They splashed across a stream, climbed a short ridge of red rock, then the forest of twisted, sick trees gave way to a large clearing. Four machines parked there. Trevor immediately saw them as air craft but he could not identify the type. They stood slightly larger than a Blackhawk chopper with a large rotor affixed to a raised rear quarters that gave the impression of the ship sticking its ass in the air. The main body sported two short wings with jet-like engines underneath and a large cockpit at the bow dominated by a huge, multi-paneled windshield.
Judging by their boxy design he guessed them to be cargo carriers or troop transports.
"This way! C’mon!" Nina urged as she ran toward one of the craft.
Rear ramps stood open on each of the ships.
Forest called to Jolene as they raced across the clearing, "Take Two. I’ll get these guys out on Three!"
Jolene directed herself and a group of running people toward one of the craft. Trevor and Johnny followed Nina inside another.
They boarded directly into a tube-like cargo area with rows of seats along the outer walls under small glass portals. Two flight chairs waited in the big nose cone, Nina headed for one.
A soldier shut the rear ramp immediately after Johnny and Trevor entered, closing it in the face of several technicians and forcing them to scamper for another means of escape.
As the ramp sealed, Trevor glimpsed the deluge of darkness flood into the clearing. Several people disappeared into its midst. He thought he saw—he could not be sure—those people turn ghastly white and then melt as the black cloud enveloped them.
"Everyone, take your seats!"
He did exactly as told. He did it and prayed she could launch the vehicle fast enough.
"Firing booster rockets!"
Following Nina’s announcement, a jolt pinned the passengers in their seats and a loud rush filled the cabin. The ship thrust skyward like a rocket ship destined for orbit. Trevor felt his belly sink.
"Hold on…almost clear…"
Upwards momentum slowed, the rush of the rockets dissipated. The ship held still and silent in the sky for a moment; the world seemed to stop.
Then Trevor felt his belly move to his throat as the powerless ride plummeted back toward Earth, gripped again by gravity.
"Booster rockets," he mumbled to Johnny who sat across from him with his eyes closed mumbling prayers so he probably did not hear. "For a quick take off in emergencies."
He heard Nina grumble, "Come on, damn it. Come ON!" She struggled with controls.
A click. A whir. Then a rumble that sounded to his ear like the blades of a helicopter. In this case, the big rotor above his ride. The metal floor vibrated and he felt their descent slow as the spinning blade overhead caught and stabilized flight.
"Sweeeet, yeah!" Nina cheered from the cockpit.
Trevor looked out the portal near his seat. He saw another of the helicopter-like things shoot into the air then start its rotor while he felt his own gain forward momentum and bank. As it did, his side angled enough to afford a view of the clearing below.
Whatever had come for them…whatever it was… surged across the entire field, covering it in a black, oily mist. An explosion erupted from the confines of that sea of darkness. Trevor saw fragments of another of the air ships as it died in a ball of fire on the ground. The explosion appeared muffled by that immense, inky entity, suggesting far more mass than any cloud.
Trevor's eyes remained fixated on below; he felt a chill along his spine and despite all he had seen, fought, and vanquished over the years, this thing made him feel insignificant; a flea in the shadow of an elephant.
---
After nearly an hour of sitting in obedient silence, Trevor desired answers. He unbuckled and walked to the front of the craft. Glass surrounded nearly three-quarters of the cockpit providing a tremendous view of rolling plains dotted with forests, dead farms, and frozen ponds.
He sat in the empty co-pilot's seat and said to Nina, "I want answers, no games."
She shook her head in a manner suggesting a combination of amusement and annoyance.
"Where do you want me to start?"
"Let’s start with the big question. Who or what are you?"
"I am Nina Forest."
"Okay, then, where are we? That building was some sort of transport."
"That’s right, yeah," she told him. "You’re on Earth. And no, it wasn’t a time machine."
Trevor stared forward through the glass. He spoke with an edge in his voice. "So, I’m on Earth and you’re Nina Forest. Okay then, where are my troops? From what I can tell, we've been flying east for a while now. Army Group North should be around here, somewhere. If this is Earth and we’re still over Ohio some—." He caught himself. "Wait a second, that place…it wasn’t a gateway. I know that. I’ve seen them in action."
"No, it wasn’t a gateway," she confirmed.
"But it was a transport. You say we’re still on Earth?"
"I said, we’re on Earth."
Trevor understood. He eased into the chair and nodded to himself.
Why not?
So far in his life, aliens invaded his home world, he could communicate with dogs, learned he had a half-brother, and one of his best friends channeled Stonewall Jackson.
So why not?
"A parallel--what?--Universe?"
She smiled. "Wow. I mean, you’re taking that a lot better than I thought you would."
"I guess I’ve just learned that there’s a surprise waiting right around every bend in my life. Like everything else, I'll just accept it without thinking too hard and maybe I'll stay sane."
She laughed. He allowed himself a small chuckle.
There he sat, riding along in a strange flying machine over a world that was like his own but not quite the same. His eyes drifted to her.
Nina.
Different…but the same.
He said, "I've seen enough movies and TV shows about this type of thing. Everything is pretty close to my world but a little different. Well, at least you don't have a beard."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. So okay, you went to a lot of trouble to bring me here. Why?"
She said, "We monitored your broadcasts when we arrived on your Earth. I could tell you’re doing pretty well. You’ve managed to start taking back your planet. Pretty damn impressive, Trevor."
"And here?"
Her good humor faded. "For a while, great, but not anymore. These days the orders are always the same: retreat."
"Retreat? Who the Hell has been in charge around here?"
She told him the answer he feared, "You."
He felt a wave of apprehension build inside. Seeing a duplicate Nina, that had been hard. But seeing a duplicate of himself, could he handle that?
"I assume I’m going to go meet…well, me?"
"Yes."
"Why all the secrecy? We’re all human, right? I mean, you are human?"
Nina looked at him again. "Yes, I'm human. Just like you in every way. You're flying in what we nicknamed a 'Skipper'. I know you have things like it on your world."
Just as he had studied her, examining him up and down, taking in the sight. In her eyes he spied something between surprise and awe, between desperation and relief.
She told him, "You need to see everything for yourself. I'm being honest when I say I don’t want to hurt you. You know that, don’t you? You can feel it, can’t you?"
In the last few hours Trevor walked in to a trap, faced and even kissed a second Nina Forest, traveled to some kind of parallel universe, and ran for his life from a wall of evil blackness. He now rode in a helicopter-like contraption—a 'Skipper'--above an Earth where humanity fought the same war of survival as he did. Yet, he nearly felt relaxed.
Why? Because he sat next to and spoke with Nina Forest. She even smiled, a little.
"Yes," he answered her question. "I can feel it."
"Good, we need you."
"Why’s that?"
"Because
if you can’t help us, we’ll be wiped out."
He sat in the co-pilot's chair and contemplated that thought. Trevor did not know how he felt about that and he did not know how much he cared. He did, after all, have his own world to worry about. But these people were human, too. Certainly the event's of her universe connected somehow or someway with Armageddon on his world.
Below, the landscape changed from forests and frozen fields to a wasteland of bomb craters, vehicle wrecks, and scattered piles of remains. Occasional mounds of rubble, scorched patches of woods, and a dried riverbed broke the otherwise flat plain of destruction. Gusts of frigid air blew bands of dust and snow flakes over a seemingly dead land.
"Almost home," Nina whispered.
Another sight grabbed his attention; a break in the horizon. As they approached, that break took form. A city. A very large city growing taller and wider as they neared. But first came bands of defenses including trenches, barbed wire, sandbags, and pill boxes. He saw more remains below; fresher carcasses visited by scavengers and apparently stripped nearly naked of any equipment or gear that might serve the living.
You don't leave your own to rot in the sun, he thought in disgust.
The city filled the cockpit window. At the heart of the place stood a cluster of skyscrapers reaching dozens of stories tall yet lacking any style; any concession to aesthetics. He found them bland and boring; metal and brass structures dressed in a dull, almost sickly green.
That same utilitarian design carried over the entire metropolis. As they descended, he saw an industrial sector where chimneys billowed clouds of white and gray smoke, and squat rectangular buildings arranged like building blocks end to end stood in neat rows as if painstakingly measured to maximize every meter of available space.
It seemed to Trevor this city existed for function, not life. Then again, if mankind stood on its last legs here, then would he not also abandon style in favor of efficiency and purpose?
Still, if this Earth's topography matched his own, this place might just be "Pittsburgh?"
He apparently thought aloud. "Pittsburgh?" She responded. "Never heard of it. I think there are some differences between our worlds. Things like names. But that wouldn’t matter much in this case. This is the city of Thebes. It’s a new city, sort of. Only a few years old."
"Oh. What about the other cities? Have you re-taken any of them?"
Nina put a fine point on it. "Trevor, this is our last city. It was built for military purposes. Now it’s all that remains."
He sat in stunned silence, unable to accept such a thought. If true, would failure here affect the fight on his planet? Had destiny brought him here, too? Was his fight against Armageddon not merely planet wide but…but universal?
"You okay over there?"
He heard genuine concern in her voice.
"Yeah. Well, no. I mean, you're failing here. I'm failing, I guess. The version of me… well, you know what I mean. What I'm saying is, the idea of failure, it's the one thing that keeps me up at night."
"I understand."
"Sure, but you already met yourself. Now I get to meet me. That’s a weird feeling."
"Tell me about it."
The Skipper flew around the city for a better view. Most parts seemed covered in soot and dirt, a few stood out with glitzy designs resembling casinos on the old Las Vegas strip. Yet most buildings held more in common with warehouses, garages, and hangers.
"Boring."
"Like I said, this is all about military. The skyscrapers are dormitories, there aren't any individual houses."
"Hardly any windows and I see almost no lights. Let me guess, security reasons?"
"No windows for security, no lights to conserve power. Sorry, it's not very impressive."
"Feels like a big trap to me," he said but her expression suggested he insulted her so he clarified, "Not for me but for you. You're herded in here behind barbed wire and barricades. Makes for an easy target."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Hang on, we're going in to land."
The Skipper descended inside a fifteen foot tall wall. Trevor saw that the wall no longer protected the entire city; enemy fire had turned sections into rubble.
After the landing gear touched ground, the rotor slowed and the rear door opened.
"C’mon, it’s time for you to meet our Trevor Stone."
Sweat formed in the palm of his hands. He felt a shiver in his backbone.
Nina led Trevor, Johnny, and a squad of soldiers from the Skipper but this time Trevor judged the soldiers' behavior to be less that of guards and more escorts for a VIP. Still, they huddled around to hide Trevor in the midst of their group. He figured they did not want him to be seen. Two Trevor Stones walking around might be too much to handle.
They moved through a set of turnstiles guarded by artillery and an armored vehicle. Their path then opened up at a wide courtyard but Trevor did not see another soul.
"Come here, I want to show you something."
Nina led them toward the center of the square. As they walked, a horde of scrawny pigeons fluttered away. As the flock flew off, Trevor saw something standing at the center of the courtyard draped in shadows cast by the skyscrapers around the perimeter of the yard.
Sounds of distant activity drifted through the air: a bell ringing, the rumble of an engine, a voice barking orders; the wind whispering between buildings.
"My Lord," Johnny gasped as he viewed what stood at the center of the courtyard.
Trevor pushed out from the middle of the gang and approached the object that was the focus of the park. A statue of a man. A bronze statue atop a white granite pedestal. A man holding a sword and raising it in anger toward the sky.
Trevor saw his eyes, his hair, his face cast in bronze.
In Memory of Our Beloved Emperor
Trevor Stone
8. Suspicions
General Casey Fink led a squad of soldiers out from a garage and across a short parking lot past useless gas pumps. Balls of lethal plasma shot over and around them until they found cover in a drainage ditch alongside the road.
Casey dared a look from his position; a position that changed drastically in recent days.
Last weekend he stood-in for Hoth at an Imperial military meeting rubbing elbows with the bigwigs. Now he hid in a ditch outside some roadside town in central Ohio that seemingly consisted of a garage, a John Deere dealership, and a church.
A ball of energy exploded on the slush and snow covered road a few yards in front of Casey’s peeking eyes. He ducked, avoiding a spray of icy goo and blasted black top.
The squad returned fire toward the entrenched Plats. Rifle and carbine rounds smashed dealership windows and strafed the white wooden walls of the Presbyterian house of worship.
Casey patted the shoulder of Captain Marty Blue. The former school teacher turned around allowing the General access to his backpack of bulky communications equipment.
"Big Momma this is Gopher, do you copy? Over."
Fink heard the reply he hoped for: "This is Big Bad Momma, we deliver."
"Shit, yeah, I need a delivery, Momma. Stand by…"
Fink consulted a hand held map of the patrol area; the area he had the brilliant urge to visit for himself; the area supposedly free of Plats and therefore a great route for pushing west.
"Momma, I’m looking at grid reference fifty-two by fifty-five, over."
An enemy bolt slammed into a black soldier, opening a hole in his shoulder and causing his arm to dangle like a broken tree branch. The squad's medic tended to the grievous wound with bandages and twine from his poorly-stocked first aid kit.
Gunfire, screams, and finally a radio transmission filled Casey's ear: "Gopher, I copy your point of interest. How about we serve up some of Momma’s home cooking, over."
"Hard copy that shit, Momma. We’re starving here, over."
"Roger that, Gopher, stand by and get somewhere snug 'cause dinner is served."
Fink shouted to his troops, "Danger cl
ose!"
Moments later, waves of rockets descended through a low layer of morning clouds and slammed into grid reference 52-55, also known as the John Deere dealership and the church. A wave of heat swept over the frigid battleground as the target buildings disintegrated into shards of plaster and wood, balls of flame, and mushroom clouds of smoke.
Amidst the ear-splitting explosions and sounds of destruction Casey heard the sweet melody of Platypus aliens squealing like wounded pigs.
"Gopher, this is Momma. You guys still hungry down there? Over?"
The barrage halted. Fink assessed the results. One church wall stood, the rest smoldered in a sort of funeral pyre. He saw a burning, three-legged duck-billed Platypus alien wobble out and collapse. Its flesh roasted with a smell like burnt Thanksgiving dinner.
"Negative, Momma, we’re full. Them’s good eats. Over and out."
Casey led the squad from the ditch. With this outpost destroyed, he had cleared a path for the hastily organized attack Hoth ordered. And while he liked the idea of Army Group North moving again, he could not understand why the brass suddenly seemed in such a hurry.
---
Nina Forest spent twenty-four hours under watch after having been a prisoner of, well, of herself. Certainly Oliver Maddock could find a Freud joke in there, but he and the rest of the team knew better than to make jokes. Not after how badly they screwed up.
In hindsight, she questioned every decision from accepting the mysterious invitation to splitting up at the farm. Most of all, she questioned obeying Trevor's orders to leave him behind.
At least a hundred times she went into battle willing to die for him; for what he represented to humanity. Why did she not charge those guards, even if it meant death? If Trevor died at the hands of those strangers—of a duplicate Nina—she would never forgive herself.
And that raised another issue. One that added to her guilt but also generated more questions. Exactly why had she—Captain Forest—been a successful lure for the Emperor?
The other Nina—the one who claimed to come from a 'parallel' Earth—showed the most emotion when Captain Forest of the Dark Wolves assured that she barely knew Trevor Stone and they had never engaged in any sort of relationship.
Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels Page 9
