Galactic Marshal II
by
Hilltopper

CHAPTER 11

When we arrived near Fledora, Raylan and I were the first out of hibernation. He was still sleeping, however. Linda followed close behind.

“Jonnie, it sure is good to be home. I must admit I didn’t know what was going to happen to us. Thank you for rescuing us.”

“My pleasure.”

“I have a question about Georgia though.”

I held up my hand.

“Actually, he is Marshal George Brett and very much male. We had to disguise him as a woman to get onto the alien ship. He was not too happy about it.”

“I see. Well, it answers what I wanted to know. When you said ‘he’ back there, it gave me pause.”

“Yeah, I talked him into coming with me. I sure hope he recovers OK.”

“I think it best to leave him in hibernation until we land. We then should transfer him to medical as quickly as possible.”

“OK, that makes sense. The fact that he is male will not go over well with the council. Thankfully, Coop’s lab is on the moon and George looks like a woman.”

“And then there is Karen.”

Karen walked in.

“What about me?”

I looked over at her.

“I don’t know how the council will view your return. I should say though that the rescue would not have happened without your help. I think it best that we hide your presence for now.”

She nodded.

“I agree.”

Coop walked in, nodded to us and went into the command center. I decided that I better check on George and Mary. When I entered the hibernation room, Mary was just waking up. I went over to George’s chamber and adjusted it to make sure he stayed out until we were ready. I heard a squeal behind me and then arms wrapped around me tight.

“Oh, Jonnie! I can’t believe it! What happened? The last thing I remember is Karen walking into my room.”

I turned then hugged and kissed her. Nothing more was said for a minute. Finally, we separated. I smiled big.

“I missed you. I was afraid you were gone forever!”

She smiled back.

“Not a chance! I would like to know how I come to be here, however.”

“In one word, Karen.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“I know what you are thinking and it is not true. She had nothing to do with the kidnapping. In fact, it was her plan and help that enabled us to reach the alien ship and get you off.”

I looked down at George.

“Unfortunately, George is a casualty. I’m afraid he may be paralyzed.”

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry.”

She looked at me hard.

“What about our son?”

I grinned.

“Follow me.”

We walked into the common room. Linda had taken Raylan while I checked on George. Mary spotted Raylan and screeched. She ran over and picked him up.

“Thank heaven! Where did you find him?”

“Uh, Karen was taking care of him for the aliens.”

She noticed Karen for the first time.

“I thought you said Karen had nothing to do with Raylan.”

“Look, it’s a long story with a happy ending.”

Coop came back in then.

“We’ll be home in about 3 hours. Everyone better prepare to buckle in.”

He noticed the tension and high tailed it back into the command center. Mary stared at Karen a minute then turned back to me.

“OK, I’ll wait until we land but it better be good!”

We all sat down and adjusted our harnesses for landing. Karen sat as far from Mary as possible which was a good thing. Upon landing, a gurney was waiting to take George to medical. We followed along behind. Medical is pretty much automated but it is run by a doctor. I gave her a heads up about George’s true gender. She was not pleased but did her duty. I decided to head off any complaints by calling Carol.

“Welcome back, Jonnie. That was a fine thing you did in rescuing Mary and Linda.”

“Thank you but I had help. My some times partner George Brett was severely wounded during our escape. We have put him in medical at the moon base. He was and is disguised as a woman.”

Carol looked pensive.

“Well, we certainly can’t turn him away after the help he delivered but I think it will be best for him to remain on the moon. How serious are his wounds?”

“We aren’t sure but it looks like at least some paralysis.”

“Damn! Keep me updated. I need for you and Mary to come to the council as soon as you can for a full report. We got a strange message concerning the kidnapping.”

“Yeah, I heard about it. We should be able to shuttle down tomorrow.”

“Great! We will see you both in the morning then. Once again, thank you from all of us.”

She cut the transmission before I could say anything else. At least, the issue of Karen had not come up. Coop had taken her directly to his office. Hopefully, no one had seen her. As I stood up, Mary and Linda walked over. Mary had Raylan and it didn’t look like she would soon part with him.

“Well, I guess Carol is anxious to speak with us.”

“Yeah, looks like we will take the shuttle down in the morning.”

Linda spoke up.

“I’m going to stay and look after Georgia since I am the odd person here.”

I smiled.

“Not odd at all. You are part of our team but I thank you for volunteering to stay with George. This is going to be really hard on him.”

The doctor came out and came over to us.

“She is stable. I’m going to keep her under a couple of days while the med unit heals her. It does look like there is spinal damage that has resulted in paralysis. We will deal with that after the injuries heal.”

I took her hand.

“Thank you. Please do all you can. He is very special. I have informed the council about the unusual circumstances.”

She nodded and went back into medical. I turned to Mary.

“Let’s go see if the café can rustle up something to eat. I’m starved.”

“We also need to feed Raylan.”

“OK, we’ll check with them on that too.”

The café came up with some formula from somewhere. We fed Raylan and then started eating ourselves.

“OK, time to fess up. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill Karen.”

I grimaced but told her everything that happened after we arrived at Prowhiness. She looked away for a minute and then back.

“So, the aliens thought this was what Karen wanted plus they had the crazy idea to exchange Raylan and I for the thulium.”

“That’s about it.”

“I still think Karen is more a part of it than she is letting on. She did try to kill me after all.”

“I know but I really think her long recovery gave her time to think about things. She has changed.”

“Hmmpf! We’ll see!”

After eating, we went to Coop’s office. Karen was still there. She tensed when Mary walked in. I decided to play peace maker.

“Karen, I’ve told Mary the whole story.”

I looked back at Mary and then to Karen.

“Truce?”

They both nodded. Coop spoke up.

“I’ll show Karen to a room she can use. Why don’t we all turn in?”

We agreed and I took Mary and Raylan to our room. It was great being a family again.

“I’m sorry I left you and was gone when Raylan was taken. You needed me and I wasn’t there for you.”

She wrapped me in a hug.

“Don’t beat yourself up. You’re a marshal. We both know what that means. It’s over and you need to forget it. Just be thankful we are back together.”

I teared up and we kissed. Raylan decided to break things up by crying. We both laughed.

“Well, back to the grind.”

We took care of Raylan’s needs and then settled into bed. Sleep over took us quickly. I awoke later to Raylan’s call. Mary was zonked out. I smiled and took care of Raylan. Mary had earned her rest. I had trouble going back to sleep. Even though we were all back home, there were a lot of things still up in the air. I was really worried about George. I would need to keep a close watch on him. I was glad for Linda’s help. Since she is not from Fledora, it will be much easier for her to tend George. What to do about Karen was another problem. Of course, then there were the aliens. I didn’t think we were rid of them. I wondered how powerful they were and what were their intensions. We had all longed for first contact and, now that it’s happened, I kind of wish it hadn’t. I will certainly need to report all of this to the marshal service after our meeting with the council tomorrow. I finally went back to sleep and was awaken again by Raylan. Fortunately, it was now morning and Mary was awake. We got things ready and made our way to the shuttle. Mary had contacted our nanny and she was going to meet us at the house. The flight planetside was uneventful and we took a hovercraft to our house. Upon entering, Lynne rushed over to Raylan.

“Oh, thank heaven your safe. It was all my fault.”

I hugged Lynne.

“No it wasn’t. They had ways that made it impossible to prevent the kidnapping. You are a wonderful nanny and we still have complete trust in you.”

Mary agreed whole heartedly and we ended up in a group cry. Mary and I cleaned up and left Raylan with Lynne. I could tell this was a hard thing for Mary to do. It will take a while to get over all of this. We were both in our mandatory council dresses and we drove to the council building. The council was waiting for us and we were ushered right into the chambers. Carol actually came out and hugged us.

“I am so glad you both are home safe.”

“Thank you. It’s sure good to be back.”

Carol retook her seat.

“Now, tell us everything.”

So, I did. I left nothing out except that Karen came back with us. Carol was visibly distressed.

“We will have to discuss things. Can you both come back tomorrow morning?”

“Sure, I do want to go back to the moon afterwards to check on George.”

“Yes, please thank him for his service. We will take care of him, don’t worry.”

“Thank you.”

We left and went back home. Mary was very relieved to find Raylan asleep in his crib. I am sure it will take time to get over her apprehension of leaving him. To tell the truth, I feel the same way. Even though the council had not said anything about the marshal service knowing what happened, I decided to check in with Sam especially considering what had happened to George.

“Hello, John or I guess it’s Jonnie right now.”

I laughed.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“I take it the mission was a success.”

“Yes, but George was injured and is being treated at Fledora’s moon base.”

“Damn! How bad?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“OK, keep me informed. I need you to submit a complete report. I know this was more of a personal matter, but it may have consequences for everyone.”

“Yeah, alien contact’s a biggy. I’ll get a report to you as soon as I get back to the moon. I have to meet with the Fledoran council in the morning.”

“Good luck.”

I signed off. Mary and I spent the rest of the day getting reacquainted. We arrived back at the council chambers at 10 the next morning. Carol was all business today.

“We are taking this alien threat seriously. We have been in touch with the marshal service. They have agreed to coordinate things with our military.”

I rolled my eyes and she smirked.

“Jonnie, you have been assigned to us temporarily so I want you to remain in charge of this. Mary, can you return to your old job?”

“Sure, I’m fine.”

“Great! I understand that Marshal Brett was disguised as a woman and still is. We contacted the doctor at the moon base and she tells us the disguise will last about a month. Let’s keep George’s true gender a secret as long as we can, OK?”

I nodded. I thought, ‘George is going to be a big problem.’

“Good! Jonnie, you have a free hand to get us ready for what ever the aliens have in store. Of course, we hope they will forget about us but I’m not optimistic. Coordinate with Mary on your personnel needs. This is our top priority.”

“Will do.”

We were dismissed and went to Mary’s old office. She sat down and looked up.

“Well, it looks like a busy time ahead.”

“Yeah, I need to get back up to the moon. Are you going to be OK here?”

“Yes, we will get by.”

We hugged and kissed. I left and went to the shuttle port. George would be awakened this afternoon. I was not looking forward to facing him.