Galactic Marshal II
by
Hilltopper

CHAPTER 2

I had a big grin on my face but, now, Carol looked just as shocked as the doctor. She shook her head.

“That can’t be!”

I glared at her.

“And why not?”

“Boys are not born here!”

“I was!”

Carol nodded and then shouted.

“I can’t believe it’s happening again.”

She turned to me.

“I promise that what happened to you will not happen to your child. After all, you are a Fledoran citizen.”

I just stared at her a minute and then stood up.

“Doctor, can I see them?”

“Sure, follow me.”

We went to the delivery room and I went over to Mary.

“Hi”

“Hi yourself.”

I hugged her and put a kiss on her lips. She pointed to the baby.

“Meet our son.”

“That has a nice ring to it. Of course, the council will be furious but Carol seems to be on our side.”

Mary reddened with anger.

“They better not try what was done to you. We are both Fledoran citizens and the law is on our side.”

“Well, we’ll worry about that later. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. I should be able to go home tomorrow.”

I turned to the baby and held his hand.

“Great! What about a name?”

She laughed.

“Uh, boy names are not really our thing.”

“I guess not.”

“You name him.”

“OK, how about Raylan Eugene?”

“Sounds good but you need to explain.”

“Well, Raylan was a famous marshal relative in Kentucky and Eugene was my grandfather’s name.”

Mary smiled.

“Then that’s his name.”

I thought a minute and realized I wasn’t sure about last names on Fledora.

“That’s great but Raylan Eugene what?”

She looked puzzled a second and then realized why I was confused.

“It is customary to use the last name of the birth mother unless the child was lab grown. In that case, either can be used. I think that, since this is the first boy born to Fledoran parents, we should use your last name.”

I beamed with pleasure.

“Raylan Eugene Harper!”

Mary grinned.

“I thought you would like that.”

Carol knocked and walked in.

“How are you holding up, Mary? I guess this was a shock.”

“No, not at all. Some of us are not closed minded.”

I guess that hit home because Carol grimaced.

“Just so you know, I’m on your side. It will be a hard sell to the council as a whole, however.”

“All I am thinking about now is little Raylan and Jonnie.”

Carol nodded.

“That is as it should be. I’ll let you rest and will be in touch when the council wants a meeting.”

With that, Carol left. I smiled at Mary.

“Don’t worry, things will work out.”

Mary and Raylan went home the next morning. We had our hands full since neither of us knew a thing about babies. Fortunately, a nanny was assigned to us. About two weeks later, we got a call from Carol.

“Hello, Carol, what’s up?”

“The council has been discussing your situation and they want a meeting with you and Jonnie in the morning.”

“I was expecting it. OK, what time?”

“Be here at 10 AM.”

“Alright, see you then.”

I was not happy.

“Are you sure you are ready for this? We could try and delay it?”

Mary shook her head.

“No, let’s get this over with. “

The next morning, we left Raylan with the nanny and drove to the council building. We walked into the council chambers and were announced. Carol greeted us but the other members were rather stoic.

“I’m glad you both could come to us today. We certainly have an unusual problem. The good news is that, since you both are Fledoran citizens, so is the baby. The bad news is that, by Fledoran law, no male can live on this planet. Of course, at the same time, no citizen can be forced to leave the planet. Thus, we have us a situation.”

One of the other members spoke up.

“This would never have happened if Mary had not gone off planet.”

Carol looked annoyed.

“We have already gone over that. What was done, is done.”

“Yes, yes, but I can only see one solution. The baby must be raised as a girl.”

I wasn’t going to let that stand.

“Oh no you don’t, little Raylan is a boy and no one is going to do to him what has been done to me.”

Another member joined in.

“That has no bearing on this. The law is clear; no male can live here.”

“I live here! Just because you changed my appearance doesn’t automatically make me female.”

Carol interceded as things were getting heated.

“Look, right now our laws forbid a male to live here. However, we have a referendum coming up within 6 months that may change that. Gender means little during the first 6 months of a baby’s life. I suggest that we table this until we see what happens to the referendum.”

All parties reluctantly agreed. Mary and I left the chambers and headed to the hovercraft.

“Jonnie, you were great in there.”

I smiled and took Mary’s hand.

“I just want our child to have a life of his choosing; not the council’s or ours. I never got that chance and I will do anything to see that Raylan does.”

After a couple more weeks, Mary decided that she was ready to go back to work. I gladly relinquished my position. Since there really was not anything for a marshal to do on Fledora, I called Sam to report that my mission here was completed.

“Well, John, we sure need your help. We have a fugitive that has eluded three attempts to catch him. I’d like you to meet up with George Brett here at HQ and try another attempt.”

“OK, I should be able to leave tomorrow. Uh, certain things have to be done to allow me to leave.”

Sam laughed.

“I don’t want to know, just report to my office when you get here.”

“Sure thing.”

I rang off and went over to Mary.

“Do you think I could get a lift tomorrow? I need that pod thingy.”

Mary grinned.

“Tired of being a woman?”

“Let’s not go there. I just must be myself for my marshal duties.”

Mary looked pensive for a minute.

“We may have a little problem there.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

“What kind of problem?”

“Well, you are now officially a Fledoran citizen. You can only undergo what I did when they sent me to Broadskye.”

That was unexpected.

“You mean, looking like a man but still physically a woman?”

Mary nodded sadly.

“I’m afraid so.”

“That’s just great!”

Mary held me.

“When we get that law changed, every thing will be OK. Please just try to endure for now.”

I smirked.

“I better stay away from George then. This could get embarrassing.”

I left the next morning and the pod did its thing. When I got off the ship at HQ, I looked like my old self but there was a hidden difference that I would just as soon no body knew about. I went to Sam’s office. Sam came right to the point.

“You and George are going to have to go under cover to catch this guy. Hopefully, it won’t take long. You will be out of touch until then. He’s thought to be in your home turf; the Daniel Boone National Forest.”

“You do know that I have a kid now?”

“So I’ve heard. Look, I’m sorry to do this to you. I will keep Mary informed the best I can.”

“Yeah, OK, let’s get on with it.”

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I went back to my position as chief of detectives. I had missed it greatly. At the same time, I wanted to be with little Raylan. I guess career women everywhere have this came conflict. I was lucky in that our nanny was great with Raylan and he seemed to take to her. I, also, was missing Jonnie. Sam had called and told me that she could not contact me. Apparently, she was deep under cover. I hoped that the gender problem was not going to cause Jonnie anguish. Hopefully, we can get things sorted soon. Living as half man and half woman was bound to be conflicting. At the same time, Jonnie was conflicted when it came to gender. What a mess the old council had caused.

I was sitting at my desk when I was told that my nanny was on the vid and was hysterical.

“What’s the matter, Lynne?”

“Oh, Miss Mary, he’s gone!”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s Raylan. He’s missing!”