Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (10 page)

“
I don’t think I understand…what could
these people do for you now? If your sun is destroyed then there is
no hope for your world, is there? Also...I fail to understand how
you were helped by a race of people, who then stayed with you for a
while, and not know who they are or from where they came,” O’Hara
argued.

He was certain his logic wasn’t failing him,
and though he intended no offense, he needed to know exactly what
was at stake. He thought for sure Weh was omitting something of
importance.

“
Yes,” the ambassador said after a
moment’s pause. “It is difficult to explain. You see, according to
our records, the people who helped us never spoke. They simply
appeared, fought, and then taught us, showed us new technology.
They never used words. They were able to communicate directly into
our minds.

“
They had no names for themselves, or
us, or what they showed us. They had no words for where they came
from or where they went. Everything was just concepts, whole blocks
of knowledge and ideas, and then, they simply vanished.”

O’Hara was shocked to hear about silent and
direct knowledge. “I see, not sure I understand, but I’m on board.
My other question...you said you travel space and time, what does
that mean?”

“
Ah,” the ambassador paused again
before responding, “Yes, your people call it String Theory or
Quantum Loop, and before you say more, they are the same concepts,
but viewed from different angles.”

“
Wait, what?”

The ambassador’s face grew lighter, almost
pink when he said, “Take something like a rubber band and hold it
out before you while it is held in its round shape. No matter how
round, how large, or stretched it is, it is round, and if you
slowly turn it until you see only one side of it, it appears to
resemble a line segment, no? Look at it this way.” O’Hara’s mouth
involuntarily gaped a little while the ambassador explained what he
thought was theoretical physics. “The universe is a conglomerate of
parallel membranes of reality. These people who helped us we have
dubbed the travelers, a simple but all-encompassing term.

“
They gave us the ability to
essentially pin two membranes of reality together with a burst of
energy. On occasion, two or more membranes touch anyway whenever
their frequencies are waxing and waning at certain intervals. Our
technology, which we call wave coalescence, allows us to briefly
form a bridge between space, time, and reality.

“
What we do is bring two points
together. If two peaks in an oscillation are brought together then
one can jump a great distance. This is not a simple or easy matter,
but we can do it when required.”

“
So, you don’t move faster you cut the
distance,” the captain exclaimed. The ambassador nodded. “Can the
Lokians do it, too?”

“
Lokians have different methods, ones
we cannot even hope to conceive. They are not susceptible to the
same, environmental forces as you and I, and lack the same
self-preservation. We believe their technology allows them to
generate a tremendous amount of energy, piercing those same
membranes. They navigate by some unknown methods.

“
You see, their ships are not like
yours or ours. Their ships are great, big, living Lokians, spliced
with unknown technology. For all intents and purposes, their ships
are inter-dimensional beings used for transport,” the ambassador
elucidated.

That took the cake. O’Hara’s head was
swimming. He felt infinitesimal, useless.
What could I do? How
can we help anyone in this situation?

“
What…what can we do to stop
them?”

“
I have but a single request, Captain;
I would like to use some of your charts and way stations to search
for our benefactors. You see, we have reasons to believe that your
people know who they are.”

O’Hara grew skeptical. While trying to make
sense of the cryptic statement, his eyes darted around. It didn’t
sound like the ambassador was accusing them of squelching Intel,
but he seemed confident in his assertion.

“
How is that possible?!”

The alien began another explanation, “As I
said, we are over four, million, years old. We have been traveling
in space for much of that time. Of the few, space faring races
we’ve met, we have found similarities. The Lokians are the oldest
that we know. The travelers possibly older, but we can’t be sure.
The Yvlekesh began traveling through space twenty or so thousand
years ago, and they have been in existence for roughly one and a
half, million years. You Humans are the only anomaly.

“
There have been many variations of
your kind over the past six, million years. There was a time when
your planet did not harbor intelligent life at all. Your planet was
crawling with large beasts you call dinosaurs. Suddenly, those
great beasts vanished, time passed, and then there were primitive
apes. Just as suddenly, those primitive apes exhibited
non-primitive, behavioral patterns. Then, they learned cognitive
thinking.

“
At one point, your Neanderthal man
overlapped your modern man. Modern man was more intelligent, he was
able to trap, he was able to invent. He out performed Neanderthal,
who was relegated to obscurity.

“
There are signs that some species of
men cross bred, giving birth to modern men, yet this is not
evolution…perhaps adaptation. Your planet still has apes and they
never cross breed with similar species, nor do they give birth to
more advanced versions. There is no deformity, no genetic mutation
responsible for making that single member of a species more
efficient, and there certainly is no genetic mutation responsible
for creating an entirely new species.

“
Does coelacanth not still exist on
your Earth, or the lungfish? It is a strange concept for you, I’m
certain, but the truth is more likely that the travelers found your
planet and cleansed it of the great beasts, the dinosaurs. Perhaps,
they even settled it for a time, and when they felt it necessary,
they created your modern man and played with its genetic makeup
until they reached a desired result.

“
Did you know that some of your
religions coincide with this theory, and so does your oldest
civilization. Your ancient, Sumerian canisters almost prove it.
They even spoke of men clad in light, who traveled the
skies.”

The ambassador’s color brightened before
returning to its neutral pallor. The captain was simply breathless.
Ambassador Weh continued after the dramatic pause.

“
The data your scientists provided and
the methods they used to communicate convinced us that a trip to
Earth may reveal where our travelers have gone. We will do our best
to help all of your people. We will help you colonize, we will help
you travel through space, we will help to defend you from the
Lokians should they target you, and I sincerely believe they
will.

“
I am here to provide a story and an
explanation. I, on behalf of my people, would like the permission
of your people, but you have to understand, should I fail to
acquire that permission, we will still visit your colonies and go
to Earth to find what we need. Our continued existence requires
this extreme measure.

“
Please, help us and benefit. Allow us
to be your benefactors. Allow us to show you from where you came.”
With that, the ambassador stood and said one, final thing, “Please,
speak to your superiors and do my cause justice. Contact us soon. I
thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Just like that, he and his entourage walked
back to their vehicle as the remaining Thewls gathered the chairs
and tables. They left as quickly and dramatically as they came,
leaving O’Hara to imagine the travelers.

“
Admiral? Did you copy?” O’Hara
asked.

“
I did, Captain, I did. Have the
Phoenix
return to the colony, and we’ll set up a debriefing.
Get some rest. We’ll discuss this at 05:00 tomorrow.
Out.”

That was the first time O’Hara had ever heard
age or concern in the admiral’s voice. After the crew boarded, they
avoided eye contact. Something big was going down whether they were
part of it or not. Fortunately for them, they didn’t have to make a
decision. Whatever the admiral decided was all that mattered.

It took some time to return to the colony.
Most of Phoenix Crew fell asleep from mental exhaustion. Day was
feeling the effects herself, and she hadn’t even been there in
person. She took a shower to calm down.

The warm water fell on her face and cascaded
down her trim body. She hung her head and let the flow massage her
neck. Looking at her feet, she turned to introspection.
What a
strange turn of events. Not too long ago, I was in training. Then,
the beacon mission on Eon, which I didn’t even play a part in;
still, I felt the thrill. Now, aliens from another planet need our
help to research our planet because they think we were engineered
by yet another, more advanced race of aliens. I don’t think I’m
ready for this
….

While Day showered, Zak snoozed, and Becker
and Imes found their own way to forget about aliens, Swain and
Martinez went to conference room B for a little privacy.

“
I told you, man! I! Told! You!” Swain
was laughing and pointing firmly at Martinez. “Aliens, and we are
going to help them. Yes we are. My, my.”

Both men were laughing. “Ah-ight, ah-ight,
man. You need to bring that shit down a notch, Swain. Yer’ freakin’
me out.” Martinez was enjoying himself and Swain’s display, but he
was a little worried as he spoke. “I mean, what if the admiral
don’t wanna’ cooperate? Then, these guys just go to Earth? I mean,
none of us can stop ‘em, right? When they land on Earth, it ain’t
no peaceful banner, ya’ heard? So...I’m sayin’, maybe we should try
to persuade the admiral to let us help, right?”

Swain looked at Martinez in disbelief. Marty
rubbed his nose, his sign of concern.

“
I’m sure it won’t be an issue. The
admiral had us come this far. Besides, doesn’t it seem like O’Hara
always ends up caught in the middle of something bigger than
himself?”

“
Like when he got promoted and took
over Phoenix Crew?”

“
And then found alien beacons,” Swain
added.

“
And just like that, bam! We got aliens
landin’ on our, I mean, on this planet,” Martinez cheered. “You
right, you right. Lay’s gonna’ want us in the thick of this
shit.”

The two men sat in the small room and tossed
ideas back and forth. Each, imaginary scenario became wilder than
the last. By the end, they laughed their brains out and decided to
call it a night.

Chapter Six

The spec ops team was sound asleep in crew
quarters while the ship hauled their butts ten, thousand miles to
the colony. Day and a skeleton crew of deckhands remained awake.
They milled about the bridge while she sat at the helm, rubbing her
eyes.

****

O’Hara awoke with a deep inhalation. His
comm. unit had dinged, demanding all of his attention. He rolled
out of his bed and placed his feet on the cold ground, flashes of
Thewls playing behind his eyes. The comm. on the nightstand read
04:37.

“
Well…might as well get a move on,” he
sighed.

O’Hara quickly donned his uniform. He was
meeting the admiral again and had to be at his best. Clothed,
ready, and awaiting confirmation from Admiral Lay, he noticed it
was a few minutes past 05:00, and he was getting a little
nervous.

Do I have time? I have time,
he
thought on his way to the men’s latrine. He opened the stall and
sat down. There, he attempted a mental review of yesterday’s meet
and greet.
I do want to help, but at what cost? They want to go
to Earth to study something practically incomprehensible. Maybe we
can request the data and have it relayed to Presh instead. That
should circumvent any commotion these Thewls would certainly cause
if they landed on Earth.

“
Captain, this is Admiral Lay. Do you
copy,” Admiral Lay called through the earpiece.

“
Copy, Admiral. I’m on my
way.”

His voice reverberated throughout the steel
room. The captain finished up, washed his hands, and proceeded to
the loading zone, where he was received by the admiral and two men
he didn’t recognize. They wore pinstriped suits and bore no facial
expression.

“
Riley,” as the admiral began, O’Hara
winced and wondered why he referred to him by his first name. The
admiral wasn’t usually so friendly. “There’s much to discuss. These
are my...associates, Franklin and Adams.”

The admiral took a breath and gave the
captain a stern look. The four then proceeded towards a small,
drab, green building.

“
These two gentlemen are from
The
Bureau
,” Lay said as if it meant something. “They made their
way out here to meet with us. We were up all last night reviewing
your dialogue with the ambassador. They feel, and I agree, that we
should do our best to keep Thewls away from Earth. I won’t lie to
you, this will be a difficult maneuver, but,” he took a pensive
inhalation before continuing. “I’ve requested as all the data I can
from Earth. We’ll be inviting the ambassador to take a look at it.
I hope that satisfies him…. ”

After that, Lay scrutinized O’Hara.
What
bureau
, was his only thought. They weren’t FBI, that agency had
no jurisdiction over alien matters, and they didn’t look like CIA,
Made their way out here? From where?
The captain looked
around.