Anthony DeCosmo - Parallels

Jon could only guess at how much Gordon knew about Trevor and Nina's relationship. On one hand, he had not joined the movement until long after that episode. At the same time, his business was information and he had grown close to Trevor in recent years.

Knox replied, "Well, they weren’t aliens. Isn’t that right, Jon?"

"People?" Ashley turned fast on Brewer. "Why didn’t you tell me that? Who were they?"

"Calm down," Jon raised a reassuring hand but he quickly realized that Ashley now looked to Gordon for answers.

"Anita has nothing on record that matches the type of structure Shepherd says he saw. Captain. Forest went to the area originally after receiving a radio transmission requesting help."

"Forest?"

Gordon said, "Captain Nina Forest. She’s the commanding officer of the Dark Wolves."

"I know that name."

"Yes you do," Jon tried desperately to gain control over the conversation. "Nina was one of the original band of survivors. She and Shep came to the estate those first few months."

Gordon continued, "The reports are a little sketchy and, well, convoluted. We know that Captain Forest and her unit disappeared while on mission. Trevor, General Shepherd, and Reverend Johnny took in a follow up team to find them."

"Wait a second," she interrupted. "Johnny, too?"

Jon felt things spiraling further out of control.

Ashley turned to him. "Reverend Johnny is missing, too? Trevor took Johnny all the way out to Ohio, met up with Shepherd who came all the way from-what? — Kentucky-"

"Tennessee," Jon Brewer corrected.

"Okay, Tennessee, and they went off searching for a couple of missing soldiers?"

"Nina, listen-" Jon stopped. Had he really just said that? "Sorry. I mean, Ashley, listen. Shepherd will be back soon. Until then we really don’t know exactly what happened."

Ashley stared at him.

Jon reached for his jacket hanging on the back of a chair and repeated, "When Shep gets here we’ll all sit down and sort this out. In the meantime, General Hoth is pushing west to secure the area. We’ll be sending in all sorts of specialists to find out what happened. We’ll find him, Ashley. We’ll find Trevor."

She added, "And Reverend Johnny, too."

"And Johnny, yes."

"And Nina Forest and her soldiers."

Jon shook his head, "No, they’re on their way…"

Brewer stopped again, caught like a deer in headlights. He closed his eyes and then finished because he could not do otherwise. "They let everyone go except Trevor and Reverend Johnny. Captain Forest and her unit have returned to duty."

"I see."

He heard the tone in her voice.

Something is going on here; something you’re not telling me.

Brewer slipped his jacket on fast and escaped from the room.

– Evan knew he did not look good wearing safety goggles. Not Dukakis-in-the-tank bad, but certainly on the geeky side. However, on this day he traded image for substance. Sort of.

He followed Omar Nehru through the large, long building and up a set of short but steep metal stairs to a platform. A gaggle of media-wearing geeky goggles as well-waited on the plant floor below like a crowd gathering for a rock concert.

As bulbs flashed, Evan sensed an opportunity. He turned and lent a helping hand up the steep stairs to the third member of his party, Jim Hutch, a burly man with side burns who sweat profusely.

"There you go, Jim."

"Thank you, Senator Godfrey."

"Now that won’t due, Jim. That won’t do at all. Call me Evan."

"You should be coming over this way, so as to get the best view," Omar directed in a loud voice. He had to speak loud because the machines that filled the massive industrial center drown out most conversation.

Omar's tour took the men to a big long cylinder set horizontally on thick support struts. Gauges, controls, hoses, wires, and all manner of mechanisms dotted the surface of the thing. At one end a funnel-like orifice; at the other an arched opening feeding onto a conveyor belt.

From front to back the machine stretched nearly fifty yards with the diameter of a railroad tanker car.

Evan addressed the crowd more so than Omar as he said, "This matter-maker is much larger than the one we discovered back during the first year. I remember when you and I got our first good look at one of these."

"Um, yes, of course," Omar would not challenge Evan's historical revisionism.

Hutch turned his nose up and grunted, "Damn ugly thing. Looks grimy and what's that smell? Geez, smells like something rotting."

"It is an industrial-capacity matter transfiguration machine," Omar came across as defensive. "Given the variety of substances pushed through its workings it does develop an unpleasant odor, which is a side effect that cannot be helped."

Evan sensed Omar's temperature rising, although the edge in his voice might be as much due to a lack of a cigarette as anything else. Whatever the case, Evan interceded, "So, tell me Omar, how much do we understand about the workings of this contraption?"

"What we have learned has come from what you might say 'trial and error.' We have developed a comprehensive list of what materials can be created. We also have several theories as to exactly how this process is completed, but so far have been unable to duplicate the process with human technology."

Evan summarized, "So you know what it does but not why."

Hutch wiped perspiration from this forehead with his arm and suggested, "Why not just rip the thing apart and study its insides."

Omar's eyes bulged and his lips trembled as he nearly shouted, "Because we only have so many of these machines and the entire industrial output of our nation is dependent upon them. We could not risk losing output capacity."

Senator Godfrey rested an arm on Nehru's shoulder. "So, um, what's next on the tour?"

Omar heaved a deep breath and led the men across the scaffold toward the input end.

"As you will see here, at this point here in goes raw materials for metamorphosis."

On cue, a crane tipped a large bucket and a dark-colored substance oozed into the receptacle. A terrible new smell drifted across the gathered VIPs and their media entourage.

"What is that shit?" Jim Hutch found this new smell worse than the first.

"I must be apologizing for the nastiness of this odor. Our technicians have now been pouring garbage sludge into the maker."

"I see," Evan waved a hand over his nose half-heartily.

A few of the gathered reporters laughed.

"Now what happens?"

Omar walked alongside the machine as if following the sludge on its unseen journey. He answered the Senator as they walked. "All of the conversions have been set in advance. It is much consuming of time to complete the equations. As the input materials move through the cylinder, the machine breaks the sludge into its basic building blocks on a level molecular."

The cylinder vibrated, creating a sound similar to an overtaxed washing machine.

"And at this time the sludge is becoming a mass of atoms. Those atoms will then be slowly changed into the new configuration we have selected for them."

"This is fascinating, Omar. Fascinating," Evan made sure any audio recorders caught a tone of familiarity in his voice as he spoke to the Empire's leading scientific mind. Certainly anyone listening could tell these two were old buddies going back to the early days.

"You cannot be seeing from this position, but on the side away from us there be a waste byproduct basin. It is there that excess materials are collected. From those materials we create the so-called ‘pinballs’ that our army people will use in combating Shadows."

"Shadows?" Jim Hutch spoke between heavy huffs. "Those are nasty bastards."

Omar pointed to a segment in the cylinder thicker than the rest of the machine.