Heat lightning.
He saw piston-like machinery at work in the middle of the thing, but the space in and around the arch was sheathed in a shimmering distortion.
A pair of conveyor belts extended out from that distortion carrying crates, bags, and barrels of supplies that traveled across the void of space to arrive here, on this parallel Earth. Chaktaw prisoners retrieved those supplies, working under the whip of humanalien — guards.
Around everything, a sound like a million buzzing bees punctuated by sharp cracks of electricity and a smell that mimicked burning circuitry.
Trevor stared at the sight below him and the truth it brought. A series of mental locks and dams tried in vain to slow the flood of understanding.
In the tone of a confused child he said, 'That’s…that’s a gateway.'
She answered, 'Yes.'
His head tilted. 'Your gateway.'
'Yes.'
His hands trembled. He retreated a step from the railing but the gorgon would not release his eyes; would not allow him to look away.
'This isn’t…this isn’t your Earth?'
The flood smashed the dams and broke open the locks protecting his sanity. Everything fell to pieces. Shattered.
'Here…here you… here you are invaders…'
Neither of them saw the soldier-the friend of Jakob Snowe-running across a walkway on the far side of the chamber and taking aim with his rifle.
Trevor’s hands rose to his temples as he staggered further away from the railing; away from the truth.
This is my world now. I own it.
'What…what have I done? Oh God forgive me, what have I become?'
'Trevor…wait…listen to me…'
She was not even there. She was a universe away.
'What…what have I become?'
He clutched his head and closed his eyes and hunched over as if slammed in the stomach by a hammer. Everything he had done here, everything in the name of yet another glorious cause. All of it…murder. Invasion. Conquest.
Trevor Stone cursed himself, 'WHAT HAVE I BECOME?'
Gun shots flared off the railing like fireworks. Nina pulled her pistols and returned fire.
'What have I become? What have I done?'
He screamed the words over and over again as loud as he could to drown out the laughter.
The laughter of the universe.
25. Insurrection
What have I become?
Trevor Stone had faced and survived all manner of nightmare creatures in the course of his life; in the course of his reign. At last Armageddon conjured a monster that sapped his will, boggled his mind, and pushed him to the brink of insanity. That monster was himself.
What have I done?
He switched off sensory input, tuning out the buzz of the galactic gateway that had brought Nina’s humans to this Earth. He shut out the cries of the tortured slaves forced to do the bidding of extraterrestrial masters. He ignored the sound of the Major shooting her pistols.
Trevor retreated into his mind but instead of finding sanctuary, he found a prison built from the truth of what he had done on this parallel world.
The gateway was the nucleus of Thebes. Thebes was the last city of mankind on this Earth. It had also been the first city.
A distant shout tried to break through to him, 'Trevor…we…have…to…go…'
Clues he had ignored now laid plain in front of him, a mystery revealed that had been, in fact, poorly hidden. He only failed to see the truth because accepting the lies had been easy.
Director Snowe and Major Forest knew there were no more human beings on this planet because the only humans on this world had come through the Gateway to Thebes.
The words of a Committeeman: 'We should halt outward bound cross-dimensional research until such time as additional assets are made available.'
Yes, outward bound. But inward bound continued in the form of supplies. On this world, no one had yet shutdown the invaders' gateways.
At the estate on this Earth, the Geryons had issued a warning before attacking. When had an invader on Trevor's home Earth ever given a warning? But from one invader to another, such a courtesy might be extended to avoid 'destabilizing' the border between territories. Perhaps the Duass failed to counter attack from Erie Coast for the same reason.
His mind cycled through hint after hint, sign after sign that all was not as it seemed. Nina's people used numbers and grid references the way an invading army would categorize and organize foreign territory. Nina’s explanation of ‘forgetting’ the old was so broad and foolish he should have seen through it but it was easier, more convenient, to accept without question.
The architecture at the lake and the Chaktaw base resembled cliff dwellings, yet Thebes resembled a more traditional human city built on open plains, yet he asked no question.
Why didn’t I ask more? Why did I accept it all?
Cities and playgrounds and air ports and farms and all the other trappings of civilization overrun and replaced with bases and mining operations.
An armada of invaders had come, including humanity, competing for territory like European settlers landing on the New World, but sharing the primary goal of beating down, defeating, subjugating the indigenous species.
No wonder Nina had never heard of the estate. The Trevor Stone of this reality had never been at that estate. The estate had belonged to someone else.
The Chaktaw?
'Please, Trevor, snap out of it!'
And he had replaced the Trevor Stone who had led the human invaders; stepped into his shoes easily. Trevor saw Chaktaw bodies hanging from crucifixes.
Reverend Johnny’s ghost spoke, 'This world is having a strange effect on you, Trevor Stone. It is bringing out a side of you that you had previously kept in a cage. I remember when you were saddened by the idea that your life would be one of killing and destruction. Now it seems as if you are embracing your fate with welcoming arms.'
No, Reverend, Trevor thought. This world merely showed me who I really am.
How else could he explain it? On one world, a warrior fighting to save his people, on another, a warrior conquering new territory. A difference in only purpose, not methods. Yes, this is why the Old Man chose Trevor Stone for his gifts, because of his black heart.
Trevor became vaguely aware that he was moving, of a hand pulling him along. He blinked rapidly and slowly returned to the world around him. He felt his steps on the catwalk, heard the heavy breath of Major Nina Forest as she encouraged him along.
'Down. You have to go down, Trevor. Down this ladder.'
He scanned the floor and saw a portal there, like an open manhole cover.
'Hurry! Hurry, if we can duck down here, we can hide. I can get you out of this.'
Trevor did as suggested, still too groggy from realization to offer any protest. He descended into a dark, humid area that smelled of steam and rusting metal. Around him, walls lined with pipes and wires and small
