Beyond the End of the World, Lokians 1

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Franklin spotted a scout scuttling off with an object in tow. He moved quickly, but it burst as he reached out. Blinking from surprise, he turned to see Fitzpatrick. She winked.

"I-I couldn't," the captain stammered. Day walked over to his side and placed a shaky hand on his wrist. "We lost Becker and Imes. I couldn't do anything to save them." She just looked at him. His heart was heavy. Guilt tightened his throat, and tears stung his eyes. "Nandy, Zak, make sure everyone's okay." O'Hara slowly walked away.

Korit approached then. "This is what Lokians provide, fear and bloodshed. There is nothing simple or beautiful about war. Your friends fought well and did their best to keep each other alive. One can ask no more. They died in battle. That is good for a warrior. At least that is what we are taught."

A welling of emotions accosted the Human. He narrowed his eyes. Anger flooded him.

"We came here to help you on your mission."

"These monsters will not stop. Now, you have seen them. We have fought them many times. We are not the only ones who need the travelers' help. Soon, your kind will, too," Korit replied, harshly. "Otherwise, what you have lived through today will be experienced by all of your kind."

"These travelers aren't even here," O'Hara yelled.

"We haven't explored the whole planet!"

"Captain," Franklin intervened. "The Lokians did come here. There must be something to it."

Adams added, "Either there's a clue around here, or the Lokians wanted to kill the travelers, and if they can do that then imagine what they can do to mankind."

"I...I'm not convinced," O'Hara said, looking to the ground. He wasn't sure he believed his own statement, but he was confused, frightened, angry, and sad. "What if they're not here? What if there are no more travelers?"

"Listen, Captain, I may be out of line, Sir, but," Swain mumbled, "we're already here. We agreed to do this, and Admiral Lay chose you to take over. We, I still believe...."

O'Hara scrutinized his compatriot; he was angry at the situation not the people around him. "This just isn't what I expected. We weren't trained for this."

"Tsh, how could we be? No one saw this comin', Sir," Martinez replied after dusting himself off.

Fitzpatrick and DeReaux emerged from their post to join up with the surviving members. "Captain...we should wrap it up," DeReaux advised.

O'Hara nodded. Some of the others, the Thewls, mostly, sorted through the rubble and whatever few intact buildings remained. Their inevitable conclusion was that the travelers had packed up and left. Either they simply moved to another area on the planet, or they left completely.

"Korit. Open a line to the ambassador, please," O'Hara said.

He nodded and set his comm. for the correct channel. "Whenever you're ready, Captain."

"Tell him we've cleaned out the Lokians, that there isn't much here, and that I'm sorry we couldn't do more, but I...."

After the Thewl relayed the information, he gave the ambassador's reply. "He says he understands. This is the way things go when dealing with Lokians anyway. He's putting the admiral on now." Another moment of silence ensued between O'Hara and Korit. Others were talking about the items the agents had recovered. "Yew wants to know if anything at all turned up. I told him there might be something."

"Tell him we're returning," Franklin said. "We need to reorganize, and we have these."

He held the items up. O'Hara agreed a return was the best option.