Anthony DeCosmo - Parallels

However, by the time night fell the crowd dissipated leaving behind only two souls, General Jon Brewer and his wife, Lori.

The plasma screen monitors flickered off, newspapers and communiques were piled together and pushed into a corner.

Lori leaned against the old bar, the one with the bullet hole from Stonewall's pistol. Jon sat at the head of the conference table, the seat normally reserved for Trevor Stone, with his eyes fixed on clenched hands.

"He’ll be back," she said but it sounded less sure than the first three times she said it.

"I don’t know what to do," Jon finally spoke to her after several minutes of silence. "It’s like the vultures are circling. I need more time to sort it out."

"Yeah. And it’s Evan Godfrey who’s got the vultures flying. Maybe you should let Gordo take care of that problem. I know he’d love the chance."

"I’m sure he would, but it’s not just Evan. It’s everyone. Everyone from the army to the farmers. I mean, wow, I guess I never really thought about how he…how he…"

Lori finished for her husband, "How Trevor held it all together."

"Yeah."

"That’s what he is. That’s his job."

"Whaddya mean? What he is?"

From the stairs came a new voice, the voice of Ashley.

"She’s trying to say that without Trevor, it all falls apart. That he was the man who kept everything in balance."

As she descended the stairs, they saw that Ashley held something in her hand.

"Without Trevor," she repeated. "It all falls apart."

Ashley threw the photograph on the table in front of the Brewers.

"You’re going to tell me what happened while I was…while everyone thought I was dead. You’re going to tell me how Trevor fell in love with Nina Forest, and why they’re not together now."

– Ashley stood alone by the fire in what had been a living room but in recent years served as a reception area for the mansion.

In her mind she played the story over and over again. The story of the belief she was dead, the story of two lost souls finding one another in the form of Trevor and Nina. The story of their separation-not by choice-and stolen memories ensuring the demise of the relationship. Then the order to keep the secret so as the temptation would remain one-sided.

Since her return on the ark, she felt coldness in his smiles, even in his touch. But to learn, in truth, that she was a substitute; a second-place consolation prize, well, it had taken all of her dignity to keep from falling into tears. She would not cry. Certainly not in front of Lori.

And now he had been spirited off to somewhere-perhaps even another world. Perhaps a duplicate Earth.

The concept of multiple dimensions was one so huge that Ashley did not take it apart to analyze. She merely accepted the facts as presented. One of those facts was that a woman-a Nina Forest-from that other Earth had come to her world with the goal of snatching away Trevor.

In the fireplace, flames wrapped eagerly around logs. Smoke raced up the chute while heat billowed out. She knew if she took a few steps away from the fire the warmth would fade and the cold would creep back in.

Her son cautiously entered the living room. He moved delicately, as if she were a sleeping Troll he dared not disturb.

Ashley turned and glanced in his direction. She presented the boy with a smile that faded as quickly as it came. He did not smile back. He could not think of a reason to smile.

JB watched his mother stare at the fire. He licked his lips as he searched for words.

After much consideration, he said, "Don’t worry, mommy, father will find a way home."

Ashley spoke words that she intended only to think, but her state of mind allowed them to slip out.

"What if he doesn’t want to come home?"

Trevor spent the next two days stewing around Thebes doing nothing of note and most certainly not writing any reports for The Committee. Furthermore, he avoided Nina-Major Forest-like an addict running from heroine.

Fortunately, this proved easy because she spent those days working ‘shit duty’ (whatever that was) as penance for her role in the "failed" mission. On the other hand, he could not avoid Reverend Johnny who suddenly seemed focused on one thing only: finding a way home.

Eventually, he did find something to focus his energies.

Trevor and Johnny stood outside of their apartment building waiting for ground transportation to the Third Legion’s training facility when sirens sprung to life across the city, reverberating around the tall buildings and along empty streets.

What if someone held an air raid and no one was there to hear it?

"God in heaven, what travesty is being visited upon us?"

Before Trevor could answer a vehicle skid to a fast stop in front of the hostel. Major Nina opened the door and ordered, "Get in!"

"What? What is it?"

The siren wailed on.

"It’s the Chaktaw."

– The northern perimeter of Thebes offered three lines of defense.

Furthest out, the remains of a wall broken into isolated pillars of stubborn concrete and piles of debris loosely formed into berms. Stretches of rusting barbed wire, spiked ditches, and crosses that made Trevor think of tank-taps from his home world completed this line of physical obstacles that stood in poor condition, no more than an annoyance to an attacker.

According to Major Forest, explosive charges controlled from the 'Perimeter Command Center' overlooking the battlefield comprised the second line of defenses.

The third and final ring included concrete bunkers and earth works hiding infantry and machine gun nests. However, gaps in this line and a lack of personnel inhibited its effectiveness.

Trevor and Johnny followed Nina to the Perimeter Command bunker, an armored observation platform behind the three rings. There they found Director Snowe as well as an older black man named General Gronard. The General commanded three thousand soldiers of the First Legion manning the northern lines with elements of Snowe's Third Legion in support positions.

As he waited for the battle to begin, Trevor noted that the officers in the bunker spent more time consulting manuals and maps than observing the field before them.

When he expressed concern to Nina about a lack of preparation, she told him that The Committee had authored a booklet on procedures for defending the northern perimeter. The military followed that booklet-each and every time-to the letter.

Fortunately for the defenders of the city, Nina said that the Chaktaw had their own play book and they followed it time and time again. This was a well-learned and oft-practiced confrontation, and both sides knew the steps like country folk at a square dance

"They’re coming in. Heads up; artillery!"

Shouts of "inbound!" echoed across the defensive lines.

Trevor ducked behind the protective plating of the bunker, but still dared a view toward the battlefield. He watched the first artillery bursts hit the lines. Seeing what that artillery did…it filled him with a sick sense of dread.

Not again.

Red balls of incoming fire smacked the ground with seemingly little effect; barely a tremor but leaving a glowing, hovering sparkle. That sparkle sucked in everything within a few meters like air rushing to fill a vacuum; sucked in and vaporized.

"Awe…shit. I hate these guys," Trevor grumbled.

"Huh? You’ve fought the Chaktaw before?" Forest asked.

Johnny, crouched in a protective position, answered, "We never learned their proper names. We dubbed them ‘Vikings.’ I suppose we can update our Hostiles Database."

"What’s a Viking?"

"Never mind. It doesn’t matter. But they were some of the best fighters we faced."

"Yeah, well, some things are the same over here," Nina said