The first shot captured a group standing arm and arm at some kind of celebration as evident by their eclectic but overall formal wear. She recognized Lori and Jon Brewer as well as Dante Jones, each with big smiles, a few apparently fueled by consumption.
At the center of that line stood two people, the first the man with whom she shared a bed and had mothered a child: Trevor Stone. He wore the tuxedo she found in the closet. He had never worn that tuxedo for her.
Next, a blonde woman with wavy curls in hair falling to her shoulders, attractive blue eyes, and in a striking black dress. Trevor's arm held the woman's waist tight, something more than friends merely lining for a picture.
Ashley did not need to be told; her instincts identified the woman easily enough.
Nina Forest…
…The spongy football left grandpa’s hands again, this time with a tighter spiral.
Once again, JB stumbled to move into position to make the grab but at the last moment he looked away, his eyes diverted to the mansion behind him, his eyes finding and locking on the second floor balcony and the closed glass doors there. The forgotten football bounced to the snowy ground.
"JB? What’s wrong?"
Grandpa followed the child’s gaze but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Jorgie knew different.
Without warning, without a word, Jorge Benjamin Stone ran away from the game of catch with his grandpa. He hurried across the yard, his feet crunching on the thin layer of crusty snow as he raced inside…
…The images on the screens continued flashing a collage of the uncertainty sweeping the fledgling nation like a tsunami crashing to shore and carrying inland. Groups on the verge of turning into mobs, newscasters dismayed at the lack of response, concerns over supplies, the war, and unrest.
Trevor had forged order from the chaos of the invasion. Without him, it would all fall apart and Jon felt powerless to stop it.
"General Brewer, sir," one of Knox's men reported. "We intercepted a communication from Internal Security in D.C. to Dante Jones asking questions about the chain of command."
Knox responded to in incoming call and said, "I've got A-G Center on the line. It’s Stonewall; I’ll put it on speaker."
The NBN newscast tape spoke to a man on the street: "No, no, he’s not dead. Don’t say that, man. That’s bull. He’s not dead. He can’t be dead."
Voices and images crashed together in Jon's mind becoming a muddled mishmash of information overload jamming his thought process.
"Some of the I.S. officers in Washington are saying something about a clause in their funding that indicates they report to the Senate and not the Imperial Council."
"Hello? I say, is anyone there? Jon? Gordon? I think we need a little direction out here. Some units are starting to wonder who is in charge. Shepherd is due back any time now. I just hope there’s an army still here for him to command."
Gordon Knox's hand fell on Jon's shoulder.
"You have to do something. You’re in charge now…"
…Ashley put aside the group shot and examined the second photograph, apparently a still-shot from a video image.
She held the photo in one hand while her eyes studied it, not so much the image itself, but the understanding it delivered. The answer to her loneliness, to the mystery of Trevor's heart, to the malaise blanketing the life she led with him.
Ashley barely heard the stumble and clunk-clunk of footsteps as they raced toward her.
JB, panting, stopped in the doorway and looked at his mother. She met his eyes and shared a moment; so much can change in a moment.
The picture slipped from her fingertips, fluttered in the air like a dead leaf from an autumn tree, and came to rest on the floor.
Jorgie followed his mother's eyes to the fallen photo depicting Trevor and the blonde woman in the black dress, cheek to cheek and smiling.
Smiling the way two people smiled when they are in love.
– The conference room remained crowded for most of the day. Aides and assistants came and went; couriers delivered more tapes and special editions of newspapers.
Through it all, Jon watched the video play and listened to the voices on the tapes from radio broadcasts and read the words written in ink.
Knox barked orders. Orders to his aides and assistants. His operatives.
Orders like ‘get someone we can trust over to the train station in D.C. to keep an eye on things," or "call over to Senator Benson’s office and tell him to remember who his friends are; tell him I may need a favor and he damn well owes me."
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.