Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels (21 page)

            Trevor eyed Nina. She stood with her back to him straddling the line between the darkness and the glow of light emanating from the building's lobby. Despite her leather jacket, she shivered in the frigid air.

            The cold got to him, too. The flimsy windbreaker he wore would barely be adequate for a cool autumn day, let alone a cold January night. Still, the cold ranked as the least of his worries.

            Trevor walked to her and said, "This must be difficult for you, too."

            She exhaled in what sounded like a soft sigh.

            "I…well, yes. It is. I mean, I saw you die. I was there."

            "So you jumped across a couple of dimensions to bring back a Trevor Stone. That was very brave."

            "Very stupid."

            "Well, I could tell you all about stupid. I’m a regular expert on the subject these days."

            Nina turned and peered into his eyes as if searching for something.

            "What? What is it?" He asked.

            "Nothing. I mean, since this happened we’ve been kind of moving at breakneck speed. You know? I haven’t had a chance to really think about the fact that you’re him. Or he was you. Or, I dunno…it’s nuts."

            "Not as nuts as staying out here in the cold. Let’s go inside before you catch the flu."

            She agreed, and led him in and across the lobby to what had once been a small restaurant and bar. Trevor smelled a heavy coating of dust in the dark, empty place.

            Rows of round tables and chairs filled the space between a long bar against the inside wall and a glass atrium on the other side. An exterior flood light splashed in, casting a sharp, angled glow across half the room.

"This place is almost like a hotel," he said.

            "Yeah, well, it kind of was. Probably five thousand people living here a few years ago."

            "Mainly military, even back then?"

"Yeah, this whole city was built for the great cause. It was Trevor’s idea; a new place for our new lives. He didn’t like the decay of the old cities. Thought it might hurt morale to live in those places." She hesitated and then emphasized, "He was big on forgetting about the old and starting everything new."

            "I suppose I can see his point."

            "Part of it…I mean, I know part of the reason to build this place was just to show that we could. Then, wow, we had resources and things were looking great. Nothing could stop us, you know?"

            He saw fond memories glitter through her eyes as she stared at the light raining in through the atrium.

            "Trevor…I mean, the man was not to be stopped. We all admired him for that. He made the hard decisions. He kept everyone focused on the goal."

            "I sound like a fun guy."

            She looked at him. "You were. You fought hard, you worked hard, you partied hard."

            "Tell me something," he selected the newest on his list of many questions. "Who is this Director Snowe? Sounds like he backed your plan to come over and get me."

            "He did. Jakob has a bunch of titles these days. That's what happens when you have a nice chunk of your officers killed off. He took over Intelligence when Gordon Knox died."

            "Gordon?" Trevor's heart sank. Based on what he knew of Gordon Knox on his home world, finding his doppelganger over here would be a blessing. Of course, he thought, if Gordon still lived over here they probably would not be in this mess.

            "Yeah, he was killed and Snowe rose up in the ranks. We lost a lot of soldiers and had to re-constitute the Third Legion. Most of the troops in that formation are leftovers from Intelligence paramilitaries and Special Forces units. Sort of a patchwork of elements. Snowe wears a couple of different hats, so he's got Intel and Third Legion and a couple of other things. Busy guy."

            "And he helped you go get me?"

            "He worked on the Nyx, getting the transport lined up and all that. Then he sort of looked the other way when I went off so that we could both, well, sort of claim ignorance when The Committee found out."

            "Tell me," he changed direction. "On my Earth, we’re facing all kinds of things. Some organized, some not. But I’ve always had the impression that there’s one particularly nasty group pushing it all along. They go by the name of The Order. I think there’s something—I don’t know if it’s a person or what—but something called ‘Voggoth’ behind them."

            She cast her eyes toward the ceiling as she thought over her answer.

            "I’ve head of them. I’ve heard of that Voggoth. He’s here, too. I don’t think he’s that big of a deal to us. For us it’s been the ‘Chaktaw’. At least that’s what they call themselves. We’ve called them a lot worse, let me tell you."

            "Never heard of them. We probably have different names for different things."

"The Chaktaw hit us every couple of days like clockwork. I’m sure you’ll get to see the fireworks for yourself."

            "You don’t sound too concerned. You know, no one around here seems too worried about it. The guys in your Operations Center were busy making social plans and bull shitting."

            She said, "That’s part of the problem. We’ve got pretty good defenses. We’ll fight off the Chaktaw next time they come. Then the time after that and after that. But each time we lose a little more. They’re just eating away at us."

            Trevor remembered the Battle of Five Armies. He remembered how the enemy they dubbed the "Vikings" used a similar strategy with skirmishes and raids.

            "I’ve been in that position, too."

            "So a lot of people around here have this kind of fatalistic approach. I mean, on one hand I think they’ve accepted that we’re doomed. At the same time, maybe they don’t think there’s anything they can do about it, so it’s better to get drunk."

            "Eat and be merry for tomorrow we die?"
            "Yeah. I mean, I suppose so, yeah."

            "And that wasn’t how Trevor ran things, huh?"

            She laughed at the thought. "Are you kidding? He’d have heads on platters if he spotted that attitude. Don’t get me wrong, Trevor could party, but in the morning he was all business."

            Somehow Trevor could not imagine himself partying. "I guess your Trevor and me; we may not have been that much alike."

            That gave Nina pause. Her eyes narrowed. "Not that much alike, huh? You know, I had almost forgotten about it with everything that’s been going on since we got back."

            She wagged her finger toward him and circled like a wolf to a rabbit.

            "Forgotten about what?"

            "You. I mean, so look, I get to your planet, monitor a few transmissions, and I get the lay of the land. I figure it’s a lot like things over here. You know, people and stuff. To make a long story short, I nab the Nina from your world because I got to believe that Trevor Stone will come running to save his honey."

            "My…my honey?"

"So I tell her that I don’t mean her any harm, I’m just using her as bait to grab Trevor. She practically freaks out laughing. She’s like, why would the Emperor save my sorry ass?"

            Nina continued to circle with her eyes focused entirely on him. "I mean, she was convincing. Really was. I’m about ready to figure that things were different on your side and then, wow, you show up. You did save her sorry ass. But man, I’m telling you, she couldn’t believe it. She was totally shocked by you showing up."

            The Major stopped and waited for him to explain.

            "I just decided to…wait, what made you think that she was my…my ‘honey’?"

            That knocked her a little off balance. He watched as she put together the words she wanted to use. "What made me think that?"

            She stepped close to him. The light streaking through the atrium fell across her body. For a moment, she was almost angelic in the glow. An illusion, of course.

            "I thought that because here, in my world, I loved Trevor Stone, and he loved me. We were together. We lived together. We went to war together. We…wow…we partied together. Like you wouldn’t believe."

            Trevor swallowed hard.

"I shared his bed. I shared everything with him. All of me. Everything he ever wanted…he could have it from me."

            Her eyes…so beautiful.

            "So," his voice cracked. He stopped and licked his lips. "So you just figured. You figured that on my world me and you…I mean, me and Nina were—"

            "Lovers. Yes."

            "You were wrong."

            He stumbled away from her. The fly and the spider again.

            "Was I?"

            "Yes. You were wrong."

"Okay then," she conceded. "I suppose so. I guess I was wrong. I’m glad then, too."

            "Huh? You’re glad?"

            "Well, the Nina over on your world…I mean geez. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with her, but I could see she wasn’t the type I’d think Trevor—or any guy—would go for."

            "What are you saying?"
            "A real cold girl. I can’t see her warming up to anything or anybody without, like, a candle up her ass or something. A real waste."

            "A…waste?"

            "You’re lucky you didn’t hook up with her. She probably wouldn’t know what to do with a man if she—"

            "Shut up. You…
shut up."

            "What do you care? I mean, you didn’t—"

He grabbed her shoulders but his reaction did not surprise her. In fact, she nearly laughed as he spoke his peace.

            "You shut up about her. You have no business judging her. Look at you people over here! You’re getting your collective heads kicked in. She’s a better soldier than anyone I’ve seen in this whole place."

            She goaded, "Better than all of us, huh?"

            "Damned straight!" He shot.

            "She could probably make a big difference over here."

            Trevor growled, "She’d teach you a thing or two. You bet."

            "And I bet it makes you really mad…" she led

            "Damn mad!"

            "…that I look like her."

            Her words derailed his train of thought.

            "Mad?"

            "Half the time you look like you want to sweep me off my feet; the other half of the time you want to curse me. And not for kidnapping you. Because I look like her, but I’m not."

            Trevor realized his hands trembled on her shoulders. But did they shake because he stood so close to an image of the woman he once loved, or because he was angry with her for daring to resemble his Nina?

"What happened? If it was just a regular break up, I would’ve got that from her."

            Stone let go of her shoulders and retreated to the shadows.

            She asked, "Maybe you loved her but you never told her? Did you let her get away?"

            "I don’t want to…I don’t want to talk about it."

            "Yes. Yes you do."

            She stood behind him.

So close.

            Major Nina Forest repeated, "You want to shout it at me. You want to scream at me how I’m an imposter in her body."

            How long had it been since he spoke of it? Who had he ever told?

            It had been nearly six years since the mysterious Old Man—his supernatural benefactor—told him that he could not be with Nina. That revelation came at the same time they found Nina’s memory implant, courtesy of Voggoth’s The Order. In one fell swoop Trevor learned destiny forbade them to be together and found a means of preserving that separation.

            "C’mon Trevor. We’re alone here…in another universe…far away. Tell me why you came for her; tell me why you love her but you’re not with her."

            He faced the woman who looked like Nina.

            "A confession? Is that what you want?"

            He paused. The flood of memories and emotion and…and loss… lapped over top the dam. It was not until that moment—the moment when he decided to let it come roaring out—that he realized how hard it had been to hold those flood waters at bay all these years.

            "Nina was the only woman I ever loved; and she was taken from me."

           
Oh, where to start? And if I start…will I be able to stop?

 "She found my humanity and gave me a purpose beyond this whole save-the-human-race-crap. She gave me a purpose that wasn’t a burden, it was liberating. If I’m supposed to be the person to save mankind from Armageddon, then she was the one person who could save me from myself. A lifeline to my humanity. Without her…without her I can be…I can be…"