Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels

by Anthony DeCosmo

  Fromm nodded his head as the translation came through then added to Trevor’s observation, "For you, 'dogs,’ for me our Behemoths. This is a fight about more than our people; it is also about our environments. We were each given a helper from those environments."

  Trevor listened to the long translation and then agreed.

  "Now we know what…we even have an idea of how. The question is…why?"

  "Yes, Trevor Stone, why? If what you suggest is true, that each of our races come from planets other than Earth, why transport us to Earth one after another? Why here and not our home worlds?"

  "Everything is equal," Trevor hypothesized. "Our species and the higher life forms, all transplanted here. Like one big…one big arena."

  "Whatever power could do such a thing must control space and time."

  Trevor remembered that his Old Man often told him that time was irrelevant.

  "This is true. That power also limited our weapons as well as those of our attackers."

  Trevor turned to Nina and asked, "Back on Sirius, did you have atomic weapons? Biological weapons? Chemical weapons?"

  She overcame her surprise at suddenly being included in the conversation and answered, "Yes. During the civil wars a few City-States used them. Primarily long-range artillery shells that caused a thermonuclear explosion that could destroy a dozen square miles or so."

  "Why didn’t you bring them with you here?" He asked.

  "We tried to," she explained. "They didn’t come through the gateway with us. For some reason, they just didn’t come through."

  "What about inoculations? Against diseases here?"

  "We were told that the gateway would balance our biology to the new environment. To be honest, no one gave it much thought."

  Jaff translated as much of Trevor and Nina’s conversation as possible for his leader. Fromm stopped pacing and listened. Finally, Trevor returned his attention to his counterpart

  "The odds were made even. Basic weapons. The best our civilizations could muster without being too powerful."

  Jaff’s voice translated Fromm's response, "Equal conditions. Equal opportunity to survive or fall."

  Trevor remembered another of the clues the Old Man once offered and shared, "It’s not about killing us off; it’s about subjugating us. If it were only about killing us, the invaders would have their weapons of mass destruction. Instead, it’s about beating our races down. Forcing us to surrender…to give up."

  "My people will never surrender," Fromm reacted.

  "Nor mine," Trevor echoed. "But it makes me wonder…someone… some thing has a reason for wanting survivors."

  Fromm’s eyes moved off of Trevor and to the Major.

  "And what of her?"

  "She is human, but she and the people of her city are from a planet in this universe. They used gateways that were not of their own design to come here and attack your Earth."

  Fromm eyed Major Forest for several long seconds and then spoke to Trevor again.

  "You say that there is a device in the Ring of Ice at the roof of my world that can end this invasion? That can stop the aliens from arriving?"

  Trevor replied, "You have consulted with your own guardian. You know I speak the truth. And you know that the runes here can do for your world what they did for mine; change the balance of power."

  "I have been told that you have risked much by telling me this. That you have placed my world in peril because you have broken one of the sacred rules that govern this invasion."

  Trevor corrected, "I have given you an opportunity to take back your planet. Of course there is risk. I believe you are like me, in that you will take risks for great gain. However, we must hurry. It is important that I look at your maps and we compare…" he struggled with how best to phrase it. "I must translate the coordinates I know with your maps."

  Stone remembered the latitude and longitude coordinates the Old Man had provided to lead John Brewer to the runes, but he needed to find a way to translate them into Chaktaw navigation.

  "This we will do immediately," Fromm announced.

  "Have you agreed to my terms?"

  Nina watched anxiously as Trevor attempted to close the deal.

  Fromm answered then walked away. Jaff translated, "If all is as you say, then you and the woman will be allowed through the runes. We will offer the humans at the city a chance to leave through the runes. If they decline, they will be slaughtered."

  Jaff followed his leader out of the cave.

  Nina spoke with a hint of her soldier’s pride, "Slaughtered? Yeah, right, we were holding them off easy."

  Trevor shook his head.

  "No, Major. They’ve been playing with you to buy time."

  "Buy time for what?"

  "I think he’s going to show us that, real soon."

  ---

  They did not allow Major Forest to leave the holding pen but Trevor—under escort—spent several hours at a work station examining maps and grasping the fundamentals of Chaktaw topography. Once he understood they used scaled hexagons as their basic building block for mapping, he managed to work out the rest.

  With the help of a pair of female Chaktaw scientists and Jaff as a translator, Trevor pinpointed the location of the runes, at least according to their coordinates on his home world. He considered the possibility that the runes might be hidden somewhere else on this Earth, but decided not to waste energy worrying about that.

  During his time with Chaktaw, Stone learned a little about this world’s ingenious species. The biggest difference between his people and Fromm’s was that the latter had a better grasp of sub-atomic theory and nuclear reactions. Much of their power came from low-temperature fusion, a technology that, on Trevor’s world, had been relegated to science fiction.

  Trevor also found out why he had not seen the Jaw-Wolves—or, rather, the Behemoths—on the battlefield sooner. Fromm explained that before the invasion the Behemoths served as herders, used mostly by farmers to control flocks of Huskers. The Behemoths were docile primarily because they had almost no appetite; their metabolism worked incredibly slow. Indeed, a Behemoth could survive for a month on a single Husker carcass.

  This fit with the Chaktaw environment, one dominated by large animals such as the giant Rhino they encountered at the city, Rat-things, and truck-sized Armadillo-like creatures.

  Why had a huge wall protected the Chaktaw city in the valley? Why were their towns and cities hidden in valleys or deep woods or built into mountainsides like caves? Because the Chaktaw were small in size compared to the wild animals of their environment. While the dominant sentient life in their ecosystem, they were not as dominant physically, hence a greater emphasis on community concealment and defense.

  Trevor could only imagine how humanity might have developed differently if cows were the size of elephants, rats the size of cars, and wolves the size of vans.

  According to Fromm, the Behemoths changed when the invasion came. Their appetites grew as did their ferocity and, of course, Fromm discovered he could control them.

  On Trevor's Earth, however, hungry invading Jaw-Wolves found few large animals to satiate their appetites. A white-tailed deer or an entire family of human beings would provide maybe a tenth of the nourishment of a huge Husker. Therefore, the Jaw-Wolves/Behemoths remained perpetually on the hunt on Trevor's world, even if their metabolisms remained relatively slow.

  In any case, Fromm's Behemoths had one Achilles’ heal; slow reproduction. One bitch delivered one offspring with each pregnancy and those pregnancies lasted nearly a full year (the Chaktaw’s calendar was also based on revolutions around the sun).

  According to Fromm, Geryons attacked his estate early in the invasion. Behemoths had bought time for his people to escape at the expense of being slaughtered by the Steel Guard.

  Trevor surmised the rest. With such long reproductive rates, Fromm hid away his Behemoths while they repopulated.

  Despite the sharing of information and somewhat pleasant conversations,
Trevor understood that his life depended on guiding Fromm to the runes. He also understood that Fromm already had a plan in store for his enemies.

  ---

  Trevor and Nina spent the night curled together on the dirt and rock floor of the prison pit under thin blankets provided by their captors. Having not bathed in days, the smell in the morning coming from the prisoners nearly matched the stench of the piss trench. In an act of either pity or self-interest, Chaktaw aids cleaned the human battle suits. They also returned all their other gear except, of course, weapons.

  As they slipped back in to their apparel, a young, pleasant voice called in human words from above, "My father has summoned you. It is time for you to go."

  Trevor and Nina gathered their gear and ascended the ramp. Two poncho-wearing soldiers provided an escort as Alenna led them from the detention area and through the corridors of the mountain base. The halls bustled with activity.

  "Today’s the day, huh?"

  Alenna answered, "You are very perceptive. Much like my father."

  The group passed a scene of fond farewells. A Chaktaw officer held his child and whispered words in the young one’s ear. No doubt words of consolation and a promise to return home. The type of words many of Trevor’s soldiers had whispered to their children in the years since Armageddon.

  Alenna appeared particularly interested in the tender moment. She strained her neck to watch the interaction between parent and child even as she led them further along.

  Trevor said, "Your father and I are alike in many ways."

  "Yes," she agreed after forcing her eyes forward again.

  Alenna led them across the central cavern that served as a kind of community gathering place, but few people loitered there and most of the kiosks were shuttered.

  "My father and you are alike, and so are our people, are they not? Are we so different?"

  Trevor found her tone curious. She spoke as if she grappled with a complex equation and had reached an answer that she hoped would prove correct, but could not be sure.

  He replied, "I don’t think we are that different."

  Alenna halted the procession at an intersection of sorts. Several passages led away into the bowels of the complex. One led up, ascending toward what appeared to be sun light. A cool, fresh breeze blew down from there.

  The little Chaktaw girl turned and faced Trevor. She studied him, her head tilting side to side as she tried to see what lived behind his eyes. Perhaps she wondered if a soul lived there. A question Trevor often wondered himself.

  She said, "It seems a shame then, doesn’t it? A shame that we fight like this."

  He wondered if by 'this' she meant her Earth, or the larger picture of multiple Earths across multiple universes, each occupied by one race only to be invaded by all the others.

  Alenna said, "You have a son?"

  "Yes. I’d say he’s exactly your age."

  She smiled at his remark and replied, "I’d say you’re right, Trevor Stone. Tell me, what will you tell your son when you get back to your Earth?"

  Trevor knelt to her level.

  "I’ll tell him about the marvelous little girl I met over here. I’ll tell him about the brave and resourceful Chaktaw people, who have earned my respect."

  "Hmm," she wondered. "Then you will fight the Chaktaw who have come to your home. You will kill them if you can."

  He did not know how to answer.

  Alenna said, "It is rather silly, isn’t it? All this fighting. Sometimes I wonder if it serves any purpose. And if it does, exactly whose purpose does it serve in the end?"

  "It's all I've known," he said. "I can't even remember what my life was like before the war began. I've spent the last few years fighting, and not much else."

  "My father has lost much for this war. My mother is dead. He had a life before this, you know. He helped people plan for their future. Helped people get ready for—what do you call it?—ready for their‘re-tire-ment’. Yes. He helped them so they could live comfortably. Then the war came and the only future my people can plan for now is a future of fighting."

  This time Trevor—still kneeling to face her eye to eye—studied her, and he believed without a doubt that, yes, a soul lived inside Alenna.

  Alenna went on in a voice laced with sadness at not only what had happened, but what was to come: "All of our people had to run and hide. But that time is over. We have gathered again."

  She pointed to the passage leading toward the light. Trevor stood and followed her outstretched finger. He and Nina ascended the rock tunnel. The light at the end of the passage grew wider and brighter. The air smelled fresh and clean.

  The passage opened to a stone balcony high on the mountainside offering a marvelous view of endless mountains rolling off into the distance like ocean waves in a painting.

  Fromm stood on the balcony joined by both the human female slave who served as his translator and the Chaktaw guard holding her leash.

  Trevor first glanced at Fromm then looked down on the long, wide stretch of grassland below. There gathered an army; Fromm's army.

  Thousands of poncho-wearing Chaktaw infantry lined in columns, a thousand Jaw-Wolves standing as still as statues like armored vehicles parked on a parade ground. Pack lizards hauling catapult-like artillery batteries, three-wheeled motor bikes, flat trucks carrying rocket-planes, and hundreds of carts piled high with supplies.

  As he witnessed the gathered power of the Chaktaw, Trevor pieced Fromm's story together, taking the parts he already knew and tying them together into one narrative. After the defeat at the lakeside estate, the Chaktaw had separated and hid in dozens of redoubts to survive until the time to fight came again.

  They gathered resources and prepared while sending smaller forces—like the army that had consistently attacked Thebes—to keep watch on their enemies, to probe their defenses, and to sap their resources.

  Now the scattered tribes of Chaktaw regrouped with the ranks of the Behemoths replenished. Now the war machine mustered to be unleashed upon the invaders who had dared come to this world.

  Fromm glanced at the two humans before speaking briefly, stoically, to the slave translator. As the Chaktaw savior turned and disappeared down the tunnel, the woman offered the simple translation.

  "We march."

  31. Attack of the Behemoths

  The armada split into three massive columns and pushed across the wilderness in a tempest of marching soldiers and thundering beasts and rolling wagons. The army climbed mountains and descended into valleys and flowed through forests as it drove east.

  Trevor and Major Forest accompanied that army and while they remained under close guard as they rode atop one of the pack lizards, Fromm unbound their hands. Not so much a sign of trust but an acknowledgement that the two humans posed no threat to cause harm or escape.

  They traveled without a break for the entire first day, stopping only for a few hours after night fell and resuming again before dawn. Once again, Chaktaw stamina impressed Trevor and he noted they did not require nearly as much sleep as humans.

  However, on the second night they paused at the base of a rocky hill for a longer spell. Trevor got the sense that Fromm needed to reign in stragglers and regroup his army, most likely because their destination neared.

  Whatever the reason, the Chaktaw constructed a series of temporary shelters out of wood posts and canvass tents that shared the same material as their camouflage ponchos. As a result, the tents ranged in color from black to rust to green, depending on whether they sat near one of the rocky ledges, in a grassy patch, or alongside one of the several streams crisscrossing the bivouac spot. Ten or more Chaktaw shared each shelter, possibly by squad.

  Fromm joined Trevor and Nina who rested near a campfire. The woman slave serving as his translator sat just outside the ring of flickering light.

  "Your army is impressive," Trevor said. "But even more impressive is your patience. You waited a long time to gather your strength. I don't know if I could be so patient.
"

  "Yes, I have seen. You humans fight with great emotion. Sometimes too much. You make mistakes as a result."

  Trevor prompted, "And we can get lulled into a false sense of security. All this time you’ve been launching attacks against both Thebes in the west and the Geryons in the east, haven’t you? And it was the same army. They’d hit Thebes, go east and hit the Geryons, then march on back to hit Thebes again. Like clockwork."

  The translator struggled with ‘clockwork’ but managed to get the point across.

  "It has been effective."

  Their conversation halted as a sound drifted across the camp, starting lower than the chirping crickets but growing to their ears like a soft breeze carrying through the trees. At first, Trevor thought it a moan but then realized he heard a chant. A gentle, somber chant coming from a group of Fromm's soldiers gathered around their own campfire.

  Trevor did not understand the Chaktaw language, but he understood the song well enough. The verses spoke of lost friends and family; of a people splintered and driven to the brink of extinction. But the chant did not merely bemoan the loss; it carried a tone of resolve. Less anger or vengeance, more determination.

  In that song, Trevor felt the undercurrent of strength that gave the Chaktaw their endurance and stamina; that gave them the patience to wait for their day. And as he listened, he realized that Fromm and his people would win back their Earth.

  He closed his eyes for a moment and envisioned Chaktaw infantry pouring through the streets of Thebes, their terrifying artillery shells blasting buildings, their Behemoths—Jaw-Wolves—chasing down and tearing apart not only foot soldiers but armored vehicles, too.

  A gruesome vision. And while he understood Fromm’s people had a right to their Earth, he could not help but feel pity for his fellow humans.

  He looked over at Major Forest as she sat silently in the glow of the campfire while the Chaktaw chant echoed about the camp. Her blond hair seemed nearly black with grit and grime, her distinctive twin ponytails masses of tangles now. The woman appeared completely exhausted, both physically and mentally.