Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels (69 page)

"This is our city again. Many more of our cities wait to be reclaimed. That was my intention, to retake all of what was ours. But you have changed my plans. Now I must go on this errand to the Ring of Ice. If what you say is true, then it will be a worthy cause. Before we depart, you must know this is your last chance to admit to deception. Tell me now if you lie and I will spare your lives. But if we go and find nothing then you will suffer terribly."

            Fromm hovered, waiting for Trevor to respond.

"I speak the truth. I will take you to the runes. Once they are yours, the gateways that have brought the invaders to your planet will be shut off. Their supplies and reinforcements will be no more. On my Earth, this changed the balance of power and has allowed my armies to conquer much of what we had lost."

            Fromm listened to the translation without taking his hazel and green eyes from Trevor. The Chaktaw breathed deeply, a sign of agitation born from the unexpected twist impacting Fromm’s meticulously prepared battle plans.

            Trevor remembered how difficult it had been to gather the resources and manpower to send Brewer’s task force north while still carrying on the struggle against the Hivvans to the south. But he had found a way. Now Fromm had to find a way and he had to find that way now because, Trevor knew, at that moment the other alien races mustered expeditions to race for the runes, just as had occurred on his Earth.

Fromm accepted Trevor’s word.

"We depart today."

---

            Trevor had hoped that the mode of transport would be one of the fantastic sea vessels harbored in the dock halls. However, taking the stolen Geryon battleship was, of course, a much better choice. It offered plenty of firepower and could hold the fifty soldiers and dozen Behemoths that formed Fromm’s expeditionary force.

            Nonetheless, Trevor caught a glimpse of the sailing vessels as they eased forth from their long-neglected dens and slid out to sea.

            Standing on the gondola's command deck with Major Forest and his armed escort at his side, Trevor spared a glance down at that the liberated city as the zeppelin gained altitude and turned north.

            He saw the Chaktaw ships escape their confinement. As they cleared their moorings, beautiful golden sales unfurled from the vertical masts and turbine-like engines rose from the deck.

            First one, then two, then four moving together in a fleet, their bows set on points south, gaining speed at an impressive yet graceful pace as they carried the Chaktaw crusade of liberation to other points around this Earth.

After several seconds, the sails disappeared from Trevor’s view as the dirigible set its sights to the northeast.

            To the Arctic Circle; to the Ring of Ice.

            To the way home.

The massive battleship floated above the ocean traveling north by northeast. The rear rotor provided propulsion but more from a stream of magnetic energy funneled through the prop than from the spinning fans. Trevor did not understand exactly how the system pushed the blimp along, but he appreciated the smooth ride nonetheless.

Inside, metallic panels, thick bulkheads, and grated walkways along tight corridors conveyed a heartless but sturdy feel. This helped Trevor enjoy the flight despite having witnessed two of the things blasted from the air since coming to this Earth.

Given the confines of the halls and rooms, the Behemoths were relegated to the larger landing bays which they shared with a squad of dormant Golems. They fed on slabs of Husker meat and slept in piles of straw shoveled onboard prior to departure. After a few hours in the air, a rather pungent aroma escaped the hangers and gave the ship a barn-like scent.

While not experienced, the bridge crew had trained extensively for this mission, using parts from a downed Geryon blimp to assemble that simulator in Fromm's mountain hideaway. As Trevor and his armies had co-opted Centaurian—or 'Redcoat'—transports, Fromm intended to build a fleet of zeppelin battleships through theft and reverse-engineering.

Trevor and Nina shared a cabin. Despite her experience as a pilot, she suffered bouts of air sickness. Or, perhaps, frayed nerves deserved the blame, considering that if all went well she would return to Sirius soon and if all did not go well she would soon be dead.

The first day and the first night of the voyage passed without incident.

Trevor and Major Forest ate at Fromm’s table in the Captain’s quarters. The two leaders shared stories of their wars although Trevor left out a few details of the Battle of Five Armies.

Fromm had not yet faced the Hivvans. Trevor advised him of the matter-makers and how they had solved much of his people’s supply problems.

Conversely, Fromm warned again of the Witiko. Apparently they were humanoid and rather splendid looking, but were masters of deception and intrigue. Fromm's opinion of the Witiko translated roughly into ‘snobbish princes’ and ‘task masters.’

On the second day they traveled through heavy cloud cover. Swift gusts buffeted the air ship and wind-blown rain splashed against the circular view ports in the halls and cabins. While they had a difficult time seeing what lay below, Fromm informed that they had left behind the northern seas and now flew over land, commencing the final leg of their journey.

---

            Trevor and Nina lay on a bunk in their dark, windowless cabin. In fact, the only light in the room came from a tiny red dot above the exit door.

She lay in his arms but no romance remained between the two; their relationship had grown far more complex since leaving Thebes.

He whispered in her ear, "What will happen to you when you go home?"

Either she did not hear his question or she ignored it. Instead, she quickly asked, "I know I can't make up for what I did, and I know you can't forgive me, but I am sorry, Trevor. I'm sorry for everything."

At first, he did not respond. How could he? She had tricked, kidnapped, and manipulated him. While others—like Director Snowe—played major parts in the scheme, it had been this Nina Forest who had purposely sought and released that dark spot inside.

Then again, it was
his
dark spot. And it had been his duplicate who had so beaten and corrupted this woman that she thought the only chance at happiness laid in resurrecting her tormentor. Sick and twisted, yes, but his twin bore responsibility for doing the twisting.

"I don't know, Nina," eventually he replied. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself. I've done some hard things on my world, all in the name of fighting the invaders. The whole time I told myself that I have a mission and it's a good one, even if some bad things need to be done. I've sort of, I don't know, sort of come to terms that I'm the guy who has to do the nasty stuff now and then. But now I find out that I could just as easily be one of those invaders. Not just because your Trevor was one of the bad guys, but because of how easily I filled his shoes."

"You thought you were defending your planet."

"I can tell myself that, sure. Maybe I'll sleep better. On my Earth I've got people to keep me in check; friends. Here…here I was set free to act however I wanted and I took full advantage. Since this invasion began, I've learned I'm capable of a lot of big things, and now I've found out I'm capable of a lot of petty, nasty things, too."

A soft shimmer carried through the cabin, probably a wind gust buffeting the zeppelin.

She answered his initial question, "I’m thinking I’ll be the first one of us to ever return home. Like, everyone who came through the gate on our side has never gone back to Sirius."

"Nina, the important thing is that when you get home, you tell them what's happening here."

"I'll try."

He stroked one of her short ponytails. As he did, Trevor felt a pang in the pit of his stomach as he realized this adventure neared an end. Most of him wished it never occurred. What he had done…what he had nearly become…the loss of his friend. At the same time, part of him—a small, tiny fragment but a part nonetheless—did not want it to come to a close.

            She was not the woman he loved. But she was so close…so close to being her. An illusion but, as Johnny had warned, sometimes the heart is a fair-weathered friend.

           
…when it has not been fed the diet it desires…it will coax and coerce.

            She said, "I’m going to miss you."

            "I hope you find a better life when you get home, Nina," he answered. "But that’s going to be up to you."

            They lay together in the dark, both fearing the future ahead but knowing they had no choice but to face it.

            Alone.

---

            Steeply angled windows faced forward as well as to either side of the battleship's bridge. Most of those windows included control consoles underneath, no doubt nearly identical to the training simulator back at the Chaktaw base.

            A high-backed, elevated Captain's chair sat at the center of the room with a bank of monitors and displays overhead. Of course Fromm manned that particular station.

            Trevor and Nina spent the last few hours of their journey on the bridge, watching the dance of the northern lights: sweeping sheets of white, yellow, green and red hovering in the sky.

            At several points during the last stretch of the flight, Trevor wondered if they actually moved at all. The ocean of pure white below seemed unchanging, as if they stared at the same vision for hour after hour. Only the occasional rattle from a wind gust and the hum of the churning engines gave any clue of momentum.

            Still, he felt fortunate to see that stretch of white. Had they arrived a few weeks prior, they would have traveled in perpetual darkness or, at best, twilight. When Jon Brewer followed this same path a world away during late summer, he benefited from the ‘midnight sun’. The opposite would have held true during the heart of winter; nothing but night for weeks on end.

Finally, the navigator turned in his seat and spoke directly to Fromm who stood, drew his eyes taut, and stared at his human prisoners.

All-of-a-sudden Trevor felt like an alien again.

The human slave translated the Chaktaw leader's words.

"We have arrived. There is nothing here."

---

            The Chaktaw infantry still wore their ponchos, albeit slightly heavier versions with thicker undergarments. Trevor and Nina wrapped blankets around their battle suits, yet still shivered in sub-zero temperatures.

A half-dozen Golems moved in mechanical strides along the perimeter of the landing party. They wore streaks of white and yellow as to proclaim their new masters, Chaktaw soldiers plugged in to virtual reality consoles high above the target zone in the captured battleship.

            If the weather bothered the Behemoths it did not show. The nasty-looking creatures trotted along the crusty snow cover with seemingly no concern for the dry, bitter wind or the dead freeze permeating the Ring of Ice.

            With Behemoths and soldiers and Chaktaw-operated Golems surrounding him, Trevor stared forward at the big plain of nothingness where he expected to find the obelisk containing the runes. He checked and re-checked the coordinates he remembered with the maps Fromm provided, allowing for all manner of incorrect translations between Chaktaw and human topography. No matter how many times he ran it, he reached the same conclusion. The city-sized structure should be directly in front of him.         

            "I don’t understand!" Trevor called out as much to the Gods as to the people and creatures around him. "It’s supposed to be here! It
has
to be here!"

            Major Forest said for about the third time, "Could it be buried underground?"

            Each time she asked, her voice grew shakier.

            Through his translator, Fromm answered for the third time, "We have used the battleship's sonar to scan this entire area. The scanners would have found any structure hidden beneath the surface."

            Each time he answered, his voice grew angrier. However, this time he continued to speak.

            "I warned you about deception. Did you think I jest?"

            Trevor, still staring at the empty plain of snow shouted, "No! I told the truth! They should be here!"

            Behind him, he heard Fromm mutter an order followed by a soft vibration in the ground that grew more pronounced as the Jaw-Wolf eased into position behind Trevor, its massive grin filling the world behind him.

            "…they should…they
must
be here…"

            He felt Fromm’s eyes on his back. He sensed the reluctance of the Chaktaw leader to give the order. Sometimes, Trevor knew, orders were hard to give even when you were certain they had to be given.

            I’m sorry, Jorgie.