Beyond Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

Chapter 13

After a bit, the woman that had the necklace came into the teepee. She stared a minute and then held out her hand. I sighed, took off the necklace, and handed it to her.

“Thank you. I wouldn’t have survived without it. I assume you are a member of the crew of the spaceship hid in the Tetons.”

She looked shocked.

“How do you know about that?”

“The companion I mentioned who had a necklace like yours. Her name is Lilly.”

She shook her head.

“Sorry, don’t know her.”

“Well, I guess that’s not her real name since she is not from here. Of course, neither am I.”

I looked at her hard.

“I came through the gate.”

She sucked in her breathe.

“I thought that was shut down.”

I sighed.

“It is now. In fact, it’s gone; blasted from space.”

She frowned.

“We were afraid that would happen. I guess this Lilly is trying for the ship.”

I nodded.

“She may find it but it won’t do her any good. It is locked up tight. We were afraid to leave it unprotected and told the AI to ignore all signals except ones from us. You know, I shouldn’t be telling you anything. I don’t even know who you are or why you’re here.”

“I’m here by accident and all I want is to get back to my own time. I have a spouse and son back there.”

She looked shocked.

“How could you get through the gate by accident. That is impossible.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. However, I am here. I have a question. Where is the rest of your crew and why are you here?”

She closed her eyes and sighed heavily.

“They are dead. We were visiting the old caldera when an explosion knocked us down. When I came to, the others were dead and I was not too far from it either. Some Cheyenne found me and nursed me back to health.”

I was puzzled.

“Didn’t the pendant protect you?”

“It certainly saved my life but it has its limitations. The explosion was so severe that the field was overpowered. After I healed, the Indians discovered that I couldn’t be hurt and sort of adopted me as a shaman. That is why I am here; to witness the coming to fruition of the vision that you are a part of. By the way, how did you survive the initial test without my pendant?”

I smiled.

“Underwear”

She looked puzzled a second and then the light bulb went on.

“Oh yeah, I remember those. It’s a good thing they didn’t shoot you in the head.”

“Tell me about it.”

She laughed.

“I need to get back. We will be leaving in the morning. I wish I could talk with you more, however, you will be busy.”

She had a smirk on her face.

“Do you know something I should know?”

“All I will say is ‘been there; done that’. Just go with the flow.”

She stood up and hurried out. I turned to the dog.

“It looks like tomorrow is going to be tough.”

He didn’t seem concerned. I tried to sleep but her words kept echoing in my mind. Lilly would not be able to enter the ship and I am stuck here doing god knows what. I finally drifted off. When I awoke, it was light outside. I had slept in my clothes. My only other clothes were the jeans and flannel shirts I had with me. They might not be viewed as appropriate for the spirit of good fortune. I looked out of the teepee. Everyone was busy until I was spotted. All work stopped. One of the braves poked his head into the shaman’s teepee. A couple of minutes later, he popped out and headed to me.

“Tiana will take you to bathe. Afterwards, we will journey to the sacred place to seek out your vision.”

“What about breakfast?”

He shook his head.

“You must fast or the vision will not come.”

Great! I eat like a horse yesterday and now nothing. Tiana walked up and I followed her to the bathing spot which was just a deep place in the creek. She stood watching me and I just stood and watched her right back. Finally, she sighed and turned around saying something. I probably didn’t want it translated. I took off the dress and moccasins. That was all I was wearing so I was completely naked. Putting a foot into the creek, I was surprised as to how warm it was. Diving in, I swam a minute and stepped out. Naturally, Tiana was staring at me. She motioned to a rock and we set down in the sun. I wished that I could talk with her and imagined she wished the same. After about 20 minutes, I was essentially dry so I got dressed. We walked back to Danya. Tiana said something, pointed at me, and giggled. She then walked away.

“What was that about?”

He turned redder than he was.

“Uh, she was just commenting on your shyness.”

“Oh”

“Come, it is time to seek your vision for our people.”

He headed off toward a strange rock formation. It seemed to be quite far away. The dog and I followed closed behind. After walking for about 3 hours in silence, he stopped and pointed.

“See that notch?”

“Yes”

“Go through that and you will find a flat area of rocks. Sit there and your vision will come. I will check on you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? How long am I to be there?”

He looked at me in surprise.

“As long as it takes.”

He turned and walked back the way we came. This was just great. I hiked on through the notch which took most of the rest of the day. I found the spot he was talking about. There was literally nothing there but rocks; no food, no water, no nothing. I sat down, rubbed the dog’s neck, and looked up.

“OK gods, what now?”

“Head west, fair maiden.”

I fell over backwards.

“What the -------?”

Then I heard a laugh.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

I raised my head to see the necklace woman striding toward me.

“I knew this was where you would be sent. After thinking about what you told me, I decided maybe we should go to the ship. We’ve probably messed up the time line enough. My name is Janna by the way.”

I stood up and glared at her.

“You scared the bejesus out of me!”

She laughed again.

“Come on, my camp is over that rise.”

It was about an hour hike. She had some stew cooking and I was famished. We sat down and ate. I gave some to the dog. I thought that I really should give him a name. Oh, well.

“As soon as we finish, we better break camp and make tracks. I don’t want those Cheyenne to find us.”

“I guess they will be pretty pissed when they find me gone.”

She shook her head.

“On the contrary, they will think the gods have taken you back. It will be a good sign to them.”

I then thought of my clothes and things back at the Indian camp.

“Shit! All my things are back with the Indians. I can’t hike in the mountains dressed like this!”

“Why not? That deerskin dress should be comfortable. Besides, we can’t risk going back to the camp.”

I glared at her.

“You don’t understand!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got two horses staked out behind us.”

I sighed and stood up.

“Fine! Let’s go then.”

We walked to the horses and she mounted up. It hit me.

“I can’t get on a horse with this dress.”

She laughed.

“I won’t look.”

“But I don’t have any underwear.”

“Oh, that might be a problem.”

She reached into her pack and pulled out a scarf.

“Here, put this over the horse blanket. It should prevent any chaffing.”

Defeated, I got on the horse. It didn’t feel too bad but I sure hoped I didn’t run into anyone. Of course, that wasn’t likely. We started down a trail into the mountains. Janna looked over at me.

“OK, now that we have the time, I want to know your story. I still don’t get how you are here.”

So, I told my story including everything that had happened since I came through the gate.

“Wow, that’s some tale. You really are a man then?”

I sighed.

“I’ve been back and forth so much that I don’t know any more. Right now, I’m pretty much male I guess.”

“Well, I can now see why you didn’t want to wear that dress while riding a horse. Does it hurt?”

“No, it is actually OK; just kind of embarrassing.”

She laughed and I had to admit that I looked the part of an Indian. We rode on all day in order to get as far away from the Cheyenne as we could. On towards dusk, we saw smoke on the horizon. Over a rise, a cabin appeared in the distance.

“Hey, that might be a place to spend the night.”

She shivered and shook her head.

“No, that’s crazy Bill’s place. We don’t want any part of him. Let’s go back over the hill and make camp.”

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Rosco and I rode onward the next few days without seeing anyone. The going was pretty rough. My tracker was giving a strong signal and it looked like we would reach the ship soon. I wondered how John was making out with the Indians. They seemed to believe he was something special. I had to admit that I felt that way too. He was very different from the men here in this time and place. Of course, that was probably because he isn’t from here. He had told me that he was a woman before coming through the gate. This may explain things but I wasn’t sure. My people back home thought nothing like him. It could be the reason they set up this experiment in the past. Our planet was stagnating. There was no doubt about it. We had pretty much shunned exploration of the cosmos. John had said that Fledora did the same thing. Since we seemed to be an off chute from them, it made sense. My day dreaming came to a halt when we topped a ridge. Before us was a beautiful sight. Rosco grinned.

“This must be the Tetons.”

“I’d say so.”

“How far do you think that ship is from here?”

I shook my head.

“I’m not sure. Maybe a day or two.”

“OK, let’s make camp here. Tomorrow we can start our search for it.”

With camp set up and supper eaten, I collapsed into my bed roll. Our goal was in sight and I was now feeling the effects of the journey. The next morning, we broke camp and followed the direction the tracker showed. By mid afternoon, we had not found anything. The tracker was pointed toward a narrow canyon. Rosco looked perplexed.

“That canyon is a dead end. If your ship’s not there, we will need to back track and go around that mountain. It could take days.”

“The signal is at max. I’d say it’s there.”

“OK, let’s camp at the entrance. It’ll get dark quick in there. I’d like to have all day to explore it.”

So, even though I was excited and impatient, we camped for the night. Once the sun was well up the next morning, we entered the canyon. The walls were at least 100 meters high on both sides. The floor was rock strewn. Around noon, we came to an unusual formation. Very large rocks blocked the way but there was still more canyon beyond. There was no way the horses could go any farther. After walking along the rocks, we found a crevice we could get through. Once we passed beyond the rocks, a most wonderful vision came into view. It was the ship!

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Tinker did not look the least bit bothered. I sighed.

“So, what now?”

Bell said something in their language. Tinker nodded.

“We have learned that your military is preparing to leave Prowhiness. When they go, we will return to the gate.”

“I thought it is dead.”

I looked over at Karen.

“Yep, as a door nail.”

Tinker’s head shook.

“There is dead and there is really dead.”

I was getting tired off Tinker’s games.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“The gate may be unusable right now for travel but it still might be possible to send a message or at least alert the future race that we are here.”

This was not something I had thought of. There might still be a chance to rescue Jonnie.

“OK. I’m game. If there is any chance of convincing them to help get Jonnie, I want to take it.”

Karen nodded.

“I agree.”

“Good! As soon as it’s safe, we will go down.