Beyond the End of the World, Lokians 1

Chapter 11

"'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 awakened 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 L.E.D. 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.