Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (32 page)

“
Mm, data shows they use organic
batteries, which recharge when inside the transporter ships. They
could be a problem,” Day said.

“
So, wait a sec’,” Nandy said. “The
little fighters recharge when onboard?”

“
Mm-hmm.”

“
But where do the drop ships
recharge?”

“
They use the gasses from
nebulae….”

“
Good Lord,” he said.

Glances were passed. The Lokians were a
serious threat, and efficient. Swain said he wanted to get a hold
of one and tear it apart, find out how it worked. DeReaux told him
to keep it in his pants.

Eventually, they discussed possible, battle
strategies. The best case scenario sounded like finding an empty,
transporter ship, but it was agreed that a more likely situation
was finding multiple transporters, destroying or disabling them
while fighting an armada of small, fighter ships, and scooping up
whatever was available before they were blown out of the sky.

“
What about the other Lokians, the ones
we fight on foot,” Flem asked.

“
Maybe they’re in the fighters,”
Franklin replied. “Maybe they act like actual
cockroaches….”

Everyone looked at him.

“
Cockroaches have a worm inside them—a
parasite—that lives in the bug. Maybe the fighters have pilots that
act like parasites,” Adams elucidated.

“
This keeps sounding worse and worse,”
Fitzpatrick cringed.

“
What about that satellite,” Jor-tune
suddenly said.

“
What about it,” Swain asked in
return.

“
What if we configure it to send out a
signal or energy reading that might attract a small group of
Lokians? Hopefully, they just send a single scout to check it
out.”

Swain thought long and hard. Most of the
satellite was intact. It was just the relay components that had
rendered it useless.

“
If it could be rebuilt, rigging it to
send out a distress signal, a fake S.O.S. of sorts, might entice a
very small group of Lokians,” he admitted

“
That’s actually a really great idea,”
O’Hara weighed in.

“
I think maybe we can work something
out. The Lokians have never attacked the Thewlian Carrier
outright,” Swain began.

“
Except for the time when they did,”
Day interjected.

“
That was a different situation. They
were trying to keep us from succeeding at a specific task,” Korit
responded.

“
Right, anyway, as I was trying to say,
it’s big, it’s powerful, but moreover, I don’t think they can track
it because of the way it travels,” Swain ventured. “There are too
many possibilities of when and where it might appear.

“
If we rig the satellite, and send a
distress signal, some Lokians might appear in the hopes of using it
as bait. If they suspect an Explorer vessel or even a Carrier might
appear to rescue crewmembers they might sit and wait in order to
mount a surprise attack.”

“
That’s a lot of
mights
,” O’Hara
remarked.

“
Yeah,” Swain frowned.

“
How did they know to appear when we
went to Sahagun,” Flem inquired.

Eyes narrowed and brows furrowed, but no one
had any answers. There was a short pause then someone spoke up.

“
It’s not illogical to assume that when
we were attacked on Marduk, one or more of us left with some sort
of tracking device. We might not have noticed,” Adams replied
slowly.

A brief moment of fear and uncertainty washed
over the crew. “Surely, after all the battles and gear repairs,
someone would have noticed,” Fitzpatrick cut in.

“
This is all speculation, for all we
know they have an organic method for tracking the Carrier’s data
archives,” Swain remarked.

“
It’s irrelevant at this point. Let’s
get back to the satellite,” the captain ordered.

“
Okay. Say they do in fact choose to
hide and wait, won’t they do so en masse,” Day asked.

“
Not if they do recon to check the
signal first,” Fitzpatrick said.

“
We’d have to get them immediately,”
DeReaux added.

“
This is assuming they cogitate like
Humans…or Thewls, and I don’t believe they do,” Franklin
said.

“
Well…I say we give this plan a shot,”
Korit said.

“
Alright, people, let’s get on it,” the
captain commanded.

Chapter Twenty Two

Swain and the Thewls dismantled the
satellite. All the electrical components were fried. Thankfully,
the ship’s engineering lab had plenty of useful parts stored away.
While doing repairs they came across a few tools none of them had
ever seen before. Swain kept those where he found them, believing
they probably went hand-in-hand with whatever other tools were in
the vicinity. It took some doing, but they were making headway.

****

Meanwhile, on Eon, Yon helped relay messages
between Humans and Thewls. The admirals agreed to station Thewlian
units in order to slowly integrate the two peoples. Initially, the
Thewls landed miles away from Eon’s base camp, or Horizon, as it
was dubbed. As the process unfolded, Humans and Thewls found
working together most enjoyable. Soon after, Thewls were given
permission to work in plain view of non-military personnel.

After that, a perimeter was set up both on
land and in orbit. Scanners and weapons platforms were erected, and
Presh was devoted to weapons research based on Thewlian technology.
Modifications were even made aboard the
Phoenix
.
Unfortunately, a degree of tension arose when Humans wondered if
such a defensive stance was going to arouse Lokian suspicions.

Since Lokians had never presented themselves
to Horizon, colonists believed staying off the radar was the safest
course of action. The Navy, however, believed it a necessary
precaution to prepare for war. Admiral Lay continued building
relations, hoping to unify with the Yvlekesh. To Lay’s chagrin,
Admiral Yew had no success in contacting them as of yet; Both
Humans and Thewls grew more concerned as time passed. It seemed
that their greatest hope was the traveler and the spec ops
team.

****

As Day meandered through space, Swain and the
Thewls finished work on the satellite. A Thewlian distress signal
relayed a repeating message stating that an Explorer landed on a
nearby asteroid in need of repairs. O’Hara ordered the drop in the
vicinity of an asteroid caught in a planet’s orbit. Then, Day
engaged stealth systems before flying circles around the rock in an
effort to leave a hint of energy residuals. She then shut down all
nonessential systems, slowly listing away, thus hiding the fact
that they had left.

The crew waited patiently for the Lokians’
arrival. The only problem was the dwindling supply of rations. They
had been aboard the ship a week since the departure from Eon.

Returning to Eon or the Carrier was out of
the question. O’Hara had confidence in his plan, but the first
twenty four hours passed with no incident. With so much downtime,
they found themselves huddling around the traveler; on occasion
they got a little refresher course on their abilities. Thewls had
little else to do, so they attempted the meditation techniques
given them.

The second day, the helm dinged. Only Day
heard it. She checked the readings to find a subspace disturbance.
She notified the crew, and they all ran to the bridge.

“
Battle stations,” she
yelled.

The crew perked up, momentarily confused.
They frantically looked around the bridge before realizing the
joke; Day was in control of the vessel’s every aspect. The rest
were just willing participants along for the ride.

A few thousand miles away, a black hole
opened and faster than light speeds registered in Day’s mind. Then,
a strange energy signature negated the black hole, leaving two,
large signatures.

“
Two transporters...I think,” she
breathed. Her scanners tracked the movement. Aliens headed for the
satellite. “At their current rate of speed, they should arrive at
the bait in under two hours.”

“
Good…here we go,” O’Hara
said.

“
Soon as they’re in range, I’ll nail
them with a photon beam. I should be able to destroy one with a
precision strike. Likely, they’ll both release fighters. If I keep
moving while cloaked, they won’t be able to pick up our trail,
hopefully. All I have to do then is disable the other ship, and
hook it with the electron, tractor beam,” Day reported.

“
Sound plan,” Franklin
commented.

The crew was on edge, feeling helpless. Their
fingers itched for part of the action, and worse yet, they didn’t
know for sure if they were equipped to deal serious damage. Day was
nervous, but composed when the transporters came into view.

Her new and improved perspective allowed her
a better look at the enemy; they looked like Sidewinder, fighter
ships, an old, helicopter-like, space vessel. The fins, or wings,
did look like fish fins with webbing half way down, but that was
pretty much where their aquatic likeness ended. She sluggishly
listed to the left then let loose a white photon beam, busting
through a Lokian.

The photon cannon was a mobile weapon with a
lens used for harnessing energy attached to a flexible, alloy tube.
The tube propelled the photons in their pre-excited stage into the
lens, which provided the helmsman the ability to unleash the attack
beam in a most complex manner, not unlike the movement of the arc
laser. As predicted, all the fighters scrambled and barreled
towards her former position.

Immediately after entering combat formations,
the fighters revealed their telescopic cannons. Day hurriedly
elevated to a position above the Lokians, firing another photon
beam. White light punched through fighters, sending wreckage to
areas unknown. The remaining enemies whirled and moved to her new
position. Each time they regrouped, they let loose their own volley
of red lasers, but thanks to her vessel’s unique, stealth system,
there was no way for the enemy to get a lock; they were firing
blind in an effort to hit an invisible enemy.

Suddenly, readings indicated they locked on
to her weapon’s energy. Her heart skipped a beat when red beams
barreled towards her. In response, Day engaged shielding,
inevitably shutting off cloaking.

“
Hold on,” she gasped.

Blasts hit the ship with no effect. No one
felt a thing, and she maneuvered around the insects, shearing them
in half with multiple bursts of white lightning; fighters were
downed with ease, but the drop ships started swarming like jelly
fish, moving in short pulses; their tentacles whipping
aimlessly.

In a final act of defiance, fighters hurled
themselves directly at the space cat. The crew felt those impacts
as a jostling force not unlike light turbulence. Exoskeleton flew
off in every direction; a result of the useless kamikaze
strike.

Once Day found a particle accelerator missile
system located under the ship’s mobile, photon cannon, she swooped
around, aimed her rear at the assailants, and fired both weapons.
Laser arcs twirled glinting patterns, and missiles exploded,
igniting chitinous debris, eradicating the fighters. She made an
obscene sound by vibrating her lips and tongue when the second
transporter released more fighters.

“
Round two,” she said.

The crew shook their heads, bracing for
impacts. Glances went around the austere bridge. Huffing in
exasperation, they just milled nervously.

Day’s skilled mind and hands allowed her to
execute a barrel roll as she fired. Brilliant lasers crackled all
around, and the ravenous, alien forces were quickly overwhelmed.
Only the drop ships remained, darting through space, giving chase,
and firing innumerable, red beams.

“
God damn it! What’s happening?” O’Hara
yelled.

No sooner said, Day discovered a monitor, and
swiveled it out from the bridge’s wall to face an impatient crew. A
three dimensional rendition of the ship’s perspective allowed them
to see a portion of what the helmsman experienced.

“
Nifty weapons,” Fitzpatrick commented.
“Oh, look out. Shoot that one. Get him. C’mon, Day.”

“
Shut up,” she giggled.

“
Yeah, try to avoid destroying
everything,” Franklin added. “We do need one of those
things.”

A transporter had fluttered onto Day’s six,
and the rocket blew its nose, fins, and tentacles to smithereens.
Going for a precision strike to knock out its power source caused
her to miss the enemy. It flew beneath her, turned perpendicular,
and blasted the crew with all remaining weapons while the other
drop ship snuck in from the flank. More and more red beams bounced
off shielding. Sparks sizzled out in a dizzying display, causing
the bridge to flash like a rock concert.

“
A few more blows like that and we’re
gonna take some damage,” she yelled.

“
You can do it,” the crew
cheered.

Rolling up and away from enemies, a tight,
spiraling surge pierced a Lokian power source; the vessel went
dark, and melted chitin floated off. “Got it! Uh-oh,” she
cringed.

“
What is it,” Korit snarled.

“
The other one’s opening a black
hole!”

The pull of the subspace tear started
affecting her maneuverability, but the Lokian had to remain
stationary to complete its escape path. Day nailed it just behind
the fore tentacles, puncturing its power supply. Energy signatures
dwindled, and that ship also drifted off.