Across the Gulf of Time and Space

The indistinct hum of the carrier had died away without him noticing. It wasn’t until the Jackal woman tapped his shoulder that he stopped wool-gathering and realized the trip was over.
“The site is waiting, Mr. Broderick” she said, her eyes narrow behind the half-moon glasses. So antiquated, wearing glasses when optical issues could so easily be repaired genetically. But what else could be expected of an archaeologist?
“Quite so” he said, grunting as he rose. He hadn’t realized how stiff the trip had made him. But he didn’t need a cane yet, no sir. The Jackal offered her furry paw in its white shirt sleeve to him, but he waved her away. The rejection made her ears twitch. Had he offended her? Well no matter, he was too rich and too old to care.
Exiting the carrier down the ramp and onto the landing pad they were greeted by three things. First was the overly bright and overly hot sunlight, beaming down on them from close to its zenith with not a cloud in sight for relief. The second was an endless plain of sand, stretching on in every direction to the horizon and beyond. These two combined had caused Broderick to close the window during the ride over as nothing of value could be seen outside. The third thing to greet them was a procession of insect women, the Khepri, all in silly hardhats and khaki uniforms, smiling happily and chattering among one another as they fuzzed with a little trumpet, some cymbals and a drum. A red carpet had been spread on the ground, leading from the ramp all the way to a nearby building on the side of the air control tower. Broderick cleared his throat.
“Is this procession really quite necessary?”
The Anubis smiled. “Not at all but they enjoy rituals. It makes them feel useful”
“Hmph”
Broderick endured the chaotic cacophony of the Khepri orchestra as he passed them and reached the air-conditioned indoors once again. He was led by yet another Khepri, this one dressed up in some sort of military uniform, into a second-storey office where he was finally greeted by another human, who directed him and the Anubis to sit down.
“Mr. Broderick, Dr. Codall, a pleasure. Dr. Peters is the name; I’m the head honcho of this here dig site”
“We are all familiar with each other, get to the point. What is it that you’ve found?” Broderick snapped.
“Ah, yes. Yes. That is, I’m not sure”
Broderick let his eyebrows twitch liberally. He was very good at that. Learned it from the disapproving glares that ran in the family, or so he was told.
“You don’t… know?”
“Quite sir, quite so sir. I’m an expert in a number of civilizations from this locale and from a few particular time-periods. What we discovered would, according to our geological analysis, appear to be older than that. Hence Dr. Codall’s presence”
The Anubis nodded.
“If the glyphs you reported are accurate, we could be looking at a civilization that dates back 12-13 thousand years” she explained, a holographic display of the glyphs in question appearing from her wristwatch.
“This is old?” Broderick asked.
“Very old. Among the five oldest ever discovered, I think” she answered.
“Yes, quite old indeed” confirmed Dr. Peters.
“I’m confused. It is well known that many civilization date back much further than that. Humans build cities almost 15 thousand years ago if I remember my schooling…” Broderick began, but when he saw the exchanged glances between the two scientists he stopped.
“Am I missing something here?”
“Mr. Broderick, we are discussing here a space faring civilization, not a primitive one”, Dr. Codall explained.
“Space faring you say? Then…”
“The glyphs I am displaying right now weren’t carved in rock. They’re data copies of similar displays from the dig”
Broderick leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. Had there been a mirror in the room he would have seen a predatory expression appear on his face. This expression did not go unseen by the man opposite him.
“This… space faring civilization of yours…”
“We’ve tentatively been referring to it as The Gatekeepers”
“There is a stargate here?”
“Oh no, it’s not… well…”
“Out with it man!”
“We believe that we discovered something that has been buried with the intent of keeping it buried”
“There are traps?”
“There’s always TRAPS, but these, there’s… I’m not sure how to describe the effects but our crews have simply found it impossible to enter deeper without, well…”
“You have a talent for finding things and thank the gods for that Doctor Peters because your ability to express yourself is beyond awful. What? What am I doing here sitting around when you could be showing me the wonders of space-age technology that predates the invention of gunpowder? Well?”
Dr. Peters looked to Dr. Codall with a pleading, reddened face. The Anubis tilted her head.
“Dr. Peters is likely being shy about the effects of force fields that use a specific type of energy as their power source. Would I be wrong in guessing that the interior of this ‘tomb’ as I’m willing to wager we’ll discover it is is purple?”
Dr. Peters nodded empathically and with visible relief.
“Indeed, indeed! Purple, yes. I knew an expert was needed here, didn’t I just! Ahaha…”
Broderick sighed.
“The money man is once again out of the loop. Would you kindly refrain from being so overly cryptic?”
“Purple is a colour associated with a specific brand of energy that, when humans are exposed to it, causes arousal of an uncontrollable kind” Dr. Codall explained.
“And this means?”
“That the workers will engage in orgies and be too tuckered out to work, leaving the contents of the tomb unmolested”
“You’ve referred to the site as a tomb twice now, Codall. Explain where you got this idea from”
The Anubis crossed her arms beneath her breasts, emphasizing her bosom, her tail wagging. She was clearly already enjoying the lecture she was about to begin.
“In the year 350 Before Universal Calendar, a group of archaeologist working on Earth discovered…”
“If Earth archaeologists discovered this around the time of the industrial revolution, it’s hardly worthwhile to us, is it?”
Broderick’s interruption had caused Codall’s ears to droop momentarily. Funny how such an intelligent being still has such animalistic behaviour, he thought to himself.
“At any rate, the archaeologists discovered a tomb connected to a series of other tombs, dug underground as a sort of honeycomb. The Mummies contained therein turned out to be alive, or rather, undead, and once they were roused they began to follow the primary directive they had been left with, that is, to seek out mates and reproduce so as to repopulate the ancient kingdom whence they hailed…”
“Yes, the Guzzler expedition, a warning example to all xeno-archaeologists to be sure” Dr. Peters said, contributing absolutely nothing of value.
“Indeed! And from this honeycomb tomb there were discovered elements that many believe served as inspiration for parts of, hm, how you pronounce it…”
“Egyptian”
“Yes, Egyptian culture, architecture and mythology. In fact…”
“We all know the ancient Egyptians worshipped space-faring creatures, every child knows this. Get to the point while we’re young!”
Codall’s ears did not approve of rude interruptions, but Broderick had no intention of stopping for such a reason.
“A theme of sorts connects many such cites across many worlds. Theories have been made as to which sites were colonies or outposts left behind by a star-spanning civilization that degenerated into savagery and which were merely indigenous peoples that were inspired into worshipping their visitors as gods…”
“So we STILL haven’t discovered anything new?”
“Please let me finish. The common theme was the idea of a common enemy, represented by a serpent woman…”
“So they were at war with Lamias? Are there any space faring reptilian species that left ruins we could be exploiting? Because what you’re telling me sounds like I’m wasting my time here”
“…letmefinishserpent woman called Apophis, associated with venom and the colour purple, a being capable of corrupting all to their base lusts. In some sites such purple lights are spoken of, in others they are found. Some sites have been corrupted, others have not. This site, it would seem, is an odd example, as it is a site apparently tainted by Apophis’ lust, yet it shows levels of technology not present in any of the previously discovered ones. Dr. Peters and I believe this could be the very first instance of us discovering a genuine example of the original civilization, the so called Gatekeepers, as he has dubbed them”
“Well I know the name isn’t so very good when thinking of these influenced sites, but in this instance…”
Broderick held up his hand to shut Peters up.
“If it’s a tomb, what’s buried in it? More Mummies looking for a lay?”
The Anubis’ eyes gleamed in an inhuman way.
“Something much, much bigger”
Broderick considered this.
“A pickled Sandworm?”
The drooped ears stayed down for a moment but Codall’s face didn’t even flinch. Heh.
“A Pharaoh”
Broderick pinched the bridge of his nose.
“A Pharaoh?”
“Yes. A genuine one”
“Like Tutankhamon? Like Ram-Asses? Like the one with the big nose?”
“No! A genuine one! A real god cloaked in flesh! An immortal being, not an undead one!”
“An immortal…?”
“Yes! Something that, while in suspended animation, is still very much alive, with memories and mind all intact! The undead servants are nothing compared to it! Think of the knowledge in such a mind! Every secret of that ancient realm!”
Codall had started breathing heavily and her long tongue lolled out of her mouth when she was finished. Peters was quite uncomfortable by this point and was fidgeting.
Broderick saw only potential now, though.
“And nobody knows about this other than us?”
“I’ve not told a living soul” Codall answered.
“Peters?”
“What?”
“Have you informed any outsiders about this discovery?”
“No sir”
“Good. Then it’s settled! Codall, figure out a way to get inside that tomb without an orgy. Peters, provide her with everything she needs. I will pay the bills later. Where can I get some whiskey?”

			***

For the next few days Codall busied herself at the digsite, sending requests for specific equipment and materials to Broderick, who quickly grew weary of them and reinstated that she should just send him a bill afterwards. This arrangement worked out much better and for about a week Broderick was fairly satisfied with himself, staying in a comfortable, air-conditioned suite with access to alcohol and did only the minimum amount of paper-work needed while ignoring incoming calls from insurance investigators or university staff who were looking to question him on how his company was going to make amends for the loss of the Heyerdahl. This topic seemed to interest Peters as well, as he one day managed to summon the courage to come in his room unannounced and blurt out a question.
“Do you know if there were any survivors?”
The question was rather confusing at first, as the two had been in no contact since Broderick retreated after their initial meeting. He would’ve preferred it if things had stayed that way, but no. That was not to be.
“Any survivors of what?” he replied, tying his bathrobe to cover up his nudity. While alone Broderick preferred to air himself out. He’d been sure the door had been locked, too. Must be getting absent-minded and forgetful at this age…
“You know what I mean! The ship! You don’t think I know you…” Peters spoke with an accusatory, quite upset tone, as if he had been building up his confidence and the timidity of their first encounter had simply evaporated.
Broderick sat down. Always good to be seated when talking with supplicants or applicants, it makes you seem in control of the situation and gives you an edge over your opponent’s subconscious.
“What brought this on?” he asked. Peters hesitated before answering, but only for a moment.
“Checked the web. Your company had a new press release. ‘No new information may be released at this juncture’, it said. And then the chipmunk…”
“Squirrel”
“Squirrel, right, it winked. They know something. YOU know something!”
Broderick tapped his fingers on his thigh and clicked his lips.
“I am a very important man, Peters, a very rich, very powerful man, someone who doesn’t make press releases. Other people make press releases. I take pride in having a Ratatoskr for every occasion. There’s one shipping to this rock as soon as we have something worth informing the world about. Whatever that something will be, I will only be reading a cliff notes version of it. An abridged report. 50 words or less. No, 25 words or less, make it 25 or less, yes. That’s good. Do you understand?”
This had left Peters off balance again. He was starting to lose the confidence he had built. He sort of nodded.
“This being the case, Dr. Peters, what makes you think I have any idea about survivors from… what was it again?”
“The Heyerdahl”
“Ah yes, that old thing. Named after a good old Earth explorer. Didn’t he discover the United States on a canoe while fleeing Atlantis?”
Peters squinted.
“You’re making fun of me”
“Humour is a defence mechanism. Disregarding the loss of life, whatever it may be, Heyerdahl was a massive investment in money and manpower. It took five years to construct, it had high-end fusion drives, extensive redundancies in life-support systems and my personal favourite, the experimental Automatons that the crew didn’t even know about…”
“The what?”
Broderick smiled, revealing his teeth.
“The ultimate redundancy. Should anything truly bad happen to all living personnel, the Automatons would get to work and do their jobs. They were never approved officially, but with a little help from some of the people working in the construction and design of the ship, some bribes and a science officer who was interested in the experiment…”
“Automatons…”
“Yes. Really something when you see them in action”
“I…”
“Let me be frank with you, Peters. I don’t know what happened to the ship. I DO know that one of the people involved screwed me over, because that ship should not have malfunctioned and gone down. I don’t know if it was intentional sabotage from my competitors or merely greed from a foolish, foolish man, but I narrowed down the suspects to one. And what happened? Poof. He disappeared with a great deal of company funds. I have bounty hunters going after him, and when they find him he will assume responsibility for everything. Or that’s the official story, anyway”
Peters sat down on a stool. His large frame looked comical on the tiny seat, but Broderick didn’t want anything else in the room so he wouldn’t have to entertain guests.
“Official story?” he asked, as if on cue. Have him eating from the palm of my hand, Broderick thought.
“Yes. Think about it. That person, who shall remain unnamed, could implicate myself in tampering with Heyerdahl’s construction and systems. We can’t have that! So it’s for the better if he is never found. With his money he will disappear on his own, and the company will do nothing about it. The insurance money will have to be paid as the investigators cannot prove anything untoward happened to the ship, yes, but all things considered I’ll end up with a loss. Wasted time, wasted manpower, wasted resources and wasted publicity. The board of directors is unhappy, and they feel maybe I should retire. For all this, I need this excavation to hit paydirt. Do you understand, Peters?”
“I do, but why are you telling me all this?”
Broderick shrugged as if he hadn’t thought of it. But he had. Oh, he’d thought long and hard about this cock and bull story.
“Peters… you’re a company man, yes?”
“I am, worked with you for-“
“Yes, worked with us for many a year. I checked your dossier. Not very impressive, is it? You can do better”
“That’s what my parents tell me…”
“And single too!”
“Well it’s…”
“Difficult to find a good woman, I know. A good human woman, anyway. With something else, well. They’re all good, but which one to pick then, eh? Maybe one who shares your enthusiasm for the past? Someone who, oh, maybe has a nice pair of tits and fluffy ears?”
Peters blushed.
“Yes, that would be a good woman, Peters, I tell you if I was younger… ah, but enough about me. What I’m telling you here is that you’re a company man, a loyal company man, and you could look to be getting further in your professional career. A find like what you and Codall, that is, Dr. Codall, have promised me, it could wipe clean the slate in regards to the Heyerdahl fiasco. But I don’t necessarily need to be mentioned to the public. It’s enough that my role is known to certain parties in within the company hierarchy. And to make the sensational find more, hm, palatable, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if the two scientists who crossed the gulf of time and space to find something spectacular also found something else… something more romantic? Like each other, yes?”
Peters was nodding with enthusiasm. He was captivated by this scenario almost as much as he had been captivated by the way Dr. Codall’s tail and ass swung in an opposite rhythm as she walked. Hard not to notice a gait like that.
Broderick clapped his hands.
“So!” he said. “What say we drink to the future?”
Peters smiled a dumb and happy smile. He practically felt the flesh of the strongly built Jackal woman in his hands already. And as for Broderick’s part, he felt that Jaana, his hand-picked reporter squirrel, would have a wonderful time making this love-story into an integral part of the discovered tomb. The Pharaoh, if there was such a being, would be a sideshow. How important could some ancient queen who had spent millennia in suspended animation even be for the future of the world?

			***

“This is going to be the single most important moment in recorded history” Stella Codall whispered as she drew the appropriate hieroglyph on the touch-screen and opened the doorway.