Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (19 page)

DeReaux sighed, “Eez not French koo-zeen.” He
pulled a fork from a pack and stuck it into Zak’s food. It looked
like brown mashed potatoes. Surprised by the flavor, he crinkled
his face and said, “Oh, it tastes like fried apples, actually. It’s
not too bad.”

Zakowski then realized he didn’t bring his
utensils. Shaking his head, DeReaux went to the Thewl cook and
returned with plates for himself, Fitzpatrick, and Day who stumbled
in looking disheveled. The three of them stared at their friend,
who had resigned himself to an immense, alien spoon as long as his
forearm and nearly as thick. They smiled, ate, and talked about
their training, the mission, Adams and Franklin, the Thewls, and
the Lokians.

“
So, this is all pretty fucked up, am I
right,” Fitzpatrick remarked.

“
It’s something. I don’t even know
where to begin,” Zakowski chimed in.

DeReaux gave him a sideways glance. The
trouble Zakowski was having with his spoon was too funny.

“
You can begin by eating with your
fingers instead of trying to navigate that thing into your mouth,”
DeReaux joked.

“
That’s not what I meant,” Zakowski
clarified.

“
We can start by honoring fallen
comrades,” Day whispered.

The four stopped in their tracks. It was
true. They had yet to give thanks to heroes, who gave their all in
the battle against the Lokians.

“
You know, I always thought Imes and
Becker would eventually get back together,” DeReaux smiled
half-heartedly. “Everyone knew they still had strong feelings.
After all, I could never get her alone…so, that’s got to tell you
something.”

“’
Cause you’re such a Don Juan, and all
that,” Fitzpatrick snipped.

DeReaux shrugged, “Yeah….”

“
Ya’, I totally know what you mean. I
guess it’s no surprise they died for each other. For us,” Day said,
ignoring DeReaux.

They all nodded in agreement. “What about
those two agents huh? Boy, that was really something…I wonder who
they really are,” Zakowski said.

“
No kidding. Between them and Thewls, I
don’t know who’s more impressive,” Day added.

“
I have to say the agents. For business
types, they sure can deal some damage,” DeReaux claimed.

“
Really makes you wonder what more
we’ll come across. This is pretty serious stuff. We still have to
find these travelers, and if we don’t…. can you imagine having to
fight off hordes of Lokians,” Day trailed off.

“
They’d devastate Earth and the
colonies,” Zakowski added. “That’s for sure.”

“
Wonder how the cap’ is holding up? You
know how he gets,” Fitzpatrick said.

“
He doesn’t know how to let his
feelings out… I thought he and Korit were going to fight back
there,” DeReaux responded.

They took a pause, scrutinizing each other.
They knew they were lucky to have lived through the mission; if
experienced Thewls faced death against a couple of Lokians, even
the best trained Humans stood little chance, but they had survived,
in part to their training, in part to their comrades. Moments of
silence passed. They finished their food during the interim.

****

Elsewhere on the vessel, Franklin woke the
captain. “What is it? Results,” O’Hara muttered into his comm.
unit.

“
Yes, actually. They found that the
stone reacts to light, but they haven’t found anything specific
yet,” Franklin replied.

“
Stone?”

“
The ziggurat.”

O’Hara got up and did his business. He saw
the Thewl with whom he shared a room was still passed out in bed.
In the latrine, he looked himself over by a mirror, shuddered at
the memory of men screaming and fighting, donned his dress uniform,
and finally went to the lab, where he met with Franklin and
Thewlian scientists. They gathered in a smaller subdivision of the
lab, an area not overly crowded with equipment and separated by a
thin sheet of plastic.

“
We found that it reacts to light
energy. Something about the frequencies and how photons affect the
material,” one Thewl said.

“
Yes, but we haven’t found a specific
frequency which makes it do anything more than vibrate a little,”
another added.

“
I recovered this from one of the
Lokian bugs,” Franklin said and held aloft a small, metallic
chip.

It was little more than a shiny square with a
round depression. On one side was a slit. Franklin placed his thumb
over the depression. Blue light emanated from an edge. It mimicked
a tiny, but powerful LED flashlight. He pointed it at the ziggurat.
Nothing remarkable happened. He smiled and began handling the
carving.

Everyone looked on while he rolled it one way
and looked at it. Then, he rotated it and touched it. He pulled and
pushed on it, prodded all over its surface, and clicked his tongue.
He put it down, and furrowed his brow, shrugging as everyone looked
at him askew. Surprisingly, the object’s levels rotated of their
own volition.

Franklin picked it up again and carefully
observed the item. A slot had opened on the bottom. He slid the
square lighting device inside, a perfect fit.

“
Mac and cheese, I’ve done it,” he
said.

O’Hara was overly concerned with the
marvelous display of light shooting out of the carving to comment
on Franklin’s asinine expression. Unfortunately, the lab was too
bright to distinguish anything. Someone turned off the lights in
the room. What shone on the walls were layers of star charts.

“
I, I think I recognize some of these,”
a Thewl mentioned.

Too many people cluttered the lab, and the
shelving, stored objects, and packaging containers distorted the
images. One Thewl suggested taking the carving to a resting
quarter. The technicians nodded in agreement. Everyone milled to
the elevators, and from there, they went to an engineer’s room,
where he called for the admiral.

Yew spoke as soon as he stepped in the room.
“Very good. We need to cross reference all these charts and see if
we can decipher the meaning behind the display. Hopefully, it’s
more than a desk lamp. I recognize some of these systems, too, but
some of the layers are obscured by the others….”

Adams entered at that point. The agents eyed
each other before giving their attention to the dazzling patterns
of light. The captain sat back lazily, staying out of the way.
Though he was interested, whatever was going on was beyond his area
of expertise, and after the last mission, he wondered if he really
had an expertise at all. Once the admiral left, the other Thewls
went to retrieve some computers and scanners.

“
Hm, it’s difficult to discern one
thing from another,” Franklin said, breaking the
silence.

“
He’s right. Shut all the lights off,”
Adams commanded. The remaining Thewl holding a scanner shrugged and
turned off all the lights. The charts shone over everyone’s face “I
wonder….”

“
You think so, too?” Franklin
asked.

The blue glow rendered them all discernible
even with the lights off. There was something unnerving about the
faces of the agents. O’Hara wasn’t able to put his finger on what
it was, but something about their visages bothered him.

“
What is it?” the Thewl
asked.

“
Try adjusting the lighting in the
room,” Franklin said.

“
Our lights are either on or
off.”

“
Mmhm,” Adams groaned.

He started searching the foot lockers and
removed robes the Thewls wore in their downtime. He tossed one to
Franklin and one at the captain. It landed on his face. For a
second O’Hara just sat there wincing beneath the garment. It
smelled like machine oil. He slowly removed it to observe the
agents attempting to obscure the lighting in the room.

“
Turn the lights back on,” Adams
said.

The Thewl nodded and did so. By holding the
garments up to the juncture where the ceiling met the walls, where
lighting crept through all over the ship, they managed to darken
the room, thus separating portions of the chart. O’Hara helped to
finish dimming the room.

The brighter it was the more difficult it was
to see the charts, and when it was totally black, all of the charts
shone at once, but the proper degree of brightness masked only
layers at a time, thus revealing different information. “Well,
there you have it,” Adams beamed. He glanced at the captain and
smiled briefly. “Light and energy…light energy. The travelers
appear to have a proclivity for playing with photons…or
something.”

So, the scientists broke to study each chart
in the hopes of learning something, anything. It turned out that
some of the charts contained known systems and listed planets of
interest. Some of those planets were labeled rest stops, or way
points, or worlds, which supposedly inhabited life. Other charts
were so far removed from Thewlian data bases, they set them aside
for further studies.

From the Carrier, the Humans hoofed it back
to the Explorer. “Star charts, huh?” the captain whispered.

“
Good a place as any to start looking
for them, the travelers. Hopefully we can figure out where we’re
supposed to go,” Adams replied.

“
Hopefully, otherwise,” Franklin
derided.

He looked at Adams and made a face implying
something, maybe defeat, or maybe it was hunger. O’Hara wasn’t able
to guess, and he had the feeling they were going to undertake some
sort of rogue action.

“
Otherwise what,” he asked.

“
Otherwise we have to copy the Intel
and make our own judgment call,” Adams answered.

“
You know, not once have I seen either
one of you act surprised at all…ever…with anything that’s taken
place.”

“
Why would we be,” Franklin
asked.

Stopping at the elevators, O’Hara stirred.
“So, you have data on a few alien races, but nothing on Thewls or
travelers?”

“
That’s correct,” Franklin replied
dryly before stepping inside the car.

O’Hara stepped in next followed by Adams.
“What else do you have information on?”

“
We have historical data, but I assure
you, none of it is germane to our current situation,” Adams
replied.

“
Mmhm. Okay, so…where did you two come
from?”

“
Oh. We’re doing introductions now,”
Adams said, sardonically.

“
A little late for that I think,”
Franklin said to Adams.

They smiled, looking at O’Hara who was not
amused. They rode down rapidly, and the movement tugged at their
stomachs. Once the door slid open, they stepped out among Thewls,
who nodded.

“
Our headquarters are on Earth. We used
one of our special ships to get to Eon,” Adams finally
answered.

“
What? Why?” O’Hara asked. “How did you
even know what was going on? I mean, obviously Admiral Lay had
something to do with it….”

“
We’ve been in touch with Lay for
years,” Franklin replied.

“
Well, not us. He means The Bureau,”
Adams corrected.

“
Lay has Bureau ties?” O’Hara
exclaimed. “All this time, that…okay…not important. The Bureau
didn’t know about the Lokians? I would think a cosmic threat so
detrimental to all civilizations would have popped up
somewhere.”

“
Valid point, I suppose,” Franklin said
to Adams.

“
We knew about the Sumerians coming
into contact with some unknown race, but we knew far less than
Ambassador Weh on the subject,” Adams explained. “What little we do
know is that they vanished after providing the culture with the
study of astronomy.”

“
Look,” O’Hara started bluntly. “I need
to know what you know in order to keep my crew alive. As you’ve
already seen, this is not a joking matter.”

For a moment everyone grew silent. A trace of
grief was tangible. The sterile setting was a perfect
facsimile.

“
Truthfully, there isn’t much left to
discuss,” Adams said, solemnly.

“
As Weh explained, the Lokians
constantly evolve and shift tactics. All we can do is learn as we
go,” Franklin added, grimly. “I know you expect us to know a great
deal what with our clever mystique, but that’s exactly why we’re
here. We don’t know anything.”

“
That, uh…that kinda’ sucks,” O’Hara
griped. “I’m going to check on my crew. I think I’ve been avoiding
things for too long as it is. Excuse me.”

“
Captain,” Adams called. “It’s best to
take time for yourself in these cases. It wouldn’t do to approach
your crew while riddled with guilt, which if I may add, you should
not even be feeling. We all did what we could with what we
had.”

“
I agree. You lead us quite well.
Admiral Lay himself could not have done a better job,” Franklin
commented.

O’Hara smiled faintly, nodded, and took his
leave. As he traversed the ship to find his crew mates, he thought
it was nice to know they felt he was competent. The truth was that
although they were weird guys, he liked them. During his journey
through corridors, passing Thewls either raised a hand or said
hello.

Before the captain reached crew quarters his
comm. unit dinged. “Yes?”

“
Captain, this is Admiral Yew. Please
report to the Carrier’s bridge.”