Beyond Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

CHAPTER 4

“What do you mean Jonnie’s gone?”

Tinker cringed.

“The cube arrived but Jonnie disappeared.”

“What are you talking about? You didn’t have Jonnie try operating that gate did you?”

“It was just a simple test. Jonnie sent a cube to our home planet via the gate and it was successful.”

I was really getting mad now.

“OK, so where is Jonnie?”

“Look, Mary, we are still reviewing the experiment data. We don’t yet know what happened.”

I frowned big time.

“Are you saying that you have lost my partner?”

“As I said, Jonnie is no longer in the gate and did not appear at our planet with the cube test object.”

With that, Tinker hurried out. I sat down hard on the couch. I told Jonnie to not go inside that thing. I guess I lost it. After a long cry session, I went to the kitchen and ordered a large glass of wine. I was on my second one when the vid went off. It was Karen. I started not to answer it but I knew she needed to know.

“Hi, Mary, what’s wrong?”

“Oh Karen, Jonnie has disappeared in that gate thingy.”

“What! Why was she in there?”

“I don’t know. Tinker probably tricked her. It was supposed to be a simple test or something.”

Karen didn’t answer for a few seconds.

“OK, just keep calm. I’ll be back in a couple of days. Hopefully, Jonnie will be found by then. If not, we will confront the aliens together.”

Karen hesitated.

“You know, that might not be a bad idea.”

“What?”

“Oh, I was just thinking. Maybe a call to Sam, Jonnie’s old boss, might help.”

“I don’t see how.”

“Well, according to my sources, there are some in the Planetopolis that are rather miffed about the alien situation and want to blame Jonnie. If Tinker has been using Jonnie, it would be useful for Sam and the Marshal Service to know about it. They did change Jonnie’s sex without asking. Besides, I think Sam is a good guy and a friend of Jonnie’s. We may need all the help we can get.”

I sighed.

“Alright, I’ll try to be reasonable and contact Sam. But something better happen quickly!”

Karen agreed and signed off. I called Sam and explained the situation. He smiled.

“I knew John is a victim here. He was too good a marshal to turn traitor. There is not much we can do at the moment but I will inform the right people about this. Keep me informed.”

“I will and thank you.”

We ended the conversation. I felt a little better but, after picking up Raylan, I broke down again.

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When I awoke, I thought I had been dreaming. That is until I saw where I was.

“Shit!”

Yep, still here. I got up and went back into the main room. Everything was still the same. I sat down to think. There was no point in just staying here. It would accomplish nothing. The best thing to do was to go down to that stream I had found. It was bound to lead to a town or something. The thought occurred to me that I should leave a note in case anyone managed to get that gate working. There was no way to do that in here since none of the screens worked. I went back to the store room to find something to write with. I found a piece of something that looked like chalk. I wrote on one of the screens: ‘have gone down stream, John’. I deliberately signed it John. I hoped that if Mary or Karen saw it, they would know what had happened.

The store room proved to have everything I might need. There were several holsters with single shot revolvers. Things here seemed to be to help one blend in. I had worked hard on a quick draw while I was a teenager back in Kentucky and had gotten quite good. I strapped on one of the holsters. It felt good. Looking further in the store room, I found a funny looking suit of underwear. It looked like one from the 1800’s but felt different. On closer examination, I realized it was a protective suit of some kind. Nothing would penetrate it. Wearing this, I would be bullet proof except for my head of course. I donned the suit and put on another pair of jeans and a shirt. I found a backpack and filled it full of everything I thought I might need. Strapping my six gun back on, my boots, and a hat I found that fit, I headed up to the hatch.

Upon reaching the stream, I started the trek following the water course. The going wasn’t too bad but I took my time. After hiking for about three hours, I had seen nothing but lots of brush and a few animals. I paused to eat some bar things I had found in the store room. They were pretty good. After resting for an hour or so, I started out again. I came to a partial clearing and discovered the remains of a camp fire.

“Hallelujah!”

At least now I knew there were people about. The campfire was fairly old but it was there. I decided that this would be a good place to stop for the night. I rebuilt the campfire and heated up some food I took from my backpack. After eating, I made a bed of leaves and put a blanket over it. This reminded me of camping trips with my dad when I was growing up. Those memories were a little tarnished by knowing what had happened to me after puberty.

“Oh, well!”

The night sounds soon lulled me to sleep. I awoke to the sound of distant gun shots. They seemed to be coming from down stream. There was no way to know how far. I quickly packed everything, put my boots and gun belt on, and headed toward the sound. About 30 minutes later, I happened upon three men. Two were holding guns on a third who was sitting on the ground. One of the men saw me and quickly fired a shot at me. By instinct, I drew and shot him in the chest. He fell backwards and the other man dropped his gun and ran. It was then I noticed that the shot fired at me had in deed been accurate striking me near my heart. I had barely felt it and no damage was done. I thanked the ancients for these underwear. As I walked up to the man on the ground, he looked up with a big smile.

“Man, am I glad to see you.”

I helped him up.

“What was that all about?”

At least he was speaking English although with a slang. He looked at me funny.

“You’re not from these parts, are you?”

Uh oh, I decided to tell a half truth.

“No, I’m from Kentucky.”

Of course, I had no idea where I was now but it certainly wasn’t Kentucky.

“Oh yeah, heard of it. I live down Spring Creek here in Hilltown. Those jaspers are henchmen of our illustrious Marshal Slago. I’m surprised the one you shot missed you. He is --- or was a dead shot.”

I flinched.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

He looked at me funny again.

“Yeah, well, you won’t be so lucky when Marshal Slago finds out you killed his right hand man. You’re really fast by the way.”

I just shrugged.

“Why were they after you?”

“They want to know the location of my silver mine. That Marshal Slago is taking over every claim he can get his hands on; legal or otherwise. We wrote for a U.S. Marshal but we haven’t heard back.”

He looked at me hard.

“You wouldn’t be him, would ya?”

I shook my head.

“Sorry.”

“Hmm, well, you probably wouldn’t tell me if you were. I’m Rosco Jones by the way.”

I held out my hand.

“John Harper”

“Glad to know you. Come on to my place and I’ll fix you supper. It’s the least I can do for you for saving my life.”

“Sure, that sounds good.”

We took off about the way I had come. At the foot of the hill I had come out of and around to the left, was an old shack. I guess this was home. Once inside, he got to work fixing ‘vittles’ as he called it. What ever it was, it tasted great. I decided not to ask the ingredients. As we settled in front of the fire, Rosco turned to me.

“Ah, this feels better. It was a cold one today. Come to think of it, you got no coat. Weren’t you freezing?”

This came as a shock. I hadn’t noticed the temperature at all. Maybe this protective suit does more than just keep me safe from bullets.

“It gets hot down Kentucky way. This actually felt good.”

He laughed.

“Well, it’s damn cold here in the Dakotas.”

OK, I was getting a better picture of where I am; Hilltown on Spring Creek in Dakota Territory some time in the late 1800’s I would guess.

“You know, you might as well spend the night here especially since you got no coat. Besides, I’ve got to go to town in the morning for supplies. You’re pretty handy to have around. Would you mind going with me? I don’t trust that Slago.”

“Sure”

We bedded down. The morning looked to be interesting.

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Nothing happened until evening. Tinker came over looking excited.

“We have determined that Jonnie went to Earth.”

I brightened.

“Great! Let’s go get her.”

Tinker just looked at me a minute.

“We always assumed that these ruins and artifacts were left by an ancient civilization possibly ancestors of your race. It turns out that they are related to your people but not as ancestors; rather your descendants.”

“What?”

“That gate is much more than just a transportation system. It is a time portal as well. Jonnie is on Earth alright but some where in the past.”

“Shit! How far back?”

Tinker shrugged.

“Without being able to fully power up the gate, we can not determine that. It is strange, however. Jonnie should have been able to come back to us. There is one possibility that would prevent her from doing so.”

“What’s that?”

Tinker thought a minute.

“The gate doesn’t physically send anything but the pattern of how to reproduce it. In other words, when that cube reached our planet, it was a reproduction of the cube not the original one. The same thing happens when a person is sent through. The device relies heavily on the DNA of the individual in recreating the person at the other end.”

I looked horrified.

“You mean Jonnie is not Jonnie anymore?”

“Of course she is just every molecule is new. There is one big difference, however, that could account for Jonnie’s inability to return to us.”

“OK, I’m listening.”

Tinker sighed.

“Even though we converted Jonnie to a functioning female, we did not actually alter her DNA significantly. It is complicated. We think that the gate used her DNA to remake her. In which case, she would end up an intersexed male on the other end.”

“Oh, poor Jonnie; converted again. So, if Jonnie can’t operate the gate from her end and you can’t power the gate up, how do we retrieve her?”

“That is going to be a problem. We think the answer lies with Karen. Her DNA is very similar to Jonnie’s. Hopefully, with her help, we can figure something out.”

“Well, I hope she gets here quickly!”