Beyond the End of the World, Lokians 1

Chapter 26

"The plan is to show up with information of a new civilization ripe for harvesting," he started. "Obviously, it's false information, but it'll entice them to send out a scouting party...we believe." Swain and the agents nodded. "While they scramble, their systems will detect an anomaly within our vessel. If I'm right, and let's pray that I am, the Lokians will order us to a physical docking in order to flush the memory core and re-establish programming."

"Similar to reinstalling an OS on a computer with a virus," Swain added.

"Right, this is our opportunity to leave the ship and enter the Lokian's system core. Day's data shows it here," O'Hara said, pointing to a darkened, round opening in the flashing, 3-D display, "like an enormous hangar where they store everything including the physical equipment they need to do whatever it is that they do. Now, we move down this path." By sliding his finger over the screen, the image spun. "At this juncture, we need to drop explosives on a time delay; I am hoping to make it back to the ship after all. Once on the ship, we haul ass out, and try to get back to standard space." Adams stepped forwards. "Yes?"

"Sir, we have some very special explosives."

"Heh, very special, very dangerous, we obtained some anti-matter particles from Admiral Yew. A miniature AMRMC ought to wipe the Lokians out of existence," Franklin added.

"Nice," Fitzpatrick exclaimed.

"Yeah," O'Hara remarked.

DeReaux stepped forwards next and spoke. "Once we enter on foot, won't we be detected?"

Nodding, O'Hara admitted that was a very real possibility. "I'm betting we'll have to fight security forces. Think of them as antibodies; they'll know a foreign substance is present, and they will try to eliminate us."

"With what?" Fitzpatrick barked.

"I don't know," he shook his head. "Regardless, this ship's archives show internal defenses are minimal. The enemy is designed to believe there is no way to enter the core without being Lokian, which means access will be simple if we get past docking procedures, but once inside, we gotta' go, go , go."

"Designed by whom?" DeReaux interrupted.

"By the Lokians," Swain said.

DeReaux said it didn't make any sense; that they designed themselves. He and Swain then got into an argument. The agents reprimanded them, but O'Hara laughed.

"Okay...what about the queen," Fitzpatrick asked.

"The memory core is the queen. She's a series of programs contained in a physical shell. The blast should sever connections with her minions, making them both blind and disorganized, which hopefully disables everything. These things don't survive independently; they can't; they don't know how to move, where to go, how to eat, where to recharge–"

"What if we're detected immediately?" Nandesrikahl interrupted.

"We integrated a stealth system similar to the traveler ship. By the way, I heard we named that thing," O'Hara said.

"Yeah, we settled on Mittins," Day replied.

The captain winced, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"But if we are detected," Nandesrikahl pried.

"Then, we have to overload the subspace drive and destroy it there," O'Hara responded.

"Which will kill us," Swain interjected and pointed with his left index finger for drama.

The captain shrugged, "Well, I mean, regardless, it'll kill the queen and save the galaxy," O'Hara said, unable to hold back a smile.