Beyond the End of the World, Lokians 1

End

End

The captain glared at the enemy. Hundreds of fighters resembling beetles, hornets, and mechanical variations of insects glowed intermittently. Their weapons had powered on, and the Humans were done for.

Screaming from an abrupt change in pressure, everyone was sent reeling towards the enemy, but they were sucked out into a void of all colors. Whatever was happening left Phoenix Crew totally bewildered. Before anyone had the time to venture a guess, they, too, were sucked by a vacuum. Walls, floors, Lokians, men, colors, a cat; all manners of images flashed before eyes, and then there was a stillness coupled with soft, white lights.

"Good to have you back, Captain," a familiar voice said.

O'Hara sat up, incredulous. "Korit! What's going on?"

"No time! Just hold on."

O'Hara's men were beside him, safely sealed in by the airlock. Jostling impacts rumbled throughout the traveler's vessel, but it soon stabilized. Korit helped everyone up, and led them to sickbay, Human and Thewlian doctors started medical observations. O'Hara pushed someone in a lab coat away. He called for Korit, but the alien wasn't there. After a doctor stripped him of his armor, he was sedated.

****

He awoke in a hospital tent. From the opened flap, he saw an orange glow. The air was crisp, so he rolled off a gurney, and stumbled out to see remnants of Horizon. Something was wrong. He didn't see the Phoenix or Mittins, but there were some shuttles. All of the buildings were dark, too; no lights shone through windows.

"Captain O'Hara," a Thewl called.

He turned to see Korit. "What the Hell is going on? Where is everyone?"

"Everyone is...fine. They will recover."

Confusion swam through O'Hara's mind. He wasn't able to make heads or tails of his surroundings. He even wondered if he had died and was dreaming something incomprehensible, but that fell to pot when he saw Lay jog out from another tent. He shook a Thewl's hand, and the alien turned around to leave.

"Korit...how did you save us?"

"It's complicated. I think under normal circumstances you would have been lost to us, but something about defeating the Lokians changed the norm," Korit replied.

"What...what does that mean?"

The alien's eyes rolled around his head for a second. "The traveler rounded us up. He piloted the vessel...into subspace."

They looked at each other. O'Hara knew Korit was being truthful, but the alien almost sounded skeptical of his own rendition. It didn't make any sense.

"I thought he couldn't act directly. Besides, we weren't gone for very long," O'Hara argued. "And, to top it off, we captured a Lokian to enter subspace!"

"Technically, you captured a Lokian to learn of the location of their home world...I believe the Mutra can do that of its own accord, but that's not important. What is important is that to us, you were gone only an instant. Where you were...time, in our sense as revolutions around a sun, held no meaning. At any rate, the traveler told us...something. I don't understand it, but you killed the queen...everything is different now."

"Like what," O'Hara gasped.

"All I know is that the traveler found an opportunity. He...used it, so to speak, and helped us to save you."

"Something isn't right," O'Hara mumbled under his breath.

"Your admiral approaches."

The captain looked at Lay. The shadow caused by his hat's visor hid his eyes. O'Hara chewed his lip; he still felt discombobulated, but he hoped the admiral had some information.