Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (33 page)

“
Oh my God,” she groaned. “That’s a
wrap, Cap’….”

They all hollered in triumph. Some slapped
hands. Others hugged. O’Hara was ecstatic, praising Day to the
heavens.

“
We got two, huh,” Swain
asked.

“
One’s busted up pretty bad,” she
replied. “My readings show the other’s okay, just, I don’t know,
unconscious.”

“
One’s all we need,” Adams
nodded.

“
Unconscious,” Nandy muttered. “Is that
safe?”

“
That’s the one we need,” O’Hara
asserted. “Grab it, and let’s get the Hell out of here.”

“
Copy,” Day said.

She punched a wormhole in space, engaged the
tractor beam, hooked the sleeping vessel, and flung it into the
space-time aperture. Then, she went right in behind it. Moments
later, they emerged before the Gemini system.

Chapter Twenty Three

Jor-Tune leaned against the bridge’s wall,
speaking to Admiral Yew through his comm. unit. Then, he addressed
the crew, relaying that he announced their success. Day waited
patiently for Thewls to finish their correspondence as she needed
clearance to dock with the Carrier.

“
You may proceed, Miss Day,” Jor-Tune
said.

She maneuvered closer to the giant ship,
looking on while the bottom compartment slid out and into place.
First, she released the Lokian by gingerly laying it onto an
unoccupied platform, which rose into a sealed compartment. After
operatives announced that it was clear, Day landed on another lift,
which also rose into position. Finally, the interior lockout system
re-pressurized, and beneath them, the whole Carrier closed docking
bay doors.

The crew marched from their ship to witness a
sea of Thewlian scientists using small cranes and lifts to move the
defeated Lokian to the proper area. The head Thewl on the project
was a short, stocky alien, who introduced himself as Frep. At a
modest, seven feet in height, the twitchy alien ambled up to the
captain and initiated a handshake then called for his team to begin
studies.

“
Wow, a real live ship,” Frep
commented.

“
Better believe it,” O’Hara replied.
“Enjoy it.”

The captain excused himself before announcing
they were ready to contemplate the next step.

“
Sir, I’d like permission to join the
Thewls in studying the Lokian ship,” Swain said.

O’Hara raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “Are
you sure it’s what you want? I could really use you here while we
plan.”

“
Yes, Sir. I’d really like to dissect
that thing and find out how it works,” Swain responded with barely
contained anticipation.

Swain rarely wrung his hands, but when he
did, everyone knew he was about to leap out of skin. Smiling to
himself, O’Hara nodded. Swain bit his lower lip, fighting off a
cheesy grin. The big man sashayed off with Frep; the two were
overheard chatting about the battle.

Once the science team sprawled the Lokian
onto the floor, a moment of hushed awe ensued. Several Thewls
started poking and prodding with tools and instruments. A few
carried some recording devices. They took their scans or gave out
readings while both the admiral and ambassador supervised.

Swain found the view refreshing. It reminded
him of Humans working while their supervisors stood by idly. For a
moment he was unsure as to where to begin, but he took a breath and
calmed himself, just staring for a time.

An exterior pull helped him to quiet his
mind. Slowly, the sounds of chattering Thewls subsided. His vision
grew dark, tunneled, and then everything evaporated into darkness,
everything except the Lokian.

Its girth demanded all of his attention.
Suddenly, a plethora of images barraged his mind. It was an
overwhelming experience, but it ended abruptly. He saw O’Hara had
placed a hand on his shoulder.

“
Sorry, Swain. Didn’t mean to startle
you,” the captain giggled.

Swain laughed and wiped his face. “No, it’s
fine; just excited.”

When O’Hara raised his brows, looking at the
ship, Swain returned all his attention to the enemy
transporter.

DeReaux took a look at Swain then turned to
the captain. “What do we do now?”

“
We gotta’ wait to find out how this
thing works,” Fitzpatrick interjected.

O’Hara nodded, and said, “Probably not much
we can do. I’ll check with the ambassador. Maybe he’s had some luck
on his end. After that, we can relax and hopefully figure out where
to go from here.”

“
My Captain,” Weh said when everyone
amassed beside him. From a balcony, everyone looked down at the
aliens rummaging about.

“
Well, I guess we’re doing pretty good
so far. That cat ship we got from the traveler is something else,”
O’Hara trailed off.

“
Yes. The design seems a bit strange,
but it’s the only vessel I’ve seen that can move through space so
efficiently, save the Lokians,” the ambassador replied without
taking his eyes off the research below.

“
Any headway on contacting the
Ykelvesh,” O’Hara asked.

“
Yvlekesh...and no. I find this
disturbing. We’ll travel to their home system and see if we can
find something. I fear the worst, however. They may have suffered
serious attacks. I think the best course of action is to drop the
Lokian at your station on Eon and allow the research to continue
while we travel to Scroccio,” Ambassador Weh said.

“
Scroccio? The Ylvekesh home world,”
O’Hara asked.

“
Yvlekesh...and yes,
Captain.”

O’Hara took a deep breath and excused
himself
. Move the Lokian to Eon? Boy, that’ll give the colonists
a reason to unite. Maybe that is a good idea.
He walked
carefully down the enormous, steel steps to his crew.
Seeing
these things up close and personal should light a fire under
Horizon’s ass.

While making for the elevators, Adams
revealed that he was against moving the Lokian. O’Hara looked at
him askew for a second then looked at Franklin, who shrugged as if
he didn’t know why Adams was acting surreptitiously. Before O’Hara
said anything more, Korit spoke up.

“
I have business with Admiral Yew.
Men….”

The Thewls took a different lift. Everyone
else gathered together. The captain frowned, giving Adams his
attention.

“
What’s the issue?”

“
Protocol, really. Certain actions must
be undertaken before we introduce this thing to Horizon colony,”
Adams explained. “It’s an alien. We have regulations for these
matters. Don’t we, Franklin?”

“
Didn’t we just skip all that nonsense
with the Thewls,” Fitzpatrick countered.

“
No,” Adams said unhindered.

“
Well, I don’t think there’s time for
much protocol, here. You’re just going to have to make some
shortcuts,” the captain ordered.

“
Okay,” Adams replied, still
unhindered.

“
Alright…soon as everyone’s ready,
we’ll snatch the transporter and head back to Eon.”

Later that day, O’ Hara convened with the
science team. Their preliminary scans revealed nothing dangerous
about the alien; for all intents and purposes, it was dead, so the
Humans boarded the traveler ship while Swain stayed behind to join
the Thewls on an Explorer bound for Eon.

Outside the carrier, Day maneuvered the
Lokian beyond Eon’s atmosphere. Right after landing, she opened a
channel to Lay, informing him of their arrival. In reply, the
admiral said to bring the alien to the colony. Just moments later,
all ships grouped on dusty, brown soil.

Outside the ships, crews huddled together to
gasp at the beast, and Swain revealed his instructions. “We’ve got
a whole bunch of stuff to study, so we need a crew for the
exo-skeletal plating, a crew for whatever organs are in there, a
crew for weaponry, and so on.”

More equipment was hauled from a hangar, and
everyone struggled to tow the alien carcass out of the suns.
Immediately, Swain went to work, but O’Hara had other plans; they
hadn’t been off world long, but he wanted to give everyone some
downtime for a successful mission.

****

“
See here,” Swain started as he held a
small piece of the transporter’s outer hull. “The exoskeleton is
Carbon based with heavy metals woven into the chitinous material.
Iridium is the most prominent of the metals followed by some Nickel
and Zinc.” Swain paused then walked around freshly removed chunks
of the vessel. “I believe the frame of the insect was organically
grown into the ship while it reached maturity. A great deal of its
mass is Calcium, allowing it to flex to a small degree, enough to
prevent fractures, the way Humans bones do.”

Day-by-day, engineers and biologists
dissected, removed, reorganized, and studied the transporter. Swain
sat or stood by, meditating over each component. Sometimes, his
ability only worked while components were being tested. At other
times, he had to lay his hands on Lokian segments.

“
Mister Swain,” Frep called. “I didn’t
find any kind of shielding. They have virtually nothing employed
for defense against weaponry. What do you make of this?”

Swain thought long and hard. He paced over
and around scattered tools, rubbing the back of his head.

“
Well, Sir, seems this particular
Lokian doesn’t use shielding technology. They’re vulnerable to
energy based weapons. The Element-115 alloy provides some
protection against H-4 plasma, but not much more.” He thought about
the Lokians they fought on Sahagun. “The roaches—we called ‘em
brawlers—had similar plating fused to their bodies.”

“
Yes, I think I know which ones you
mean, likely; a new modification,” Frep replied. “I’ve seen those
bipedal ones without plating….”

“
Their alloy must have been augmented
somehow…or their particles were excited by extraneous forces,”
Swain said as more of an afterthought. “This Lokian ship was
probably shot out of some sort of organic mold. Maybe it received
one round of modifications, but little else. Think of it like a
car…you guys got cars?” Frep shrugged. “The rovers, then; they’re
all built, all assembled the same way, but if they were grown like
that, or with basic equipment then with a single round of
modifications, you get a whole slew of rovers, right?”

Frep nodded. Later on, while Thewls studied
Lokian weaponry, Swain learned a little more. He made an effort to
organize his knowledge before presenting it.

“
Instead of being artificially
constructed, the tentacles on the Lokian contain lenses of organic
origins,” Swain relayed.

“
How do you mean,” a scientist
asked.

Swain looked away from a splayed out
tentacle, and the work station rematerialized before his eyes.
“Levine? I didn’t know you were part of this,” he exclaimed,
scrambling to his feet.

“
Yes. I’ve been here almost two days,”
she said as she adjusted her tight ponytail.

“
Why didn’t you speak to me
earlier?”

“
I have been, but you’re so engrossed
in your work, you always are,” she commented with a
smile.

She wore black lipstick and painted her nails
black; a strange sight to Thewls, but not to Swain. He chuckled
then finished his previous point.

“
As I was saying, the tentacles grow
the lenses, like clams make pearls. A small piece of organic matter
similar to the lens in an eye is placed inside the tentacle tip. In
time, the appendage grows, adding materials about the lens. The
lasers are produced by a bioluminescence organ contained at the
base of the tentacle; it turns food energy into infra-red light,
which is focused through the lens after photons reach a state of
high agitation.”

“
Food?”

“
Gasses from nebulae….”

“
Wow…I’m speechless,” Levine replied as
she continued to chronicle Swain’s assertions. “So, what else is
there? I was speaking with the group you put in charge of
propulsion. They said the systems were dark matter particles
contained by an organ filled with liquid Xenon. Apparently, it
creates an anti-gravity field, allowing the Lokian to
maneuver.”

Swain bobbed his head up and down slightly as
he both agreed and thought about the discovery. “That’s just about
it. We pretty much know what makes this thing tick.”

The final mysteries revolved around whether
or not the beast had awareness, and how it punctured space-time.
Long days drifted by as the team started piecing the creature back
together. At the end of one of those days, he discovered something
peculiar inside the Lokian’s tubing.

Originally, it was thought that the tubes,
which were clearly a mechanical addition, served to move hydraulic
fluids and condensed gasses throughout organs or appendages, which
was only partially correct. One set of tubes in particular carried
neurons assisted by nanobots. The discovery implied that the
creature was not only alive and aware of itself, but it implemented
assisting programs, and that led to the discovery of an uplink
system.

Swain sat in a swivel chair, rotating from
side-to-side. Blankly, he stared at the monstrosity hanging from
cables in the hangar. Whatever time it was there was no one around.
The squeaking of his swiveling chair echoed throughout.

The image of the hangar sank into darkness as
Swain focused on the swivels’ echoes. After the suspension systems
vanished from sight, he felt a buzzing in his ears like the static
from a detuned radio, and then all that remained were the tentacles
on the Lokian’s face.