Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (29 page)

“
So, this stuff works, right?” the
captain asked.

“
Captain,” Swain feigned offense. “Why
wouldn’t it?”

The bay door came open. It was fairly dark on
the planet’s surface, and a dusty, brown wind blew into the loading
zone. They stomped down the platform, and peered into the crater
over which the ship hovered.

Wasting no time, O’Hara attached his jump
cord to the loading platform and repelled. Each member of the crew
followed suit. A look down revealed only darkness, so they turned
on their gun lights. Once illuminated, the hole revealed several
crags in what looked to be a rather brittle wall.

The captain became preoccupied with a cave
in; he kicked the stone with his boot tip. A tiny rock chipped off
and
clanked
as it plummeted towards the unseen bottom. Gray
mass fell before his eyes, shocking the crap out of him; the
traveler jumped down.

“
Jesus Christ! Did you see that,”
Fitzpatrick screamed.

“
I did,” a Thewl answered
her.

“
Amazing,” Jor-Tune added.

On solid ground, the crew detached their
apparatus. Around them, the rock composition had changed from the
former, brittle, brown walls to what appeared to be sturdier and
harder gray stone. Korit took the lead as the traveler started
marching. The Thewl had to walk briskly, meaning the Human crew had
to jog just to keep pace.

“
Wish this guy would slow down,” Swain
complained.

“
Easy, old man,” Adams
replied.

Flem was behind Korit. She slowed to inspect
fog. It had a bluish hue.

“
What is this mist,” she
asked.

“
Some kind of humidity,” Nandesrikahl
guessed.

“
It’s gas,” Franklin
replied.

“
Dangerous,” the captain
asked.

“
No. Well, not so long as we have our
suits on,” Franklin answered.

“
I mean will it ignite if we have to
fire,” O’Hara clarified.

“
I think it’s Argon so no,” Franklin
responded.

A ridiculously long hike ensued. They crossed
a great deal of gray stone, walked around large pits, and even
circumnavigated some flowing lava. Hours later, they emerged into
an underground city, one similar to the city on Marduk, but
everything was made of a foreign metal. Korit stopped in his
tracks. He watched the traveler slow to a normal pace. Flem came to
a halt behind him.

“
What,” she asked.

“
Seems he’s found something,” Korit
answered.

The creature led them towards a silvery
mound. He opened the door then stood looking at the crew. They made
their way over and entered. Steps led down to an elevator.

It was small, forcing them to board four at a
time, and then wait for the others. They gathered in a large room
with the sterile appearance of a lab or hospital. It was full of
unrecognizable equipment and glass partitions.

The traveler kept walking through doors and
hallways, only stopping at doors or corners. Swain felt the pull of
some equipment. Though he was struck by confusing images, he wasn’t
able to grasp their mechanics. Mumbling over the shame of a hurried
trip, he joked that the traveler had a fire lit under his
backside.

They walked for hours; from labs, to housing
quarters, even what looked like an armory. Every room had a faint
light emanating from the ceiling or from tubes and pipes running in
and out of the corridors. Eventually, they stepped onto what looked
like a bridge and realized they probably boarded the ship during
the long haul.

“
This is it, isn’t it,” O’Hara said as
he looked around for controls.

It was a tight, empty room, but apart from a
lone, silvery contraption resembling an old dentist’s chair, he
found no sign of navigational equipment. Humans and Thewls
meandered about, unimpressed. The traveler looked to Day.

He approached her, put his hands on her
shoulders, and a flash of light assaulted her. Like a quick,
migraine headache, she felt her mind break. Pictures, scenes, and
phrases barraged her brain. She let out a scream before slumping to
her knees. The crew ran over to her, but she took a few breaths and
stood.

“
I’m okay. I think I got my gift,” she
said and laughed.

Cautiously, she made for the chair, running
her hand over it. After sitting comfortably, she found a button
below the side railing. Pressing it resulted in a faint, purple
light, which shone over her. A panel also slid open above her head,
and a helmet with tubes and wires slowly descended.

With a glance at the traveler, she pondered
the results of removing her helmet. He simply nodded. The crew
about freaked out when she started to remove her gear, but she
replied that he had said it was fine, referring to the
creature.

After switching headgear, she found the
ship’s was a little loose at first, but something spun inside
resulting in a comfortable fit. The area in front of her face
became opaque, allowing her to see through it. Her breathing grew
erratic from surprise then vertigo over took her for a moment.
Then, there was nothing, just her breathing.

A mild sense of fumbling in the darkness
ensued. She thought there were familiar objects, or thoughts, or
concepts; it was the ship. She was conjoined to the vessel. The
traveler gently guided her.

First, he showed her how to activate life
support. It gave her a plethora of options. Naturally, she
calibrated it to the best Human standards, an option which also
allowed Thewls to remove their helmets.

“
Guys? Can you hear me,” she
asked.

“
Sure,” Nandesrikahl
answered.

“
Life support should be on.”

Next, the creature showed her the engine
controls, and the rest of the operational systems. The hangar was
asking her to open. She replied verbally, but nothing happened. The
idea to reply through the ship itself popped into her mind as if
from outside. Underground, a hidden hangar, bay door opened.

Day actually saw it from the vessel’s
perspective. Everything on board was an extension of herself. The
traveler acted as an AMS, helping her along. He told her to ease
forward through a dark tunnel. It went up at a steep incline for
quite a ways.

“
Oh, my God…this is so cool,” she
cheered.

Korit removed his helmet and spoke Thewlish
into his comm. “I contacted Admiral Yew,” he said.

The rest of the crew removed their headgear
as well. DeReaux ran a hand through his hair and sat in a corner.
Franklin joined him.

“
Are we ready?” Adams asked.

The captain nodded. “Let the admiral know
we’re going to Eon.” Korit nodded then relayed the information.
“Day…what’s going on?”

“
Exiting the tunnel. I see the planet’s
surface. This it…this is beyond wild.”

“
Copy…um, can you get us to
Eon?”

“
I’ll try.”

She wanted a chance to fly around Soft Light,
but there was a mission underway. Traveling to a known system,
however, gave her plenty of time to put her new toy through its
paces. Such freedom was exhilarating.

“
I’d like to see Admiral Lay and give
him a report in person,” O’Hara said.

“
Copy. I’ll relay through proper
channels, captain,” Franklin replied.

“
Not much to look at, huh,” Swain said,
disappointed.

“
What do you mean,” Flem asked
him.

“
I don’t see any display monitor or
anything,” Swain remarked. “She’s having all the fun, and I gotta’
stare at your ugly mugs.”

O’Hara glanced back at her. She looked frail
and tiny enveloped in the contraption. The others were fidgeting,
tired from the trip, or needed to use the restroom. Some of them
pulled out rations.

When they asked Day for the ship’s layout,
where crew quarters were, and what other decks were aboard, she
came to a mental halt. “Um…can it wait?”

Spirits were high aboard the alien vessel, so
they said they were going to run around and see what there was.
Left to maneuver the ship without interruptions, Day found the
sensation similar to swimming. There was a pressure all around her,
but moving was effortless.

The travelers were beyond amazing. A guiding
voice, not that it was auditory, but she had no other way to
intellectualize the phenomenon, helped her to access the navigation
systems where she located Eon. At normal speed, she needed less
than two years to reach the planet. That alone was amazing, but
even more so was the warp drive, an unparalleled ability to create
wormholes, events that acted as conduits between space-time,
eliminating the need to locate existing wormholes.

The crew was unaware of what was taking
place. They had no clue they were even traveling, but Day had an
exceptional experience; something like being flushed down a toilet
while running backwards, uphill, in the snow, barefoot. The trip
took a meager thirty seconds before exiting into the Gemini system,
where she saw the purple and green gem in all its heavenly glory.
Seconds later, she landed in the same area where they first met the
Thewls.

“
Captain,” she asked.

“
Yeah?”

“
We’re here.”

“
Where?”

“
Eon!”

“
You must be joking,” DeReaux
said.

“
Nope.”

The crewmembers all looked at each other.
“Uh, okay. Franklin, open a channel to the colony. I need Admiral
Lay,” O’Hara ordered.

“
I can do one better,” Day
interjected.

She routed the communicators worn by the crew
through a broadband system in the ship via a special frequency
created by the vessel’s communications equipment. As she hooked
onto the frequency, provided by Franklin’s comm., Day felt a
wavering pressure around her. She pointed, indicating they were
set.

“
What,” O’Hara asked.

“
Speak,” she said.

“
This is Admiral Lay. Copy?” the
admiral’s voice came in clearly.

“
Um, y-yes, Sir. We copy,” the captain
stammered.

“
Good to hear your voice, son. Adams
and Franklin have kept me posted on everything so far. I’m sorry
for the loss of your friends. We’ve had to keep their deaths a
secret. Otherwise, colonists might discover your real
mission.”

Elation washed over the captain. Even though
mentioning dead friends was depressing, his superior’s steady voice
gave a surge of optimism. Everyone was anxious to set up a
meeting.

“
This new ship we have is remarkable,
Sir. We’ll rendezvous at the original site.”

“
Sure thing. Lay, out.”

Day eased the ship to the ground then opened
the side hatch. The headgear she wore slid off before she stepped
out of the chair onto rubber legs. Initially, she was a little
wobbly, and her vision was blurry, but when she took a deep breath,
she felt fine, relaxed.

“
Whoo. That was something,” she
exclaimed.

“
I don’t understand how we got here so
fast,” Swain said.

“
Created a wormhole. I gotta’ tell you,
the trip through that thing…indescribable,” she
proclaimed.

“
Right, then, how are you going to tell
us,” O’Hara joked.

She squinted at him. The joke was lost on
her.

“
Well,” Franklin interrupted with a
surprisingly loud tone. “We might as well as continue this on solid
ground.”

He tossed his headgear by the helm before
leaving the bridge. The rest started following him. Through twists
and turns, he reached the airlock, which was already open. Everyone
who hadn’t left their helmets in the bridge left them there.

“
Nice navigating,” Adams
commented.

“
Really, I would not have made it out
in one try,” Jor-Tune added.

O’Hara walked out first and took deep breaths
of Eon’s fresh air. Behind him, the rest of the crew filed out.
Everyone, man and Thewl, were glad to see a real sky overhead for
the first time since their battle on Sahagun.

Orange light hugged them in a warm welcome.
Korit noticed the traveler had not exited with them. He asked if
they needed to retrieve him, but O’Hara glanced at the agents, and
they all believed it wasn’t necessary. Finally, they turned around
to look at the ship’s exterior.

It was completely black, black as the
traveler’s eyes, black like obsidian jewels. Swain marveled at the
craftsmanship. He ran a gloved hand over the fuselage.

“
This is meta-material,” he said,
astonished.

“
The old oxides that bend light,”
O’Hara asked.

“
Why would a ship be laced with
meta-materials,” DeReaux asked.

“
Who knows, but it means it can turn
invisible,” Swain responded.

“
All ships use scanners, right? I mean,
visuals are basically useless,” O’Hara added.

Swain shrugged and looked to the others then
back to the vessel; a semi-seamless, black, cat-like construct. It
was actually built with a head, four pylons with joints, and a
tail. Before them, it sat in repose, hunkered down.

“
Do you think it can run,” Fitzpatrick
joked.

“
I think it can do anything,” Day
replied.

A ship appeared over the horizon.
“Atten-hua!” O’Hara called.