Ancient Relics (Shadow of the Ancients Book 1) (18 page)

The pilot tells Logan, “You found the temple. This
is sacred space. You cannot enter it and you cannot destroy it. It protects
itself. There is no fighting here. Peace is held in its presence
unconditionally.”

“You catch that Commander?” Logan asks over the
comms to Commander Asim.

“Roger that, Doctor. Loud and clear,” the Commander
confirms.

“So, why are you here? What are you going to do now
that your ships have left you stranded here?” Zoey asks the Drak dignitary.

The Drak pilot offers little in response, other
than, “I will remain. It is my duty in life.”

Sophie walks over to the Drak, as if she understood
everything he said, throws her arm around him, and walks over to Zoey with the
Drak pilot in embrace.

“I will take care of this one,” Sophie tells the
group, “This one is also special.”

Sophie looks over to the strange structure, and
without motion or word, a door mysteriously appears, leading into the
structure.

As Sophie walks-in with the Drak pilot, she turns to
Zoey and says, “Do not be long young one.”

Zoey turns to Logan and hugs him. She tells him,
“Tell everyone I said goodbye. I will see them again soon, but not likely when
you might expect it.”

“More cryptic messages? I wouldn’t have expected
that from you, my dear,” Logan responds to Zoey’s goodbye attempt.

Zoey smiles and gives Logan a wink, then turns and
runs into the crystalline structure.

As soon as Zoey enters through the structure's
doorway, the door closes and the entire structure disappears before their eyes.

Logan waves his hand out where the structure once
stood, as if to see if it just turned invisible, but nothing remains, not even
a footprint of the structure.

He then calls to The Wayfarer again, “Commander, the
structure, the Drak, Sophie, and Zoey have all just vanished into thin air.”

“Say again Doctor? It sounded like you said they
vanished into thin air?” the Command attempts to clarify Logan’s message.

“That’s correct, Sir. They remain on this planet no
more. Gone… poof,” Logan asserts.

“Dear gods,” Commander Asim frets, “How the hell are
we going to explain this to command?”

Logan attempts to brighten the Commander’s spirits,
“Well, we’re not getting shot at, there’s still more to explore down here, and
a message wouldn’t likely get back to home for a while anyway. Let’s take our
licking and put ourselves back together before worrying about anything else for
a while.”

“Maybe you’re right Doctor. I think we should do
just that,” Commander Asim responds to Logan’s suggestion.

The Wayfarer remained in orbit around the black hole
of the Trilli system for nearly a year. Their science teams explored the
planet, repaired the Wayfarer, buried their dead, and found a very large number
of artifacts on the planet.

The team gathered enough information from the system
to set course to other Ancient star systems that were previously unrecorded.

The Wayfarer remains trapped on the far side of the
galaxy, but there is still more galaxy to explore. Two whole quadrants of the
galaxy remain incomplete in the navigation charts.

At the end of the year, the Wayfarer begins its
preparation to set course away from the Trilli system.

Logan briefs the command crew on the science team’s
findings, in regards to new systems destinations.

“Possible locations to check out include the
Yolarba, Zass, Umricca, and Kazak systems,” Logan says as he pulls up files on
each system.

Logan explains why each system is of interest to the
group, one by one.

“Relics we've found this past year indicate the
planet we are at is, indeed, the planet Trilli,” he explains, “Trilli is an
Asein planetary system. It’s possible it may have been a capital world for
their civilization. Writings call these Ancient planets Terraces.”

Logan pulls up images and data files for the system
Kazak and continues on, “Some of the relics discovered here indicate that the
Kazak system is our best bet to find new and better leads.”

Commander Asim interrupts Logan’s briefing to ask,
“This file looks as though it describes a network of some sorts. Can you expand
on that Doctor?”

Logan stops his briefing on exploration points to
digress to the Commander’s question.

“Yes Sir,” Logan replies, “Apparently, the Aseins
had some sort of gate network that utilized worm-hole technology for instant
transport between star systems.”

Logan pulls up a file to display as he continues his
explanation, “These primary systems located at these points are core systems,
or as I stated before, Terraces. The gate network allowed travel only between
these systems and a location known as ‘The Hub’. But we have little more than
that.”

“I see,” Commander Asim says to Logan.

One of the science officers asks, “So why is Kazak
so interesting. Why don’t we follow this gate network lead?”

Logan pulls open the previous file on the Kazak
system and continues his original briefing, “Some of these relics we have found
indicate that Kazak was a rear-detachment for their military. It housed a
secondary gate system, unknown to their enemies. If this system is still
intact, we might be able to harness the gate technology of the Ancients. As it
is, it takes us days to months to travel from one side of the galaxy to the
other. If this is what I think it is, this technology could cut our travel time
down to instant.”

Another officer inquires about the new name for the
Ancients that Logan keeps using, “Who are these 'Aseins' you keep mentioning?”

Logan refers back to their encounter with Sophie and
explains, “As we learned from the one called Sophie, the Asein people, the
builders of this advanced technology, are the Ancients from our myths and
legends. They are apparently an extremely old race. They say they predate time
itself, but that may just be that they are so old, they did not understand the
concept of time for a very long time. It seems this race has a very long life
expectancy. Some of the records found name individual Aseins, and list them as
having been born millions of years ago, and may still even be alive today. Now,
we just have to find them.”

With those final words, Commander Asim cuts Logan
short and orders, “So, it looks like we have a destination in mind. Make
preparations to get underway immediately.”

Over the past year, the explorers on the surface
built semi-permanent shelters to live out of during excavation of the ruins on the
planet. In anticipation they will one day leave, they built the houses to
remain for months after they, planning to leave the captured Drak fighter
pilots behind.

With enough food rations and power to help them
survive for several months without resupply, the Drak pilots have a chance at
rescue by their people.

The Commander hopes that when their captives are
rescued, that they will inform their superiors of their humane treatment and of
the Drak dignitary that departed with Sophie. This should open-up an
opportunity for dialog with the Drak Empire and help to end the war before
major fighting erupts.

Over the coarse of the next few months, after making
plans to leave for Kazak, the crew of The Wayfarer begin training on how to
deal with the Prozastrians, as the system lies on the edge of Prozastrian
space.

Now that it's time to depart Trilli, the Commander
informs the crew of the journey ahead.

Commander Asim opens a channel ship wide, “Attention
all personnel. We’ve been out here a while. I know many of you wish to get back
home, but that’s not a possibility at the moment. The war apparently does not
extend to this side of the galaxy, so we are safe for now. Our mission remains
intact, however, and we must continue-on to find answers for the things we have
all witnessed this past year. So now, prepare to get underway. All hands, stand
down from Red Alert.”

After Commander Asim closes the ship wide channel,
he gives his orders to the helmsman, “Set course to the Kazak system. Jump when
ready.”

Moments later, the Wayfarer jumped to the next lead
in their mystery. In a flash of light, the Wayfarer leaves the Trilli system in
pursuit of knowledge and technology in the Kazak system.

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