'You're not going anywhere,' Ashley told her boy. 'I'm not going to lose you again. You stay here with Mr. Hauser and the medical team. We'll radio for you when we find his location.' Hauser protested, 'Ma'am, I mean, shouldn't we all go?' 'This is not a military matter, Rick, it's a personal one. Family. Besides, the fewer people the faster we can move.' Hauser did not like the idea but had no choice but relent. 'Okay then, we'll wait to hear from you.'
Nina pushed a button and the door slid open. A cool breeze-surprisingly cool for July-eased in as did the smell of wild flowers, the sound of a nearby waterfall, and birdsong
Eagle One sat on one side of a meadow cut in a deciduous forest by a fire decades before. A few charred stumps remained but otherwise the area had grown over in weeds and flowers. On the other side of the clearing sat Scout Four, its starboard side smashed into a clump of trees.
Nina and Odin descended the ramp. Ashley followed, saying, 'He headed northeast. I think there's a path-'
Her sentence stopped in a grunt of pain. Ashley fell to one knee and grabbed her right ankle. Nina snapped about and raced to her. JB eyed his mother suspiciously. 'What is it? What happened?' 'I slipped off the ramp. I think I sprained it. You go ahead. Radio when you find him.' Nina hesitated. Ashley said, 'Go, I'll be okay. Find Trevor. You have to catch up to him.' 'Okay, I'll go. And I promise, I'll find your husband.' She then turned and followed Odin into the forest on a game trail leading northeast.
Ashley remained on a knee until Nina entered the brush. At that point she calmly stood and-in perfect strides-ascended the ramp into the ship telling a stunned Hauser, 'We wait until we hear from her.'
– Nina entered the woods with a sense of urgency, moving at a fast walk and following the obvious signs: footsteps in soft ground along the trail, broken branches, trampled flowers, and flattened brush. It seemed that in his current state Trevor moved like an enraged bull, pushing through and knocking over anything in his way.
As the day wore on, she realized that while he had not moved softly he had moved quick. Whatever damage The Order had done to her leader, they had left him full of adrenaline.
The thick green canopy of forest could not keep out the heat of a strong afternoon sun. The air grew heavy with humidity, becoming another weight on her shoulders conspiring to drain her strength. But Nina did not slow. She willed herself forward. Her loyal companion-Odin-suffered even more so due to his heavy black and gray coat.
At the edge of a great waterfall she hid behind a fallen tree to avoid a massive StumpHide. Its long body and heavy feet crashed through the wilderness reminding her that amidst the natural beauty of the Catskills lurked the unnatural dangers of alien wildlife.
When the trail seemed to disappear at a stream, Odin's keen nose miraculously found Trevor's scent.
From the top of an open ridge she paused to drink from her canteen and watch the sun begin its descent, its rays changing to burnt orange.
In the forest again a yard of Bloodhorns crossed their path. She stopped and watched the graceful beasts graze at a patch of berry bushes before moving on. One regarded her through its crimson eyes. The ungulates wore a pair of slender horns similar to pronghorns and seemed to dance, not run. Not all aliens were predators.
As the forest darkened a wobble grew in her knees from exhaustion. Just as she worried she would have to make camp for the night, she came upon a lonely cabin sitting atop a clearing where a land owner had long ago cut away the trees, and shrubs, and grass and blanketed it all with gravel and rock.
Nina surveyed the clearing surrounding the cabin and Odin stood at her side with his nose in the air sniffing. She heard song birds celebrate the end of another summer day, her eyes saw no reason to fear, and her Elkhound did not advance any warning.
She adjusted the M-4 on her shoulder and then stepped out of the shadows. Her footfalls crunched on the white gravel. As they crossed the distance, Nina took note of the cabin’s isolation; of her isolation in those mountains. Inside the forest, she had not given it much thought. But there, seeing the cabin in the clearing under the wide open sky and against the backdrop of forested mountain walls, emphasized the point.
Nina and her dog arrived at and climbed the wooden stairs then stopped perfectly still. The door stood slightly ajar. Scrapes and splinters along the frame indicated forced entry.
She drew her pistol and pushed the door. It swayed open with a creak much too loud for her liking, but no response came from within.
She stepped inside first. A fresh cedar smell greeted her, riding on cold air trapped inside the home for a decade.
To her right, a small room with a desk and dusty wildlife oil paintings, an ancient typewriter, and a bundle of straw in one corner no doubt home for a mouse. To her left, a closet with empty clothes hangers and a cache of dusty fishing gear scattered below.
In front of her the hallway continued toward a kitchen. First, however, an archway to her left just beyond the closet.
Nina instinctively felt a presence in that room even before she peered inside. When she did, she saw a bundle on the floor; a person curled in a fetal position in front of a dormant stone fireplace and at the foot of a plush sofa. Trevor Stone. Before entering the room she listened and looked along the hall but her instincts now told her they were alone. Those instincts were wrong. She stepped into the living room, holstered her weapon, and cautiously took to a knee. Odin stood nearby, his nose in the air.
Nina felt a shiver shake her arm as she reached two fingers to his throat. For a long second she feared she had searched all day only to find a corpse. She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as her fingers felt a soft pulse, but he did not stir.
His shirt had been torn to shreds during his blind race through the wilderness. He wore only one sneaker and she spied small patches of blood on his pant legs and arms. Nothing serious, but another sign of the craziness of his flight through the woods. Her Emperor-her leader- reduced to a wild animal.
Nina studied the rough lines in his cheekbones and the strong shoulders that had carried her people so far for so long. Lying there, on the floor, those cheekbones seemed soft and the shoulders vulnerable. She realized she looked not upon an Emperor, but a man.
In that moment all the admiration, all the loyalty, and all the respect she held for him doubled. Trevor Stone was no super being, no powerful entity, no demigod. She saw him as a human being, no more, no less. And while that realization stripped away his aura of invincibility, it made him real and his accomplishments more worthy of admiration.
And he lay there, on the floor, alone.
A wave of sadness flew over her. No, not over, but from that locked part of her heart.
He will not be alone. He deserves better than that.
She yanked a quilt from the sofa producing a cloud of dust that caused her to cough and wheeze, but he still did not stir even as she draped the cover across him.
Nina placed her backpack on the floor and retrieved the oversized radio from inside. With her attention focused on the communicator, she did not see the Old Man staring in the front window, his face contorted into an expression of deep grief; tears streaming down his cheeks.
The transmitter offered only static. Nina did not understand why. After several minutes of trying, she left the living room and moved outside in time to watch the last rays of sunshine fade behind the peaks. Odin remained behind, curled on the floor in one corner of the room nursing his own exhaustion.
Still, no contact. She did not understand. The high powered radio should work, even in such a remote area. Something obstructed her call for help.
She turned off the radio, returned inside, and knelt next to him whispering, 'Trevor? Do you…can you…hear me? Um…it’s me…Captain…it’s me…Nina Forest.'
No response, only the slow rise and fall of his chest.
Nina considered her options. She could not carry him out of the mountains. Indeed, she could not walk out herself. The trip in had consumed her strength. Her legs needed rest. Furthermore, she suspected Trevor to be exhausted, which probably accounted for his lack of response. At least she hoped so.
The calendar, she knew, said July but they sat in the high mountains surrounded by forest. The cabin’s stale, cold air already felt chilly enough despite how hot the day had been. Certainly the temperature would drop even further as night rose.
She prioritized.
