While not experienced, the bridge crew had trained extensively for this mission, using parts from a downed Geryon blimp to assemble that simulator in Fromm's mountain hideaway. As Trevor and his armies had co-opted Centaurian-or 'Redcoat'-transports, Fromm intended to build a fleet of zeppelin battleships through theft and reverse-engineering.
Trevor and Nina shared a cabin. Despite her experience as a pilot, she suffered bouts of air sickness. Or, perhaps, frayed nerves deserved the blame, considering that if all went well she would return to Sirius soon and if all did not go well she would soon be dead.
The first day and the first night of the voyage passed without incident.
Trevor and Major Forest ate at Fromm’s table in the Captain’s quarters. The two leaders shared stories of their wars although Trevor left out a few details of the Battle of Five Armies.
Fromm had not yet faced the Hivvans. Trevor advised him of the matter-makers and how they had solved much of his people’s supply problems.
Conversely, Fromm warned again of the Witiko. Apparently they were humanoid and rather splendid looking, but were masters of deception and intrigue. Fromm's opinion of the Witiko translated roughly into ‘snobbish princes’ and ‘task masters.’
On the second day they traveled through heavy cloud cover. Swift gusts buffeted the air ship and wind-blown rain splashed against the circular view ports in the halls and cabins. While they had a difficult time seeing what lay below, Fromm informed that they had left behind the northern seas and now flew over land, commencing the final leg of their journey.
– Trevor and Nina lay on a bunk in their dark, windowless cabin. In fact, the only light in the room came from a tiny red dot above the exit door.
She lay in his arms but no romance remained between the two; their relationship had grown far more complex since leaving Thebes.
He whispered in her ear, "What will happen to you when you go home?"
Either she did not hear his question or she ignored it. Instead, she quickly asked, "I know I can't make up for what I did, and I know you can't forgive me, but I am sorry, Trevor. I'm sorry for everything."
At first, he did not respond. How could he? She had tricked, kidnapped, and manipulated him. While others-like Director Snowe-played major parts in the scheme, it had been this Nina Forest who had purposely sought and released that dark spot inside.
Then again, it was his dark spot. And it had been his duplicate who had so beaten and corrupted this woman that she thought the only chance at happiness laid in resurrecting her tormentor. Sick and twisted, yes, but his twin bore responsibility for doing the twisting.
"I don't know, Nina," eventually he replied. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself. I've done some hard things on my world, all in the name of fighting the invaders. The whole time I told myself that I have a mission and it's a good one, even if some bad things need to be done. I've sort of, I don't know, sort of come to terms that I'm the guy who has to do the nasty stuff now and then. But now I find out that I could just as easily be one of those invaders. Not just because your Trevor was one of the bad guys, but because of how easily I filled his shoes."
"You thought you were defending your planet."
"I can tell myself that, sure. Maybe I'll sleep better. On my Earth I've got people to keep me in check; friends. Here…here I was set free to act however I wanted and I took full advantage. Since this invasion began, I've learned I'm capable of a lot of big things, and now I've found out I'm capable of a lot of petty, nasty things, too."
A soft shimmer carried through the cabin, probably a wind gust buffeting the zeppelin.
She answered his initial question, "I’m thinking I’ll be the first one of us to ever return home. Like, everyone who came through the gate on our side has never gone back to Sirius."
"Nina, the important thing is that when you get home, you tell them what's happening here."
"I'll try."
He stroked one of her short ponytails. As he did, Trevor felt a pang in the pit of his stomach as he realized this adventure neared an end. Most of him wished it never occurred. What he had done…what he had nearly become…the loss of his friend. At the same time, part of him-a small, tiny fragment but a part nonetheless-did not want it to come to a close.
She was not the woman he loved. But she was so close…so close to being her. An illusion but, as Johnny had warned, sometimes the heart is a fair-weathered friend.
…when it has not been fed the diet it desires…it will coax and coerce.
She said, "I’m going to miss you."
"I hope you find a better life when you get home, Nina," he answered. "But that’s going to be up to you."
They lay together in the dark, both fearing the future ahead but knowing they had no choice but to face it.
Alone.
– Steeply angled windows faced forward as well as to either side of the battleship's bridge. Most of those windows included control consoles underneath, no doubt nearly identical to the training simulator back at the Chaktaw base.
A high-backed, elevated Captain's chair sat at the center of the room with a bank of monitors and displays overhead. Of course Fromm manned that particular station.
Trevor and Nina spent the last few hours of their journey on the bridge, watching the dance of the northern lights: sweeping sheets of white, yellow, green and red hovering in the sky.
At several points during the last stretch of the flight, Trevor wondered if they actually moved at all. The ocean of pure white below seemed unchanging, as if they stared at the same vision for hour after hour. Only the occasional rattle from a wind gust and the hum of the churning engines gave any clue of momentum.
Still, he felt fortunate to see that stretch of white. Had they arrived a few weeks prior, they would have traveled in perpetual darkness or, at best, twilight. When Jon Brewer followed this same path a world away during late summer, he benefited from the ‘midnight sun’. The opposite would have held true during the heart of winter; nothing but night for weeks on end.
Finally, the navigator turned in his seat and spoke directly to Fromm who stood, drew his eyes taut, and stared at his human prisoners.
All-of-a-sudden Trevor felt like an alien again.
The human slave translated the Chaktaw leader's words.
"We have arrived. There is nothing here."
– The Chaktaw infantry still wore their ponchos, albeit slightly heavier versions with thicker undergarments. Trevor and Nina wrapped blankets around their battle suits, yet still shivered in sub-zero temperatures.
A half-dozen Golems moved in mechanical strides along the perimeter of the landing party. They wore streaks of white and yellow as to proclaim their new masters, Chaktaw soldiers plugged in to virtual reality consoles high above the target zone in the captured battleship.
If the weather bothered the Behemoths it did not show. The nasty-looking creatures trotted along the crusty snow cover with seemingly no concern for the dry, bitter wind or the dead freeze permeating the Ring of Ice.
With Behemoths and soldiers and Chaktaw-operated Golems surrounding him, Trevor stared forward at the big plain of nothingness where he expected to find the obelisk containing the runes. He checked and re-checked the coordinates he remembered with the maps Fromm provided, allowing for all manner of incorrect translations between Chaktaw and human topography. No matter how many times he ran it, he reached the same conclusion. The city-sized structure should be directly in front of him.
"I don’t understand!" Trevor called out as much to the Gods as to the people and creatures around him. "It’s supposed to be here! It has to be here!"
Major Forest said for about the third time, "Could it be buried underground?"
Each time she asked, her voice grew shakier.