Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (3 page)

“
Swell,” he responded, nodding ever so
slightly. “Mickelson, are you ready to proceed?”

The wreck of a man was more a rock than a
man, really. He loved geology, and it took precedence over
everything else, which included both his appearance and hygiene.
His long, scraggly hair hung loosely on his head, and his thick
mustache and goatee were always in need of a trim. He picked his
pack off the ground, grimaced, and pushed his glasses back onto his
face.

“
I guess,” he replied with a smile,
revealing yellow teeth.

While the remaining crew set up mobile camp,
DeReaux, Fitzpatrick, and Mickelson hiked in cadence for about
twenty minutes. Soon, they saw a few, downed rovers in the
distance. They knew they were close. Mickelson produced a Geiger
counter. He turned it on, creating an obnoxious, clicking
sound.

“
What’s the readout, Mick?” Fitzpatrick
asked.

“
Oh, nothing out of the ordinary,” he
replied as he squinted through his spectacles.

Suddenly, the counter ceased all noise.
Fitzpatrick looked for an area to post up, but stopped to look at
Mickelson when he hemmed and hawed. Pensively, he pace backwards,
and the counter resumed clicking. “I think we should leave this
here. I can grab some samples just outside the dig site and bring
them back for rad check,” he said, pushing his glasses back onto
his face.

“
Won’t you get sick if it is radiated?”
DeReaux asked as he crinkled his nose.

“
I’ll just be in a sec. I’m sure it’ll
be okay.”

DeReaux and Fitzpatrick glanced at each
other.

Chapter Two

Whistles and tweets sounded all around.
Creatures in the sky spread their wings to cut circles over base
camp. O’Hara had seen pictures of Eon’s fauna months prior, but
watching them in action held some nostalgic majesty.

A commotion drew his attention; Swain was
setting up the Lithium capacitor and chastising Marty for not
paying attention to what he was doing. The captain’s comm. unit
dinged then. It not only displayed 15:00, but the red, flashing
light indicated someone was contacting him, so he pressed a button
to relay directly to his earpiece.

“
O’Hara,” he replied
hastily.

“
Hey, Captain, what’s it like? I’m
looking through the screen. It looks wonderful,” Day’s voice was
cheery and awed. “We’re all dying to get out there….”

“
I don’t know how to describe it. It
really is gorgeous, but you’ll all get your chance soon, I’m sure.”
At that time, O’Hara turned to Martinez, who was dragging out green
tarps for cover. “Marty, set those up over there, Swain forget the
equipment for a moment, and make sure we set up cover first. I have
to disconnect, Day.”

“
Roger.”

Swain and Martinez nudged the scientists out
of their way. The geeks were so caught up in getting their gear
ready for tests, they had no clue what was going on around them.
Less than an hour later, the soldiers had posts in the ground, and
three, makeshift tents set up. Done with chores, Imes glanced over
at Becker. He ran fingers through his thick, spiky, hair as he
approached her. She was trying to get a crate on a dolly.

“
I’ll lift it, you slide it under,” he
said without making eye contact.

“
I can do this,” she
snapped.

Imes sighed while tilting the crate towards
himself. He stood there, glaring at her. She didn’t so much as
glance back, but she deftly slid the dolly underneath the crate.
She then hauled it over the bumpy terrain, where the nerds huddled
around it. Finally, they began removing more supplies; small,
foldable tables, chairs, computers, and scanning devices.

The plan was to study the soil samples
Mickelson was recovering. It was going to be an all night process
involving composition studies, checking for radiation, magnetism,
and carbon dating. The sophisticated equipment was very costly; the
scientists had definitely dipped into Phoenix Crew’s budget, but
everyone from civilians to government fat cats were stoked to start
colonization on an actual planet; the entire sci-fi industry was
based on those kinds of adventures.

A moment later, Nandesrikahl approached the
captain. O’Hara held his hand over his brow, staring at the twin
orbs. Their light was not so powerful as to prevent one from
directly observing their beauty.

“
Captain,” he asked.

“
Nandy,” O’Hara said and turned to
him.

He scrutinized his subordinate for a quick
moment. Nandesrikahl was a tall, lanky, gentleman, but athletic and
very bright. A smile played on his dark complexion.

“’
Ow long do you think it’ll take them?
To return, I mean,” he inquired.

“
Shouldn’t take too long. We’ll be all
set up by the time they get back, though. Why don’t you round
everyone up and take a look around?”

“
Sir,” Nandesrikahl replied with a
salute.

****

Back at the dig site, the recovery team stood
outside the danger zone. Furtive glances went around. Mickelson
pushed his glasses back onto his face. He gave the soldiers a
puzzled look. DeReaux didn’t pay him much attention, but
Fitzpatrick arched a brow.

“
Are you going, or what?” she
sniped.

“
Uh, I guess,” the scientist replied,
meekly.

DeReaux chuckled, and said, “A minute ago you
weren’t even worried.”

The scientist smiled, shrugged in resignation
then sauntered over to the site proper in order to get his samples.
There was a slight incline to the southwest of that area.
Fitzpatrick thought it provided a better perspective. She elbowed
DeReaux and pointed with her face. He nodded accordingly. In no
time, they were posted up. The sniper was keeping an eye on
Mickelson through his rifle scope, Fitzpatrick observed through
binos.

They watched the weird geologist amble off
towards the perfect, dusty circle. Fricasseed machines were strewn
about the area, probes and rovers, mostly. Finally, Mickelson took
off his pack and sat down. Fitzpatrick was no longer able to watch
him; the visual stimuli overwhelmed her.

Wind blew the foliage of small, golden trees,
and the orange light of the suns was rather dim. The purple sky
overhead made it difficult to distinguish shapes. Swooning shadows
mixed into swirling colors. She closed her eyes for a moment,
inhaled and opened them again. With an exhale to calm herself, she
was ready.

Mickelson had already opened his pack. After
removing a small spade and a mason jar, he collected a scoop of
dirt, closed the jar, put everything in his pack, and looked back
to his two escorts. He smiled then pushed his glasses back onto his
face, before waving.

“
Get out of the radiation,” DeReaux
howled at him.

“
What is wrong with that man?”
Fitzpatrick laughed.

Once they regrouped, they marched back to the
Geiger counter, where Mickelson took readings. Awkwardly, the
geologist stood for a moment, holding the counter over the dirt
pile; he was one of those guys that just didn’t know how to use his
body. He leaned one way, bent the other, and everything came up
clean.

“
Excellent,” DeReaux replied,
nonchalantly, “A return trip is in order then.”

With that, they commenced a speedy jog
directly to the circle of dirt. The Geiger counter had again been
left behind due to magnetic interference. That time, the dirt was
scooped by digging down a foot beyond the topsoil. Mickelson wanted
to get as far below as his tools allowed. Once the boring ordeal
ended, they made back for camp, stopping only to pick up the
counter along the way.

When they arrived, they found everyone was
either eating or tinkering with equipment, except O’Hara, who
seemed to just be standing there. Mickelson approached him from the
side. He was so nervous, he didn’t know what to do.

“
Uh, Captain,” he eventually whispered.
O’Hara turned to face him. Mickelson scratched his lip anxiously
before speaking again “Um, Captain,” he said as he pushed his
glasses back onto his face, “We’ve collected two samples directly
from the center of the dig site. They’re clean.”

“
Good, good. What’s next
then?”

Smearing dirt on his forehead, Mickelson
replied, “I’ll run tests on the samples. Decipher the composition
and pH of the soil. I’ll carbon scan for age. We should know
everything there is to know within twelve hours.”

The geologist lumbered off to his storage
trunk, where he prepared all his equipment. O’Hara gently shook his
head, wondering if he had even realized how filthy he was.
He
smelled like camel butt, too,
he thought. Tests ran for the
better part of the night. Swain, Phoenix Crew’s own, resident nerd,
and the remaining scientists flocked around Mickelson to help with
whatever he needed. Nandesrikahl and Zakowski were taking pictures
of the area while Martinez shot vids on a digital recorder to send
back to Alpha-6.

“
Zak, make sure you get some pics of
the tests,” O’Hara ordered.

“
Sure, of course, Captain,” he said
snapping a salute.

Chief Warrant Officer Zakowski was a slight
man of Jewish descent. His curly, brown hair was thinning in the
front and a little in the back. Zakowski never had dirt under his
nails or food in his teeth, and the crew had a running joke that he
never did manual labor or gotten dirty a day in his life, but he
was there for a reason; everyone entrusted their lives to him. He
was a fantastic medic. Between him and Ensign Nandesrikahl, no one
had reason to worry, not even on a foreign world.

For the most part, the entire crew had been
in the same classes and graduated around the same time; Day was a
little younger, Swain was a little older, but the rest were all
between twenty four and twenty six and had been under the command
of then Captain, now Rear Admiral, Shaw, until two years ago, when
O’Hara was promoted to captain, thus taking over the squad. Since
O’Hara’s promotion, they gathered data, prepping for manually
surveying Eon. While they were all organized to some degree, the
excitement of being on real terra firma was a bit overwhelming. The
captain, however, remained unfazed. The man was all business
outwardly.

Certainly, he let the crew have their fun,
but he had to remain alert. It was his first, real mission, and
nothing was going to screw it up. He checked the time, it was
closing on 17:00 hours, but the light of Eon hadn’t changed since
their arrival. He smiled to himself and planned to eat, check his
equipment, maybe do a little number two, and then get some R and R.
The rest of the gang had similar plans except they had four hour
shifts in which two at a time kept an eye on the scientists. Swain
offered to take first shift. His calculating mind was overly
intrigued by the tests.

“
Zak, take first with me,” Swain
asked.

“
Get outta’ here,” Zak smiled. “What
you really mean is do I want to take first on my own,
right?”

“
Figured me out, huh?
Appreciated.”

The pseudo night progressed with no problems.
Zakowski did his tour then went to rest after being replaced by
Becker. Imes had planned to relieve Swain, but was refused; Swain
really wanted to observe the testing procedures. Imes thought it
best to keep Becker company anyway. If he didn’t, the captain was
going to tear him a new one, so he nabbed his pack, slid it over
his shoulders, and started doing squats.

Becker glanced at him. He was making sure she
was watching. Those two didn’t always get along, but they knew how
to follow orders, and they were friendly enough, for the most part,
but had some personal issues.

Clarice Becker was a gorgeous woman with a
venomous personality. They secretly referred to her as the pit
viper. Only Imes had been brave enough to call her that to her
face. She broke his nose in reply, not that it stopped him. Samuel
Imes, on the other hand, was another tech expert like Swain, only
more of a jock. He was less experienced in the tech field than
Swain, but he excelled in close quarters combat. He was also an
expert at moving under cover, so he loved the twilight of Eon.

After three sets of fifty squats, Imes
dropped the pack and started to stretch his hamstrings. Again, he
checked to make sure Becker was looking. She was trying not to. He
eventually took a seat on the ground, propping his back against an
empty crate. Becker sat on the crate behind him, facing away. Her
long, dark, hair was neatly pulled back in a ponytail.

“
What do you think,” Imes asked,
nonchalantly.

“
About?”

“
The mission, this place, what the
future holds if we colonize,” Imes replied and shrugged to
himself.

“
It’s whatever,” she answered,
coldly.

She secretly believed he was asking what she
thought of his butt, which wasn’t bad. Imes let out a long and loud
sigh. He turned to look over his shoulder at the ice princess. She
was a voluptuous sight, but she was a bitch.

“
It kills you, doesn’t it? To open up
just a little, you would die,” he yelled. “A smile would shatter
that face like fine china.”

“
Probably,” she snipped. “Yes. It would
kill me.”

They glared at each other for a moment. Then,
they both exploded into laughter. It was his physical prowess,
which attracted Becker a few years ago, but it was her personality
that eventually put him off. Regardless, there was history there,
and both knew the other was still interested. They just didn’t work
was all.