Space Relics (Galactic Archaeology Book 1)

Copyright © Nathan Duke 2015. All rights reserved.

Rick Lewis is a born survivor, but he’s in serious trouble. He’s poor, he’s drowned in debt, and he’s very likely to be the target of his loan sharks’ minions. He wanted to quit his previous life as a smuggler and become an honest archaeologist, but fate had a couple of surprises planned for him.

He didn’t expect archaeology to be easy, but Rick will be in way more trouble than he expected. When his expedition’s sponsor betrays him, he’ll have to avoid traps, fight huge bodyguards, and dodge death… more than once.

Add in a sassy and know-it-all AI who never keeps her mouth shut, a worthless transport shuttle that can barely fly, and a corrupt society that considers Rick expendable, and you’ve got a recipe for adventure, trouble, and disaster.

Will Rick survive and earn enough to avoid his loan sharks’ wrath?

“Are you insane?” Amy paced around the transport shuttle and brought her hands to her head. She stopped in front of Rick’s seat and leaned forward to look straight into his eyes. “Do you think that a famous relic hunter would work with you without expecting something in return?” Her high-pitched tone marked her contained anger. She shook her head with disdain and a strand of black hair fell over her eyes. She moved it away with one hand, but she didn’t break eye contact with Rick.

If Rick hadn’t seen her circuits and her motherboard, he wouldn’t have believed that he was talking to a hologram. Amy was almost human, especially when annoyed. She should’ve waited aboard the Argonaut, Rick’s battered carrack of a ship, but she didn’t like to be alone. Or to keep her opinions to herself.

Rick had spent years trying to join an archaeological expedition to find signs of ancient civilizations beyond the Solar System. Most expeditions didn’t want former smugglers turned archaeologists, and Rick didn’t have much more to offer. His ship was older than most, his only friends were an absentminded bookworm and a know-it-all hologram, and he hadn’t passed any of the state’s accrediting tests. Jobs were scarce, and he couldn’t afford to decline Lord Baylor’s offer.

But he wasn’t going to argue with an artificial intelligence. Besides, she was way smarter than most humans, so she’d win one way or another.

“Lord Baylor is working on too many expeditions at once,” Rick said. “He needs more hands, and he won’t pay me unless I find something.”

They’d spent over three months in that inhospitable planet, and now they were starting to find signs of advanced architecture. They hadn’t earned a cent yet, and they wouldn’t earn anything unless they found something. He’d get 10% of all relics and artifacts, and Lord Baylor would pay the workers from his own pocket once the expedition ended. Leaving wasn’t an option.

“And you expect him to give you credit?” Amy scoffed and the lights in the transport shuttle flickered as she became more annoyed. “Do you really think that he’ll stick to the contract? Your word means nothing to the justice system. You have no means and no powerful acquaintances who can help you buy your way through a trial. What makes you think that he hasn’t cheated his way to the top? He’s made far too many discoveries to be real.” She wore a tight double-chested jacket that marked her perfect curves, and a mid-thigh skirt that hinted at her perfect anatomy but left more than enough for the imagination. She sat down on one of the control panels and deliberately crossed her legs right in front of Rick. It was all part of her strategy to convince him of her views.

Rick’s eyes went straight to her legs. He’d been too long without female company.

He shook his head and looked away. It wasn’t going to work. Not this time.

“Ugh, come on, Amy! He’s the best in his field; he isn’t after my soul or my right arm.” Rick pushed his pilot’s chair back and walked over to the kitchen cupboard to get a freeze-dried fruit snack.

She followed him, walked through him, folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. She wasn’t going to leave it there.

“What?” he said.

“I don’t like something about him,” she said. “Call it a hunch.”

Oh, no. Not again. Amy was starting to act too human again, almost as if she didn’t remember that she was made up of circuits and chips.

“Computers don’t have hunches.” Rick opened a packet of apple chips and smelled it. It was still edible. “Just take it easy. I’ll still make a fortune if he pays me half of what we’ve signed. And he’s an aristocrat; he won’t want any scandals.”

Amy impatiently cleared her throat and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Rick sighed. That woman was impossible. She wouldn’t stop until she convinced him to go back to the dumpster they’d come from and to let acid rain and contaminated food finish him off. She wasn’t in a hurry to buy food to eat or to pay the ship’s mortgage, but Rick was. The loan sharks he’d worked with wouldn’t be too happy unless he had something to pay them with.

Lucas walked into the shuttle with his head buried in his tablet. He’d spent the whole week reading about ancient Martian structures, and he didn’t care that they were in one of the worst dumpsters in the galaxy.

Lucas lived and shone amongst books. He read everything he found about mythical stones and their magical properties. He blabbered about ancient tombs that hid history’s greatest enigmas, and he dreamed of the chance of finding one of those trinkets in their expedition.

Rick didn’t care about the historical value of silly tomb objects; history was far too expensive for men like him. Though he
did
care about the expedition leaders who’d become rich after finding one of those special rocks.

Although, realistically, they wouldn’t get rich with a single expedition. As long as the money was good enough to keep going, it was a nice and easy job. And being in a lawful business wouldn’t get any of them arrested or sent to the prison colonies in half-terraformed planets.

Lucas didn’t care about those mundane matters. He didn’t notice Amy or Rick and continued reading and munching one of those vitamin sticks that he always carried around.

Amy tilted her head and stared at him to try to grab his attention.

Lucas didn’t react; it was normal in him. He spent his time in bed or around the excavation site. He rarely exercised and never ate anything aside from processed foods. He was stick-thin, skin over bone, and his eyes had become more sunken during the expedition. He was as broke as Rick, but he’d had a normal life at some point in his life. Ever since he’d lost his family’s fortune, he’d tried to return to that comfortable life. Every day brought him farther away from it.

“Lucas,” Amy said with a broad smile on her face. She got rather scary when she looked at people with those bright eyes and her Machiavellian expression. “Tell me something: what do you know about Lord Baylor that makes you trust him?”

“Huh?” Lucas turned around and opened his mouth to think. He was taller than Rick and as naturally athletic as most of the genetically engineered kids, but opening his mouth like that made him look dumb. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t trust him. I’m working on something that will change our view of history, and he’s an honored academic. What makes you doubt his intentions?”

“The fact that he’s hired you,” she said matter-of-factly. “You two aren’t the kind of assistants that anyone would hire, and he’s paying you far more than you’ve been earning until now.”

“I’d pay to take part in the expedition, so I don’t care if I’m not paid.” Lucas shrugged and continued eating his vitamin bar.

“Am I the only person who cares about the real world?” she said, pacing around the shuttle. “You’re insane, both of you! If you think that a lord is going to give you anything once you find the lost civilization, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise.”

Rick chuckled. Sometimes, Amy got so annoyed that she forgot her place as the ship’s holographic AI. He let out a long sigh. “Okay, let’s do something: if Lord Baylor doesn’t pay us, I’ll get you a better motherboard.”

“Aboard my main ship?” She glanced around at the control panels. She’d never liked the transport shuttle, but it was way newer than the Argonaut.

“As long as you stop complaining.”

“And as long as you find a way to pay for it,” she said. “Do I need to remind you that if Lord Baylor doesn’t pay you, you won’t have any money left? It’s rather irresponsible of you, Richard.”

Thanks for telling me. I hadn’t noticed.

“Thanks, mom,” Rick said. “I’ll try to get my boss to pay me, and then I’ll eat my vegetables.”

“I’m not your mother, Richard.” She blinked, confused. She rarely understood sarcasm. “Would you like me to run some medical checks on you? You aren’t making many good choices lately, and you show symptoms of confusion.”

Rick waved his hand in the air to get rid of her and walked out of the room. She was right, but Rick didn’t have much choice.

Excavation sites were dirty, tiring, and went on forever. No matter how hard everyone worked, there was always more work to do, and more time to waste. Lord Baylor had a track record of finding lost relics and civilizations, but this time it wasn’t that clear. Rick and the others hadn’t found anything interesting in the planet, and they wouldn’t find anything unless they went elsewhere. Even the fleas wanted to leave.

“Careful with that pickaxe!” Lord Baylor shouted at one of the workers. “Hey, you two! Stop chatting and get to work. You won’t get the day’s rations if you don’t get the work done.” He’d spent most of the expedition in other planets, but that day he walked around, observing the excavation and supervising the workers as if he were a king inspecting his troops. He was hulking, with broad arms and a large stomach, the sign of a decent fortune. He didn’t care that they hadn’t found anything useful; he persisted in the expedition as if it were the most important thing in the world.

Lucas kept jotting everything down about him: how he walked, what he shouted at the workers, and how he treated those below him.

“You know he doesn’t even know we exist, right?” Rick nudged him in the ribs to try to get him to pull his nose out of his notebook.

“I can still learn from him. A small step for man…” He felt as though he were documenting one of the most important moments in history, but they weren’t going to find anything unless—

“Messirah, Messirah!”
Overlooker, Overlooker!
One of the workers ran towards them, shouting and waving his arms in the air. He spoke in Galesish, one of those modern constructed languages from the outer colonies. “They’ve found it! They’ve found the tomb!”

Tomb? What tomb?

Lucas and Rick glanced at each other, but Lord Baylor pressed his hands together and looked at the sky. “At last.” He walked towards the worker and pushed him aside to get to the tomb.

Everyone gathered around the workers. A group of diggers pulled the rope in an improvised pulley system to lift a flat stone. It wasn’t natural at all; an old civilization had written all over it. If they were like the Egyptians, Rick wasn’t going to need to work ever again in his life. And even if it didn’t go too well, at least he’d be able to auction off his part to pay for his ship’s mortgage.

Lord Baylor gestured broadly in the air at the men who weren’t helping. “Pull that thing off, men! Stop hanging around and help them, will you?” His deep voice echoed around the excavation site, making the ground tremble with its loudness.

“Payday at last,” Rick told Lucas. He’d spent far too long working without any form of income whatsoever.

“Why don’t you wait and see?” Amy’s know-it-all voice said through the intercom. “He’ll probably produce some sort of clause from the contract and leave you without a cent.”

“Could you stop being so pessimistic for a change?” Rick told her.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. Rick gestured at the intercom in his ear.

“And could you stop being such a senseless fool?” she replied. “If you’d let me go back to the Argonaut, I would’ve been much more relaxed. We have a rubbish shuttle that won’t take us anywhere unless we’re lucky. What if he takes the money and runs? Who’ll stop him then, huh?”

As if one of the most important relic hunters in the world would need to steal Rick’s miserable portion of the loot. And he wasn’t going to leave all his workers there; it was like sentencing them to death. They were getting pennies compared to the fame and glory that Lord Baylor would get. He was eccentric, yes, but a thief? Unlikely. Besides, nobody talked badly of him on the Net, so he couldn’t be
that
bad.

“Richard,” Amy said, “I won’t calm down until your bank account’s full and you’re living in a comfortable flat.”

“And married and with a legion of children on my lap.” Rick rolled his eyes. Why hadn’t anyone thought of keeping Amy quiet unless summoned? It would’ve come really handy in times like those.

The flat stone rose, and several other rocks rumbled and moved aside, leaving a large passageway to enter a cavern. It was unlike anything that Rick had ever seen, aside from old films from tomb explorers in the pyramids. This wasn’t Egypt, though; they were on a strange and distant planet that had nothing to do with Earth.

“This is a historical moment.” Lord Baylor walked between Rick and Lucas and patted them on their shoulders. “Good job, lads. Good job.” Something about his voice didn’t sound well. He was tense, and his gesture was far too rigid to be a natural sign of approval towards his expedition leaders.

“Thank you, sir. It’s been an honor to work for you.” Lucas nodded energetically and smiled at him, then continued logging everything in his notebook.

Lord Baylor ignored him; the praise wasn’t for them, but for himself. Lucas still looked at him as he walked away, as if he were a classic hero in modern times.

* * *

Several workers took torches and entered the cavern without checking the air’s purity or the presence of pathogens. It was as if they knew what they were after, all of them anxious to get in. They carried no protection aside from their rudimentary and worn-out clothes, but they entered the cave as if they’d lived in it their whole lives.

“I don’t like this,” Amy said uninvited through the intercom.

“Really? You hadn’t told me.” Rick rolled his eyes.

“I am serious, Richard,” she insisted. “Why don’t you join the workers and see what they’re up to? Up until today, they followed your orders. Now it looks as if they’d practiced whatever they’re doing right now.”

Sometimes, arguing with Amy was impossible. It was best not to keep going.

“Don’t you realize the implications?” she said. “You won’t get credit for anything. He’ll pay you, say that he’s found the tomb, and you won’t even get a footnote in history books. This is a big discovery, and you’ve been doing the grunt work. Don’t go after the money alone; make him acknowledge your contribution. You know you need it for your future, Richard.”

Money paid the bills; fame and glory didn’t. Lord Baylor could well enjoy the popularity and the press releases; Rick only needed his patronage. He’d find a different project to work on. Who knew? Maybe Lord Baylor would like his help in the next expedition. After all, Rick’s workers had been motivated enough from the beginning.

The workers came out of the cave within minutes. The first one, taller and more muscular than the average worker, took off his white tunic and revealed normal western clothes beneath it. He carried a small leather bag in his hand and waved it at Lord Baylor, who clapped excitedly like a child.

Both men’s eyes met and they nodded at each other, the sign of a tacit understanding that nobody was aware of. Rick had hired the workers from Earth; Lord Baylor wasn’t supposed to know any of them. His stomach twisted, but he preferred to remain observant, to trust a gentleman’s word. Lord Baylor had no reason to break his word for 10% of the findings.

The worker opened the leather bag and showed a small red crystal to Lord Baylor. Rick zoomed in with his digital glasses to see the crystal better. It was as large as his palm, probably worth a fortune if it was half as pure as it seemed.

“It’s worth more than a dreadnaught.” Amy kept using the intercom at her leisure. Whoever had coded that woman had designed her to annoy whomever she worked for. “Why don’t you go there and ask Lord Baylor when he plans to give you your share?”

Rick groaned, but she was right. He had to make sure to get his part of the loot in case they didn’t find anything else. He approached Lord Baylor, and the other worker looked at him with a murderous look. He was probably a former mercenary or marine; huge and intimidating even for a normal-to-lean guy like Rick.

Rick cleared his throat, and Lord Baylor turned to look at him.

“Tell him that he has to give you 10% like your contract states,” Amy insisted. “It looks really expensive. You can’t let him cheat you out of your share.”

Rick’s expression tensed and he tried to force a diplomatic smile as if the others could hear her too. “Is the stone any good, my lord?” His glasses amplified the image a thousand times and he saw the purity and perfection of the rock. Whatever it was, it wasn’t natural, and it had been placed there by an advanced civilization. It was so bright that it glowed and almost hummed. Power emanated from it.

“Just a simple rock.” Lord Baylor’s tense and coarse voice wasn’t a good sign. His hand shook slightly as he held the rock. He put it in his pocket to hide any signs of nervousness. If he was telling the truth, he was making a real effort to hide it. “Let’s hope we find something interesting.”

“Would you mind if we consult an expert to calculate its estimated value?”

As if Rick’s words were an invitation, the other worker pushed Lord Baylor aside, pulled Rick’s electric sword from his belt, pushed him onto the floor, and took out two electric guns: one for Rick, the other for Lucas. Lucas stopped jotting things down on his tablet and came back to reality for the first time in years.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen.” Lord Baylor gestured at them to calm down, but it was hardly easy when you have a gun pointed at you. “Change of plans. Ever heard of the elixir of youth? Of the philosopher’s stone? Well, I’m older than either of you, and I’d like to elude death for a while. You may keep the advance I’ve paid; I’m afraid I won’t be sharing this finding.”

“Advance?” Rick said. “My contract didn’t include any advances. I’ve been paying out of pocket for this expedition.”

Lord Baylor let out a deep laugh and held his stomach with both hands. “Indeed. Better luck next time, then.” He nodded at the worker, who pressed something in his sleeve and made the cave explode. Rocks flew in the air and the floor rumbled. If the tomb had hidden any other secrets, none of them remained. He gave them a curt bow and headed for the transport shuttles.

Rick instinctively headed after him, but the brute with the gun loaded the stunner and it hummed aggressively. Rick stopped in his tracks and folded his arms. “Guess it’s just you and us, then,” he told the brute. “Mind if you give me my gun back and we part as friends? I’d rather not hurt you…”

“Shut up,” the worker said, and he brought his gun closer to Rick. His weathered voice definitely belonged to someone who’d spent most of his life hunting or on the run. There was no way to get him to reason.

Hopefully, Lord Baylor would’ve instructed him to let them live once he left.

Hopefully.

“This can’t end like this, Richard,” Amy said through the intercom. “If you aren’t going to do anything, I will.”

“No, wait!” Rick said.

The brute’s arm tensed and he aimed the gun straight at Rick’s head.

“No, not you,” Rick told him, and he pointed at his ear. “My ship’s AI is going to do something stupid.”

The brute hit him on the ear with the gun, hard. A warning. Blood trickled down Rick’s head.

Awesome, Amy. See what you’ve caused?

“Not stupid, Richard,” she said. “Rational. I’ve calculated the probabilities of you two surviving, and it’s unlikely that they’ll let you live unless you stop Lord Baylor from running away. It’ll be easier for him to kill everyone on the planet instead of paying you.”

Rick gave the brute a tense expression. “I won’t stop her if you don’t want to, but I warn you: she’s a stubborn woman. I’d duck if I were you; things end up breaking when she’s angry.”

“Shut up,” the brute said. A man of few words, like most of the genetically engineered marble-brains that rich men hired to clean up after them. It wasn’t that they didn’t like to talk; it was some sort of mental impairment that geneticists had created in their brains to make them incapable of thinking too much by themselves. They followed orders, got paid, and didn’t ask questions. They were more impulsive and violent than mentally advanced men, and they wouldn’t use information against their masters. A good silence guarantee.

Rick shrugged.

Amy’s shuttle took off and started chasing after Lord Baylor’s. Her weapons were as hopeless as his, but she was angrier and she had a computer’s reflexes.

The workers looked up and shouted in admiration, pointing at her. Amy shot at one of the Argonaut’s engines to disable it, but she forgave Lord Baylor’s transport shuttle. She dove down and shot straight at the brute.

An impeccable shot, as always. She hit him straight in the heart, and he fell to his knees.

With one last effort, he aimed his guns at both of his targets.

Rick jumped aside and dodged the beam.

The brute fell forward and hit the ground with his head. Rick ran to take his weapons in case any of the other workers were still loyal to Lord Baylor.

Rick waved at the intercom in his ear. “Not bad, but I’d rather not dodge any bullets.”

“If I didn’t know you, I’d say that you’re jealous that I’ve had to save you again.”

Jealous? Not really. He was just annoyed that he always ended up having to risk his neck because his ship’s computer had far more personality than she was supposed to.

Lord Baylor boarded the Argonaut. She accelerated and left the planet’s orbit. Her broken engines slowed her down, but she was still capable of escaping. Lord Baylor wasn’t going to let them catch him that easily, and he still owed Rick a fortune.