Ancient Relics (Shadow of the Ancients Book 1) (6 page)

It is not a hospital ship this time, but the decor
of The Wayfarer, an Alliance exploration ship, does not improve upon the feel
of warmth a ‘home away from home’ should.

Bits and pieces of home brought along for the
journey provide little to liven-up the barren space the crew call quarters, but
enough to allow a moment of respite from the thought of being light years away
from true comfort.

The exploration ship’s quarters have few amenities,
but enough to make a home for long duration flights.

A living room, bedroom, shower room, and a small
nook for daily business matters are standard features for non-bridge officer
quarters.

Bridge officers receive a slightly more spacious
surrounding with additional creature comforts, such as a ration dispenser, an
in-quarters study, and large pane windows for peering out into space.

Logan settles into his assigned officer's quarters
by gently setting out nick-knacks, trinkets, and digital image displays that
periodically shift between images loaded onto the memory chip.

As he decorates his quarters, a buzz from the door’s
interface indicates that a visitor requests an audience.

“Enter,” Logan yells out, to activate the voice
activated auto-open feature of the entrance door.

Zoey, the compassionate and chipper combat medic,
walks into the room.

“Hey,” Logan greets Zoey with a sign of acceptance.

“What brings you to my ‘humble’ abode?” he says with
a hint of sarcasm.

Zoey gently walks towards Logan, looking around to
see how he began his adjustment process.

“Just checking in on you and your team, to see how
you’re settling in,” she answers back.

“Could use some wall coloring,” Logan jests,
bringing a sense of humor to disparity of the quarters decor.

Zoey laughs to show her understanding and support
for his homesick feeling.

“Ha ha ha. We could have crew mess here and start a
food fight. Might stink for a while, but it would definitely add some color.”

“The stench might well add some odor to this sterile
environment too,” Logan says with a chuckle at the idea.

Zoey walks around the room examining Logan’s
trinkets from home, as if gauging his adaptation to his new surroundings.

“Seems like you all are settling-in quite nicely,”
Zoey says while still checking out his choices for decorations.

Logan sets down a small statue he acquired on one of
his many digs, positioning it one way, then another, to choose the right look
desired.

“I figured I would set a few things out, then go to
the others and see how they’re coming along with their new homes,” Logan
remarks.

“Well, I can save you a trip if you want,” says
Zoey, seeing if Logan would rather stay for a bit longer to finish his own
setting.

“They all have finished unpacking and gone to mess.

They asked me to see if you were up for some food.”

Logan pauses a moment, then replies, “Sure. I guess
I can break away for a bit to grab a bite. They don’t have rations do they?”

Zoey chuckles and replies, “Well, I’ll just leave it
as a surprise.”

The two begin their walk down to the mess hall, the
moniker for cafeterias on ships and installations, when Logan adds, “Just as
long as the food tastes like food, anyway.”

As Zoey and Logan step into the mess hall, two of
Logan’s teammates hold up their heads and raise a hand to show where they have
chosen to sit.

“There they are,” gestures Logan to the group to
show he has seen them.

“Let’s grab a tray and take a seat,” Zoey suggests.

Looking across the rows of food, some items appear
despairingly similar to the rations found on the hospital ship, but some other,
more intriguing choices catch Logan’s eye.

“Hmm… A few things look pretty appetizing,” Logan
remarks, slightly showing amazement.

Taking a few servings of his prime choices, he sets
his tray out as though to display the choices like a menu image.

He grabs a cup and fills it with Cava juice, and
then makes his way to the rest of his fellow companions.

“So, how is chow?” Logan asks, while taking a seat
at the table.

“Well, the little green things that jiggle all over your
plate seems surprisingly tasty. A kind of tangy citrus aftertaste,” Tess notes.

Zoey humorously interjects, “You like that? Wait
until they serve it as a single mass you have to scoop up. We call it the
blob.”

Anticipating that the normal crew-members have
monikers for each menu item, another team member named Justine asks, “What do
you call this gooey brown stuff?”

“Glop,” Zoey replies plainly, without missing a
beat.

“Fitting,” Justine replies as she scoops up a spoon
full and lets it plop back down on her plate.

Zoey explains the reason for the menu choices the
ship galley provides, “Normal military ships have only rations. Similarly, the
hospital ships, which are not usually military, also serve rations.”

She continues on to explain that exploration ships
are long duration flights, so a little piece of home is required to improve
moral during the journey.

A balanced mix of rations and special courses made
of normal food items, to resemble more familiar menu choices, allow the ship to
serve meals that are both nutritious and comforting while keeping within the
bounds of rationing.

Kitchen staffers that normally cater to military
crews simply just throw stuff together without considering that the food is
supposed to resemble real food.

As Zoey goes on to explain the inner workings of the
kitchen to the group, a message over the intercom briefly breaks their
communion.

“All hands to battle stations! This is a drill! I
say again, This IS a drill!”

“Battle drills? Are we expecting more fighting?”
Logan asks.

Zoey replies, “Just a precaution. On flights like
this, you can’t always just assume there will be nothing eventful. After all,
there is a heightened alert status do to the war, and there are always pirates
to contend with.”

Briefly continuing the subject, she adds, “Pirates
don’t usually attack military ships, but they aren’t always aware of explorer
ship designs. They may mistake the explorer ship to be a civilian one,
especially covert exploration ships like this one.”

After her explanation of the call to battle
stations, Zoey continues with her dialog into ship mess halls for another
several minutes.

Closing out her dialog, she remarks, “And that’s why
the food isn’t always appetizing.”

“Well, that is just… reassuring,” Paige
sarcastically replies.

The group laughs at Paige’s comment and they
continue their meals, trading stories and after thoughts to each other. On
occasion, they tell tales of events that have happened to them before they
joined the research team.

They talked about family and events growing up,
school, and Zoey added stories from her military career.

As the time grew near for sleep, each member rose
from the table, said their farewells, and headed-off to their quarters for a
full nights rest until all that remained at the table were Zoey, Logan, and
Paige.

“So,” Paige starts to ask, “Where are we headed to
first?”

Zoey opens her satchel that she carries with her
everywhere she goes and pulls out a DataCom pad.

She pokes at the touch screen with her figure tips
and pulls up a file on mission reports.

“Looks like a small two-planet system called Orsen,”
Zoey informs Paige.

“Orsen? Isn’t that a white dwarf star system?” Logan
replies.

Paige snaps out an answer before Zoey has a chance
to reply, “Yes, it is. Rumor has it, that an ancient civilization had a home
world there.”

Paige then begins to detail her knowledge of the
system, “The Star expanded into a red giant, and towards the end of the stars
life the people of the lost civilization abandoned their home. They headed out
for a new world. No one knows anything about them, and I always wanted to go
there to try and solve the mystery myself.”

Paige continues her intrigue as she darts her eyes
back and forth between Zoey and Logan, “The resulting nova remnant left only
two planets in the system. We call them Orsen I and Orsen II, though we don’t
know how many planets were there initially, since the nova dates back to before
the discovery of the Drak Empire.”

Zoey closes-in to the center of the table and with a
whisper-like voice adds with intrigue, “On one of the planets is supposed to be
some ruins. We hope to find some valuable information contained there, if
they’re there.”

Zoey passes the DataCom pad to Logan and Paige for
their examination.

After an hour or so of reviewing the file and
mission, the group finally disbands to their quarters for a little sleep before
the next day begins.

Several days later, Logan arises from his slightly
uncomfortable slumber groggy and tired.

He heads to the mess hall for a cup of his favorite
addiction, Cava juice.

Cava juice is a type of highly caffeinated drink
discovered on the outer rim world of Cava during an exploration mission
two-thousand years ago.

While other forms of caffeinated drinks are still in
use across the Alliance, Cava fruit are much more readily available, due to the
fruit's ability to grow in some of the harshest environments.

Because of the fruit’s trait to grow fast and
abundant with Cava beans, despite harsh conditions, it is cheaper to grow than
other caffeine plants.

Logan pours himself a cup of Cava and takes a seat
at one of the many empty tables in the early morning mess hall.

Just as he sits and begins to enjoy his drink, Paige
and another archaeologist in their group named Buck, walk into the mess hall
exchanging comments and laughing.

Logan looks up at the two jesters, and then looks
around the room to see if their bolstered laughter is distracting any official
business.

After observing that the few crew-members in the
room are ignoring them, he looks back down at his cup of Cava and continues to
sip his drink.

Paige and Buck grab trays and begin to set food
items out on display.

They grab some drinks, and then make their way to
Logan’s table without any noticeable signs they have even been aware of his
presence.

They sit down and continue their personal
conversation.

Paige then looks over to Logan to indicate an
invitation to the conversation and asks, “What do you think of Furballs?”

A Furball is a type of pet commonly found in the
Dogan core worlds. Feline like, they make perfect replacements for the now
extinct domestic feline pets of former generations.

The name ‘Furball’ came into use as the animal’s
common name, as the moniker physically describes the more recently discovered
species.

“Furballs?” Logan replies curiously, “Really? This
is what you talk about first thing in the morning?”

Logan is not a morning person, despite waking before
most everyone else, especially after a hard day’s work and a short night’s
rest.

“Oh, come on now Logan,” Buck renounces Logan's
abstinence to the conversation, attempting to draw him in, “It’s just a little
entertaining, non-business related, conversation to wake us up.”

Logan sighs slightly and takes a sip of his Cava
drink, and then denotes his feelings towards the small, cute, and furry pet.

“I don’t like them, personally. They shed too much,
make too much noise, and constantly want attention,” he remarks with annoyance.

Paige gasps at his notion that Furballs are annoying
dirty creatures.

“I can’t imagine the lovable Logan doesn’t like Furballs,”
she jokingly surmises.

Buck and Logan both chuckle at the obvious sarcasm
of her comment.

They continue their intrigue into the world of
domesticated pets as Paige and Buck eat, and Logan finishes his first cup of
Cava.

After breakfast, Logan grabs a fresh cup of Cava and
the three head to the science lab for their first day of real work on this
mission.

The rest of the group, in addition to military
science officers assigned to assist them, have already arrived to the labs.

“Good morning, Sir,” one of the science officers
greets Logan.

“Hard to tell,” Logan sorely jests with a deadpan
expression.

Given that the crew is in the dead of space, the
only sign of whether it is morning or night is a clock. Logan’s comment
suggests the unknown variable only assigned by the abstract tracking of time.

The science officer seemed a little shocked at first
with Logan’s comment, but realized he was just attempting to make an early
morning joke.