Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (6 page)

“
I read the reports, son. I’m
thoroughly impressed,” Lay stated as he followed the captain into
the sterile room.

“
I’m flattered, Admiral, but anyone
could have dug some beacons out of the ground.”

“
I suppose that’s true, but it wasn’t
anyone. It was you and your crew,” Lay said, pausing dramatically.
“Let’s talk about the implications. In all likelihood, these
beacons are of alien origin, but they’re four, thousand years old.
One can surmise they’ve been abandoned. The good news is we now
have Element-115 to study. The rest of the good news, and the
actual goal of the mission, is that we can begin colonization of
Eon.

“
Rear Admiral Shaw will oversee the
colony as it begins to grow, but we hope to see you take command
soon. This is the first planet Humans will colonize. Simply
amazing,” Lay was ebullient as he finished his thoughts.

“
I appreciate the vote of confidence,
Sir, but I belong on the
Phoenix,
and was hoping that after
the other, four beacons are discovered, we can move on to more
space travel,” O’Hara responded as he glanced at the admiral’s blue
eyes. “It’s a ship made specifically for planetary travel,
so….”

“
I see; if that’s how you feel then I’m
pleased to keep you in command of her. Take some R and R after the
rest of the beacons are found. First thing’s first, however, I want
the beacon and your scientists here on Presh. You take only who you
need to uncover the rest,” Lay ordered.

O’Hara gave a quick salute before making his
way back to the ship. Again, the walk seemed to end sooner than he
had expected. There were so many thoughts swimming around his mind.
Hard to believe real aliens were roaming around this same area.
Wonder what the admiral will do once they have all the beacons and
whether there really is a sixth.
O’Hara paused at the airlock.
Why would he consider me to take over Eon’s colony, and why was
he so unruffled by the possibility, no the reality of alien
life?

He shrugged it off as he reached for the
handle, opened the door, and stepped beyond. The door automatically
shut behind him before the pressure readjusted. Then, a light came
on over the other door. Another long walk ensued, but there were no
more thoughts, just orders.

Setting foot on the bridge, O’Hara clenched
his jaw and gauged his crew. Judging by their unblinking stares, he
knew they knew he was concerned. Everyone was. He walked over to a
bridge officer and gave the order to round up the science crew and
take the beacon to Presh’s lab.

“
Nickelson, Levine, Chadwick, plus a
few other scientists and engineers need to leave for Presh. The
rest remain aboard the
Phoenix
. Inform everyone to meet up
in conference room B,” O’Hara ordered.

He was pensive. Four beacons were to be
simultaneously recovered. It wasn’t a difficult feat, but something
gnawed at him nevertheless. Roberts broke his concentration while
the bridge officer moved away to announce the orders through the
intercom.

“
Captain, we are refueled, restocked,
and bound for Eon.”

O’Hara nodded and looked to Day, saying,
“Take us away.”

She gently guided the ship through the
atmosphere a second time. The captain glossed over the bridge
before leaving for conference room B. He felt like everything was
bigger, colder, harder.
I’m probably just tired.

In room B, O’Hara moved a chair to a steel
plate bolted to the wall. It served him as a small table, where he
placed his personal computer and looked over his reports. He was
confident that a procedure similar to the first extraction was
required, but four, smaller teams were comprised to acquire all the
beacons at once, so he set up the teams according to everyone’s
strengths and weaknesses. Swain, Zakowski, and Royce comprised team
one. Imes, Becker, and Mickelson were team two. DeReaux,
Fitzpatrick, and Tulley were team three. O’Hara, Martinez, and
Campbell were team
Go get ‘em killa
, a title he picked to
entertain Marty.

Tulley and Campbell, who had not participated
in the last mission, were both young and inexperienced, but since
the first mission went off without a hitch, the newbs were given a
chance to prove themselves. O’Hara nodded in approval, when he
heard the door open behind him. He turned to see his crew
enter.

“
Good, you all made it. Take a seat,
everyone. We have a simple goal here, and since we know what to
expect, there’s no reason for concern. I have the instructions for
extraction for each team. Here, take a look,” O’Hara announced,
pressing a button on his computer.

At the lectern, he lowered the screen and
dimmed the lights. The results of the previous extraction, as well
as the new instructions, showed.

“
Love our name, Cap. You know me
better’n anyone,” Martinez exclaimed.

“
Knew you would, Marty. Any questions,”
O’Hara addressed the men with his hands loosely clasped in front of
his waist. They all passed glances. The green scientists looked a
little sketchy, but they knew they were in good hands. After all,
O’Hara’s men were the best, and they had done this before. “Alright
then, gear up, everyone. We’ll be at the first drop point soon.
Dismissed.”

The crew, including the captain, walked out
of conference room B to suit up in their quarters. Roberts came
over the speaker and announced that they had reached the first drop
point. The teams were dropped off one-by-one at the beacon
locations. It took roughly seven hours to drop every one off, but
by 15:00 hours all teams were go. Two nights of manual labor
passed, but all beacons were recovered, and all crewmembers
returned unharmed. Once safely on board, the beacons were
immediately moved to Presh for studies.

During the recovery mission, the science crew
on Presh tried their best to pick up where the others had left off.
Nicholson, Levine, and the rest of the science team managed to
learn a few things about the beacon, but some questions persisted.
They didn’t know who left the objects behind, nor why. What they
did know was that each beacon was exactly fifteen hundred miles
from the next in what appeared to be a circular design, or possibly
even a pentagram. They also knew there was a way to recalibrate the
magnetic output.

Essentially, the output was a frequency, a
very powerful frequency, which likely triangulated and relayed
through alien satellites to some other planet or space station.
Since the beacons were no longer in use, they were recalibrated to
a lower frequency, one that didn’t disrupt any adjacent equipment.
Lastly, scientists studied samples of Element-115. That was the
beacons’ most significant yield, though some argued the markings
scribbled inside one of the panels of each beacon was far and away
more important. The strange thing was that every beacon implied a
sixth object.

With great findings coming to a head, the
next step was the colonization of Eon. Admiral Lay and Rear Admiral
Shaw ordered a group of forty men and women from Alpha-6 to board
the
Phoenix
. During the application of those orders, the
spec ops team received some R and R. Day, however, enjoyed manually
flying the ship to pick up the colonists rather than allow it an
autopilot run.

In a roundabout way, the captain had been
granted his wish. He was proud to subsequently travel to the
Alpha-2, 3, and 4 colonies. At each location, another forty men and
women were given orders to board for colonial initiation. Shortly
thereafter, a military base was erected, and many more men and
women traveled to Eon.

A couple of years were required to build a
real city, but by the time it was established, men and women from
Earth itself were set to undergo a sojourn for the final frontier.
It seemed as though the missions of the
Phoenix
were coming
to a halt. It was only logical that O’Hara and his crew take a
larger vessel all the way to Century colony.

Century was a settlement approximately
halfway between Eon and Earth. There, the captain figured his
future was rendezvousing with a second ship coming from Earth.
Somehow, the thought of traveling aboard a vessel for a ten plus
year, round trip was unsettling. Although he wanted more time in
space, he didn’t want to bus passengers around the colonies.

Chapter Four

“
Holy cow, holy, freaking cow!” Swain
was going bonkers. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God.” He was
screaming and running through the corridors of the
Phoenix
.
“Captain!”

O’Hara poked his head from crew quarters,
expecting the worst. “What!? What happened?”

Catching his breath, Swain replied, “Captain,
the markings on the beacons, they’re not referring to a sixth
beacon. There is a sixth beacon. I think—” He was shaking his head
and moving his hands and arms a great deal when O’Hara cut him
off.

“
Slow down, Swain.”

He shook his head in excitement, when his
eyes bugged out, causing O’Hara to chuckle; the whole display was
rather out of character, but what he had to say was even crazier
than the hysterics. “Listen, Cap, I got this all figured out,” his
composure slowly returned, “if the frequency output of each beacon
is recalibrated to one eighth of the prior, then it’ll created an
octave, like musical notes. The five octaves should resonate and
act like a giant beacon. It’s the same effect as planetary
harmonics.”

O’Hara was trying to follow. “Plana-who-what?
What does the frequency do?”

“
Just listen! We’ll use one of the
original frequencies the beacons were giving off when we found
them, see? Then, together, they act like a single beacon; that’s
the sixth beacon that the panels refer to.”

The captain was pensive. “Wait, what’s going
to happen if we do this? I mean, what’s the point of activating
these things? Besides, I thought the original frequencies were
disrupting the electrical components of our equipment.”

“
Hold on to your horses; we can relay a
message through their satellites, and let them know we found their
beacons. As far as the magnetic output, we can set them up in a
safe zone on Eon away from the
Phoenix
.”

“
Let who know?”

“
The aliens, Captain!”

“
Get outta’ here. You think they’re
still around after four, thousand years? Are their satellites even
still around? Where are they?”

“
Look…honestly? I don’t know, but we
have a chance, here. For all we know, they’re out there just hoping
someone makes contact,” Swain was practically pleading.

O’Hara rebutted, “If they’re out there, which
I doubt, do we really want to tell them; hey listen, we just
removed your beacons, recalibrated them, and now we’re colonizing
your planet.” Scrunching his face, Swain paused for thought, when
O’Hara jabbed his point further. “Besides, we won’t be able to go
to Presh, and just say; hey listen, we’re going to take your
beacons, recalibrate them, and colonize your space station.”

They exchanged glances. The big man was
incredulous, but then O’Hara’s last statement had been in fun, if
with a serious point.

“
Listen, this is important, Captain.
I’m sure I know what I’m talking about. Other than discovering
alien tech, we could make first contact...first contact,” Swain
breathed.

O’Hara mulled it over. “I...will talk to the
admiral and see what I can do, but just be ready for disappointment
because we’re likely going to go pick up Earth civilians from
Century colony.”

“
Fair enough,” Swain frowned with
content resignation. “If anyone can sway the admiral, it’s
you.”

“
I guess….”

“
I can’t wait, Captain,” Swain replied
and grinned.

He patted O’Hara on the shoulder then ran
off. The captain shook his head in disbelief before getting a jump
on his morning routine. After finishing his business in the
bathroom, he gathered himself to prepare a speech to convince
Admiral Lay.

He was already disenchanted with the
possibility of a ten year trip and decided to launch that as his
starting argument. That, coupled with the vote of his entire crew,
added some weight to his case. He knew them well enough, but also
respected them, and decided to ask for a vote. Naturally, they all
backed Swain, who by then, had already made his case, so O’Hara
went to his personal computer and sent an urgent message to Admiral
Lay, requesting immediate response.

No sooner had he sent the message, when he
received a response, or a simple inquiry:
What’s
bothering you, Captain?

In response, he asked for a second meeting to
discuss his crew’s disposition. The two went back and forth for a
moment, and eventually settled for a meeting on Eon. Surprised that
Lay was even willing to discuss the matter, he made for the bridge,
where the crew received him with a salute.

“
Roberts, plot a course for Eon. I meet
with Admiral Lay.”

“
Right, Captain,” she replied and
punched in the coordinates. “When you’re ready, Miss
Day.”

Day smiled and nodded. She then opened a
comm. link to the Alpha-3 station where they were currently docked.
“Alpha-3, this is Sara Day, we are ready to depart from docking
station 6.”

“
Ehhh, rrroger that, Miss Day. We are
releasing the
Phoenix
. Overrr, and Out,” the voice over the
speaker replied.

Seconds after a subtle shift in pressure
wavered throughout the vessel, it vaulted away from the colony. Day
set her to autopilot. It was a bit of a trip to Eon from Alpha-3,
but after three days at minimal speed, the
Phoenix
pierced
the atmosphere of the purple and green planet once more. During the
three days of down time, O’Hara nearly went out of his mind with
anticipation. Fortunately, Swain and the others were there to
bolster his confidence, lend their emotional support, and lead him
to believe that there was no way the old man was going deny them
such an opportunity.