While Jaff understood, he did not appear convinced of Trevor’s intention. No doubt Jaff had heard rumors of Chaktaw soldiers hanging upside down from crucifixes.
"Fromm no dumb. He no trust you. You Emperor. Fromm kill you."
"You tell me where to meet Fromm. I wait there. You get Fromm."
"Fromm not come. Fromm no time for games."
Trevor stood and paced the skipper, wobbling side to side as the ship pushed through a patch of light turbulence. He ran a hand through his hair and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to find some way to convince Jaff to listen.
Finally he hit upon an idea. He knelt alongside Jaff's seat and said, "Listen carefully. This is very important. Tell Fromm that I know about the key only he can see. Tell Fromm I know why he is so smart. Tell him I have been to his old mansion and I can help him get it back. Tell him I can help him save Earth. His Earth. Tell him I have a gift."
Jaff regarded Trevor with great suspicion but sat silently, absorbing the words.
Nina heard the entire exchange. While afraid at what might happen if she spoke without permission, she could not stifle her curiosity.
"Trevor, I um, sorry, but what…what are you planning?"
"I don’t belong here," he finally admitted. "Neither do you. It’s time for us to go home."
Surprised, she gasped, "What? You know a way home?"
Trevor closed his eyes and said, "I’ve known how to get home since I got here. I guess I didn’t want to leave. But now it’s time for both of us to leave this world where we don’t belong."
26. Exodus
Once its fuel tanks ran dry, the skipper landed in a field more than one hundred miles north of Thebes just as the sun rose over the eastern horizon. While Major Forest secured survival gear and weapons from the ship's cargo hatches, Trevor convinced Jaff to provide a meeting location.
After giving the Chaktaw a portion of their emergency rations as well as a pistol, the trio split. Following Jaff's directions, Trevor and Nina headed northeast, although the Major walked the first quarter mile backwards, convinced the Chaktaw planned to shoot them from behind.
For his part, Jaff disappeared to the northwest although Trevor suspected that to be ruse; that he would eventually turn due north. Whatever the case, Trevor's hope of returning home depended a great deal on the Chaktaw finding his leader and then convincing Fromm to rendezvous at the location Jaff chose.
Of course, Trevor did not know if his life span would be longer or shorter if Fromm did, in fact, choose to meet. Perhaps the Chaktaw leader would seize the opportunity to murder the face of the human invasion.
Nonetheless, Trevor now rejected this Earth with a fervor exceeding his initial embrace of Thebes. The longer he stayed here, the more diseased he felt, as if wallowing in a filth manufactured by his actions. Returning home could not cleanse him, but he craved the company of the people who knew him best. Perhaps they could help him fit the pieces back together.
As much as he wished to leave, he needed to know the answers of this place. As they walked from field to forest across tundra thawing in the morning sun, he conjured a thousand questions. But every time he tried to speak with Nina, his blood boiled, his anger spiked. The truth of her deception, the mind-warping reality of humanity as invaders on this Earth, and the exposing of his own nasty underbelly thanks to her carefully planned manipulation…all simmered inside at a dangerously high temperature.
Screaming at her would do no good. He knew that. He wanted answers and if they were to survive for the next few days to meet Fromm, he would need her help. Thus, he remained silent, biding his time until he could manage civilized conversation.
During the first hours of their journey, the only sound they shared was the plod of boots trudging across muddy ground and the occasional pant of short breath.
They found their way not only by compass, but by landmarks Jaff had mentioned. First came a mountain lined with abandoned cliff dwellings, dwellings cracked and burned, families driven out or slaughtered by invaders.
As directed by Jaff, outside this hillside town they found and followed a big road not so much paved as packed with a tight, granular surface akin to a blacktop/gravel mixture. Along the way, Trevor spied directional signs affixed to iron stakes and painted in fading colors on metallic surfaces. While the collection of scribbles and lines on those signs proved indecipherable, he understood the messages nonetheless.
This exit for such-and-such town. Rest stop ahead. Buy such-and-such brand of this consumer product.
They skirted clusters of empty development. From what he saw along the road, these earthlings preferred mountainside buildings but did utilize other designs as well. He spotted the remains of a riverside villa built with wood, metal, and stone that could easily have been mistaken for a small town back home. He also saw a blasted observation tower constructed along the road and resembling the Seattle Space Needle.
The Chaktaw had the same bipedal body shape, the same basic height and weight ranges. Their forms were nearly identical to human beings and hence the places in which they lived and the furniture in which they sat were mirror images to what Trevor knew from his world, which is why it had been easy to mistake this invaded Earth for a reflection of his own.
He saw buildings with triangle-like steeples that suggested houses of worship. He found an empty playground with pyramid-shaped sliding boards and crisscrossing swings, no doubt responsible for many skinned young Chaktaw knees from the time before the universe came to destroy these people.
Smashed warehouses…burned farms…skeleton-like remains of vehicles…the exact same sights he had come across while rebuilding man's civilization on man's Earth. It felt so familiar, with the one difference being that this world belonged to the Chaktaw. Humanity was just another invader.
As their hike racked up miles, Trevor noticed something peculiar in regards to Chaktaw settlements. From residential colonies to more metropolitan areas, the remains of their pre-invasion civilization seemed well-incorporated into the surrounding environment, as if taking advantage of the natural defenses of a mountain or a valley or dense woodland.
In any case, around mid day the two travelers stopped to rest their feet and eat salty combat rations. She told him 'pork' when he asked about the meat.
You mean pork transported across the galaxy through a gateway and packed into boxes by slaves and put on transports so as to feed an army of conquerors and Stone stopped the deluge of angry thoughts. This was why he could not speak to her. A simple question about lunch could turn into a reason to yell. He did not want to yell. He had done enough yelling in recent weeks.
During the first years of battle after the start of Armageddon, Trevor felt a righteousness in his cause, one that justified the brutality of his counter attacks and the determination of his armies. As difficult as his task, the path lay clear before him: kill the invaders, save the people. The means were justified by the ends of his species' survival.
That feeling of righteousness suffered a significant blow at New Winnabow, when he had unleashed his K9 army on the pacifists standing between him and victory over the Hivvans.
Justified? Given the circumstances, Trevor could tell himself as much. Again, a means to the ultimate end. But now, here, on this Earth, what justification could he have for his actions? Here humanity stood on the wrong side of the moral equation. More so, he pushed far beyond any reasonable limits, not only on the battlefield, but succumbed to all manner of twisted desires with this woman who resembled his Nina.