Beyond the End of the World, Lokians 1

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

While the queen was busy with an endless loop of nonsense, the crew took a moment they desperately needed to step out of the airlock. All eight men and women stared aghast at an enormous hangar, which although alighted by amber luminescence, seemed to span on indefinitely. The airlock then shut behind them with an echo.

"Fuuuck," Fitzpatrick breathed.

"Yeah. Just as a heads up, we might not be able to get back on board after we're done," O'Hara said as he ran his hand over a bulbous, barrier of chitin.

While there was no gravity, there was an external pressure pounding the crew from every direction. It allowed them to walk with little difficulty, though it was disorienting.

"Hmm, like being underwater," Swain commented.

Adams and Franklin carried the charges on their backs while Day and DeReaux took the rear. The captain eyed his photon rifle, silently wishing its firepower was sufficient.

"Hold up, guys," Fitzpatrick whispered.

She closed her eyes, mentally scanning their surroundings. Her deep and regulated breaths sounded into everyone's earpiece. As she focused, she saw what everyone else did, a dimly lit, interminable, empty space. The walls were exoskeleton, and the framework was a bony white. Mesh-like tubes lined the ceiling, pulsating subtle radiance.

Fitzpatrick then moved in her bodiless state. The hangar was filled with unknown boxes and canisters. They, too, were insect-like in their appearance with exo-skeletal bands.

Returning to a normal state, she heaved, "Okay, I don't see any threats."

The rest of the crew was able to check the comm. units for directions. The course had been uploaded to their wrist apparatuses when the captain first pieced together the plan.

"Move forwards, hugging the wall to our left for three hundred yards. Then, take the first hall on the left," O'Hara ordered.

He and Swain took the lead with Fitzpatrick flanking their right. They moved quickly, boots clanking over the hard ground. The sounds were somehow distorted, elongated. O'Hara came to a halt as he peered down the hall.

"Fitzpatrick," he asked.

Following a scan, she said they were clear. O'Hara motioned with his hand to move. Down the juncture, the corridor narrowed, forcing them into a crouched position. O'Hara checked his map display.

"About another two hundred feet forwards. Then, drop down a twenty foot pipe."

He looked over to Fitzpatrick who nodded. She proceeded to use her skill to move through the floor beneath them. There, she saw another corridor running parallel to the one they were in.

"Clear."

The adrenaline was coursing through their bodies. They grit their teeth, clenched their jaws, and stared into the darkness with wide eyes before duck walking to the dropdown. When O'Hara landed, he looked forwards and backwards.

"Clear," he grunted. One-by-one, they all dropped down. "Next, we move in the opposite direction forty feet to a small compartment." It slowly dawned on him that the home world was a living beast and the queen was part of it. Maybe, the heart or brain, O'Hara thought. "Move out."

At the end of the hike, they reached a hatch with a spiraling pattern of chitin. O'Hara and Swain stood on opposite ends. Fitzpatrick went to open it, but there were no handles. Adams told her to touch it. When it spun open, they filed in at angles while DeReaux covered their center. Beams of light crisscrossed as they took their posts.