Beyond Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

Chapter 10

It was just daylight when we intersected the Indian trail. Rosco was a little too happy and relieved. I got the feeling that he wasn’t as sure of it as he let on. It was heading down out of the Black Hills and into Wyoming Territory. There were pretty good sized mountains off in the distance. I was having a little abdominal pain. I figured it was Rosco’s cooking. After about mid morning, we came to an opening that had been used for a large encampment in the past.

“Rosco, do you think it’s safe to use this trail? This place looks well used.”

He shrugged.

“It really doesn’t matter at this point. There are Indians around no matter how we head across. At least the going is tolerable using the trail.”

Lilly was fiddling with her tracker again. Suddenly, she yelled out.

“I’ve got it!”

“Great! How far?”

“About 830 kilometers just south of west.”

I thought about my geography.

“Hmm, that would put it about in the Grand Tetons.”

She looked pensive.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Well, it’s beautiful country but rugged. Plus, we have two mountain ranges to cross to get there.”

Rosco nodded.

“Yeah, the Big Horns are crawling with Indians.”

“Why on Earth would your people hide the ship so far away?”

Lilly hesitated.

“Uh, we were performing science observations at something called the Yellowstone Basin. Three flew the ship close to there and hid it. They were supposed to come back after a couple of months. The last we heard from them was just before they left the ship. That was years ago before we lost contact at our base.”

I shook my head.

“I guess we can write them off then. Couldn’t you contact the ship?”

“No, they powered it down to prevent it being detected.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Detected by whom?”

She shrugged.

“No body told me. I assume it was the ones who attacked the base.”

“This just keeps getting better and better. You know, 800 kilometers is a long way to walk especially over mountains. As much as I hate the idea, we need horses.”

Rosco nodded.

“Yeah or mules. I almost regret now turning my mules loose but they couldn’t have made it. Beside, I didn’t want to take them away from their home area. There are a few homesteads on the grassland west of us if they haven’t been burnt out by the Indians. We should be there in a few days.”

“OK, at least that’s a plan.”

We hiked on until an hour before sunset. Rosco was a good hunter, so we had stew again. I’ll say one thing, when the sunset here, it really gets dark. The sky is amazing and the weather has been good though it does get a little cold at night. My special underwear helped there. About three days later, we spotted a house and corral. To my excitement, there were horses and at least one mule that I could see. Rosco and I went up to the door. Lilly stayed hidden. The man was very glad to see us. Seems he was expecting other company.

“Would you be interested in selling some of your horses?”

He laughed.

“I’ll sell you the whole damn place for all the good it will do you. If I knew which way to go, I’d already be gone.”

I gave him several nuggets and pointed the way we had come.

“We haven’t seen any Indians on our way here.”

He snorted.

“That don’t mean nothing but it’s better than staying here.”

He loaded up a mule, saddled a horse, and looked sadly at us.

“I’ll sorta miss this place but I’d miss my scalp more. Good luck to you.”

With that, he wheeled around and galloped away. Lilly saw him leave and walked on in.

“I see you got us some horses.”

Rosco laughed.

“We got us a whole homestead.”

“Wow, why don’t we stay here a while then?”

“Well, it’s getting late so we should bed down here tonight but I’d feel better getting as far away from here as we can tomorrow. That fellow was convinced that an Indian attack is imminent.”

“I haven’t seen any Indians.”

I just shrugged and walked into the house. It was two rooms and was a mess. Our former tenant was obviously a slob. I turned around and walked back out.

“It’s all yours. I’m sleeping in that lean-to.”

Lilly huffed.

“It can’t be that bad.”

She went in, stayed a few seconds, and came out.

“I’ll join you.”

Rosco walked up, shook his head, and entered the cabin. It was quiet for a few minutes. He stuck his head out the door with a smile.

“Good night.”

He disappeared back inside. I went to the lean-to, unrolled my blankets, and lay down. I guess Lilly came in but I was asleep as soon as my head hit the ground. I awoke to the smell of smoke. I jumped up and looked out. Rosco was frying something over a campfire. I put my boots and holster on and walked up to him.

“Do I want to know what that is?”

“Probably not. Let’s just call it breakfast.”

It wasn’t bad. Lilly came up, looked at it, and left. I smiled and stood up.

“Let’s load up one of the horses with supplies then get out of here. My neck hairs are standing up.”

We salvaged what we could from the cabin, saddled three horses, loaded another with supplies, and rode out. We hadn’t gone more than a half hour away when we saw smoke behind us. Lilly rode up beside me.

“I guess they were watching.”

“Yeah, I wonder why they let us leave?”

Rosco shook his head.

“What makes you think they did?”

He pointed up ahead. About 20 Indians were blocking our path. I sighed.

“Great! What now?”

“Just keep moving forward. There is no point in running.”

As we approached, they parted. We rode through like they weren’t there. When we had left them behind, I turned to Rosco.

“I don’t get it.”

Rosco nodded.

“They are either playing with us or want to know what we are up to. You have to admit, we are an unlikely group to be here.”

“Why so?”

“Lilly for one. No pretty woman would ride into Northern Cheyenne Territory. I think they are also interested in you.”

This surprised me.

“There’s nothing special about me.”

Rosco laughed.

“Everything about you is different. They sense it.”

I scoffed.

“I doubt that.”

“We’ll see.”

We didn’t stop for lunch. By late afternoon, we had reached another dwelling. It was obviously abandoned but would provide shelter and safety. Fortunately, it was not a pig sty like the last one. It appeared that a couple had lived here. I wondered what had happened to them. There was a good fireplace and Rosco soon had a cook fire going. You guessed it, stew again. We were all tired and sacked out soon after eating. I awoke to a commotion outside. Looking around, I was alone. I jumped up and went outside in just my underwear. Rosco and Lilly were being held by several Indians. What looked like a chief was facing me. He made a statement and backed away.

“Rosco, do you speak their language?”

“Some. He seems to think that you have been sent by their gods. A shaman has told him that you are between genders and have great magic.”

This was not good. How did they know I was intersexed.

“Tell him I am just a common man.”

Rosco spoke haltingly at the chief. He said something sharply to Rosco. I don’t think he believed me. He stared a minute and, suddenly, grabbed an arrow from his quiver. He placed it in his bow and shot me in the middle of my chest. Of course, the arrow bounced off harmlessly. He pulled his knife and threw it at me. It also bounced off. I just stood there dumbfounded. My underwear seems to repel anything. The chief yelled something. The braves threw Rosco and Lilly to the ground. The whole bunch ran to their mounts and skedaddled. Rosco was looking at me with his mouth open. Lilly knew what had happened. Rosco walked over to me and fingered my chest.

“Shit! You are magic!”

I smiled.

“No, I just have a very good pair of underwear.”

Lilly laughed.

“Yeah, we wore them when we were scouting about. They are pretty awesome, aren’t they?”

Rosco shook his head.

“No shit!”

“We had better load up and hit the trail before they come back.”

The dog had stayed hidden under the porch so was safe. It didn’t take long to get going. We did not see any signs of the Indians throughout the day. The mountains in the distance were getting closer. As we sat around the campfire in the evening, we discussed the morning’s events. Rosco poked the fire and looked up at me.

“You sure scared the living daylights out of that chief.”

“I don’t know, I think he was sort of expecting it. He just didn’t know what to do when it really happened. The big question is what now.”

“Oh, they’ll dance around and consult their shaman. They definitely think you are heap big medicine. Maybe they will just leave us alone.”

“I get the feeling that you don’t like Indians.”

We bedded down and morning came fast. After breakfast, we headed out again. Once more there were no Indian signs. The Big Horns were getting close. We were considering stopping for the day when we topped a rise and got a big surprise. Before us was a beautiful river valley that was filled with teepees.

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Late in the evening, Karen returned.

“What I learned is both hard to believe and even harder to understand. Apparently, when the gate was used to travel through time, it more or less became outside of normal space and time. So, that is why it is still on the plain even through the original ruins are not. The question is what happened to the ruins and what effect does the disappearance have concerning Jonnie?”

I frowned.

“I thought Jonnie went straight to Earth?”

“True, but I think the room on Earth that Jonnie and I went to was a satellite site.”

I was getting a bad feeling.

“Hmm, if the ruins are gone then that site may be gone as well. If so, how will we get to Jonnie?”

Karen shook her head.

“I don’t think we can. The future women said that, without a gate in place, they cannot precisely pinpoint a place and time. So, if the gate at Earth is gone, there is no way.”

“Maybe it’s still there like the one here?”

Karen sighed.

“My physicist does not think so. She believes only the initiating gate would survive.”

“This is crazy!”

Our vid chimed then. It was George.

“Hey George, are you OK?”

“Oh, I’m fine but we have lots of company here. The Planetopolis military has taken over. They are very interested in talking with Karen but they don’t seem to be looking for you.”

“Are they coming here?”

“They will certainly send some agents but I don’t think the Planetopolis wants to be seen as interfering with the resort. There are a lot of heavy hitters involved with it. To tell you the truth, their presence here probably won’t last long. After all, the only thing here now is the gate and it is dead. Even Karen could not power it up as you said. So, unless the aliens come back, there is nothing here to do.”

“I agree and there is really no reason for the aliens to be here either. Their interest was the ruins and it’s gone. My concern is Jonnie. I fear she is lost to us. My only hope is in the future bunch but they don’t seem too concerned. That does not surprise me because of the threat of time effects. In fact, the disappearance of the ruins seems to confirm that threat.”

“Yeah, there is a scientist here with the military who is saying the same thing. But, without an active gate, we are helpless.”

George signed off. Karen sighed.

“Well, we better stay here at least until the military leaves. They can not find this place. We need to decide what to do then.”

I nodded and got up. I went to the room I was staying in to check on Raylan. He was still asleep and I just stood looking at him. I felt totally lost and my hope was rapidly diminishing.