Ancient Relics (Shadow of the Ancients Book 1) (8 page)

With Orsen II’s desiccated state, ground search is
all but impossible. The majority of the research team assigned to Logan remains
aboard The Wayfarer to conduct geologic surveys of the surface to identify
possible locations of ruins.

After many hours of scanning and fruitless flyovers
of potential spots, Logan calls to The Wayfarer to inform them that preparation
is underway to build a camp for the night.

The ground team sets up pressurized habitation pods
and support equipment.

As the team on the surface readies for bed, a call
comes from the science team aboard the ship.

“Wayfarer to away team, readings show a
high-resolution signature in zone Charlie-Four,” the voice of one of the
researchers calls out on Logan’s communication device.

Logan reaches over from his seat to a makeshift
night table made from a packing crate to grab the device and respond back.

Pressing the channel lock button to initiate two-way
communication, Logan responds to the researcher, “Understood Wayfarer, search
zone Charlie-Four.”

The Wayfarer signals back to indicate reception of
confirmation, “Roger, copy reception of transmission. Wayfarer out.”

Placing his communicator back on the box it
originally laid, Logan lies down in his cot and pulls the sleeping bag over his
head and settles-in for the night.

At dawn, Paige awakens Logan from a hard, deep
slumber, “Rise and shine, sleepy head.”

Logan grumbles to himself as he groggily starts to
wake.

He removes the sleeping bag from over his head and
with heavy eyelids looks to the objectionable early morning voice to show signs
of life and awareness.

Paige steps into Logan’s pod, and hands him a
freshly brewed cup of Cava and says, “No excuses from you. We have a long day
ahead of us.”

Logan smirks at the thoughtful gesture of providing
his morning vice, and then remembers the last evening’s transmission.

Logan thinks for a minute, trying to remember the
grid location pointed-out to him while taking a sip from his cup.

“Last night the crew up top sent word of a new
search grid. They received a high-resolution signature from zone Charlie-Four.
We should start there,” Logan relays to Paige.

Paige pulls out her DataCom and plots the new grid.

“Zone Charlie-Four,” she repeats slightly under her
breath as she enters the information into her DataCom pad.

“Got it. I’ll let the others know. We’ll begin
loading the data into the drones and have them start scouting,” she says while
heading out the door.

With her marching orders for the morning in hand,
Paige heads off to the operations pod.

The operations pod, called the Ops Center, is a pod
larger than most of the other pods.

Its use is to coordinate operations and transmit
communications to teams outside of the habitation modules.

Like a mini-headquarters, soldiers or explorers can
use the Ops Center for command and control for tactical military operations, or
non- military operations such as the exploration of planets.

When Paige enters the Ops Center, the crew is
already diligently working.

Paige walks over to the operations sergeant and
begins uploading the new coordinates for the first search of the day.

As she sends the data file, Paige explains the
update to the sergeant, “This came in to Logan last night. It’s a new search
coordinate they believe is very promising.”

The ops sergeant glances briefly at the data file
before loading it to the explorations drones, acknowledges the information, and
then uploads the data file to the drones.

Drones come in a variety of forms.

Specially designed for exploration of rough and
dangerous terrain, these drones come equipped with sensitive sensor packages
used to penetrate surface material down to 1,000 meters.

Exploration drones will locate a loaded coordinate,
begin scanning down into the ground for natural or unnatural formations, create
a 3- dimensional image for review, and send the data to an operator to review.

After the data is loaded onto the drones, the ops
sergeant launches the drones for their mission.

“Drones are out,” the operations sergeant announces
to the Ops Center.

As the drones make their way to the designated
search area, the team begins initializing and testing the sensor suite on the
drones.

The process not only tests the drones as they are in
route, but also scans the path the drones take to the programmed coordinates to
create a detailed map of the area while in transit.

“All sensors operating within normal parameters,”
one of the crew calls out.

A blip on the radar of one of the three pairs of
drones launched plots a small metallic signature for just a few seconds.

“Did you see that?” Paige asks aloud to the ops
crew.

The ops sergeant quickly scans through the readings.

After searching for a few more seconds, he looks
over to Paige and asks, “See what?”

Paige pulls-up the radar readings on her DataCom,
finds the signature, and shows the DataCom to the ops sergeant.

Pointing out the signature, Paige replies, “This
signature here showed up very briefly. Can we identify it?”

The ops sergeant sends a protocol change to one of
the three pairs drones to investigate the signature while the other two remain
on task.

The reprogrammed drone circles-back to the radar
signature’s location and begins a more detailed sweep of the area.

The signature pops back-up on radar and the
intrigued team starts to formulate possible explanations as to what the object
could be.

“Maybe it’s a natural rock formation or meteorite,”
one of the crew-members suggests.

“It’s too large and sitting evenly on the surface,”
Paige responds to the suggestion.

The ops sergeant gestures to the telemetry station
operator to show a visual reading of the object.

The telemetry operator sends a signal to the drone
to begin manual operation of the camera system and initiates a live feed.

As the crew looks at the image on the screen, one of
them asks, “Is that a ship?”

Just as the crew starts into a series of unorganized
speculations as to why a ship is on the surface of a barren and dead planet,
Logan walks into the Ops Center.

“Did someone say they found a ship?” Logan asks the
team.

Paige looks towards Logan and quickly walks over to
him with her DataCom pad in-hand, showing him the image and updating him on the
find.

Logan looks at the image and states, “This is a
modern ship. Someone else is on the planet.”

The ops sergeant speculates a series of possible
reasons why someone else would be on the planet.

Assuming the ship’s occupants are hostile, the ops
sergeant sends word back to The Wayfarer requesting permission to send a
security team to investigate.

Commander Asim responds back quickly with permission
to send one of the team's security patrols.

The ops sergeant opens a communication channel to
the security pod and gives the order, “Ops to Security, send MilSec-One to zone
Charlie-Two to investigate a possible hostile ship.”

“Roger Ops, sending MilSec-One to zone Charlie-Two
for possible contact,” the security office responds.

After the security team prepares to launch onto the
planet’s surface, ops sends them the exact coordinates.

Just as the security team launches, the other two
sets of drones arrive to zone Charlie-Four and begin scanning the ground for
the possible ruins.

“Analysis coming in from Charlie-Four,” the drone
operator announces.

Logan walks over to the drone operator’s station and
looks over her shoulder to the station monitor.

“Interesting… amazing… exquisite!” Logan randomly
exclaims for each sensor reading retrieved from the drones.

Paige, in her curiosity, quickly makes her way over
to Logan and the drone operator to see what is so ‘exquisite’ about the
readings.

Examining the readout, Paige slightly turns her head
to Logan without breaking eye contact with the screen and exclaims, “Oh my!”

Logan looks back to the ops sergeant and gives the
order to send a ground crew to the location for deep penetrating searches.

The ops sergeant replies back, “Area not secure. No
call-back from MilSec-One yet.”

“As soon as it is safe, send them,” Logan barks out
in excited anticipation as he runs out of the Ops Center to begin suiting up
for his run out to the site.

“Roger… sir,” the sergeant fails to acknowledge
before Logan makes it completely out of the room.

The sergeant looks at Paige, as if trying to find an
answer to the confusing behavior.

Paige sees the sergeants plight and shrugs her
shoulders indicating that any response would have been in vain while saying,
“Yeah, he does that when he’s excited.”

While Logan suits-up for his venture to the possible
ruin on Orsen II, the security team investigates an unknown ship that appears
to have recently landed on the planet’s surface not far from the ruins.

As the security team, led by Sergeant Liam
Mackenzie, nears the mysterious ship, the team hears sounds in the distance.
When they get closer, they identify the sound as voices.

Sergeant Mackenzie counts two voices, however the
team has yet to visually identify the speakers.

The source of the voices appears to emanate from
behind a large rock near the ship.

The team slowly and quietly sneaks to the rock in a
covert attempt to infiltrate the unknown occupants’ position and identify them
before engaging.

Successfully making their way to the rock without
detection, the security team spreads out behind the rock to cover both fields
of fire on either side of the large rock.

Sergeant Mackenzie lays down on the ground, into a
prone position, and quietly crawls around the rock until he can see the
speakers.

Upon visual contact, Sergeant Mackenzie clearly sees
two of the ships occupants standing near the ship, seemingly arguing about how
to conduct an action plan, and identifies one of the mystery crew-mates as a
female Ubasti.

The Ubasti are a humanoid race with feline
characteristics.

Essentially, they have the body of a humanoid and
the head of a feline. A thick layering of fur covers their bodies with varying
patterns and colors adorning their fur.

Their eyes have a small range of colors from tones
of green, yellow, and orange. Also, seen rarely, are blue eyes.

The pupils of their eyes are also feline like, with
large round pupils in low light conditions and slatted, or elongated, pupils in
bright light conditions.

As the two are in class II suits, complete visual
identification is impossible unless the suits have identification beacons,
called ID-Nodes, attached.

Listening to the two spacers for a moment the team
hears the conversation.

“If we stay here much longer, we will lose light and
have to wait until tomorrow to hit the site,” the Ubasti female argues.

The second individual also sounds female, but seems
to be one of several sub-races of human from throughout the galaxy.

The Doran race is very tall and thin, and the Dogan
race is short and stocky, this person appears to be neither, by displaying
traits not seen in one specific race.

Sergeant Mackenzie assumes she is likely of
Tharisian descent. However, she is unusually tall for a Tharisian, but not as
tall as a Doran.

Tharisians are humans from a world destroyed within
the Kishar Expanse long ago. The majority of the Tharisians in the galaxy are
citizens of the Trillian Alliance, though some associate with the Drak Empire.

The Doran people officially call the surviving race
as the Tharisian Descendants.

Among the three primary races of the Alliance are
sub-races of each race. With three sub-races each, the general characteristics
are passed along, with slight modifications to their genetic code resulting in
modified versions of the races.

It might be possible that the second female is one
of these mutant races.

The second woman steadfastly defends her
point-of-view, “With the camp only three kilometers away, and three sets of
drones patrolling the area, it is not a wise decision to begin an incursion
into the ruin just yet.”

The Ubasti female, who seems more and more like she
is barely older than juvenile age, throws her hands up and begins to storm-off
toward the docking plank of their ship.

Seeing an opportunity to capture the two for
questioning, Sergeant Mackenzie takes advantage of the situation and signals to
the team to move-in and arrest the two unidentified spacers.

The team quickly rushes in with weapons aimed at
both of the cwomen and the entrance to the ship, just in case there are more
occupants concealed within the ship.

Sergeant Mackenzie yells out to the two, “Hold your
positions. Don’t make any sudden movements!”

The Ubasti female lowers her head, facing the
ground, and snarls, “Damn it!”

The team encircles the two unknown females with
weapons trained on each.

Once the team secures the site outside the ship,
Sergeant Mackenzie motions to two of the security personnel to investigate the
ship for more personnel.

As the two security team members move to the door of
the ship, Sergeant Mackenzie asks the two women, “Is there any more of you in
the ship?”

The Tharisian looking woman looks at Sergeant
Mackenzie and responds with an emotionless 'matter of fact' tone acknowledges,
“No. We are the only two here.”

The security members tasked with entering the ship
look back to their sergeant for confirmation to enter.

Sergeant Mackenzie nods, indicating they have
permission to enter.

He then looks back to the two women and asks, “What
is your purpose and intent?”

Assuming her Tharisian counterpart will simply
answer every question asked, the Ubasti female barks out, “Don’t answer these
mongrels’ questions. They have just as little right to be here as we do.”

With that little tidbit of information, Sergeant
Mackenzie assumes they are on the planet for illegal intentions.

“So, your tomb raiders, huh?” Sergeant Mackenzie
asks with the context that he has figured them out in just a few words from
them.

Realizing she has just given up the big secret, the
Ubasti female shouts again, “DAAMMMN…. IT!”

The Tharisian female looks to her Ubasti teammate
and says in a most eloquent scolding, “If you wish to remain silent, do so.
However it is of our best interest to remain cooperative with these soldiers.”

Indicating his approval of the Tharisian woman’s
appraisal of the situation, Sergeant Mackenzie acknowledges, “Very true my
friend.”

With that note, the Ubasti woman surrenders to the
team’s upper-hand and states, “Fine, we surrender. You win. Now what?”

Just then, the two security members on the ship exit
it and announce that they detect no other life signs on the ship.

Sergeant Mackenzie considers his options for a
moment, and then radios back to the Ops Center to update the command team on
the situation.

“Ops, this is MilSec-One, bogey secure. Code
Five-Ninety-Four. Over,” Sergeant Mackenzie announces to the Ops Center.

The code five hundred ninety-four is indicative of
malicious mischief, as the pair has yet to loot relics from the ruins there.

Even on abandoned worlds, the Alliance still sees
relic looting as illegal and prosecutes pirates found in-possession of
undocumented and undeclared relics and artifacts.

The fact that the sergeant identified the two
would-be thieves with Code Five-Ninety-Four indicates to the pair that the
Alliance force will not prosecute the pair under Alliance Criminal Code for
relic looting.

The Ubasti sees this as a potential opening for
weaseling out of any other crimes.

She remains submissive and studies the situation
very carefully.

“So, what will you do with us,” the young Ubasti
woman asks, as to get a better understanding of possible outcomes.

The sergeant calls back to the Ops Center to inquire
further orders in relation to the situation, “Ops, this is MilSec-One. Request
further instructions, over.”

Ops responds back, “Hold one, MilSec-One. Sending
traffic to Wayfarer Actual. Out.”

Wayfarer Actual means the captain of the Wayfarer,
Commander Asim.

The message relays to Sergeant Mackenzie that the
pair’s fate now lies in the hands of the Commander.

After a few tense moments, Ops calls back with the
instructions for dealing with the relic hunters.

“MilSec-One, this is Ops. Transport captives to base
for extraction and questioning. Over,” the ops sergeant relays to Sergeant
Mackenzie.

Sergeant Mackenzie responds back to the new orders,
“Roger, Will-Co. Transporting two, sending MilSec-Six and MilSec-Seven to base
with vessel. Will proceed to Charlie-Four to secure site before Envoy arrival,
then will proceed back to base with subjects. Over.”

“Good copy MilSec-One. Ops out,” the Ops Center says
as they end the transmission.

Sergeant Mackenzie looks at the two, now prisoners,
and informs them, “Looks like you’re coming with us.”

The young Ubasti woman again drops her head down and
shakes it in shame for her capture.

She then says just above a whisper, “This is a
first. I could have been in and out already if I didn’t have this stray.”

Understanding that the Ubasti was referring to the
Tharisian woman, Sergeant Mackenzie asks, “So, you two don’t normally work
together, huh?”

The Ubasti woman then looks to the sergeant and
answers, “I prefer to work alone.”

“Good to know,” Sergeant Mackenzie hints at the fate
of the Tharisian woman.

With a surprised look on her face, the Ubasti darts
her eyes around at the group and shouts, “You don’t mean you’re going to lock
me up and let her go, are you?”

The sergeant looks at her and replies, “Not my
decision.”

Two security specialists place restraints on the
captives and lock them down to the carriage bed of the hovercraft. They then
regroup by the ship.

Sergeant Mackenzie looks toward the two prisoners,
then to the ship, and back to the security team.

“Looks like we have a new ship for spare parts,”
Sergeant Mackenzie jests, at the expense of the young Ubasti woman.

Pointing to members of the security team Sergeant
Mackenzie sends out orders, “Erum … Kush. Take the ship back to base. We’ll
have the flight crew transport the ship up to the Wayfarer. Everyone else,
let’s mount-up and secure the ruins for the excavation team.”

“Hoo-ah!” The team responds in unison.