Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (25 page)

“
You think one traveler is going to
turn the tide for all life in the galaxy,” DeReaux finally blurted
out.

“
I don’t know,” Korit
answered.

“
At the very least, we know where more
are,” Sirt added.

“
I don’t think they’ll be joining us,”
Swain answered.

“
No, I suppose not,” Sirt
said.

“
I believe even one of these great
benefactors will help immensely,” Jor-Tune chimed in.

“
I just don’t know,” DeReaux
said.

“
I’d like to know just what in the Hell
I missed,” Nandesrikahl chuckled.

“
Heh. You got knocked the fuck out
right away, huh,” Fitzpatrick laughed.

Nandesrikahl winced, staring at the traveler.
He wanted to see the creature’s eyes, demand answers, but the
beastly man remained relaxed, his eyes closed and head tilted back
against the headrest. Nandy resigned himself to the mystery.

“
We all saw what he did,” Fitzpatrick
started.

“
No, only you and DeReaux saw what he
did. All we know is that our asses were saved…which I suppose
counts for a lot,” the captain replied.

“’
Ow did he get out of the ice?”
Nandesrikahl asked.

“
No time, children. Man the guns,”
Swain ordered.

The vehicles burst free, reborn into battle.
Jor-Tune and DeReaux manned the cannons. While the crews
scrutinized the glistening panorama, Lokians still danced in the
sky. Their Thewlian counterparts replied to red lasers with
explosive bursts of blue. The magnificent flurry of lights dazzled
the eyes. Two hornet type Lokians banked simultaneously, barreling
towards the rovers.

“
Notre Dame, the things we must face,”
DeReaux remarked, gauging the battle.

The bugs pivoted their wings to unleash
weaponry. Jor-Tune and DeReaux felt the eyes of the traveler
assuming control. Suddenly, they saw all the angles, the timing;
everything became clear, and they fired their cannons. Korit and
Swain sensed a guiding hand as well. They were one with their
vehicles, one with the terrain.

A sweet peace enveloped the men. Fighting
became a simple thing, a natural, bodily action. There was no
outward sign of the traveler’s interaction. Physically, he remained
lethargic, but the soldiers were in the thick of things.

Enemies zipped all around, a swarm of robotic
beetles and hornets. Thewlian fighters chased them down, shooting
round after round of super heated gas. Crashing and burning,
Lokians all came to a halt, forcing fighters to bank sharply.
Dozens of alien ships were immediately blown out of the sky, and
what few remained performed a coordinated maneuver; they all turned
on the rovers.

O’Hara knew they were after the traveler.
Destroying him was their only hope of survival. Innumerable, red
beams carved trenches over the ground; the intricate display was
crawling towards his crew. Gunmen managed to reduce the vanguard to
dust, and Thewlian air support finished off the remnants.

After the brief interaction with the
traveler, DeReaux and Jor-Tune returned to a normal state of
awareness. Slowly, Swain and Korit came down as well. They were
left with a bewildering sense of loss.

“
What was that,” Swain asked in
shock.

“
You guys felt it, too,” DeReaux
cringed.

“
What? What was it,” O’Hara
demanded.

“
Ask the traveler,” Korit
replied.

Slowing to a halt, they took stock of the
surroundings; smoldering, Lokian bits, white chunks of fuselage,
debris partially covered downed vessels. There were even Thewlian
corpses sprawled out over the white soil, mangled. An unnerving
silence hung in the dusty air. Cheers of victory then deafened the
ears.

“
Explorer-2, pick up the ground crew.
All other vessels return at once. Good job, men. Good job,” the
voice of the coordinator resonated through everyone’s
earpiece.

Enraptured by the void left in the wake of
war, O’Hara felt a pang of nausea. He swallowed hard, thinking
about what they had lost, and wondering over what they gained. It
had been an arduous journey, but the mission had been successful.
He turned to Korit, who nodded and said something Thewlish.

“
He reported success,” Nandesrikahl
said and smiled to himself.

The crew quickly looked to Nandesrikahl. He
stared placidly at the ground.

“
Oh, did you get that?” Fitzpatrick
asked.

He didn’t answer. What seemed like an
eternity passed as they awaited pick up. A ship lazily meandered
over bubbling, Lokian carcasses. Slowly, the loading ramp dropped
to ground level, and the drivers repositioned their vehicles before
backing in.

Thewls in the loading zone helped the ground
team out of the vehicles while the Explorer made the short trip
back to the Carrier. For a time, the aliens marveled at the mere
appearance of the race who saved them so long ago. Walking slowly
around the traveler, they thanked him, begged him for help, pleaded
for hope. They wanted to know how to win the war, if more travelers
were coming, but no answers were given.

“
Leave him alone,” Korit ordered. “See
to the vehicles.”

They gawked at the destruction, finally
noticed dead men, and went about their business.

“
How long ‘til we dock,” O’Hara
asked.

Korit asked one of the deckhands. They
replied, and he interpreted. Five minutes sounded so far away.

Looking at the traveler’s solemn expression,
the captain took a long breath and exhaled. He smiled and thanked
his savior. Chatting amiably, it was evident that everyone’s morale
was high, but something was missing. He didn’t have time to figure
out what it was.

An engineer asked him and the others to strip
off their tattered gear. Cold air pumping in via shafts chilled
their bones. Thewlish erupted over the intercoms.

“
Better hurry to the admiral, Captain,”
Korit advised.

By the time the Explorer docked with the
Carrier, fighter vessels started rising from platforms a deck
below, which allowed ships to move high inside without disturbing
pressure. They, too, were being inspected for damage. O’Hara took
one last look around—sizzling ships, melted wings, immense holes
throughout fighters—war was indeed an ugly thing. He then turned to
his crew.

“
Guess he’s right. We should all check
in.”

They quickly filed into the service car.
Before the doors shut, the traveler joined them. Together, they
rode to the Carrier’s bridge, where everyone met up with Admiral
Yew and Ambassador Weh. Beeps and clicks from instruments
resounded. No one said a word. All eyes were on the creature.

“
W-welcome back, men, and fantastic
job,” the admiral said.

The traveler approached the Thewlian leaders.
Their eyes rolled around their heads, and they shook cobwebs from
their minds; both had received flashes of images. After the Thewls
recovered from the mental onslaught, they presented their
concerns.

“
What exactly are we supposed to do if
you can’t act directly,” the admiral’s complexion
darkened.

The traveler replied in his, own, peculiar
way. His purpose was to ensure the safety of the spec ops team.
They had already been chosen by the universe to attempt the
destruction of the Lokians. The traveler had no choice but to keep
them alive. He had to guide them to their destination. Ultimately,
their decisions either led to victory or defeat.

All eyes were on the crew. They, too, had
sensed the answer. The traveler then revealed he was going to take
the Carrier to an old, traveler ship, where he planned to teach the
crew how to operate it. There was no time to waste. Flashes of
Lokians destroying the races of the galaxy besieged the mind.

“
You possess the power to stop the
Lokians. Why leave the possibility of failure,” the ambassador
asked.

The answer was a complicated one; destiny was
an option. Anyone had the potential to accomplish a specific task,
but there was no insurance. The travelers relinquished the ability
to act directly. A star contained the raw power to stop the
Lokians, but a star had no more volition than he.

It was a difficult concept to grasp, that a
being maintaining awareness had no volition of its own, yet he
showed that space-time had infinite roads. On some roads, the
Lokians never obtained the power they required to begin their
galactic onslaught. On other roads, their victory was inevitable.
On their particular road, the traveler had no choice but to act
upon what was provided- O’Hara and his crew. His duty was to guide
the spec ops team, and that was based solely on the fact that they
arrived, and were attacked at that very instant, in that very
dimension.

The traveler instructed Admiral Yew to plot a
series of jumps to the Carina-Sagittarius arm housing the
Scythe
nebula. The nebula was home to the
Rhauss
system. There, a planet named
Soft Light
was formerly a
traveler colony. A ship, which sat unused for over one, thousand
years, was awaiting a new pilot.

“
A ship?” Yew was incredulous. “You
want us to go and grab a single ship?”

The Lokian home world was in subspace, where
only Lokian ships were given access to the queen’s stronghold,
however, traveler ships were beyond comprehension. He left them
knowing that finding that ship was the only solution. The choice to
act was theirs.

Once the creature ended his link with the
admiral, he turned to the captain and proposed a plan. They were
required to obtain that vessel, and then capture a functioning
Lokian to repurpose it for local control. Once the Lokian was under
their control, they were free to infiltrate the queen’s
stronghold.

“
What?!” when O’Hara shook his
shoulders in disbelief, everyone turned to him. “You want us to fly
a living, alien ship into subspace, land in a nest, and then
destroy the queen of a race of monsters that nearly killed us hours
ago?”

Franklin took a step forward. He was
preoccupied by the captain’s words. He opened his mouth to
formulate his comment, but the traveler’s gaze stopped him cold.
The agent knew it was the only option.

“
This is all very unsettling,” Admiral
Yew said. “Although I can’t bring myself to accept that one Human
is the answer to all our problems, if the traveler says this is
what must be done then we must heed his words. The travelers are
our benefactors…O’Hara, we will journey to this Soft Light planet.
Get some R and R. we’ll notify you when the time is
right….”

He then turned to another Thewl and gave an
order. Slowly, everyone looked to the captain. His eyes were wide.
His hands shook, but he resolved himself.

“
I’ll do whatever I can, but I can’t do
it alone,” he said.

“
We’re all with you,” Franklin
assured.

Swain smacked his shoulder. Fitzpatrick
winked. DeReaux gave a nearly indiscernible nod.

“
Well…let’s break then,” the captain
smiled. “I need to get some clothes on as it is.”

They chuckled. With everything at stake, they
hadn’t even realized they were only wearing their under garments.
Taking in breaths of relief, they made for the lifts back to crew
quarters, leaving the ambassador to have words with the
traveler.

****

Thewls in the loading zone worked cranes to
organize their ships. Many were conducting repairs. Day heard the
sounds of ratchets, drills, torches, and Thewlish speak.

When someone helped her out of her ship, she
looked it over. Considering what other vessels looked like, she was
thankful both wings were intact, and that her crew survived. While
walking towards the lifts in order to get back to crew quarters,
she stumbled onto the traveler. He just stood there, his feet
spread shoulder distance, his hands raised to an area just above
his pelvis, his eyes closed; he looked like to be holding a giant,
invisible pot.

She glanced around. No one was interrupting
his ministrations. She reached out for him, but stopped
herself.

“
This is him,” she asked
someone.

“
That is the traveler,” a Thewl said,
marveling.

“
He’s really something,” one of her
crew said.

“
I gotta’ see O’Hara. Thanks so much,
guys. You all did a great job,” she said and ran off.

Day guessed the crew had retired to their
quarters for a little relaxation. On her way back to the Explorer,
she passed busy deckhands. Many had panels off the walls,
conducting repairs. It looked like both the Explorer and the
Carrier had sustained a degree of internal damage.

“
Captain, Day. Copy?”

“
In my quarters,” he
replied.

“
Can I drop in?”

“
Of course.”

She detected something in his voice, but
brushed it off, choosing to believe it was the comm. unit and not
the captain that sounded strange. She walked through the opened
doorway when she finally made it to his room. He was sitting on the
edge of the bed.

“
Hey,” Day sighed.

“
Hey, yourself.”

“
What’s wrong? You seem distant,” she
pried with a furrowed brow.

The captain shook his head slightly then took
a long breath. “They’re dead.”

“
Who? Who’s dead,” she was
alarmed.