by Rai Aren
“No way!” Mitch exclaimed.
Dr. Khadesh and Khamir laughed.
Bob’s mouth was agape.
Jack whistled. “I’m glad we were sitting down for this.”
“You…you…” she stammered, pointing at them.
“We are descendants of the Kierani priesthood.”
She shrieked.
“Alex, keep it down!” Mitch said. “You’ll attract attention.”
“Sorry,” she said, pacing the room. “I…you…I mean…” she could no longer form sentences. Her mind was racing.
“Since Alex can no longer speak coherently, let me try,” Mitch said. “So you’re not from around here,” he winked.
Dr. Khadesh winked back at him.
“Then, back to the Pharom,” he said, “it’s a beacon, right? I mean, that’s what we had figured out from our research.”
Khamir nodded.
“To signal others?”
“Yes,” Dr. Khadesh said. “To let them know we are here. One day perhaps, our people will find us.”
“Geez,” Bob said, “I don’t think I like the sounds of that. Are they hostile?”
Khamir frowned.
“Are we?” Dr. Khadesh asked.
“No,” Bob answered, somewhat reluctantly.
“Then you have your answer, Bob,” Khadesh said, his brow furrowed, his tone indicating he had taken some offence to the question.
Alex started pacing again. “The signal the Pharom sent off, is it still traveling through space?”
Dr. Khadesh took a deep breath. “We wish we knew,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “It is possible. We have no way to know for sure.”
Alex stopped pacing, and stood biting her lip.
“Whoa,” Jack said. “ET is probably still phoning home. We would have hit redial when we connected the Pharom to the platform when we were first here.”
Mitch nodded. “You’re probably right, Jack.”
“It is very likely,” Dr. Khadesh agreed.
“Oh great,” Bob said.
“Unbelievable,” Alex whispered. She looked at Khamir and Dr. Khadesh. “Where do we go from here? People should know.”
Dr. Khadesh looked at her sadly. “The world is not ready for this kind of information, Alexandra. Far from it, in fact.”
“Some of us are ready,” Alex added hopefully.
“But not enough,” Dr. Khadesh said, shaking his head. “We are guardians, we protect this legacy. Now you are, too. But that comes with a heavy burden. The secret must remain just that. A secret.”
They were all crestfallen.
“But,” Dr. Khadesh said, his voice brightening as he stood up, “my son and I have something for you. Something that I think will make up for that, at least a little.”
The foursome looked at each other, then at Dr. Khadesh and Khamir.
“Your son?” Alex asked.
Khamir stood up.
“Get out!” Alex exclaimed. She looked from one to the other, taking note of the resemblance. She nodded her head. “We had a feeling Khamir could be your son.”
“Since you and Khamir didn’t say anything, we thought it was impolite to speculate,” Mitch added.
Dr. Khadesh and Khamir smiled.
“I always thought there was a special connection between the two of you,” Alex said, her head cocked to one side.
“Now you know,” Khamir said.
“Shall we?” Dr. Khadesh asked.
“Yes, of course,” Khamir said. He retrieved the duffel bag he had set down on the table. He handed it to Mitch.
Mitch took it in his lap and shifted his chair so that Jack could see as well. Alex and Bob moved their chairs closer. Mitch unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out a Ziploc bag. Inside was a small piece of papyrus.
“We made a copy for you,” Khamir said. He enjoyed seeing their faces light up.
“The ‘crib notes’ we found,” Alex said, taking the Ziploc bag from Mitch. She looked at the Kierani glyphs, along with the Egyptian hieroglyphs – the Rosetta Stone for the Kierani language.
Mitch then pulled out the other item from the bag. It was a large red bound book filled with pages of papyrus. It felt quite heavy. There were golden Kierani symbols embossed on its cover. “The Book of the Old and New World,” Mitch translated, recalling their previous research. He ran his fingers over the Kierani hieroglyphs on the book.
“Wow,” Alex said. “It’s beautiful.”
Jack happily regarded his friends who, except for Bob, looked like little kids on Christmas morning. Bob looked apprehensive. “It’s ok, buddy,” Jack whispered to him, “we can sit the next one out.”
Bob anxiously nodded his agreement.
“That is also an exact copy we made,” Dr. Khadesh said. “What you learned before with the scrolls you found only told one part of the story of the Kierani civilization. This book tells of another part. The ‘crib notes’ as you call them, will help you to decipher it.”
“Speaking of that,” Alex said, “I have a million more questions. For starters, you haven’t told us where the Kierani are originally from.”
“You do not want us to spoil all of the surprises for you, do you?” Khamir asked, his expression playful.
“I do!” Jack chimed in.
Khamir smiled. He pointed to the book. “Is it not more fun to wait and not unwrap all of your presents at once?”
Mitch smiled. “So then, I guess that’s it for now?”
Khamir looked at Dr. Khadesh, who had a sly grin on his face.
“Gotcha,” Mitch said.
Alex sighed heavily.
“Good grief! You really give up too easily,” Jack said, shaking his head. “I’m going to have to give you two a lesson in hard negotiations.”
“And I’m going to have to give you a lesson in lip-zipping, Jack,” Bob whispered to him.
“You know you want to know,” Jack whispered back. “Admit it!”
“I know I want to go home and get some sleep, and not have people shoot at us for awhile,” he said. “And I’d like to grow my beard back in peace. If we stick around for any more of these shenanigans Alex will have us shaving off our eyebrows or something next.”
Jack laughed.
“I don’t know what to say,” Alex said, her eyes tearing up.
“How does the saying go?” Khamir asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, “but wait, there is more…”
Alex looked at him strangely. He hadn’t gotten the saying quite right. “You know I just realized that you two never use contractions,” she said. “Or have I just never noticed it?”
Khamir winked at her.
“Just like Data!” Jack said.
Khamir and Dr. Khadesh looked at him strangely.
“From Star Trek? The Next Generation?” he prodded.
They shrugged their shoulders.
“Ok, seriously, it’s time for you guys to visit us for a change.”
“Perhaps, one day we will,” Dr. Khadesh said. “But as Khamir said, we have something else for you.”
Dr. Khadesh gingerly reached into his inside jacket pocket. He presented them with a small plain brown jewelry box.
Alex accepted the box and opened it. Inside was a golden ankh pendant affixed with a new gold chain, lying on the soft felt padding. The pendant shone brilliantly as light reflected off it. Alex took hold of the pendant to examine it. At once she noticed a slight zinging in her fingers. She switched hands. There it was again. Her hand felt slightly warmer. She felt a little more energized. “It feels…incredible. Check it out,” she said as she handed it to Mitch.
He felt it, and passed it to Jack and Bob. They were all in awe of its unusual properties.
“Hey Alex,” Jack said, holding it up, “there are glyphs on the back, care to enlighten us?”
She took it back from him, and proceeded to translate the hieroglyphs out loud, “‘May this symbol of life protect you, all of your days’. So lovely,” she said, carefully placing it back in the box.
“This pendant has been in my family for many generations,” Dr. Khadesh said. “Now, we hope it may protect yours. Abner had it on him when the Pharom went off.
“I saw you take something from his shirt pocket when he was on the stretcher,” she said, looking at it. “Was this it?”
“Yes.”
“I wondered why he hadn’t been killed when the pulse of energy burst from the Pharom. Not that I wanted him killed, of course. But he was hiding in a corner on the same level as the platform when the Pharom went off, unprotected. Mitch had the Sun Disk covering him, but Maximilian and the other guard were killed almost instantly. Yet Dustimaine survived. I didn’t know how.”
“Now you do,” Dr. Khadesh said, nodding towards the ankh pendant. “It has some of the same properties as the metallic alloy in the Pharom.”
“Are you saying this pendant has magical powers protecting those who hold or wear it?” Jack asked.
Dr. Khadesh shook his head. “It is more that it is an energy source, very slight,” he answered, “but I believe it offered some protection against the Pharom’s malfunctions through its properties. It has the same energy signature, though on a much, much lower scale. It seems to be able to deflect, enhance, transfer or absorb energy to a degree. The Sun Disk has a much larger and stronger concentration of its component elements, and the Pharom by orders of magnitude, plus it is constructed from a unique alloy.”
Bob’s eyes went wide. He repeated Khadesh’s words, “Deflect, enhance, transfer or absorb energy? Um, that has quite the implications.”
“Yeah, don’t things usually exhibit only one or two of those properties, at least to any great degree?” Jack asked.
“Usually,” Bob answered, his brow furrowed, as tried to make sense of what he was hearing.
“These alloys have the ability to behave differently, under different circumstances,” Khamir said.
“Sheesh. I can’t even begin to figure out the science behind that,” Bob said, running his fingers through his hair.
“Yeah, I’m not even going to try and understand what you guys are saying,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“Unfortunately, most of this sophisticated metallurgical knowledge has been lost to us,” Khamir added, sounding forlorn. “And, apart from the Sun Disk, and Pharom, there are no other sources of the active component elements that we know of.”
“That’s a real shame,” Bob added, “those properties could literally change our world. Saying it’s advanced doesn’t begin to do it justice.”
Jack slowly nodded his head in agreement as he tried to imagine the possibilities.
“These alloys are powerful, but unstable at times,” Dr. Khadesh said, “hence the accidents involving the Pharom. We must not lose sight of that. The pendant is safe, though. In fact, it seems to have some beneficial properties, in that it gives the wearer a sense of warm energy and to a small extent enhances abilities that are already there.”
“Incredible,” Alex said. “I bet there are a lot of scientists that would love to get their hands on it.”
Dr. Khadesh and Khamir looked at her intently.
“But of course, they won’t,” Alex assured them.
“Are you sure you want to give us these?” Mitch asked. “They’re priceless.”
Dr. Khadesh nodded. “It is the least we can do for all you have sacrificed. You put your lives on the line. We will never forget that. The four of you are the now the protectors of these items. Guard and cherish them well.”
“Thank-you,” Alex said, feeling overwhelmed with emotion.
“Yes, thank-you,” Mitch said. “We’re deeply honored.”
Dr. Khadesh nodded.
“You know,” Khamir added, “if you ever want to come back and continue your work, you are welcome to. My father has seen to that.”
“Really?” Alex asked.
Mitch beamed.
“Any time you like,” Dr. Khadesh said, smiling. “We could still use your help. There is so much more to this history that you do not know yet. So much that has been lost…”
yyyyy
A man, posing as an orderly, left the door to the private hospital suite. He quickly walked away and disappeared into a stairwell. As he ran down the stairs, he pulled out his phone. He stopped on a landing and made a call.
“It’s me,” he said, breathing fast, “it’s true. What are we going to do?” He listened to the reply. He frowned, then shook his head. “I don’t think...” he started to say, but he got cut off. “Are you sure? How…?” He ran his fingers through his hair. “But…”
Again he got cut off. The voice on the other end of the phone was angry, heated.
“I see,” the man said, sighing heavily. He listened. “Yes, I understand. I will.”
Chapter 63
Turning of the Page, Present-day Egypt
ON the private plane back to the United States, Jack and Bob were fast asleep, their heads resting on plump, fluffy pillows. They were wrapped up in thick, red blankets, with gold stitching on the edges. Bob was snoring loudly. A half dozen empty Coca Cola cans and various dishes littered their tables. A rerun of Star Trek played on their television screens. Their seats were folded back to make comfortable beds. The four friends were the only passengers on the Lear jet that Dr. Khadesh had managed to arrange for them. Mitch and Alex were too excited to sleep.
Alex inspected the golden ankh pendant, mesmerized by it.
“Put it on,” Mitch said.
“What? No, I couldn’t,” she said, shaking her head. “It belongs to all of us. We should put it someplace safe.”
He took it from her hand and gently placed it around her neck. “I don’t think they’d mind,” he said motioning to their sleeping friends. “In fact, I’m sure they’d agree this is the perfect place for it. Besides, we’re always together, the four of us. Thick as thieves, right?”
She looked at the pendant, touching it gingerly. She nodded. She felt the warm, soft tingle of the pendant’s energy signature. “That feels amazing.” She sat with it for a few moments, her eyes closed, letting the pendant’s effects wash over her. After a short while, the initial effects became barely noticeable, but her mind felt clearer, she felt lighter, and more focused.