Rick scooped up both of them, one in each arm. "You two ready to move? Are you all packed?" They had so many toys that their room was full, even if half the room was taken up by bunk beds.

"Mommy," Ariel informed him sweetly.

"You left mommy to do all the work?" He tried to sound upset that they weren't doing anything to help her. "Where's Alexis?" His older daughter was far more responsible than these two.

"School," Elara answered.

"Well, we better help mommy with your room." Rick put them down and followed them to their room. They found Kate still busily packing. "I found these two out front doing nothing. We're here to help."

"Excellent!" Kate picked up an empty box and threw it at her husband. "Fill that." She didn't care what went into it just so long as it was filled.

"Does Alexis's room look anything like this?" Rick questioned hesitantly, looking at the disaster that was his daughters' room.

"Lexi has her own room," Ariel piped up helpfully.

"Thankfully no," Kate commented. "Alexis has packed everything and is ready to move. Not so much these two." Kate hadn't expected much from three year olds, but they had actually taken things OUT of boxes she'd just filled.

That had Rick glaring at his daughters with his evil eyes. "We're never moving if you two don't get packed. We might even leave your toys here." Maybe a threat would get them moving.

"NO!" they yelled in stereo at their father. They wanted to move very badly. They'd been promised they would each have their own room.

"Then help me fill this." Rick grabbed a stuffed animal, handed it to Ariel and watched her drop it in the box. "Good, now keep going, we need to fill this or your toys are staying here." He would never leave his babies' toys behind but they didn't need to know that.

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Rick and Kate were sitting, resting while Alexis was reading to the twins. Alexis had always been good at reading mostly for herself. However, she had a knack for reading and bringing a story to life while using different voices for each person. It meant the twins weren't trying to unpack their toys and they weren't driving their parents crazy.

"They'd better hurry up and get here before Alexis finishes her story." Kate needed to get moving and keep her girls busy.

"You're the one who wanted another child," Rick reminded her, suffering Kate's dagger looks without damage. Fortunately for him their doorbell sounded and he jumped up to get away from his very annoyed wife, thanks to his big mouth.

"Time to go girls!" The movers with the droids had finally arrived.

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"WOW!" Ariel's and Elara's eyes were huge during the whole time on their way to their new home. The entire place looked nothing like what they were used to. There was real sunlight everywhere. Plus everything looked different to what they were used to.

"This is really nice, Mom." Alexis knew who was responsible for all this and even she was impressed.

Rick placed his hand on the door and watched it open. "Okay, you three go find your bedrooms." He knew what was most important to all three of them and watched one figure with long orange hair and two with long brown hair run inside and disappear. "That should hold them for a few minutes at least." Rick and Kate got to work telling droids where to place what. Mostly it was just clothes, toys, and little things. Every suite in the new city came complete with furniture based on what package you selected.

"MOMMY, DADDY!" Elara yelled since she needed help.

"I'll go, you keep telling the droids what to do," Rick said and went in search of his rather loud daughter.

He walked past the first door and saw Alexis already unpacking her things. That left one of the doors on the opposite side. The first door revealed Ariel sitting on the floor with a small box that she was pulling stuff out of and leaving on the floor. He saw a lot of work ahead for him and his wife in that room.

"You yelled." Rick stepped into Elara's room to find her standing next to her bed. "What's wrong?" Had she won this room or had she lost and was upset?

"Move, Daddy." She pointed to her bed. It was her first big bed since she had grown up in the upper bunk of the bunk beds.

Rick immediately saw more trouble in his future. She was only three and already giving orders about how she wanted her room decorated. "Where do you want it?" Did he need to move boxes first?

"There." She pointed to a corner of her room.

Rick pushed it up against the wall in that corner. "No, Daddy." All she knew was that it was wrong.

"It's in the corner." He didn't see what he had done wrong.

It wasn't what she wanted. "Move, Daddy." Rick groaned but began moving the bed a little. "Stop!" He was close and she moved in to push a corner and watched her daddy push a little. "Stop!"

Elara looked it over and liked where it was now. "Tanks, Daddy." She jumped up on her bed that still didn't have any sheets on it and lay down on her back.

"Like it?" Rick wasn't sure it was right but if it made her happy, he was happy. All he got back was a hum from her.

He went back to his wife. "Your daughter is a budding interior decorator." Whether she would be a good one or a bad one was still to be answered. Kate ignored the Your Daughter part and dismissed the droids since they were done.

"Ariel's emptying her boxes all over the floor, by the way," Rick said. Kate frowned and walked toward Ariel's room before she made too big of a mess. She'd put the toys in time out for a day if she had to.

Then Rick heard the door bell and went to see who it was. His display on the door showed exactly who was on the other side as the door became see through. It looked like an ensign with a pad, to him.

"Thank you." Rick took the pad and closed the door. He was hoping it was what he was expecting. Roy had already told him that he was being stationed on Earth and that the first ships for construction would be showing up soon. He was hoping that this was going to tell him they'd arrived.

Rick was soon smiling broadly as he went to the bedrooms in search of his wife. He found her emptying boxes in Ariel's room so that she didn't make her mess any bigger.

He held up his pad. "The fleet's arrived."

Kate stopped what she was doing and took the pad from him so she could read it for herself. "One battleship, four cruisers, eight destroyers. A construction crew consisting of thirty-six ships plus another forty-eight that are cargo ships." She was impressed. "That's far more than we thought, Husband." Command had obviously loved her husband's idea. "What's the Tso Ying?" She had never heard the name before.

That had Rick taking the pad back from her. He had heard the ship's name before and was trying to think as he repeated the name over and over. "If I'm right it was commissioned over twenty-one years ago." They were sending him a relic to command.

"Oh, Husband!" To go from a brand-new ship that was just four years old to a hunk of junk. She felt terrible for him.

"I'll survive." Rick would make the best of it. "It's not like it's meant to go into front line combat." It was a rear support ship not a front line combat ship.

"MOMMY!" Ariel wasn't being helped any longer and that was just not acceptable.

"Go check on Elara. Looks like I'll be staying here for a while." Kate was hoping that she and her husband would have time to unpack a little of their own stuff before bed. They even had to go find dinner before that.

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It was late later that same day. Rick was relaxing on the sofa and was doing what he shouldn't; he had his feet on the coffee table. Though his wife, who was curled up next to him, hadn't said a thing. "We survived." Rick was actually a little amazed. Kate chuckled. Moving with three girls to a city that they'd only ever seen renderings and floor plans for had proven to be the challenge they had been expecting.

They had even found the time to give Kate's new office as Governor of Earth a quick visit.

"We have to survive tomorrow as well," Kate added since they weren't out of the woods just yet. They had to locate the daycare for the twins as well as Alexis's school, make it to her new office in time, and for Rick to take command of his new ship.

"I actually thought we were going to have to cleanse this planet." Rick still thought his plan was the easier plan.

"We came a lot closer than you think, Husband." Kate had feared her husband's plan was actually going to happen for a time.

"You've done amazingly well, Wife!" Rick bent to kiss her head. He had no idea how she'd managed it.

"We're in the Empire. Though we still have a lot of work to do. We have just so many transformers." They had a lot of them, yes, but they were needed to enforce the Empire's laws as well as destroy existing cities, towns, farms, and build new.

Kate had even found a way to satisfy China, Japan, and other nations that had important old buildings that were a part of their culture. She hadn't expected China to put up such a fight over some of their larger cities. To them a few were the most modern cities on the planet. Having them replaced with even more modern cities hadn't been easy.

"How did we do? How many have broken the law and have been eliminated?" Rick had been leaving that number to Kate.

"As of last night…eight hundred fifty-six million nine hundred forty-seven. That number will likely continue to grow. Fifty-nine percent of that number comes from the United States alone." Kate shook her head; she still couldn't understand that nation.

Then she smiled. "The tiny town of Jerome, Arizona was the first to sign on in that nation. It was so small it was finished before several of the others. It did start a wave of small towns signing on, though." The United States still had no large cities being worked on. Several were on the list but they would not be started for years. It had taken a year just to complete Cape Town in South Africa which had been the first. Actually all of Africa was far out in front of any other continent.

"We'll survive." Rick was thankful that his family was in the air, far away from the locals. The city, save for food, was self-sustaining much like all of the new cities. Unless they wanted to, they had no reason to leave it.

"Is it too early to start planning our first vacation as a family?" He was ready to get away from this screwed-up planet.

Kate grinned. "Somewhere deeper inside the Empire? Somewhere like where my parents live?" she teased.

"Or my parents," Rick countered.

"Your planet is a heavy gravity planet, Husband. The girls are still very young and don't have a lot of muscle mass." Kate also wasn't interested in finding out how much she weighed on his home planet. The first time had been enough of a shock. Plus she tired quickly there.

"Planet Oasis? I think that's what they changed their name to." Rick was thinking of the girls mostly. Not that the planet didn't have things for adults to enjoy.

"I'll talk to my parents. You can talk to yours. Maybe we can get them to watch the girls while we have some alone time." Kate reached down and cupped his balls.

It got the reaction she'd been expecting. Rick stood up and she squealed as her husband easily scooped her into his arms. "I'm not that tired. …Are you?" She'd been the one that started it after all.

"Make love to me, Husband." Kate wasn't that tired, either.

"MOMMY!" a little voice called. Both of them moaned, just not in sexual pleasure.

Rick put her down. "Go strip and get out the straps. She probably just wants a drink of water. I'm tying you to the bed and having my way with you tonight." Kate brushed her lips across his and hips swaying seductively, headed to their bedroom with Rick right behind her. He goosed her just as she reached the door. Kate jumped a bit, squealed softly, and smiled at him before she went to find out what their daughter wanted.

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"Welcome aboard, Commodore. Ensign LeClerc here will be your aid." The young man and the Marine serving as the boarding guards greeted him.

"It is a pleasure to serve, Commodore." LeClerc quickly saluted and awaited his first order.

"How about a tour first? Let's see what we have to work with." Rick was unsure about what he would find.

"Of course, sir. The Tso Ying has been in space dock undergoing a complete refit for the last three years. It's effectively a brand new ship. The crew has spent the last four months getting here to get used to everything," LeClerc said.

That had Rick opening his eyes wide. "A complete refit. Let's find out." He motioned for his aid to lead him.

LeClerc took him to Engineering first. "Welcome to Engineering, Commodore," Chief Engineer Daniel Montgomery Scott said. "Everything has been upgraded. The basics are still the same, however all of the couplings have been improved. It should mean far fewer ruptures and loss of main power.

"We have a prototype weapons platform along with standard shielding. As I mentioned, the power couplings have been improved upon so they should hold up better. Plus we have double the number of droids for maintenance and repairs. We should be able to repair anything in half the time. …Provided we have the parts, and if we don't, we have a shop onboard to make them. Though that shop should see little action once the space station construction has been completed." Rick knew that wasn't going to be completed for another five to six years. What he had read about it placed it at about the sixth largest station within the Empire.

LeClerc took him to Medical next.

"Commodore, welcome to Medical. I'm Doctor Katelyn Greene, my team and I are at your disposal. Which reminds me, per regulations you're required to have a complete physical within a week of assuming command." It was a formality. But if Rick failed it for some reason he would be relieved of command. The doctor had complete control over who was fit to serve onboard this ship.

Rick didn't get to leave Medical until after he had an appointment.

An hour later and Rick was taken to the door that lead to the Bridge. "Call when you require me, Commodore." LeClerc did not yet have clearance for Bridge duty.

Rick put in his code and watched the door open only to be confronted by a heavily armed Marine. "Commodore on the Bridge!" He came to a crisp salute and stood up straight.

Rick stepped inside and found all of the Bridge personnel standing to greet him. "At ease, resume your stations." He was happy to get it but they shouldn't be taking their eyes off of their screens.

It gave him a moment to look the place over as the Marine closed the door. It looked like nothing he had ever seen before. All of the stations looked familiar, it was just that the layout was totally different.

"It's been upgraded." He had been expecting an old bridge layout. This was definitely not that. Rick had heard about these but had never actually seen one with his own eyes. While it was this ship's Bridge, it was also a Fleet Bridge usually reserved for admirals of fleets.

There was a round center console that held four chairs. In the middle was his familiar globe that could be used to view everything that was within scanning range. Or have one of the fleet's ship's scans transferred to it.

Across from his chair on the far wall was a blow up of all the ship showing all of the ship's systems. Primarily used for damage control. There were four smaller screens to one side of that main screen.

The Bridge was also round and to either side were stations that could display twelve different ships within the fleet, six on either side. Communication and monitoring and if necessary, total control over that ship.

With him in the center was Engineering, Communications, Navigation, and Weapons. There were no civilians on this ship. It was strictly a military ship, therefore it didn't have his wife's old Control station.

"Report," Rick ordered as he took his seat.

He got "Ready, sir," from each of his ship's stations then he began issuing orders. "We'll stay and guard the planet and the station as it's being constructed, for now. Order our destroyers to begin touring this system. I want to know if there are any enemy probes in this system. They may be hiding on the edge. Have our cruisers stay inside the system. I want each planet and moon scanned. Have a cruiser scan this system's sun's corona."

It was time to make sure this system was secure and in total control of the Empire.

Now was not a good time to be caught by an enemy scout. "Yes, Commodore," rang out as everyone got to work.

Rick got to work using the globe and the screen on the far wall to get used to this ship. He also tried to listen as each officer communicated with the other ships in this fleet.

He was thankful that his shift was uneventful. The destroyers had only just started their tour of the system while the cruisers were busy scanning every planet and moon in this system in depth.

Before he left Rick had one more thing to do. "Give me fleetwide and shipwide." He had a message for all of them.

"Ready, Commodore," his Communications officer said.

"This is Commodore Castle. This planet has recently been added to the Empire. As such, locations on the planet are presently restricted. For now all shore leaves are restricted to the planet's Capital and the continent called Africa. Travel to certain nations, those being the United States, Russia, and China, is strictly forbidden. Travel to other nations is to be cleared through the governor and her staff.

"The Capital and this planet can and will have a lot to offer for everyone. For those personnel that have traveled here with family, they will find space in the Capital. Coordinate with the Governor and her staff.

"For the Empire, SUCCESS!" Rick's fist thudded a salute on his chest and heard his entire Bridge crew respond.

"SUCCESS!"

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Rick had gotten used to just walking across the hall to get home. Now he had to take a shuttle home. However, he did get to land on the roof.

Ariel and Elara would still be in daycare while Alexis would be in school. His wife was probably at her office. She still had a lot to do for this planet. Much to his surprise, though, he found her sitting in the living room surrounded by pads. "Working from home?" He was happy to see her and so he made space so he could sit next to her and give her a quick kiss.

"We had a malfunction in the office. The droids and a supervisor are chasing it down." Kate was stuck working there for today. "Here, you should see this." She handed him a pad to read.

Rick was silent as he activated the pad. "It's the station they're building." He was truly interested now. He really didn't want to have to deal with any of this planet's nations any longer. He was happy his wife was suited for the job.

He whistled. "They're serious about this location." He knew it was going to be the sixth largest station in the Empire, but this thing was impressive.

"You got what you wished for, Husband." Kate leaned across to kiss his cheek.

"Next time, stop me." Rick chuckled as Kate leaned across to kiss his mouth this time.

"We're home, Husband." Kate couldn't be more happy. After all they had gone through to get there.

"I suppose you want another child or two now," Rick asked while smiling.

Kate considered it. Alexis was fast approaching her early teens. The twins were three. "I'll let you know." At the moment she wasn't interested in having another child. Then she saw her husband smiling widely at her.

"I love you, Richard Castle." Kate took hold of his head and kissed him again.

"I love you too, Katherine Beckett. So much." Neither wanted to know what their lives would be like without the other.