Beyond Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

Chapter 12

As soon as Tiana left, the shaman walked back in carrying a pair of beaded moccasins that were almost to the knees. He looked at me and smiled big.

“Now you look like my vision. Our people will accept you as our female spiritual leader.”

Oh joy! He handed me the moccasins and I put them on. Although they were a little tight, they felt good. I could not see myself but, from past experience, I knew that I looked very female. Danya held out his hand and led me out of the teepee.

“When the sun is high, we will have a feast. Other villages have sent chiefs and shamen to witness our ceremony.”

“Uh, what else is involved besides the feast?”

“There will be an afternoon long dance which will be ended at sunset. At that time, you will be declared our spirit of good fortune. Each chief will shoot an arrow at you in turn to prove who you are. Of course, all will bounce off.”

Shit! This was what I was afraid of. It looks like everyone is in for a big surprise. I was led over to a group of women. With a nod, the shaman left. All of the women except one were chattering with each other and at me. The exception was standing off to the side with her arms folded and was staring a hole through me. After a bit, I was able to extricate myself from the gaggle and walked over to her. It was then that I spotted the necklace she was wearing. It was identical to the one Lilly had. She frowned when she saw me eyeing it but said nothing. We stood looking at each other a minute then she said something in the native language.

“Sorry, don’t speak it but I am curious as to where you got that necklace. I have seen another like it.”

I figured that she couldn’t speak English but she seemed to understand me. Finally, she nodded and pointed to a creek near by. I followed her over to it and we knelt down to drink. She looked sideways at me.

“Where did you see it?”

“Oh, one of my companions has one. She was separated from me and, I guess, released.”

She frowned.

“But you do not have one?”

I looked at her hard and shook my head.

“We can’t talk now. All guests will present you with an offering before the final ceremony. I will give you this. It will protect you during the final challenge.”

She stood up and hurried away. I watched her leave. The only thing I could come up with was that she was part of the crew of the space ship. But, if so, why was she here and what became of the ship? I walked back over to the other women. It looked like the feast was about to begin. I followed their lead and ate until I was about to bust. The dog was as well. I had to admit that that the food was terrific. Mary would like it. That thought started a bout of depression. It must have been obvious because Danya came over.

“Have we done something wrong?”

I smiled.

“On the contrary, this feast is great. I was just missing someone.”

He nodded.

“I guess gods have special friends too.”

He turned and walked back over to the men folk. I wasn’t sure what was expected of me but I needed to be alone a bit. I went back to my teepee and sat down. Hopefully, Lilly would find the ship. That woman with the necklace was now a wild card. If she is part of the crew, I needed to talk with her badly. This adventure was getting old fast. After moping a while, I went back to the festivities. The dance had been going on for quite a while and the sun was going to set soon. Danya spotted me and came over.

“Please come with me. Several guests from other villages would like to present you with their offerings.”

I was led to the center teepee and sat down inside on a mound of furs. Indians came in one at a time. I was given a knife, a fossil of some kind, and a beautifully decorated bowl. Finally, the woman came in. She draped the necklace over my head and touched something on the back of the pendant. I felt a tingle. She whispered in my ear.

“Don’t take it off. I will try to talk with you after the ceremony.”

She walked back out and another Indian came in. He bowed and handed me a silver bracelet. After all the guests had delivered their presents, Danya came in.

“It is time for the confirmation.”

He took hold of my hand and escorted me to a large tree. I stood in front of it with my hands down at my side. Four chiefs walked over and stopped about 10 paces in front of me. The shaman started a long speech that I could not understand. When he finished, he motioned to the chiefs. The first one took his bow and launched an arrow at my chest. To my glee, it bounced off. The next chief shot one right at my left eye. When it too fell away harmlessly, I breathed a sigh of relief. That protective underwear would not have saved me from that. This pendant must be covering me with some kind of force field. It sure wasn’t something we had in our time. The final two chiefs shot their arrows also with no effect. The other Indians let off with a loud cheer. I guess I had passed their test. Danya came over to me. He took my hand and we walked slowly through the throng. All were chattering and touching me. When we reached my teepee, he looked me in the eye and smiled.

“You are truly from the gods and will be revered by our people. Rest tonight and tomorrow we will seek a vision.”

He nodded and departed. I went into teepee and sagged to the ground. This had to have been one of the hardest days of my life.

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Rosco and I rode through a pass he knew about in the Big Horns. We had seen no one since we left the Indian village two days ago.

“Rosco, do you think it’s safe to go back to rescue John?”

He shook his head.

“No way! Just because we haven’t seen any Indians doesn’t mean they haven’t been watching us. Our only choice is to ride on west. Do you really think you can find that ship of yours?”

“I think so. The tracker signal is getting stronger. My fear is that I won’t be able to enter it. I’m sure the crew put on some kind of protection system before they left.”

Rosco looked thoughtful.

“I wonder what happened to them. Wouldn’t they have left someone with the ship?”

“No, the ship has an artificial intelligence that will maintain it. However, if they powered down the ship so it couldn’t be detected from space as I suspect, the intelligence will only activate if someone goes near the ship or it is contacted.”

We continued on towards the Rocky’s. This was very desolate country though pretty. I’m glad it is summer. I can imagine how difficult this journey would be in the winter. Game was plentiful and Rosco kept us well fed. We had just entered the first pass when I spotted smoke.

“What do you make of that? Do you think it’s Indians?”

Rosco peered at the rising smoke.

“I’d say it’s chimney smoke. Probably a trapper cabin.”

“Should we bypass it?”

“No, we need information as to what’s ahead. Let’s pay a visit.”

As we rounded a bend, the cabin came into view. It looked sturdy. We rode up to it and a very large man walked out to meet us. He had a very big gun. Rosco suddenly gave a whoop.

“Bill, you ole’ scutter. I didn’t know you was up here?”

“Rosco! Where the hell have you been? It’s been, I don’t know, 10 years I guess.”

“Yep. Man, I thought the Shoshone had got you.”

Bill laughed big.

“Not hardly! I’m real careful. Well, come on in.”

Bill looked me over.

“Whose your friend?”

“Someone I escaped from Hilltown with. Lilly, this here’s my old friend Bill.”

I laughed.

“So I gather. Nice to meet you, Bill.”

“Like wise I’m sure.”

We went inside his cabin. It was small but built well and kept neat. Bill pulled a big pot of coffee off his fireplace and poured us each a cup.

“So, Rosco, who run you out of Hilltown?”

Rosco huffed.

“Marshal Slago but, if it weren’t for Lilly and John, I would’a stayed and fought him.”

Bill laughed and shook his head.

“You sure haven’t changed much. Whose this John feller?”

“John Harper. He was captured by the Cheyenne on the way here. They let Lilly and I go.”

Bill frowned.

“That don’t make sense.”

“They seemed to want John real bad.”

Rosco hesitated.

“Uh, John’s a she pretending to be a he.”

Now Bill nodded with a half smile.

“Aw, dual nature. Them Indians is big on that.”

I perked up.

“What do you mean?”

“Most tribes think people who are both male and female are spirit people with big medicine.”

I nodded.

“So it was John who saved us then.”

“I imagine so. Where are you headed now?”

“Just west.”

“That’s not a good idea. Them Shoshone are worse than the Cheyenne or Lakota Sioux.”

Bill didn’t push it further. I’m glad Rosco kept the details about John to himself. We spent the night with Bill and Rosco swapping tales. I woke up to fish frying. Bill saw me rise up.

“Hope you like fish for breakfast. I ain’t got no eggs or bacon.”

“No problem.”

I looked around and didn’t see Rosco. Bill noticed and pointed at the door.

“He’s out scouting around. I saw Indian signs while I was gettin’ the fish.”

When the fish were eaten, Rosco came back inside.

“It was a hunting party. We better git before they come back. I want to be way up in the mountains by noon.”

We packed up, said our good byes, and trudged on.

“Bill seems like a good sort.”

Rosco snorted.

“If he didn’t know me, we’d be dead. He doesn’t cotton to strangers. The reason the Indians leave him alone is because he’s crazy.”

I was shocked.

“You’re kidding me?”

“Nope, I seen him kill two men with his bare hands because they looked funny. He’s a bad one but we got on fine. I am glad John wasn’t with us. Bill would have gotten mean.”

I just shook my head. What’s next!

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After entering everything I could think of into Tinker’s tablet, I walked into the galley. I handed it to Bell. I was still feeling upset.

“Something has been going on here that we have not been told. I’m getting fed up and I am worried sick about Jonnie.”

Bell looked genuinely sorry.

“It’s not for me to say. I will talk with Tinker when I hand in the tablet.”

Karen came in and handed over her tablet. Bell left to find Tinker.

“Karen, what is going on here?”

She looked thoughtful.

“Do you feel Tinker knew Jonnie would go back in time?”

“No, just the opposite.”

It hit me then.

“That’s why Tinker was so anxious for you and I to go back in to rescue Jonnie so quickly. I wondered about that at the time but didn’t say anything because I was so upset. We could have gone days later and still hit the same time as Jonnie did.”

“Yep!”

Tinker and Bell walked in then. Tinker faced us.

“OK, I guess it’s time for the truth.”

I stared.

“We’re all ears.”

Tinker sighed.

“It started with the device Jonnie used to stabilize our planet.”

I nodded.

“Yes, we know about that. It worked but Jonnie got sent back in time 3 years.”

Tinker looked at Bell then back to me.

“Well, not exactly. We had always thought that the technology in the ruins was from an ancient race. When we started really studying the ruins, it became apparent that they were only about 500 years old. This was a great concern. However, the discovery of the device that ultimately saved our planet put all of those thoughts on the back burner. When Jonnie activated the device, it did what we thought it should except Jonnie disappeared along with it. We had, however, set up some monitoring to see what actually happened as the device was used. To our surprise, Jonnie was first sent over a thousand years into the future and then back to 3 years before our time. Our scientists believed that the people who made the ruins were in the future. So, they brought Jonnie there and then sent her back. Since then, our whole efforts have been in trying to contact them.”

I stood open mouthed.

“I can’t believe what I’ve just heard. And you think Humans area treacherous. We don’t hold a candle to you!”