"For the most part, we've stayed out of each other's way, except for a few skirmishes here and there over resources."
"Except," Trevor corrected, "When you teamed up to attack the home world’s army."
"Yes. That happened a few times. Once in a while we got word to send out a force here or there to hit the Chaktaw and to expect support from Geryon air ships or maybe Duass artillery."
"You’re being used, Nina. Your entire race. All the races here, I guess. Some one wants you fighting each other and the only time that some one is willing to have you make peace is when it’s to get at the Chaktaw. The guys who own this planet. The same way it is on my Earth. Didn’t your leaders-your Trevor, The Committee-didn't they ever wonder why?"
"I told you how most of us got here. It's easy to judge now, but you weren't around when people were starving after the civil wars, or homeless, or lost everyone. You didn't hear-" she stopped, considered the irony of what she had to say, then went on, "You didn't hear our Trevor Stone promise a new world, a chance at glory, a chance to start over."
Trevor thought about that. He did not require his bank of genetic memories to recall a destitute Germany in the 1930s falling sway to promises of a new world, of glory. Of course, he also realized what role that meant he played.
"They lied to you, Nina. The universe is moving you around like pawns."
Either she felt berated into silence or stifled the urge to argue, but whatever the reason she said no more for some time, following him around quietly as they examined the caves in search of a home for the night.
Eventually they found one that fit their needs. From the outside, the pile of rocks covering the entrance made it appear to be something of a talus cave, but inside they found a well-sculpted cavern that seemed more sandstone, albeit not of natural creation. Regardless, a solitary Chem Lantern lit and heated the sphere-like cavern. They unrolled their sleeping bags and stowed weapons and rations in separate corners.
Nina mixed two chemical compounds on a small flat plate. The plate sizzled for several minutes allowing them time enough to heat a couple of meat tubes. Trevor sarcastically told her that on his Earth they called them "hot dogs."
Nina replied, "On my world we call them franks."
The two paused for three seconds then burst into a fit of laughter.
After dinner, Trevor asked to hear more about Sirius. She took his hand and led him outside. There were no clouds overhead. The stars shined bright, one most of all.
"There…look…see the blue-white star just next to the three ones…yeah, there."
It was bright and beautiful, glittering like a precious jewel. As he gazed at the shimmering flicker he felt a shiver, probably from the cool breeze blowing over the crater’s rim but possibly from the realization that he looked upon mankind’s first home.
"So far away," he pondered.
"Eight point six light years."
"Eight point…wow. So what I’m looking at right now is you almost nine years ago. What were you doing nine years ago? Were you still on Sirius or were you here already?"
Nina thought before answering, "I was still on Sirius, fighting in the Unification War. I think it was about this time eight years ago or so that I learned to fly. Oh yeah," she smiled. "I remember because we all got in this big bar fight. I mean, we were young and stupid then."
He looked over at her. The Major’s eyes remained glued to that flicker of light in the sky.
"I should have never come to this place. But we…"
She stopped.
"Go on. But you what?"
"But we were convinced you were the man who would build an Empire on this planet."
Nina stopped talking and walked inside with her shoulders slumped, perhaps thinking she spoiled an otherwise pleasant moment. Trevor followed and they sat around the Chem Lantern.
After sitting in silence for a minute, he said, "I remember saying to my Nina that maybe the invasion was about how dangerous mankind is, maybe some power in the universe needed to wipe us out. Well maybe I was right after all, only it isn’t just humanity that’s a threat. It’s the Chaktaw and the Hivvans and the Geryons and the rest."
"Oh."
He tried to ponder that thought for a moment while the whisper of outside wind slipped into the main chamber. The Chem Lanterns kept things warm, but the sound of that wind made him feel chilled, if only in his mind.
"You miss your Nina very much. I can see that. You carry her with you, like a wound."
Could he deny it? Maybe the Old Man had been right, that losing Nina would make him all the more potent a fighter, one fueled by rage for what he had lost.
Slaughter them all, Trev. Maybe if you kill enough of em' you'll feel better.
He answered, "It's the way it happened. If she had died…if we had just broken up or something, I would have moved on a long time ago. They stole her memories, do you understand? She didn't stop loving me; she just forgot that she ever had. Do you know what kind of torture that is, knowing you're the only one who remembers?"
"Do you ever talk to her? See her around?"
"Don't you get it? She doesn’t exist any more. All the things that made her who she was are gone; she’s gone, turned back to a person who never even knew me."
The Major countered, "She still has her body and her mind. There are parts of that person inside her, right?"
He answered tentatively, "Yeah. I guess."
She seemed waiting for him to say more, but he chose to avoid the discussion. Since coming to this world he had had his mind and emotions twisted more than enough, particularly in regards to who was who and differences running more than skin deep.
Nina said, "I want to give you a gift."
Her sentence hung in the air for a moment with no noise to intrude, the wind had paused momentarily and the Chem Lantern gave off only heat and light, no sound.
"You what?"
Nina stood and walked around the light. Her feet shuffled on the dusty cavern floor as she moved in front of him and knelt as he sat with his legs crossed.
"I want to give you a gift," she repeated.
"A…A gift?"
Nina stripped off the top of her battle suit revealing a white undershirt.
"Close your eyes," she instructed.
"Nina, I don’t know what you’re-"
She placed a gentle finger on his lips and, in an almost motherly tone, calmed, "Shhhh."
He looked at her blue eyes and saw real warmth there. Real, honest human warmth. Compassion, even.
Trevor closed his eyes.
She turned and sat in his lap, leaning against his chest and pulling his arms around her in a hug. With his eyes closed, he felt her heart beat, he felt the gentle in and out of her lungs, and found that her scent was, in fact, identical to that Nina from another world.
She whispered, "When you open your eyes, speak to the woman you loved. She’s here, in me. I have all the things that made her who she was, they’re just arranged differently. Take your memories and make me into her."
Trevor felt a shiver but he could not discern if the tremble came from him, or her. Nonetheless, he kept his eyes shut tight.
"Tell her…tell her everything you never had the chance to say. Tell her what you would tell her…if only…if only you had one more moment with her. Just one moment."
The Major fell silent. She would say no more for a long while.
Trevor sat perfectly still, unsure how to react. His first instinct was to reject the very notion, the idea that-but yes, she was in there, wasn't she? Since coming to this planet, he had hoped this twin could be the real thing. In so many ways, they were different, but if there was any place in the universe-in all the universes-where he might possibly reach the soul of Nina Forest, it was here; it was now.