Once its fuel tanks ran dry, the skipper landed in a field more than one hundred miles north of Thebes just as the sun rose over the eastern horizon. While Major Forest secured survival gear and weapons from the ship's cargo hatches, Trevor convinced Jaff to provide a meeting location.
After giving the Chaktaw a portion of their emergency rations as well as a pistol, the trio split. Following Jaff's directions, Trevor and Nina headed northeast, although the Major walked the first quarter mile backwards, convinced the Chaktaw planned to shoot them from behind.
For his part, Jaff disappeared to the northwest although Trevor suspected that to be ruse; that he would eventually turn due north. Whatever the case, Trevor's hope of returning home depended a great deal on the Chaktaw finding his leader and then convincing Fromm to rendezvous at the location Jaff chose.
Of course, Trevor did not know if his life span would be longer or shorter if Fromm did, in fact, choose to meet. Perhaps the Chaktaw leader would seize the opportunity to murder the face of the human invasion.
Nonetheless, Trevor now rejected this Earth with a fervor exceeding his initial embrace of Thebes. The longer he stayed here, the more diseased he felt, as if wallowing in a filth manufactured by his actions. Returning home could not cleanse him, but he craved the company of the people who knew him best. Perhaps they could help him fit the pieces back together.
As much as he wished to leave, he needed to know the answers of this place. As they walked from field to forest across tundra thawing in the morning sun, he conjured a thousand questions. But every time he tried to speak with Nina, his blood boiled, his anger spiked. The truth of her deception, the mind-warping reality of humanity as invaders on this Earth, and the exposing of his own nasty underbelly thanks to her carefully planned manipulation…all simmered inside at a dangerously high temperature.
Screaming at her would do no good. He knew that. He wanted answers and if they were to survive for the next few days to meet Fromm, he would need her help. Thus, he remained silent, biding his time until he could manage civilized conversation.
During the first hours of their journey, the only sound they shared was the plod of boots trudging across muddy ground and the occasional pant of short breath.
They found their way not only by compass, but by landmarks Jaff had mentioned. First came a mountain lined with abandoned cliff dwellings, dwellings cracked and burned, families driven out or slaughtered by invaders.
As directed by Jaff, outside this hillside town they found and followed a big road not so much paved as packed with a tight, granular surface akin to a blacktop/gravel mixture. Along the way, Trevor spied directional signs affixed to iron stakes and painted in fading colors on metallic surfaces. While the collection of scribbles and lines on those signs proved indecipherable, he understood the messages nonetheless.
This exit for such-and-such town. Rest stop ahead. Buy such-and-such brand of this consumer product.
They skirted clusters of empty development. From what he saw along the road, these earthlings preferred mountainside buildings but did utilize other designs as well. He spotted the remains of a riverside villa built with wood, metal, and stone that could easily have been mistaken for a small town back home. He also saw a blasted observation tower constructed along the road and resembling the Seattle Space Needle.
The Chaktaw had the same bipedal body shape, the same basic height and weight ranges. Their forms were nearly identical to human beings and hence the places in which they lived and the furniture in which they sat were mirror images to what Trevor knew from his world, which is why it had been easy to mistake this invaded Earth for a reflection of his own.
He saw buildings with triangle-like steeples that suggested houses of worship. He found an empty playground with pyramid-shaped sliding boards and crisscrossing swings, no doubt responsible for many skinned young Chaktaw knees from the time before the universe came to destroy these people.
Smashed warehouses…burned farms…skeleton-like remains of vehicles…the exact same sights he had come across while rebuilding man's civilization on man's Earth. It felt so familiar, with the one difference being that this world belonged to the Chaktaw. Humanity was just another invader.
As their hike racked up miles, Trevor noticed something peculiar in regards to Chaktaw settlements. From residential colonies to more metropolitan areas, the remains of their pre-invasion civilization seemed well-incorporated into the surrounding environment, as if taking advantage of the natural defenses of a mountain or a valley or dense woodland.
In any case, around mid day the two travelers stopped to rest their feet and eat salty combat rations. She told him 'pork' when he asked about the meat.
You mean pork transported across the galaxy through a gateway and packed into boxes by slaves and put on transports so as to feed an army of conquerors and Stone stopped the deluge of angry thoughts. This was why he could not speak to her. A simple question about lunch could turn into a reason to yell. He did not want to yell. He had done enough yelling in recent weeks.
During the first years of battle after the start of Armageddon, Trevor felt a righteousness in his cause, one that justified the brutality of his counter attacks and the determination of his armies. As difficult as his task, the path lay clear before him: kill the invaders, save the people. The means were justified by the ends of his species' survival.
That feeling of righteousness suffered a significant blow at New Winnabow, when he had unleashed his K9 army on the pacifists standing between him and victory over the Hivvans.
Justified? Given the circumstances, Trevor could tell himself as much. Again, a means to the ultimate end. But now, here, on this Earth, what justification could he have for his actions? Here humanity stood on the wrong side of the moral equation. More so, he pushed far beyond any reasonable limits, not only on the battlefield, but succumbed to all manner of twisted desires with this woman who resembled his Nina.
He wished he could convince himself that this was, in fact, a world of opposites. A world where-of course-Trevor was a kind of evil reflection of himself. But no, this place had proved less a mirror and more a window into the soul.
There was no Reverend Johnny or Stonewall McAllister in this universe because they had been born in the fire of invasion; personalities warped after subjection to great horror.
But there had been a Trevor Stone and a Nina Forest. As on his home Earth, one a great leader, another a natural born warrior. Yet here, Trevor indulged in acts of savagery and depravity, yet another testament to absolute power corrupting absolutely.
And the Nina Forest of this world? Well, that remained a mystery. He could not imagine what had turned a strong-willed woman into a brow-beaten girl who accepted objectification. She had been Trevor's plaything, not an equal; not a partner.
Why?
After resting their feet and eating their rations, the two gathered their packs and started off to the northeast again. The landscape around the road grew harsh as they moved deeper into what Trevor thought of as the Adirondack Mountains. As the afternoon grew long, the temperatures reversed and dipped as a wave of burly cloud cover cast shadows over the land.
Trevor and Nina saw animals during their march. They saw what Trevor called Chew Cows and Sloths. Both the herd of Chew Cows and the pair of Sloths looked half-starved. Yet Trevor figured the animals counted themselves lucky for having survived the winter. Spring was on its way and with it would come growing grass and wildflowers and trees full of leaves.
In an open field between two mountain ranges they spied, from a distance, four large creatures. Nina, in one of a handful of words they exchanged during the trip, said they were called Huskers. The things were part cow and part elephant as evident by the four ivory tusks alongside their big gaping mouths. Each stood the size of a house. According to the Major, these indigenous beasts were docile herbivores that, in a pinch, her people hunted for food.
A few minutes later, a destroyed bridge forced them to ford a small stream, descending first a steep, messy bank of tree roots and prickly brush then emerging on the far side after pushing through a thick wall of shrubs.
Ahead of them the road stretched on between muddy fields but it was a sight on the hills to the east that grabbed Trevor's full attention. His jaw unhinged and his eyes widened. He felt a shiver of wonder tremble along his spine and goose bumps sprung on his arms.
Atop a mountain summit stood a construct of incredible visual power, as if combining the size of the Pyramids with the mystery of the Easter Island Moai. Perhaps a temple, maybe some kind of fortress, or possibly a memorial-maybe all of those things-the site sprawled a couple of square miles surrounded by a wall of massive stones, or crystals, looking to Trevor's eyes very much like blue zircon.
Inside the perimeter stood towering pillars reaching hundreds of feet and seemingly built with big blue and white diamonds piled one after another. Trevor could not fathom how they held firm while standing so tall.
A number of those diamond shapes sported carved, Chaktaw faces meticulously designed but still vague enough to allow interpretation to remain in the eye of the beholder.
Those faces watched the valley between the mountains. Stone felt as if maybe they watched him. Judged.
How great a people these Chaktaw must be, to create something so beautiful, intimidating, and thought-provoking all at once.
"Marvelous…just…wow," he gasped.
Nina stumbled next to him and echoed, "I’ve never seen this before. Amazing."
He knew she spoke the truth because no living, sentient life form could gaze upon the sight without being swept away by the majesty, the grandness, the power.
Trevor turned to her and studied her profile. He saw her blue eyes and for a few seconds remembered that this was Nina Forest. A Nina Forest of another dimension, but Nina all the same. Her body, her voice, her eyes; everything arranged in the exact same manner as the woman he loved, at least on the outside.
His stare drew her attention. She flinched as if dodging a fit of his rage, then walked along the road with her head slung low like a guilty, beaten dog.
Trevor remembered how in the early days of Armageddon, after Nina had come to the estate, he had watched her walk with a shyness in her step that hid the fierce warrior beneath. She had carried herself as if she were a woman looking to pass unnoticed; hoping to slip quietly by in a world where no one understood her.
It occurred to Trevor that this Nina feared him. Not only because of his anger over her deception, but before that. Since the moment he had gained control over Thebes, she feared his temper. At some point their relationship had shifted from her trying to convince him-in all manner of ways-to stay and fight, to him dominating her.
When she finally reached that part of the other Trevor that lived in you.
After the failure at Erie Coast, he had nearly hit her when he deflected responsibility for the defeat on to her. He screamed. He bullied. Foul. Abusive.
The Trevor Stone she knew.
Nina of this world-and the one he knew back home-certainly had the physical ability to defend herself from any bully, including Trevor Stone. So why would she allow such domination? Trevor suspected that any man who raised a hand to the Nina of his Earth would find himself in the hospital rather fast. Why did this Nina tolerate such abuse?
He hurried to catch up to her. The two walked side by side along an embankment. The eyes of Chaktaw faces carved in the enormous pillars watched from across the valley.
"Nina."
She turned her head fast as if a sharp sound grabbed her attention, and then averted her eyes, unwilling to look directly into his.
"I want to talk to you."
Trevor spoke slowly so as to keep his voice calm. He sensed her fear and he did not want to spook her. Certainly anger remained, but he wanted information and could not allow his emotion to overcome his sense, he had done that far too often in recent weeks.
The two continued their walk along the road as it wove through the gorge and exited to the north. A few song birds chirped and small animals occasionally scurried across their path, but otherwise it felt as if they had the valley to themselves.
"I need to understand some things, Nina. I need those answers you promised."
She nodded without taking her eyes from her boots.
"Okay then. You brought me here. How’d you choose me? You said you saw eight parallel universes. Each with an Earth?"
The Major licked her lips and tried to answer. Her voice shook, seemingly worried that the wrong word could lead to an explosion.
"We…I didn’t have a chance to go sight seeing. We were given directions on how to get to your universe. I didn’t find you by accident. I mean, we picked you on purpose."
"And the reasons you picked me?"
A strange bird flew over head. It was about the size and shape of an Eagle but its scalp sported a plate of armor like a helmet.
"I told you the truth. Our Trevor was dead. Our world-" she stopped herself, huffed, and re-worded, "Our invasion had been stopped and turned back. We were down to just Thebes. I mean all of our outposts and resource stations and even the satellite colonies were wiped out. Mainly by the Chaktaw, but by other things, too."
"And how did you think I could help?"
"Believe it or not, I told you the truth on that already, you know? Our Trevor held things together. He was a great leader. You-I mean he-knew how to speak to people, to get their spirits up. We knew that you were a great leader, too. I-we-figured you could help us turn it around again."
He shook his head but he did not get angry. He refused to get angry. He was a human being capable of controlling his emotions.
"That’s not all. There’s more. Your Committee didn’t want me back."
"The Committee were politicians. They knew about the plan but never actually approved it. I sort of jumped the gun with Snowe's permission."
Trevor said, "Snowe knew sooner or later I'd confront The Committee. He probably figured I’d eventually get sick of their shit."
Nina allowed herself a sardonic chuckle. "Yeah. They were half-assed politicians. No matter what universe you were from, we knew you were a man of action, not words."
"Of course," he nodded fast as he realized one more key component. "I’m the guy from the Earth where humanity is under siege and I’ve been kicking ass. You figured I could think like the Chaktaw here. They're the ones causing you the most grief because they are the home team, huh? One thing I don’t get, though," Trevor adjusted the zipper on the leather pilot’s jacket he wore over his battle suit. "Why didn’t Snowe just take out The Committee himself?"
The Major shook her head but the whole time kept her eyes pointed down.
"The problems we had after our Emperor died got a little better thanks to The Committee. They showed the most pull with the people back home sending supplies. Things weren't going as planned. We were supposed to be living off the land over here for the most part by now. Home world didn't want much to do with us."
"What? They sent an army over here and abandoned you?"
"Not exactly. If you haven't noticed by now, we're not really a well-groomed fighting machine. Yeah, sure, there are professional soldiers in the ranks, mainly leftovers from the civil wars back home. A lot of the people who came over were mercenaries or criminals given a chance at a new life, people Trevor convinced to gamble on some new world paradise."
Trevor let that sink in. Mercenaries. Criminals. Very few professional soldiers. If that held true for the other invaders, it would explain why they often fought two-dimensionally. His ruse of the arrogant Red Coats at Wilkes-Barre, the wholesale slaughter of Red Hands during Five Armies, or the rout of the Chaktaw with a surprise charge during the last days of that battle. At one time, he wondered if man might be the best warriors in the universe. Perhaps a lack of quality among the invading armies gave his people an advantage.
She said, "If Jakob had taken The Committee out on his own, we might not see another supply shipment, and the gateways are one-way, Trevor. There's no going home and even if we did, half of the people in Thebes would be going home to jails or emptiness. At least here they have a chance to build a life."
"They don't belong here," he showed not one ounce of sympathy. "I don't care who they were, they don't belong and if they don't go back willingly, then they deserve to be slaughtered."
She ignored his words and said, "With you back and you killing The Committee, Snowe can step up and be the hero who salvages everything."
A whole slew of questions avalanched into Trevor’s mind. He tried his best to slow his thought processes and deal with them in some kind of order.
"Wait, now, you had your gateway. It’s one way? But you can-"
"Yes. One way. To Earth. Once you come over, there’s no going back. But we can communicate with home through the gate; tell them what supplies we need, when we need reinforcements if they can convince anyone to come, that is. That type of thing, you know?"
"But you weren’t convincing anyone to come, were you?"
"A few criminals here and there, no one we really wanted, not after Trevor's death. He was the glue holding it together. He could convince ordinary people to take up arms and follow him on this grand adventure, you know?"
He remembered his speech before the final showdown at Five Armies, how he had reached into the hearts of ordinary people-yesterday's accountants and shop clerks-and infected them with a blood lust, turned them into killers.
Imagine what I could do with a whole world listening. My gift to humanity, turning people into warriors.
The clouds that had rolled in earlier completed their job in blocking the sun from the afternoon sky. The temperature dropped and the wind carried hints of cold rain.
"So you figure, bring this successful Trevor Stone over and maybe he can energize things, huh? Maybe you can still win this."
"Survive this, you mean."
He nodded, "Yeah, I suppose so. Survive."
"But this was personal for you, wasn’t it?"
She did not answer for a long while. He decided not to push…not yet. They walked together in silence for a minute while their boots crunched in the surface of the soft road top and as drizzle turned to an honest rain.
"So you bring me over, hope I can turn the military tide of things, and have enough people in on it so you can hide the truth for a while. All the time the best you’re hoping for is, what, I off the Committee and take over. At that point you had to figure I’d find out that this wasn’t your planet; that you are the bad guys here."
Trevor felt a tremble in his arms, his hands flexed, and an angry shout grew in his throat…then faded as he calmed himself with a deep breath.
When he felt he could control his voice, he said, "So you’ve been playing mind games with me all the time. Using…playing games to distract me. To-what? — get me hooked on you? Get me hooked on all the crazy things you and the old Trevor used to do."
She jumped in, maybe to try and head off nastier words.
"Yes, that’s right. If my Trevor…if he wanted those things then I figured you would, too. And you know what? You did. No one forced you. I just gave you want you wanted. All the fantasies. Everything he craved, everything he made me do."
Her tone was not confrontational. No, it sounded more dejected.
He stopped walking. She sensed it and stopped, too. He stared at her through the curtain of cold rain and saw fear in her eyes. Her posture slumped, as if ready to cower on command.
His head tilted and he stared off toward the leafless trees surrounding the road.
"You're right. That’s scary, you know. It’s scary that it almost worked."
Trevor saw himself slamming a junior officer against a wall and shooting Chaktaw prisoners and leading a bloody coup d'etat. He recalled the feeling of invincibility that had come with the daring-if-foolish victory over the Geryon Reich. He remembered the sex with the Major, especially the first time. Angry. Mean. Love had been a world away.
Almost worked. Oh no, Trevor. It worked. It was all on display right there for everyone to see. No where to hide, Trev. You did the killing and you enjoyed it.
"And was that what your Trevor was like? Quick to kill? No mercy. Vicious?"
"Trevor and I…we…I loved him. After he was gone, maybe I wanted to have him back. Maybe I did this, you know, for personal reasons, too."
Nina avoided looking at his eyes and instead gazed at the road ahead.
"One more thing. You said you had help in getting me. Who?"
She fidgeted and her lips pressed tight together like a bank vault shutting. He saw her cheeks blush. At first he thought she might be getting sick, but then he realized that the girl was terrified of answering his question.
"Tell me, Nina. You didn't find and know how to use The Nyx's nest on your own."
After taking a deep breath, she turned, looked at him, and answered, "I told you that Trevor knew stuff. He knew about what was going on, a lot more than he ever told me. Snowe knew some things too, partly from people back home, partly from things Trevor filled him in on over here. Going to get you wasn't an idea original to Snowe or me."
"Go on."
A chilly wind whipped the rain along the road.
"When you first got here, you told me that there was, like, one big bad guy on your world that you thought was behind-"
He grabbed her shoulders. She cringed and her voice morphed into a frightened cry, "Something called Voggoth!"
"Voggoth? Of course. I should have guessed! I should have guessed!"
"But Trevor, listen," she confessed. "It wasn't just getting you here. Jakob cut a deal. As long as you were over here helping us, well…"
"Tell me!" He nearly spat in her face.
"As long as you were here they'd help us with the Chaktaw. Remember their outpost? Voggoth hit them first, knocked them down so our attack was easy."
"But not the Duass? He wouldn't help us against the Duass! That's why Snowe wanted me to leave them alone. Voggoth doesn't want you fighting each other, only the Chaktaw!"
He released her and stepped away. His head cocked to one side and a big, sardonic smile that did not have an ounce of good feelings in it grew from ear to ear.
"Oh, sure, kill two worlds with one Stone."
"What? Trevor, I don’t understand."
"Don’t you see? Don’t you see?"
"What?"
"On my Earth, we’re doing pretty good. We survived the first years of the invasion. We haven’t been beaten down. Just like the Chaktaw here, they’re holding on pretty good, right?"
She nodded.
"Voggoth convinces you to get me, probably hoping that everything would fall apart for man on my Earth. He brings me here thinking maybe I can help wipe out the Chaktaw!"
Trevor pinched his nose and shut his eyes. The scope of his failure caused a pounding ache in his temples. He had left behind his world, putting everything gained there in jeopardy, and come here to aid Voggoth unwittingly as well as whomever else choreographed Armageddon.
"One other thing, Trevor. Part of the deal…you're not supposed to go home. Voggoth was going to help us as long as you're here fighting for Thebes. Snowe told me that, um, that…"
His eyes opened. "That you're supposed to kill me if I find a way back, right? So what of it, Nina? I might have a way home. Are you going to try and stop me?"
The question nearly sounded funny. Despite her combat skills and despite the rifle and pistols she carried, Major Nina Forest was fully defeated. She existed now only in his shadow. She could no more shoot him than grow wings and fly away. He saw this clearly and despite his anger for what she had done, the idea of such a strong person being so completely beaten down did conjure a pang of pity in his heart.
He said, "Voggoth behind it all. Pulling the strings. Manipulating the whole thing. So tell me, your army of misfits and mercenaries marched through your gateway and came here, right?"
"For the most part everyone stayed together and in formation, but there were reports that the gateway sort of misfired, sending some troops and equipment to completely different places on the planet. We found out the tech didn't work as perfectly as advertised. Still, most of us hit the ground here, marching through the gate or appearing near to it."
"Okay, but you also brought animals through. I’ve seen them. I figured they were indigenous here, but I was wrong. I saw wolves and deer and pigeons. They came with you."
She answered, "There’s another gateway from our home world that sends over animals. All part of terra-forming this planet into something like we knew. I never could figure out exactly why, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Seems like the idea of the invasion is more than just grabbing land, kind of like erasing the Chaktaw's entire civilization. I don’t know where that other gate is, if that’s what you’re asking."
"All the higher life forms plus an army. So tell me, Nina, how many civilizations are involved in this? Do you know? Tell you what; I’m going to guess that there are seven others. Seven others including the Chaktaw plus mankind, that equals eight."
Trevor felt satisfaction at figuring out something the Old Man would never have admitted, but Nina contradicted, "I want to say nine. I mean, when you count Voggoth."
"That wouldn’t add up," he protested because he really wanted to be right; he wanted to understand. "If there are eight universes, there should be eight different civilizations. Each universe with a different race on Earth, defending against an invasion by all the others. That would add up. Nice and neat."
"Look, I’ll tell you whatever I know," she said in an almost pleading voice. "But I don’t like being caught in the open like this."
"Yes," he agreed. "Caught in an alien environment."
She cast her eyes down again. Yet he did agree. It was time to move on.
– Trevor and Nina followed the road that, in turn, followed a river through a tight valley with massive walls made of unforgiving, un-climbable rock.
Afternoon moved toward evening. The rain stopped but the blanket of intimidating clouds remained, fitting like a lid atop the foreboding mountain peaks to either side.
They came to the largest Chaktaw city they had yet encountered, protected by a high, iron wall stretching from one end of the valley to the other like a dam. Unfortunately, it had not succeeded in its task. A large segment of the protective barrier had been smashed. Piles of twisted beams and other debris lay to either side. Through a gap in the failed wall, Trevor glimpsed buildings, some tall, some wide, all grouped together in a metropolis, the Chaktaw’s version of New York City or Los Angeles or Houston for that matter.
The road approaching the city told the story. Trevor and Nina first circumvented craters where bombs had impacted, then carefully stepped through a field of rotted Chaktaw defenders, their flesh picked clean from years of scavenging.
Next came something he first thought to be a pile of bones heaped together. However, he soon realized that he looked not at a collection but at one massive skeleton, one that offered a clue as to the force that had battered the protective wall.
In the remains, he saw huge legs with cloven hoofs that had once made the ground shake with each step. At the top of the body, a skull devoid of skin yet still sporting two ram-like horns.
The two stared at the horrendous corpse outside the broken walls of the city. In it, they saw a conspiracy crossing universes.
Eventually, they started again, moving around the huge skeleton and toward the city where many truths waited to be spoken.