Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (34 page)

Somehow, he knew they weren’t the same.
They can’t be. There’s no lens. They’re antennae….
Like the
whiskers of a cat, they received data of the physical world at
large, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. There was
something else, something green, like a light that didn’t allow him
to focus.

It clicked. It wasn’t a single object, but
many acting in unison. It was the nanobots. They existed inside the
antennae as a permanent uplink to a central system. The drop ship,
like the nanobots, was just one of many. Essentially, it was a
rogue piece of the puzzle, the puzzle being all Lokians.

“
Hah,” Swain shouted and returned to
the everyday world.

He looked around noticing that he was not
alone, he never had been.

“
What,” Frep asked.

“
Hive men-ta-li-ty,” Swain replied with
a smile.

“
Oh...excellent,” Frep seemed confused.
“Now, we can’t figure how it manages to manifest black holes and
subsequently patch them.”

“
Mmm…” Swain said and
pondered.

His elation subsided. He knew the power
supply they punctured to disable it was located behind the face.
Upon searching, he found some sort of protuberances implying an
electrical arc, or a circuit, was completed following an unknown
action. For some time, Swain and the Thewls were totally stumped.
All the scientists wracked their brains, but failed to discover
anything new.

They had learned a great deal while toiling
in the stuffy hangar, but everyone was getting fatigued, irritable.
Luckily, Swain had an insight; complete repairs on the alien then
reboot its systems. No one wanted to risk such a maneuver.

“
We have to reboot it at some point;
we’re supposed to fly this thing into subspace and fight the Lokian
Queen,” he argued.

There was no debating that, but people had
their reservations, and for good reasons; that lone Lokian was able
to wipe out Horizon colony. In the end, they agreed to activate all
systems except core runtimes.

Chapter Twenty Four

One morning, everyone was gathered together
by one of Swain’s
all scientists, report
pages.

“
Okay,” Levine walked everyone through
the process as she adjusted her glasses. “Essentially, we’re
activating a DOS-like program and routing through a Thewlian
operating system. This allows us to give commands via satellite
uplink, which is received via the Lokian’s antennae.”

“
Once it’s activated, won’t it be under
Lokian control,” one scientist inquired.

“
No, the core program is off, so the
ship can only connect to what we provide,” Levine
responded.

She then sat at a monitor and activated each,
individual program one at time. The alien started emitting a green
glow from between plating, and an ominous hum reverberated
throughout the hangar. Swain told everyone to keep their cool; that
it was just on, but not aware of itself.

Successful activation of programs provided
the scientists control over everything but faster than light
travel, subspace travel, and the feeding system. A quality
assurance team then ran several diagnostics. They found the Lokian
not only inhaled gasses, but also fed off various intensities of
light—not the standard spectrum, but infra-red, ultra-violet, and
even gamma rays—it became evident that from time to time, the
creature had to make pit stops near stars, which also explained how
they turned bioluminescence into highly excited photons.

“
Ho-ly cow,” Swain muttered.

“
See these readings,” Levine started,
but she noticed he was spacing out.

With the creature up and running, a mind
shattering occurrence took place. Swain saw how bioluminescence was
condensed. Photons were isolated and moved in circuit through the
previously unfamiliar protuberances. The photons were then
re-routed through tubes, which acted like nerves, carrying light
energy rather than neurons.

“
This is freaking amazing,” he
whispered.

“
What,” Levine asked.

“
These aliens…they’re a hundred percent
efficient, wasting nothing,” he met her eyes, adding, “It’s too bad
they destroy other civilizations to harvest tech. I have to admit,
considering what they can do in their natural state, I don’t
understand what’s turned them into terrorists; there’s really no
need for them to do what they do….”

Everyone looked at him. He just shook his
head in disbelief. Levine turned her lips inwards, touching his
wrist.

“
We can learn a lot from them,
though…that’s for sure,” he breathed,

“
Great, all that’s left is their
subspace capabilities.”

Excitement gave way to irritation. They were
all still stumped on that matter. Swain rubbed the back of his
head; he felt cramped, hungry. Nevertheless, he plopped back into
his chair and rolled over to monitors, where he reviewed more
data.

He saw nothing explaining methods for
puncturing space-time. His mind darted between the traveler’s ship,
which created wormholes, the Carrier, which bent space-time, and
the inexplicable Lokian. Hoping a full recapitulation of all events
inspired a new train of thought, he puffed.

“
Criminy, I’m hungry,” he
chuckled.

****

Day had not seen Swain for over a week. She
knew well enough he had a habit of getting wrapped up in his
machinations. Her determination to get him to take a break took her
for a long stroll from the military, housing sector to the
labs.

It was a warm and windy morning. Gusts
fluttered her hair, and a sense of anxiety made everyone around her
look nervous. Everyone smiled, but their worries were evident in
their stutters, jumpy movements, and lack of concentration. She
paused briefly and looked into the purple expanse overhead. There
were no clouds that day.

Standing outside the drab, green hangar, she
looked at the personnel door, leading into the workshop. Since
Horizon had been established, security protocol required clearance
to access any building, especially buildings designated for alien
research. She swiped her ID card, and the mechanism beeped once,
indicating she was clear. The lock slid out with a
clank
before the door popped open.

Inside, under white fluorescents, she
witnessed men and Thewls staring into monitors, barking orders,
darting around the immense Lokian. Swain was at the rear of the
lab. Day moseyed by a few people, who were too busy to pay her any
attention. When she reached him, he was still in the chair with his
head in his hands. She stood to his right rear and tapped his left
shoulder. He looked over left then to his right and lit up with a
big smile.

“
Miss Day! Well, how ‘bout it. I didn’t
expect to see you,” he cheered.

She stood on her toes with her hands clasped
in front of herself. “Yup. Having trouble, huh?”

“
Yeah, got just about everything
figured out, but we still can’t understand how it punctures
space-time.”

She detected exhaustion in his voice. His
eyes were baggy. It was clear he hadn’t slept.

“
Have you tried asking the traveler,”
she ventured.

“
Thought about it, but last I heard he
was off somewhere, walking outside the city.”

“
No kidding? So, where does that put
us?”

Swain narrowed his eyes and furrowed his
brow. “You know...seeing you gives me one idea.”

“
Oh?”

“
If you could hook into the Lokian like
you do the traveler ship—by the way, we should name that thing—then
maybe you could search the systems.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She wanted no part
of that, but looking at his expectant gaze, she took a second to
ponder the premise.

“
How would I even hook into it? It
doesn’t have headgear….”

“
That’s okay! I can check the helm on
our ship and figure something out. I can do this...you work on a
name,” he smiled and bolted from his chair.

He left her in mid breath. She had wanted to
tell him not to bother, that it sounded too dangerous, but in the
back of her mind, she knew if there was any possibility of helping
O’Hara, helping her crew, all the races of the galaxy, she had to
give it a shot, even though she secretly hoped there was no way of
doing what Swain intended.

****

The big man stopped at the new cafeteria and
picked up a Philly cheese sub. He then took a cart into the city
outskirts. Normally, there was paperwork and copies of ID’s, but he
didn’t have time for all that. He just drove off before anyone
noticed, kicking dust in his wake while he devoured his lunch.

The outdoors was invigorating. He hadn’t left
the lab for anything short of food and sleep, and several times, he
ate and napped at his desk. Crisp, clean air filled his lungs.
Stopping short in front of the space cat, he marveled once again at
its exquisiteness.

“
Should call it One Bad Kitty Beast, or
O.B.K.B,” he snickered.

Placing his hand on the door, he watched it
sink down to reveal steps leading to the interior airlock, and
beyond it, were three doors, leading to various decks. There was an
ominous, dead air about the craft when powered down, sterile, like
a morgue; none of the lights were on.

He made his way through the semi darkness and
to the bridge, where he simply plunked down in the helm. He fumbled
for the switch next to the rail, and the headgear came down from
the ceiling.

He placed it over his head, but it didn’t
activate. Sitting there, breathing slowly with his eyes closed, he
relaxed, delving into the mechanics. Seconds later, he sifted
through components, which brought to mind a foreign language, but
one piece at a time, he started making connections, analogies.

“
I see it…this helmet can only be used
by a pilot, whose brain is operating on a specific frequency,
something similar to entering theta levels when going to sleep,” he
muttered.

There was no way for him to achieve the
phenomenon, but he gleaned enough information to construct new
headgear. After removing the helmet and sliding out of the seat, he
marched back to the airlock, and finally exited the craft.

A full belly and a slow ride back to the
hangar were enough to reignite the fire under his ass. Orange light
washed over his face. Fresh air whipped by his ears. Stopping
outside the lab, he sauntered from the cart to the door, swiped,
entered, made for the comms. and called out.

“
Attention! All scientists,
report.”

Chapter Twenty Five

Swain gave the men a breakdown regarding how
the traveler’s helm functioned. They went to work on a new design.
By the end of the day, they created a 3-D rendition on
computers.

“
Mister Swain,” Frep called.

“
What’s the problem?”

“
There’s a lack of Swainium alloy. What
would you like to do?”

“
Oh…man, oh, man.”

He puzzled over the predicament, but a Thewl
proposed scrapping nonessentials from the Explorer, which brought
them to the next phase, creating a program to pilot the helm. Such
a feat resulted in another round of irritation; no one had a clue
how to proceed. Munching on his lower lip, the big man snapped his
fingers.

“
Nandy!”

He called his friend through his personal
comm. “Copy,” the voice resounded.

“
Busy? I need you in the
lab.”

“
No, Sir; just watching Fitzpatrick and
DeReaux teach some youngsters how to shoot. What did you
need?”

“
Just get over here on the
double!”

“
Roger that.”

Swain paced back and forth, occasionally
bumping into others trying to navigate around him. He was
practically dancing on his toes, waiting for Nandesrikahl. When he
shambled into the hangar, Swain ran right over to him.

“
Can you understand computer
lingo?”

“
Uh, I don’t know. What exactly do you
have in mind?”

“
I want to sit Day down at the helm and
have her access the core programs, which route information between
her and the ship. I’m hoping that if you get a look at the code,
you can figure out what it means.”

Nandy was taken aback; he did a double take
with his mouth slightly open. “That’s some wild idea, you’ve got
there. ’Ow–”

“
Never mind how,” Swain interrupted.
“I’ll tell Day to meet us back at the ship. C’mon.”

As Swain dragged his friend by the sleeve to
the cart, he called Day, letting her in on the plan. Once they
convened on the traveler’s ship’s bridge, she hopped into the chair
and stuck the helmet on her head. Following Swain’s instructions,
she accessed the basic code from various programs, brought the
monitor from the wall out, and myriads of symbols flashed over the
screen.

Nandesrikahl looked them over. He shook his
head after a moment. Swain pouted.

Nandy knew his friend was at his wit’s end.
“Maybe, if I hear it?”

“
Hear it?” Swain echoed. “Miss
Day–”

“
On it,” she cut him off.

Day asked the ship to verbalize the code.
What they all heard was similar to antiquated, dialup connections
of the late Twentieth Century on Earth. While Swain covered his
ears, Nandesrikahl listened attentively. Each tone, break in sound,
and sequential repetition provided a set of ideas, blocks of cogent
logic. He easily translated the code into what only he saw as a
digital alphabet.