What have I become?
Trevor Stone had faced and survived all manner of nightmare creatures in the course of his life; in the course of his reign. At last Armageddon conjured a monster that sapped his will, boggled his mind, and pushed him to the brink of insanity. That monster was himself.
What have I done?
He switched off sensory input, tuning out the buzz of the galactic gateway that had brought Nina’s humans to this Earth. He shut out the cries of the tortured slaves forced to do the bidding of extraterrestrial masters. He ignored the sound of the Major shooting her pistols.
Trevor retreated into his mind but instead of finding sanctuary, he found a prison built from the truth of what he had done on this parallel world.
The gateway was the nucleus of Thebes. Thebes was the last city of mankind on this Earth. It had also been the first city.
A distant shout tried to break through to him, "Trevor…we…have…to…go…"
Clues he had ignored now laid plain in front of him, a mystery revealed that had been, in fact, poorly hidden. He only failed to see the truth because accepting the lies had been easy.
Director Snowe and Major Forest knew there were no more human beings on this planet because the only humans on this world had come through the Gateway to Thebes.
The words of a Committeeman: "We should halt outward bound cross-dimensional research until such time as additional assets are made available."
Yes, outward bound. But inward bound continued in the form of supplies. On this world, no one had yet shutdown the invaders' gateways.
At the estate on this Earth, the Geryons had issued a warning before attacking. When had an invader on Trevor's home Earth ever given a warning? But from one invader to another, such a courtesy might be extended to avoid 'destabilizing' the border between territories. Perhaps the Duass failed to counter attack from Erie Coast for the same reason.
His mind cycled through hint after hint, sign after sign that all was not as it seemed. Nina's people used numbers and grid references the way an invading army would categorize and organize foreign territory. Nina’s explanation of ‘forgetting’ the old was so broad and foolish he should have seen through it but it was easier, more convenient, to accept without question.
The architecture at the lake and the Chaktaw base resembled cliff dwellings, yet Thebes resembled a more traditional human city built on open plains, yet he asked no question.
Why didn’t I ask more? Why did I accept it all?
Cities and playgrounds and air ports and farms and all the other trappings of civilization overrun and replaced with bases and mining operations.
An armada of invaders had come, including humanity, competing for territory like European settlers landing on the New World, but sharing the primary goal of beating down, defeating, subjugating the indigenous species.
No wonder Nina had never heard of the estate. The Trevor Stone of this reality had never been at that estate. The estate had belonged to someone else.
The Chaktaw?
"Please, Trevor, snap out of it!"
And he had replaced the Trevor Stone who had led the human invaders; stepped into his shoes easily. Trevor saw Chaktaw bodies hanging from crucifixes.
Reverend Johnny’s ghost spoke, "This world is having a strange effect on you, Trevor Stone. It is bringing out a side of you that you had previously kept in a cage. I remember when you were saddened by the idea that your life would be one of killing and destruction. Now it seems as if you are embracing your fate with welcoming arms."
No, Reverend, Trevor thought. This world merely showed me who I really am.
How else could he explain it? On one world, a warrior fighting to save his people, on another, a warrior conquering new territory. A difference in only purpose, not methods. Yes, this is why the Old Man chose Trevor Stone for his gifts, because of his black heart.
Trevor became vaguely aware that he was moving, of a hand pulling him along. He blinked rapidly and slowly returned to the world around him. He felt his steps on the catwalk, heard the heavy breath of Major Nina Forest as she encouraged him along.
"Down. You have to go down, Trevor. Down this ladder."
He scanned the floor and saw a portal there, like an open manhole cover.
"Hurry! Hurry, if we can duck down here, we can hide. I can get you out of this."
Trevor did as suggested, still too groggy from realization to offer any protest. He descended into a dark, humid area that smelled of steam and rusting metal. Around him, walls lined with pipes and wires and small lights.
She whispered urgently, "Hurry, Trevor. Please. Hide. We have to hide."
A new sound reached his ears, the sound of heavy boots marching along-no, jogging along-with a metallic clank-clank.
He finished his climb down and moved away from the ladder. Nina slid down and landed with a heavy thump next to him. She grabbed his arm again and pulled him into an even smaller and darker passage.
After several seconds, a line of heavy boots marched overhead. When they did not stop, Nina let out a long sigh and slid to the floor, her back against the wall in a seated position.
Trevor waited with his hands over his head. He fought to comprehend the enormity of the revelation, beyond his personal role.
"Listen, Trevor I can explain everything. I can." The quiver in her voice suggested that might not be true.
Nina stood and turned as if to lead him in a new direction, saying, "If we can make it back to the Operations Center, I know most of the soldiers will follow you instead of Snowe. If we can get out of here alive we can-"
Trevor leapt to her and placed a firm finger over her lips.
"Shhh…shhh."
She stopped talking. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her against the wall.
"What brought you here? Who brought you here? Why are you here? Why are you invading this world?"
She shook her head. "I don’t know. I’m just a soldier."
"Don’t lie to me. Don’t lie anymore to me!"
His hands shook but he found enough control to pull one of her silver pistols from its harness and shove the barrel to her nose. She tried to turn away but he grabbed her hair with his free hand and ordered, "Answer me."
"I-we followed Trevor. We followed you…you brought us here…"
She sobbed. Nina Forest sobbed. "Don’t…don’t kill me… please…"
Trevor felt his entire body burn with anger. He gripped the pistol so tight it was a wonder the handle did not squish in his palm. He wanted to push the barrel straight through her head. He wanted to hurt her for lying to him, for being a conqueror for He stopped. He stopped and shuddered at the feelings flowing through him. Feelings of rage and anger and the desire to do harm. To do harm to Nina Forest.
What have I become?
Trevor loosened his grip and pulled the barrel away, holding it aloft in the dark corridor and glaring at the weapon as if it were a rattlesnake in his grasp.
Nina slumped to the floor caressing the red mark on her face.
"My…my God…" he stumbled."Look…look at who I am. Look at what I am."
He dropped the pistol. It hit the metal-grated floor below with a reverberating clang.
He turned to her. She sobbed with her face in her hands. As he spoke, his body shook with fear, fear of himself.
"You took me from my world to save you. That was the truth, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?"
The Major wiped the sleeve of her battle suit across her nose to clean off some of the mess. As she did, she answered in a contrite, soft voice, "Yes."
"But you didn’t tell me that you were-you ar e-invaders here."
She could not look him in the eye. Instead, she faced the wall and answered, "No. Everyone knew we couldn’t do that."
"Snowe? The Committee? All of Thebes?"
"Snowe, The Committee, the top Generals, and most of the squad leaders in Third Legion. I told you, Third L had been Snowe's outfit. As things changed, we briefed more people. Just told them to be quiet, mainly."
"You controlled access to me and you never wanted me thinking about supplies and industry or manufacturing or any of this stuff. You didn’t want me to see this place. You didn’t want me to see…" his voice grew louder, "you didn’t want me to see your gateway. Did you think you could hide it forever? Did you?"
She answered only with a sniffle.
He seethed, "You knew I'd find out sooner or later. Did you think I’d just accept it? You thought I’d just…" his voice trailed and he found the answer himself. "Christ, you thought you could make me like it here. All the things you — we- did. Oh sweet Lord. And I almost…I was becoming…I was becoming him."
No, no, Trevor. You were finding the part of him inside of you. She couldn’t make you into a monster; no one can do that to a man. But she didn’t have to, did she? She just had to find the monster in you. Ask the people of New Winnabow. They know.
Stone took a long look at the strong Major Forest curled in a ball against the floor wiping tears from her face. Tears he had scared from her. After all, monsters can be scary.
Trevor turned and marched away.
Cautiously, she raised her eyes and watched him move off in a wobbling gait, glancing down the side passages in search of an escape route. Nina stood and staggered behind him warily, like a storm chaser pursuing an erratic tornado.
She pleaded, "If we can get to Ops we can convince the army to side with you."
Trevor shot her a nasty glance and said, "I don’t care about victory for your people. I'm not an invader. You and everyone else in Thebes are conquerors. Why are you here?"
She answered, "I will tell you everything I know but first, we have to get out of here."
He left the dark passage for a wider, better lit corridor lined with lockers. Nina still followed but fidgeted, anxiously, like a rabbit leaving behind the safety of its hole for a dangerous, wide-open plain.
"You belong here," he told her with a suppressed fury underlying his tone. "This is your city, Nina. You built this…this base. Stay here. Rot here. Die here. I don’t give a shit."
He stopped at an intersection to get his bearings. One dark, dirty hallway led down a ramp. A second cleaner, brightly-lit passage went in the other direction. He chose the former. She followed a few steps behind, afraid to get too close.
"Trevor, wait. I…I told you when you first came over I’d help you get home. I promised you. If you’ll let me, I’ll help you."
Stone stopped, turned, and bound to her. She staggered backwards, stumbled, and actually fell straight on her ass like a child knocked over by a bully.
"You're lying. You would say anything to keep me from leaving."
His hands shook as he spoke. She turned her head and cringed, expecting a blow.
"You showed me how bad I can be. Well I reject it. I reject you! I will not be your tyrant. I fight for my people. You are nothing to me."
He stormed off two steps but stopped when she said, "We had help."
Nina stood and walked to him, her steps as measured as if she traversed a mine field but lacking any confidence, any sense of control. She had changed from manipulator to beggar.
"We had help bringing you here. We couldn’t have done it ourselves. Snowe had contacts like my Trevor did. I’m not supposed to know, but I think I do."
Trevor turned and looked her in the eyes. He saw defeat there, but a defeated enemy with one last card to play. He quickly understood that this was no longer about keeping him; it was about her personal survival.
"And you’ll tell me," he said. "You’ll tell me everything if I take you with me. Is that it?"
Her lips quivered. "Snowe is going to kill me, too. And without you-" she stopped as embarrassment flooded over her but she was in far too deep to let shame interfere. "I mean, without you, there’s nothing here for me. No one. I have no life in Thebes."
From far away came the sound of soldiers searching the maze of corridors.
"Nothing for you here? Snowe will kill you? I suppose he knows I won’t play along now that I know the truth."
A new thought occurred to Stone. He cocked an eye and said, "Maybe he wanted me back for other reasons, like getting The Committee out of the way. He can make up a story and take over now, can’t he? All without being the bad guy."
She nodded.
Trevor said, "I’m going, Nina. Goodbye."
Her voice cracked, "Please don’t leave me behind! I don’t want to be…I don’t want…"
Trevor leaned in close to her. She averted her eyes.
"Go on."
Nina admitted, "I don’t want to be alone. Not again. I couldn’t stand that again. I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t leave me alone."
"You did everything I wanted, even things I didn't know I'd want. Was all that so you wouldn't be alone? Is that what it took for you to keep the other Trevor? I was right from the very beginning; you're nothing like the Nina I knew."
She leaned against the wall and sighed. A pitiful sight but he cared only out of necessity.
"Can you get us out of here? Get us away from Thebes?"
"Snowe landed his Skipper on the roof. If we can get to it we can get away fast."
When Trevor said nothing she took his silence as acceptance but before she took the lead he warned, "If you deceive me again, if you lie to me, if you try anything I don’t like, I’ll kill you. Do you understand? I don’t care who you look like or what we’ve done. Clear?"
Despite the fact that he was unarmed and she carried two pistols, she believed his threat.
Major Forest swallowed hard.
"Okay…um…this way," she led him toward a descending stairwell.
"Wait. I thought you said we’d head for the roof and take his ship."
She answered timidly, "If we go down two levels we can cut past the holding chambers and get into one of the cargo tubes. That will take us to an elevator to the roof."
He did not budge. He did not believe her.
She said, "Listen, back in the old days some of the supplies had to get shipped fast to the front. We had transport tubes from the core to a freight elevator to the landing pads on the roof."
Trevor said, "Your supplies from another world. From your home world. Right."
She bit her lip and nodded.
"Tell me, Nina, why is this city so empty? Where are the reinforcements from home?"
"We don’t have time for this, Trevor. We have to get going. Snowe isn’t going to let you live now, he’d never trust you and he sure doesn’t trust me. We don’t have time."
"We’ll make time, soon enough. Okay, go."
Trevor followed the Major down several flights of stairs. They arrived at a wide, lonely corridor. They hid among a pile of crates covered by a tarp as a squad of soldiers marched by.
When clear, he asked, "Did I go from Emperor to wanted man that quick?"
She said, "No, he'll try and keep it quiet. He's probably got a handful of loyal men in here searching for you and everyone else doesn't have a clue. But we don't know which guards are working for him and which aren't, so best to stay out of sight if we can."
One room grabbed his attention, a massive but dormant assembly area. Through an observation window, he spied parts of Skippers-rotor blades, wings-lying about.
"Too big to come through on their own," he said more to himself than her. "So you send through the parts and assemble the bigger equipment over here."
"Yes," she admitted.
He said to her, "I've seen gateways before on my world. The Hivvans had one and that one looked different from the one we destroyed in Binghamton that first year. Yours doesn't look like either of those. Same function, maybe made from different technology?"
"I guess. Look, we have to keep moving," and she coaxed him forward.
The hall ended at a set of rusting metal doors but passages led off to either side, making a ‘T’ intersection. To the left, a corridor leading to darkness. To the right, a small hall lined with electrical cords and plumbing.
While he waited for her to decide direction, Trevor heard voices from the passage to his right where he saw an archway leading into a lit chamber of some kind. He recognized the tone of the voices: guards issuing orders, no doubt with the added emphasis of a whip.
"Trevor…wait," her voice came in a loud whisper as he drifted toward the sounds. "There’s an access point for the cargo tubes through here. Don’t go that way. Trevor!"
He paid her no attention as he moved to the archway that, he found, led to a balcony serving as an elevated guard post above a prisoner work area. A soldier stood there, his attention focused on the slaves below.
Quietly, Trevor dared a step inside for a better look, managing to avoid notice.
He saw a big room lined with steel girders and metal mesh catwalks that smelled of steam and sweat. Other elevated observation posts remained unmanned, no doubt a symptom of diminished manpower.
Several conveyor belts flowed into the room dropping bundles into bins. From what he could see from the distance, those bundles included clothing, shoes, personal electronic devices such as shavers and hair dryers as well as other household-type items.
Human workers examined the bundles, discarding some but distributing most to work stations where the items were repaired. At those work stations labored bipedal humanoids with big puffy cheeks, wiry hair, and whiskers of a sort.
Chaktaw slaves.
Still unseen, Trevor returned to the hall and said to Nina, "No deals, no bull shit. You tell me right now, whose Earth is this? The Chaktaw’s?"
She did not hesitate. "Yes. It’s their Earth. Our mission was to wipe them out."
Trevor stepped back to the balcony again. The guard there leaned against a post in an effort to remain vertical while he drifted closer to a nap.
As he glanced over the balcony, he saw a sight he had seen too often on his home world. Sweat shops and industrial slave camps had been critical components of survival for the invading Grand Army of the Hivvan Republic on his Earth. Even the most conservative of guesses pointed to tens of thousands of his people starved or worked to death in such places since the invasion.
For the first time, Trevor Stone felt pity for a non-human creature.
He knew the Chaktaw — the Vikings- from his Earth, having fought them-no, slaughtered them-at Five Armies. While he did not regret murdering those invaders, he saw them now in a different light. This was their Earth. Their home. Nina and the men of Thebes had no more right to invade and conquer here than the Chaktaw or the Hivvans or the Duass did on his home world.
"What are you doing you ass?" one of the guards berated a slave. "I said repair this shit, not take it apart. You dumb or something?"
The Chaktaw to whom the guard spoke actually looked familiar to Trevor, albeit with more bruises and scrapes on his face. It was the Chaktaw prisoner taken from the strip-mall-like outpost they had raided, the prisoner who could speak man's language.
"You stupid…you still here… you die I think. Fromm come for you."
Wham! A back hand from the guard sent the prisoner to the floor.
Nina joined him on the balcony. Thanks to the constant drone of machines and the continual shouts from below, the drowsy sentry did not hear them converse.
She pointed to what resembled a massive pipe affixed to the wall with an opening cut in the side. The slaves placed boxes inside that pipe.
"That’s a cargo tube," she said. "There's a platform in there that could take us to the freight elevators for the roof."
Trevor went quiet for several seconds, his eyes alternating between the tube and the prisoners and the guards. Finally he told her, "Okay. I’m taking that prisoner with me. That one who was talking."
She gasped, caught herself, and said, "No, we don’t know who to trust in there. And the Chaktaw will kill you and me if given the chance."
"Shut up. Either I’m taking the two of you with me or I’m taking just him."
Major Forest opened her mouth to protest but he did not wait to listen. Instead, he walked over to the napping guard and shouted, "Hey, wake up, soldier!"
The guard jerked straight and swung around.
Nina hustled to Trevor’s side, her hands primed to reach for her twin pistols.
"Who are you?" The sentry retorted but took notice of the woman's rank.
"I’m the guy in charge around here. Or don’t you keep up with current events?"
Trevor did not wait for the confused guard to collect his wits, hoping that news of power shifts and rumors of a returned Emperor would, at least, result in inaction. So instead of explaining, he descended a latter set in the balcony floor, calling up, "You fall asleep like that again on watch and you’ll be down here sewing shoes with the rest of the scum, hear me?"
Two dozen Chaktaw prisoners worked in the large chamber although half remained in holding pens behind jail-cell bars. The other half worked at long tables cluttered with greasy machine parts, torn fabrics, disassembled devices, and dull tools.
In addition to the one on the balcony, four guards walked the floor armed with whips and clubs. However, it was not the sentries that worried Major Forest. She tapped Trevor's shoulder and pointed to a security camera overseeing the area.
"You need to make this quick," she whispered.
He saw her meaning and nodded in understanding.
Two of the guards approached. They wore black tunics and not battle armor. One waved at Nina's holsters and barked, "No guns on the floor."
Trevor barked even louder, "I give the orders here. Take a close look. Know who I am?"
The guard did take a close look. His eyes widened.
"Should I shoot him?" Nina played the game as best she could with a broken spirit.
"I’m the man in charge and I’m here for that worthless shit, the one I pulled off the battlefield up north. The one who can speak our language."
"That thing? It’s scheduled for Intel. I can’t release it without orders."
A loud buzz cut through the sound of tapping hammers and rolling conveyors. That buzz came from a phone which one of the guards moved to answer.
Trevor said, "Listen, asshole, my name is Trevor Stone and if that don’t mean something to you you’re in a heap of trouble."
The guard stumbled, "Shit, I recognize your face now. I heard the rumors but-"
"Stop them!" The guard who answered the phone shouted.
Before he could react, Trevor booted his foot into the first watchman's testicles. At the same time, Nina drew her pistols and pointed them at the second guard standing in front of them. That man raised his hands and backed away.
The prisoners and the remaining humans on the floor shouted and cried out and ducked for cover while the drowsy sentry in the balcony cocked his weapon and took aim.
Stone pushed aside the slave drivers and grabbed hold of the talking-Chaktaw's arm. At that same moment, the guard on the balcony decided to fire, his bullets ricocheting off the work table and turning the prisoners into a scrambling mass of chaos.
"Come with me."
"I no come with you. You dead."
Trevor did not wait for an answer. No matter how defiant his words, the Chaktaw had been beaten and starved and therefore could not resist being dragged toward the cargo tube.
Nina fired her pistols, chasing off the guards at ground level but unable to match the fire power from above. She threw her shoulder into Trevor, pushing him toward the opening and shouted, "Get in!"
Trevor forced the Chaktaw inside, falling on a wheeled metal cart lined with bins and straps for securing packages sitting atop tracks in a tube about the size of a small oil pipe. Nina dove in with bullets following close behind.
She then turned around and braved assault rifle rounds in order to reach outside the tube and push a big switch. A sharp electronic buzz followed, and then the tube went black as the access port closed. The cart automatically began its journey, rolling forward first slow then fast and then faster.
"Keep your heads down," she said although they did not need to be told; the tight confines of the tube forced them to remain in a prone position for the journey. "Probably take a minute or two," she added in a loud voice to be heard over the sound of squeaking wheels.
"What trick this?" The Chaktaw said in the dark.
"No trick. Just be quiet until we are clear," Trevor answered.
After several minutes of travel through the lightless tunnel, the cargo sled slowed and brakes engaged causing sparks to erupt between the wheels and track. At last, the top of the pipe disappeared and the cart rolled to a halt in a large room made of gray-colored concrete.
Several of the cargo tubes leading in from different parts of the facility came to a collective stop a few paces from a set of large elevator doors. Another wall offered a bulkhead that, no doubt, led to the rest of the complex. Certainly Director Jakob Snowe and a squad of his best friends would soon come through that door.
Nina lifted herself from the cart and said, "Looks clear but we got to move."
Trevor followed her and then turned to offer a hand to their passenger. The Chaktaw refused and, after struggling for words, said, "I no play game."
"No game," Trevor grabbed the gray coveralls the prisoner wore and hauled him up.
Apparently tired of what it perceived to be a ruse, the Chaktaw reacted with surprising agility for a starved and overworked prisoner. He shoved a knee into Trevor’s belly then threw a chop to the back of his neck. Stone fell to the concrete floor.
Major Forest placed a pistol directly to the Chaktaw's face.
"Don’t!"
Trevor slowly-with a grunt through clenched teeth-stood. He spoke between pangs of pain, "You won’t believe this, but I’m not your enemy any more. I want to help you. But first we have to get out of here. Do you understand?"
The Chaktaw did not understand. Again, either Trevor spoke too quickly for him to translate or-most likely-he did not believe. Yet what Trevor could not manage with words, Director Snowe managed with bullets.
Rifle fire snapped into the room. A bullet passed between Trevor and the Chaktaw. Snowe and his ‘friends’ moved into the room intending to make it a killing ground.
Nina shot her pistol at the attackers while urging "in the elevator!"
Trevor punched the obvious 'call' button and, fortunately, the doors immediately opened. With Nina providing cover fire, the three entered the car and managed to close the doors. Snowe's frustrated voice eked into the elevator shaft as he told his men to, "get to the roof!"
Meanwhile, the elevator ascended to the squeal of pulleys and rumbles of wheels, moving at a pace that felt unbearably slow. When the doors finally opened again, Trevor felt certain Director Snowe and his execution squad would be waiting.
Instead of guns, flickering stars and a crescent moon greeted the three escapees atop the lone flat spot on the domed building. A solitary Skipper occupied one of three landing pads and a crisp breeze swept across the roof.
"Come on, get onboard," Nina led them to the waiting craft.
"No guards?" Trevor voiced his surprise aloud.
"It's not like the whole army is after us," Nina answered. "I don’t think he was expecting you to make a break for it, anyway."
The Chaktaw dug its feet in and refused to move. Trevor grabbed his arm and said, "I know you don't trust me, but we were almost shot downstairs."
"This is a game," the enemy replied. "You pretend friend, you want me to show you Fromm place. Rather die here."
"Look, you don't have to show me anything. But if you stay here, we will both die here. Get onboard and we'll figure the rest out later."
He did not give the Chaktaw a chance to respond, yanking him to the Skipper. When inside, Trevor closed the ramp and buckled both himself and his reluctant passenger into seats.
The engines spooled to life and the booster rockets shot the craft into the sky, pinning everyone onboard to their seats. As the roar of the rockets faded, Trevor heard another noise; a steady plink-plink-plink against the fuselage. After a moment, he recognized the sound of bullets hitting the ship. Snowe had made it to the roof, but not quite in time.
As the rotors spun to life and the nose of the craft dipped as it began a more conventional and controlled flight path, Nina said, "We don't have much fuel. Maybe an hour flying time. Which way do you want me to go?"
"Any signs of pursuit?"
She consulted the onboard radar and answered, "No, nothing. If they come after us, it might not be for a while."
Trevor remembered what he had done after executing The Committee and told her, "Of course not. Snowe will be too busy locking down communications and giving the officers a choice to follow him or face a firing squad."
Nina repeated her question, "Which way do you want me to fly?"
"North," he answered. "We're going north."
"Trevor, listen, I don't know what you think you can work out with the Chaktaw but-"
"Just shut your mouth and fly the ship. I'll tell you when you can speak again."
The skipper sped across the industrial sector bathed in moonlight and pushing through streams of smoke. After a moment, they cleared the crumbling walls of the northern perimeter.
Trevor asked the other passenger, "How much of my language do you understand?"
The Chaktaw answered, "I understand good."
"We have some talking to do."
"No talking. Fromm will come for you and your city. He will kill you all."
Trevor sighed and placed his head into his hands. Yes, this Chaktaw was probably right, particularly if Director Snowe did not get a handle on things quickly. Would the officer corps follow yet another coup? If not, that could mean civil war and that would seal the destruction of Thebes, the city he had brought back to life.
Thousands of human beings-members of his species-would die, including doppelgangers of people he knew, like Jon Brewer and Ashley Trump. Did he care? They were, after all, invaders to this Earth, yet they were his kin even if separated by a universe.
He glanced up and saw the Chaktaw's eyes glaring at him with a mixture of contempt and wonder. In those eyes he saw an even greater bond than that shared by a species. He saw a survivor from a civilization torn asunder.
At home, Trevor had watched his Earth invaded, families murdered, children enslaved, and all manner of horrors unleashed on an unsuspecting populace for reasons yet unknown. Here, the Chaktaw suffered that fate. If he felt sympathy for humanity on this world, then how could he justify the slaughter of Hivvans, Red Hands, and Redcoats at home?
Trevor Stone carried many burdens in his post-Armageddon life. Now he found a new addition to that load, the burden of knowledge.
How often he tried to cajole the Old Man into revealing secrets. How often he stood on the verge of understanding only to find he knew nothing.
Today revealed more truth than he desired. What had Major Forest told him? There were eight dimensions? Could these Earths host eight different civilizations? What of the monsters?
Or maybe the wolves are just hungry. Yes Reverend. What of those wolves? What of the pigeons and white tail deer around and outside Thebes?
On his Earth, how many ChewCows and Rat-Things prowled about?
One man’s animal is another man’s invading monster.
"We kill you all," the Chaktaw threatened again.
Yes, Fromm will destroy humanity here, if he can. The way I must destroy the invaders on my world. War is the way of it. The strong survive.
Were there eight Trevor Stones across eight parallel universes, seven leading armies of invaders, one fighting for survival?
What if I can help the Chaktaw, get home, and maybe save the people of Thebes?
The Skipper rumbled and wavered, flying over a plain of black wilderness.
Trevor spoke to the Chaktaw, "What is your name?"
He considered Trevor's question, perhaps wondering what potential harm revealing his name might cause. In the end he decided in favor of answering.
"Jaff."
"Okay, Jaff, here’s the deal…"
Trevor stopped as he realized he spoke too fast and too informal. He rephrased, "Jaff. I meet Fromm. I help Fromm. I have a gift for Fromm."
The Chaktaw smiled and grunted in what had to be his version of a chuckle.
"A gift? Yes. I show you our base. I trust you. Yes."
Sarcasm, it seemed, leapt universes.
The Chaktaw added a word Trevor did not understand. Something like cas-witt or cash-itt. No doubt the word translated into something unflattering.
Trevor recalled his meeting with the Fromm from his home universe during the Battle of Five Armies. He pulled a word-a Chaktaw word-from his memory and said, "You tell Fromm to meet me and I help him win war. Tell him I offer swashloo."
While Jaff understood, he did not appear convinced of Trevor’s intention. No doubt Jaff had heard rumors of Chaktaw soldiers hanging upside down from crucifixes.
"Fromm no dumb. He no trust you. You Emperor. Fromm kill you."
"You tell me where to meet Fromm. I wait there. You get Fromm."
"Fromm not come. Fromm no time for games."
Trevor stood and paced the skipper, wobbling side to side as the ship pushed through a patch of light turbulence. He ran a hand through his hair and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to find some way to convince Jaff to listen.
Finally he hit upon an idea. He knelt alongside Jaff's seat and said, "Listen carefully. This is very important. Tell Fromm that I know about the key only he can see. Tell Fromm I know why he is so smart. Tell him I have been to his old mansion and I can help him get it back. Tell him I can help him save Earth. His Earth. Tell him I have a gift."
Jaff regarded Trevor with great suspicion but sat silently, absorbing the words.
Nina heard the entire exchange. While afraid at what might happen if she spoke without permission, she could not stifle her curiosity.
"Trevor, I um, sorry, but what…what are you planning?"
"I don’t belong here," he finally admitted. "Neither do you. It’s time for us to go home."
Surprised, she gasped, "What? You know a way home?"
Trevor closed his eyes and said, "I’ve known how to get home since I got here. I guess I didn’t want to leave. But now it’s time for both of us to leave this world where we don’t belong."