Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (31 page)

“
Whoa,” he chuckled. “I didn’t think
you two were so jumpy.”

“
Cheesy crackers,” Adams
snipped.

“
Frank and beans,” Franklin
gasped.

“
I was saying, it’s been a long time
since I’ve been in your shoes, and I wanted to tell you two to
lighten up. Life is short…precious, and you only get one chance to
make of it what you want.”

They noticed the scent of alcohol on his
breath. He wasn’t drunk, though, buzzed, maybe, and he smiled
before patting their backs. They exchanged a look.

The agents, naturally, knew about Admiral
Lay’s ties with The Bureau. Prior to his ascension to admiral, he
had been a young captain. During that time, undisclosed battles in
space and pirate activity on the colonies were a rampant problem.
Much of that information was hidden away in order to make the
history lessons on space travel seem flawless and romantic, but
there had been a dirty side to colonization.

The drunk Thewls, their inhibitions gone,
decided to take a moment and show something they held sacred.
Jor-Tune was the first to stand. He called everyone’s attention.
Then, he abruptly took a step forward. He shifted his weight and
leaned back almost so far as to fall over. The Humans didn’t know
what to make of his shenanigans, until others joined. The Thewls
were dancing. Korit and Flem even kept a beat by making musical,
barking sounds.

When it all subsided, and everyone clapped,
Korit wandered off, but Nandy followed him. “What’s wrong,
friend?”

“
I miss my wife. I would like to see
her,” Korit said and took a deep breath.

For the first time, Nandesrikahl really
understood Thewlian sentiment. He easily distinguished the levels
of emotion flowing through Korit. Nandesrikahl didn’t only see
color cues, he actually felt Korit’s longing like a punch in the
gut.

He was so overwhelmed for Korit’s love of his
wife that he placed a hand on the Thewl’s arm. “That love must
drive you very hard. You must succeed for her.”

The two men smiled. They had made a bond and
Korit told Nandesrikahl about his wife.

“
Before all this mess with the Lokians,
she was a dancer. We lived happily on a colony; though, happily may
be a misleading word. Naturally, we both longed to see the end of
the Lokians, see a true return to our culture. Nevertheless, she
kept our culture alive with her dancing. Her parents had passed it
on to her, as their parents had done. One day, perhaps, I will pass
it on, too.”

As they spoke, DeReaux strutted by them, a
lady beneath each arm. “What?”

They didn’t say anything but watched him
march into the traveler vessel. Then, Fitzpatrick’s voice thundered
from the party.

“
Anyone lonely tonight?” she yelled
with arms raised overhead as booze spilled from a cup. “I’m lonely!
You, pretty girl, come keep me company!”

They all laughed. Word was not only did the
girl want a shot at her, but her male friend did, too.

Chapter Twenty One

The following morning came abruptly for the
spec ops team. All the members of the crew woke simultaneously with
a feeling of urgency. The traveler quite simply snapped them awake.
It was time to get moving; migraines, nausea, nor fatigue were his
concern.

O’Hara ran off to find the admiral. The old
man was conversing with Bragg just outside the
Phoenix
.
Groans and snores sounded all around.

“
Just go get that ship and come back in
one piece, son,” Lay said. Laughing, O’Hara asked if that was
really it. “I need your friend, Yon, to stay behind and help build
relations. She’ll be indispensable in communicating with the
Carrier as well as transitioning the colonists into a multi-racial
society,” Admiral Lay explained.

“
Copy that.”

O’Hara relayed the message to Yon. At the end
of the exchange, the admiral took it upon himself to wake the rest
of the
Phoenix’s
crew. They all pitched in to dismantle
camp, so O’Hara dashed past Yon on his way to the traveler
ship.

With everyone onboard, Day connected and shot
off the ground. The rest stood there, looking at each other. Some
of them ate or quietly talked about the previous night.

“
So, now we wait in orbit,” Swain
asked.

“
That is one approach,” Jor-Tune
said.

Nandy shot him a look. He knew the Thewl had
been sarcastic, which made him chuckle.

“
There are systems the Lokians stake
out. In fact we may be able to go to our old, home world,” Flem
suggested.

“
I thought the Lokians destroyed it
like eighty years ago or something,” Fitzpatrick
remarked.

“
Well, we might as well start there and
work our way out,” Korit replied.

Day was on her own, no guiding hands, eyes,
or otherwise. She took deep, slow breaths and worked her way
through the ship’s systems. She found the Thewlian, home world in a
data archive. After honing in on its location, she activated the
warp drive. The ship rocketed out of Eon’s orbit.

It was a fantastic experience, a thirty
second thrill ride through space and time, after which, the ship
emerged on the other side of the space-time tube in a vast expanse
of darkness. Peering through the ship’s perspective, she saw a
damaged satellite listing by.

“
I wonder what that does,” she
murmured.

“
What what does,” O’Hara
asked.

“
There’s a busted satellite out
here.”

“
Grab it, get it inside,” Swain
clapped.

“
Uh, okay…let me see….”

It took her only a moment to locate a tractor
beam, which protruded from the cat’s head. By releasing a simple,
electron field, Day engulfed the object then pulled it in. everyone
heard a
clang
ring through the vessel; the satellite had
struck the fuselage. Frowning, she rummaged through more programs
before finding a secondary bay door.

“
Okay, hold on.”

First, she regulated pressure and lockout
systems. Next, she opened the bay door, and she finally brought the
satellite inside. Once secure, she re-pressurized, and set off
through the expanse in search of the Thewlian, home world.

“
It’s in, so you guys can check it
out.”

“
Roger that, Miss Day,” Swain
said.

He invited others to inspect the item.
Jor-Tune and Korit were intrigued. When they ran off to have fun,
the captain asked what was out there. She explained that all she
saw was an immense, frozen rock, not unlike Marduk. Beyond the
rock, were other planetary bodies. It dawned on her then that with
the sun being out, there shouldn’t have been any light with which
to see planets, yet there they were.

Beyond them was another object. It was
difficult to tell how big, or what color, or much at all, but like
highlighting a touch screen, she managed to hone in on the shape,
and bring it in to focus. A tinge of sadness accosted her when she
realized the black ball was the sun.

“
Anything,” O’Hara asked.

“
Nothing, Captain,” Day
frowned.

While Day spent time navigating through data,
Phoenix Crew members relaxed and examined bits of their own data
from the previous night.

“
What are you smilin’ at, Frenchy,”
Fitzpatrick asked.

DeReaux had a cheesy grin. He didn’t reply,
but comically raised and lowered his eyebrows. She laughed and sat
on the ground next to him.

“
You had some fun, too, didn’t you? I
can tell,” he stated.

She shook her head but neglected to answer.
Suddenly, Nandesrikahl burst into laughter; he was on fire that
day, reading people like books. The agents, who sat cross-legged
with the backs of their heads against the wall of the bridge,
stirred when Nandy laughed.

“
Something’s funny,” Adams
said.

“
Apparently,” Franklin
agreed.

“
How shall I put it,” he said. “Some of
the crew bears the glow o’ release.”

Day blushed beneath the helmet, but didn’t
say anything; she was preoccupied with exploring her ship’s data.
After a moment, she grew irritated. Practically everything that had
to do with plots, coordinates, travel, and space-time had a file,
but what she wanted was a defined section of space rife with Lokian
activity.

****

The crew spent the next few days roaming
around the galaxy. The satellite they pulled in didn’t reveal
anything helpful, but Swain enjoyed using his newfound talent. The
fact that it was disabled made it easy to dissect the components
used in its creation.

Korit and the other Thewls became a little
nostalgic, homesick. They longed for the day when peace might
finally come to the galaxy, a day they might pick a new planet to
colonize. While they tossed around ideas trying to get more help
from the traveler, the rest of the crew made time to settle into
the ship.

Adams and Franklin searched the armory,
hoping to find the suits of light the ambassador had mentioned.
Instead, they found a handful of outdated, plasma weapons. The
medical lab was something else. Neither Adams nor Franklin were
shocked to see its contents, though. Adams ran his hands along the
smooth glass of a very large canister. There were some lining the
lab’s wall, all attached by metal contraptions running the length
of the ceiling.

“
Remember these,” he asked.

“
If only I could forget. My God…the
pain,” Franklin commented.

“
Still, I think it was
worthwhile….”

“
Getting marooned was not.”

“
No…no it wasn’t,” Adams
whispered.

****

Furniture and niceties were lacking
throughout the ship. Travelers had no use for any luxuries or
creature comforts. By the time everyone started getting
antsy—wondering if there were any clues—Nandesrikahl suggested they
try going back to Sahagun.

“
Since the Lokians attacked Sahagun,
they must have been trying to find the travelers. Logically, they
wanted to destroy them in order to achieve galactic control. They
probably didn’t expect a Thewlian presence. If we return, we may
find them employing a similar strategy,” Nandesrikahl said as he
held his fingers to his chin in thought.

“
Doubtful,” DeReaux snipped. “If what
you’re saying is true then they probably regrouped and attacked
again after we left, probably destroying the whole planet and all
the travelers there.”

“
Oh,” O’Hara didn’t like the sound of
that.

“
Don’t be pessimistic,” Korit
intervened. “We can at least visit Sahagun and see what’s
there.”

“
Well, hold on,” the captain started,
“Day, do we have stealth systems? Maybe we can show up undetected.
If there are Lokians there, we could get swarmed. You remember
those fish-type transporters? They can clearly punch a hole into
subspace.”

“
You know what,” Fitzpatrick asked.
“That’s probably the kind of ship we want. That thing’s gotta’ be
able to get to their subspace, queen hive.”

They shuddered at the thought. Not only was
nabbing a transporter dangerous, but it was filled with fighters,
and the added prospect of entering the hive was beyond disturbing.
Nevertheless, Day listened and sifted through files related
specifically to her vessel. Apart from the fact that a strange word
kept popping up, not that it was a word per se`, but that’s how she
managed to understand it, she found that the meta-material coating
was designed to do more than bend light; it reflected and refracted
oscillations. Moreover, there was very little heat exhaust from the
engine, which by design employed a neutron cloud containment field
to fabricate a special, energy residue.

As a whole, the ship was undetectable, except
no one knew whether or not the Lokians had the ability to pick up
on the residual energy left behind by the actual movement of the
ship. She told them as much and suggested scanning the Centaur
system. Having no other leads, the crew voted on that course of
action. Moments later, they popped out on the outskirts of
Sahagun.

They held their breaths until Day told them
there were no anomalous signatures in the vicinity. O’Hara told her
to widen her path and scan for a sign of anything. By then, Swain
and the others had returned. DeReaux caught them all up.

“
How do we take the Lokian down
anyway,” Swain asked.

“
There’s a few weapons on the ship.
Most everything here deals in photons, so taking out the Lokians
won’t be too tough. I’ve also checked our shielding. We have to
exit stealth mode in order to activate photon shields, but they
should hold up to pretty much anything. Seems only dark matter and
anti matter are threats to our safety,” Day replied.

“
Do Lokians have anything like that?”
Swain asked.

“
I’ve never seen anything of the sort,”
Jor-Tune replied.

“
What’s the attack plan? We don’t know
anything about the Lokian ships,” O’Hara said.

“
Data archives show they use some sort
of biological organ to produce energy. If we disable it, they
should lose power,” Day clarified.

“
Then, we need to remove all the little
ships they carry,” Fitzpatrick complained.

“
Right. What about their power source,”
the captain asked.