Ancient Relics (Shadow of the Ancients Book 1) by Ellema Ummia Page A

excitement.
    “Yep,” Logan quickly and concisely replies.
    Without missing a beat, Oni jumps right into a new
conversation.
    Picking-up one of the recovered artifacts, Oni
points at some characters on the tablet and begins an oration, “So, I looked
over this rock here and found some text I thought my new boss might be
interested in.”
    Logan pauses for a second and takes the tablet from
Oni.
    He looks over the artifact examining every detail.
    “This looks familiar,” he responds about the text
Oni pointed out.
    Oni quickly turns and picks up her DataCom, flips
through a few images, and then shows one particular image to Logan.
    “It looks like the rock I found on Ugun,” she notes,
pointing to the image she showed the team earlier, “This text here was one of
the text lines I couldn’t translate. My DataCom doesn’t have the resources to
translate such an intricate text.”
    She hesitates before continuing again, “And, then
there’s the issue of incomplete text due to damage.”
    She attempts to hide the fact that a little
carelessness on her part may have led to damage on her original find.
    Logan asks Oni to upload the image to the ships
translator and begin processing the image.
    At the same time, Logan asks Paige to take the
artifact and begin a scan of the text on it to translate that text in
comparison to the image file Oni is working on.
    Paige takes the artifact and begins her work.
    Oni diligently works on her end, completely
engrossed in the job with excitement.
    While Oni works, Logan watches her, seeing how she
feverishly does her duty without question.
    Sneaking up behind Logan is Zoey, breaking his
concentration by asking, “Does she remind you of someone?”
    Logan grins a small grin and replies to Zoey, “Yeah,
she reminds me a bit of myself when I was her age.”
    Chuckling a little, Logan adds, “So full of life and
curiosity. Starry-eyed and ready for anything.”
    Zoey nods and grunts in understanding, even though
Logan continues to watch Oni.
    “I can see it,” Zoey agrees.
    Moments later, bells and whistles start
sounding-off.
    “We got a hit!” Oni exclaims wildly.
    Logan rushes over to the console and reads the
output from the scan.
    “Hmm,” he moans in contemplation.
    Running his figure across the console monitor,
guiding his sight to stick to certain lines, Logan looks back and forth between
the two readings and the comparison readout.
    “Looks like the text talks about another planet that
the inhabitants moved to after some catastrophe,” he points out.
    “Does it say what the catastrophe was?” Oni inquires.
    Logan shakes his head negatively and responds, “No,
but it does name the planet they moved to. We may be able to find a clue there.
I bet, though, the catastrophe was the nova.”
    Logan presses a button on the terminal and calls to
the bridge, “Commander, I believe I have a new course to set for you.”
    Commander Asim acknowledges, “OK, let’s hear it.”
    Logan reads the translation and relays it to
Commander Asim on the bridge, “One of the artifacts we uncovered talks about a
settlement on a planet called Gidim. Ever heard of it?”
    Commander Asim remains quiet for a moment before
responding, “Can’t say that I have. There are no coordinates?”
    Logan quickly reads the translated text again.
“Nope, no coordinates,” he replies.
    Paige interjects, “Maybe the map shows it,”
referencing the holomap recovered from the Drak scouts.
    “Ah, yes,” Logan agrees, having forgotten about the
map.
    “Give me just a moment, Commander. Let me
cross-reference the location with the ancient holomap,” Logan informs the
Commander while he inputs the data.
    Commander Asim calls back, “Standing by.”
    Punching in the name ‘Gidim’ into the directory,
Logan conducts a search for the mystery planet.
    After a few seconds of searching, the computer
prints-out the details of the unknown planet and system. Included in the
readout is the coordinates of