Parallels

the pampered Ashley of the pre-Armageddon world.

'I understand why you're not with her. I will keep the secret. What good would it do to tell?'

She did not really expect an answer. He did not have one, anyway.

'I will stay here, in the mansion, with you. I will dance with you at official receptions and I will always smile and hold your hand. Together we will raise our son and he need never know the truth. At night, the people will see us retire to our home. They do not need to know that while we may share the same bed, I shall no longer share my…my heart with you. We will be together, but alone.'

'Ashley…'

'I will be your wife for show, for the good of The Empire. But I will not be your concubine. If there is no love between us, then there will be no love between us.'

Trevor did not know what to say. Even if he could think of words, he would remain silent. Ashley had earned the right to speak. He owed her that much, at least.

'You have my sympathy. For what happened…I…I understand. I don’t blame you. But I can’t cry for you, Trevor. I’m saving my tears for myself.'

– Catherine Nina Brewer slept safe in her bed. Jon and Lori sat in front of a silent television in the glow of a candle, each holding a glass of wine.

Jon had had enough television for one day. Lori wondered if her husband had had enough talking, too. He had been silent for several minutes.

'You okay?'

'Huh?' He pulled himself from a trance.

'I guess that answers that question.'

'I messed up,' he confessed. 'I really, I mean really, screwed up.'

'Hey, wait, Trevor’s back. All’s well, right?'

Jon shook his head. 'Wrong. Things almost fell apart. God, when I think about what almost happened, maybe I…maybe…'

'Maybe you should have let Gordon kill off Evan?'

The very suggestion tasted bitter to Jon.

'What? Are you crazy?'

'Allrrigghty then…what? What should you have done?'

General Brewer rested his glass on the coffee table.

'I’m a soldier.'

'Know that already. Next?'

He tried to understand it himself as he explained, 'What I mean, I’m a leader on the battlefield. I can see how fights shape up. I can sort of think like my enemy now and then.'

'Okay. So what are you saying?'

'I’m saying I’m a soldier, not a politician. Trevor is kind of both. Evan is a politician.'

'And an asshole.'

'You can’t blame him, Lori. What happened wasn’t his fault. He was kind of right. We didn’t know if Trevor was alive. I mean, I think we all thought he was-wow-dead.'

'So? What is it you’re trying to say?'

Jon placed a casual hand on her leg.

'Someday Trevor isn’t going to come back. Someday he’s going to be dead. Someday some one is going to have to deal with what we do after Trevor Stone.'

'And what is it we do after Trevor Stone?'

Jon sighed. 'I think…I think we’re going to have to listen to people like Evan Godfrey. What almost happened today, it could have been a civil war. Next time we can’t let it get out of control like that.'

– The fire crackled and its radius of light illuminated the dry stream bed in the middle of the forest. While Trevor figured that the flames were some kind of illusion, the heat they threw felt real, even if that heat was not needed on such a nice, early spring night.

'Sounds like you had yourself a hoot of a time, Trev.'

Stone gaped at the mystical Old Man. 'That’s it? I tell you I know about the parallel universes, I know about Earth as an arena, I can name the other players in this little game, and I figure Voggoth is even more important than I ever thought before. And that’s all you can say?'

Trevor gasped in frustration.

The Old Man said, 'Oh, calm down and enjoy the fire. Don’t go spoilin’ it for me. You don’t come to see me as often as you used to, so let’s try an’ keep this pleasant.'

Trevor thought about that while the flames danced and cast shadows over the white wolf that lay next to the fire and Tyr who curled at his Master’s feet.

Suddenly Stone chuckled. Not a happy chuckle. Not at all.

'What’s that ticklin’ your belly?'

Trevor controlled his laugh and answered, 'You were right, you know? Way back when…when we first met… you told me you were going to be the closest thing to a friend I was ever going to have. Well look around. You’re it.'

He gazed across the fire at his benefactor. The Old Man watched him closely. In those eyes there was something. What was it? Pity?

Trevor stood and changed the subject. 'So, what was it you and your buddies did? Huh? How’d you pick Earth to be the spot? Let me guess, you took a look down and saw this nice planet that could support all of the eight races. Ooops, look, there’s dinosaurs and shit like that crawling around down there. So then what? You toss an asteroid at Earth then wait a few million years until things cool down then drop human DNA into the mix down here? Or Chaktaw? Or Hivvan? Tell me, are you really a God or do you just try to play like one?'

The Old Man tilted his head.

'You just tryin’ like crazy to piss me off, that it Trev? Saints alive, you just don’t want any friends no more.'

'You’re never going to tell me anything, are you?'

'I told you a heap more than I was ever suppose too.'

Trevor wagged a finger at the man. 'Yeah, but I keep catching you in lies, old timer. The K9s, they weren’t a gift from you, they were built into my genes. Something more powerful than you put them there. That’s my bet.'

The Old Man chuckled.

Trevor went on. 'Then you told me I was going to break the rules. But it wasn’t me, was it? I didn’t break the rules.'

The Old Man stopped laughing.

'The runes weren’t there when I got to the Ring of Ice. Oh, I knew where to look because you told me. But they weren’t there. No harm, no foul, right? Then they come crashing right up out of the ice. That was you, wasn’t it? So first you break the rules by telling me about the runes on my Earth so I know where to look over there, then you break them again by making sure they pop up when I get there.'

The Old Man sat silent. The sound of the fire played evenly in the background.

Trevor said sincerely, 'Thank you.'

The Old Man blinked once, then twice, and then looked at his protege. 'Oh, now stop that, Trev. You really do have a-what do they call it? — yeah, an in-maj-i-nay-shun. Hehe.'

Stone shook his head. The more he learned the tighter lipped his benefactor became. Trevor decided he did not want to spar anymore. He took a few steps along the streambed. The trees there thinned and allowed a view of the stars. He gazed toward the sky and squinted.

'Oh, it’s up there,' the Old Man called. 'Just look toward Orion’s belt, then over to the left of it.'

Trevor saw a brilliant, blue-white star beckoning in the night sky.

'I…I can see it.' He felt goose bumps on his arms. 'It’s beautiful.'

'That it is, Trevor. That it is. Say, if you ever get a mind for it, you may wanna head on down to your local library and go looking up a group called ‘The Dogon’.'

'The Dogon?'