Origins (23 page)

Chapter 33:  Too Clever by Half

Goron gently tapped
the side of his hand-held geological surveying device causing the tiny display to flicker back to life.  The resolution on the screen was just enough for him to key in the parameters of a scan he needed performed. 

He snarled softly when the display dimmed again as the unit used its final bits of power to emit the required scanning pulse.  Goron knew full well this scan would be the device’s last, but he needed an answer to his question.  He would have liked nothing better than to plug the device into a recharging station, but the crashed ship’s engineering section was tumbling through space, probably still bouncing around in the asteroid belt.  There was no power to be found.

The screen grew brighter again when the results displayed.  Goron knew time was short so his eyes quickly took in the information.  A few short seconds later the device let out a faint wheeze and went dark for the last time.  A low growl formed involuntarily in his throat and fought its way to the surface.  The scanner going dead was enough to make him angry, but comprehension of the results the unit produced was infuriating. 

The growl quickly grew to a deafening roar as Goron stood up from his command chair and hurled the device across the bridge with all his might.  The scanner shattered into miniscule components when it met the solid metal bulkhead and left a deep dent in the wall; a testament to the raw strength his race possessed.

Elohim’s head snapped up from his engineering workstation as tiny parts of the scanning unit fell on to his furry shoulders.  “I take it the scanner was no longer useful?” he asked with mild amusement.

“Damn!  This Novi captain is too clever by half,” Goron shouted in frustration.  “He’s attacking our one advantage with these people. He is trying to undercut our status as gods, and he might just succeed.” 

“Excuse me for being a little thick, Leader, but I fail to see the severity of the situation.  So they turned the river red.  It’s a cheap parlor trick any fool with a chemistry background could’ve pulled off.  They probably had a man up stream mixing in the necessary chemicals on cue.  The color will pass and all will be forgotten.”

“With that kind of flawed reasoning it’s a wonder you’re even able to walk upright,” Goron snapped as he paced around to the back of the command chair and leaned forward on the back rest with his paws.  “The red tide came up stream from the sea, against the current.  No simple chemistry trick could do that.  The scanner confirmed my suspicion.  The red tide was the result of a massive volcanic eruption a few hundred miles to the north.

“The red sludge isn’t a simple chemical reaction,” Goron continued.  “It’s a poisonous combination of silt and ash that will kill everything in the river.  The irrigation canals, and ground water fed by the river are also rendered poisonous now.  There will be no fresh water for at least a week.”

Elohim, for the first time in the conversation, took on a serious demeanor.  “The rotting bodies of fish will lead to an insect infestation carrying with it all kinds of diseases.  Plus the plume of rock from the eruption will arrive in a few days blocking out the sun and raining fire down upon the city.  Every future catastrophe the Pharaoh’s sister prophesized will come to fruition; it’s practically a scientific certainty.”

Goron rolled his eyes and threw his arms up in disgust.  “Oh, very well done.  See what can happen when you use your head a bit.  Now that I’ve held your hand through solving that puzzle, maybe you can further test that gray matter between your ears and help me come up with a solution.” 

Goro
n paused to settle himself down.  “The thought of some God causing that earthquake already has these people panicked.  When the plagues hit things will descend into total anarchy.”

“The bottom line is, soon Pharaoh will come to us demanding we exert our divine powers to save his people from this god the Novi have created.  When he realizes we’re powerless to change the course of events he’ll turn against us.  Then we’re as good as dead, along with our victory over the Novi.”

Goron looked at his now silent engineering officer. The man was staring at nothing in particular with his eyes darting back and forth; his keen engineering mindset was already at work.  Goron only hoped a good idea was fighting its way to the surface.

Finally, Elohim spoke again, “What I can’t get past in my mind is how the Novi managed to cause a volcanic eruption so far away.”

“I doubt it was them, especially given the magnitude of the eruption.  No, they were just lucky enough to detect the event and put the results to good use.  Why is fate so cruel to us that it gives those unnatural beings a natural disaster to use and bend to their will?  That’s the very definition of irony isn’t it?” Goron asked with resignation. 

“All I can do right now is marvel at the elegance of the Novi commander’s plan,” Elohim admitted.  “He can’t interfere with the local culture directly so he uses a disgruntled member of the royal family and a natural disaster to do the work for him.”  

“Yes, our adversary is very clever.”  Goron conceded.  He stood silently pondering the situation until his ears slowly perked up as he thought back to the conclusions he had come to about the Novi captain’s behavior. 

“However, he is also prone to rash action if pressed outside of his well conceived plans.  All we need to do is find the right disruptive influence, and
he might be kind enough to bring his Novi crew out of hiding for us to finally grab once and for all.”

“The pyramid is nearin
g completion,” Elohim observed, “but is still a few weeks off. If we can find something to motivate the overseers and workers to speed up the process, we might finish the project before all hell breaks loose.

“First things first though.  Pharaoh will demand action from us, action we’ll be powerless to take.  I think at the first sign of protest from that whelp we need to execute him as an example to the rest.”

“You raise two excellent points,” Goron said.  “Pharaoh will need silencing, and the work must get finished before the worst of the plagues descend upon the city.” 

Goron once again paced back around to the front of the command chair and took his seat looking very calm and relaxed.  “I think its time we introduced Pharaoh to some specimens we keep in the medical bay.”

Goron suddenly stood up again, as if he accidentally hit an eject button, and looked with concern over at his only surviving crewman, “The medical bay’s still attached to the ship right?  It’s not floating out there with the engineering section?”

Elohim’s ears perked up as he started to comprehend his leader’s next play.  “It’ll take some effort to reach, but the medical bay’s still here.   I’ll get to work clearing a path.”

“Good,” Goron said softly as he relaxed back into his command chair, feeling worthy of the seat once more.  “Pharaoh will be our ticket home then.”

Hathor reached the
top of the sand dune and looked around hoping the oasis would finally be in sight.  To her great disappointment there was nothing but golden sand stretching to the crest of the next dune.  More and more she was beginning to feel the weight of the large clay vase sitting on top of her head.  Of particular concern was the fact that the vase would be many times heavier once filled with water for the return trip.  Hathor started questioning her ability to make the trek back to the city with the desperately needed fresh water for her family.  Also bothering her was the nagging feeling that she was going the wrong way and was hopelessly lost in the middle of the desert.  She looked to her friend for support.

“Ever notice how the desert all looks the same.  It feels like we’ve been walking in circles, are you sure this is the right way?”  Hathor asked.

“Wait a minute.  You’re following me? I thought I was following you,” Heket said playfully.  “Relax.  We’re not the first to travel to the lake.  Look,” she pointed to the sand in front of them, “this is a well worn path.  Our ability to even see the path in this constantly shifting sand is a testament to the thousands who have gone this way before us.”

Hathor couldn’t argue with the logic.  Finally, she let out a soft sigh and willed her feet to start moving forward again. “This journey is miserable, but I’m still glad to get away from the work camp.   The rotten egg stench of the river combined with the decaying fish floating on the surface is unbearable.

“Not to mention all the frogs,” Heket added.  “They can’t live in the river anymore so I guess they decided to make the city their new home.  At least they’re something to eat.”

“True. I’ll take a free frog dinner over having to face the food line and the desires of the distributors for the slop they dish out,” Hathor stated as she spat in the sand beside her.  “Emir used to take the kids alone to get food until they instituted the one bowl per person limit.  The distributors noticed quickly that all the pretty women stayed away so of course they had to put a stop to that activity.”

“Being beautiful is a blessing and a curse at the same time,” Heket said with compassion.  “Everyone agrees.  There’s no dishonor allowing yourself to be violated so your family can eat.  There’s no choice in the matter.”

“That fact still doesn’t make it any easier to bear while the sacrifice is made.  The worst part is the bastards make it seem like a choice.  I’d prefer they simply force me behind the tent rather than standing arms crossed until I take his hand and he, in turn, hands the ladle to my husband.  It must just devastate Emir every time it happens.”

“I’ll say; from what I heard he got mad enough to sneak around the tent to kill the rapist with his bare hands,” Heket stated with pride.  “How’d he manage to not get caught by the other guards anyway?”

“Is that what people are saying, that Emir killed the guard?”  Hathor asked with alarm.  “If that rumor gets out they might come after him.”

“Of course that’s what people are saying, who else would have done it?”

“Truly, I have no idea who it was that saved me.  I haven’t seen him before or since, but as long as I live, I’ll never forget his face or what he did for me,” Hathor said as they began ascending yet another sand dune. 

“It was all so surreal.  The guard and I rounded the corner of the bordello tent and a set of arms reached out of the shadows, grabbed the guard by the throat and squeezed the life out of him.”

“My god, what did you do?”

“Nothing.  I just stood there in shock.  One minute I’m mentally preparing for the violation, and the next, I’m being rescued and watching my attacker suffer the death I wished upon him a hundred times before.  Then my liberator, without saying a word or even really looking at me, took my arm and calmly led us back to Emir and the kids.  I never even got a chance to thank him,” she said with regret.  “I just wanted to get away from there before the body was found.”

“Apparently your hero was in no hurry.  I heard he even took the time to fill his own bowl before vanishing back into the shadows.”  Heket’s voice turned a bit to reveal a level of fear.  “Killing a person like that and then moving on as if nothing happened takes a certain level of lunacy don’t you think?  It’s not like stepping on a bug you know.  The whole incident makes me wonder if we should be relieved or frightened that he’s still out there.”

“I don’t know about that,” Hathor countered.  “I do know the guards are certainly frightened now.  The rapes have stopped, at least for now, so I’m most definitely relieved there is a vigilante on the loose.”

Hathor finished her last sentence and looked straight ahead.  The scene that presented itself when the two women crested the sand dune was surreal.  A small fresh water lake surrounded by green vegetation lay before them.  The greenery ended abruptly in sand about twenty feet away from the shore.  The lake looked big enough to provide water for the people in the camp for quite some time, but there wasn’t much to spare.  She cringed knowing there wasn’t enough to keep the livestock
watered.  The cattle would likely die from dehydration and pestilence.

All along the lake shore hundreds of women were knee deep in the water, filling their large clay vases.  As the two descended toward the lake a low murmur slowly became audible and grew into a loud chaotic chorus of chirps and croaks.  They both realized in horror, that the greenery around the lake was not vegetation at all; it was frogs.  Millions upon millions of large green
frogs inhabited the lake and its surroundings.  They were seeking refuge in the only source of fresh water around.

“And I thought the camp was infested with frogs, I don’t think we’ll even be able to step anywhere without squishing them,” Hathor said with revulsion.

“Come on, we didn’t walk all this way for nothing.  If they don’t get out of the way of our feet, it’s on them; literally,” Heket said as she proceeded into the sea of slimy green creatures.

Hathor let loose a full body shiver as she carefully walked away from the lake with a vase full of fresh water on her head.

“That was thoroughly revolting.  I don’t think a single one of them tried to get out of the way of my footfalls.  It’s almost like they welcomed the sweet release death brought.  Do you think they know something we don’t?”  Hathor asked in an attempt to make light of the situation.

“I don’t know, plenty of the slimy critters tried to hitch a ride back to the city by jumping down my shirt,” Heket replied with a disgusted snarl. 

Both women fell silent as a low groan came from the vase Hathor carried.  It was time to stop and rest anyway, so she gratefully set the heavy object down on the sand to have a closer look.  The thought of the vase suddenly breaking after all the trouble she’d gone through to fill and haul it back to the city made her want to scream.

The outside looked fine; no cracks visible.  When she moved her face over the top, a particularly large frog poked its head out of the water and smacked her nose with its tongue.  Hathor shrieked in surprise and fell backwards, landing sprawled out on the sand and laughed uncontrollably.

Heket walked over and lent her friend a helping hand back to her feet.  Unlike Hathor, she wasn’t in a jovial mood. “I hope princess Mosa tells her God to change the river back, it’s making everyone miserable.  Especially the slaves since the overseers send us to fetch their water on top of our own.”

“If it leads to our freedom, I’m willing to put up with a short term inconvenience, even if it does sometimes jump out of the water and flick me on the nose,” Hathor responded still laughing a bit.  “It beats the hell out of bending over for my meals every other day.”

Hathor strutted back to the vase and calmly reached in and removed the hitchhiker.  She paused just before tossing the large frog to the side.  “On second thought, I think I’ll hang onto you.  Pharaoh probably won’t release us so I’ll be needing a free meal at some point.”  With that, she dropped her future meal back into the water, picked up the vase, and continued on her march back to the city.

The two women started ascending what they both hoped was the last sand dune before reaching the city when a low buzzing murmur began to crescendo in their ears.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.  Are we seriously back at the lake again?”  Hathor exclaimed in frustration.  “I can’t go on much farther.  I told you we were going around in circles, didn’t I?”

“I don’t think we’re back at the lake.  This isn’t croaking, it’s buzzing,” Heket said in alarm.

As they approached the peak of the dune, the sky began to fade from blue to gray, to a nearly black haze just above the ground.  Hathor gasped when she saw the outlines of tents and the nearly finished pyramid rising high into the sky.  She quickly snapped her mouth shut again when a swarm of flies moved straight toward her.

“My god, the city’s consumed with flies,” Heket stammered in disbelief.  “We haven’t been gone that long, how could this happen?”

Just then Hathor’s green passenger poked its head out of the water and rapidly snatched a pair of flies right out of the air with its lightning quick tongue.  Then it ducked back under the water’s surface only to pop back up again and repeat the procedure.

“I think we have our answer,” Hathor said coolly.  “With the frogs gone there’s nothing left to eat the flies and keep them in check.  Plus all those dead fish in the river are an ideal place for them to lay eggs.”

“You still think Mosa’s God turning the river to blood was a good thing?” Heket asked.

“I am certainly wishing I brought a few more fly eating frogs home in my water vase,” Hathor responded.  “Come on, let’s get inside the tent and see how Emir and the kids are doing with all these bugs.”

When they reached the tent, Hathor put the vase down and untied the front flap to enter the tent.  She poked her head in, but was disappointed to find the humble abode empty.  Not thinking much of it, she calmly set the large vase inside and tightened the flap down again.

“It’s mid day,” Heket observed, “Why is everyone still working.  They should be here, away from the heat to enjoy the break.”

Just then two guards rounded the corner and spotted the pair of women.  Normally a set of guards catching two women alone and vulnerable was a bad thing, but since the food server’s murder the random raping was stopped almost completely.  Hathor calmed herself with that thought as the two men walked purposefully their way.

“You two get back to work.”

“A thousand pardons, sir, we just returned from the lake with fresh water,” Hathor said contritely.

“
Since you did not hear the proclamation, you are excused from punishment this time,” the taller guard said with a commanding voice.  “Until the monument is complete, all slaves will work day and night.”

Heket’s jaw dropped open upon hearing the order.  “Wait a minute, that doesn’t make any sense.  What about sleep, what about eating, what about not having the light of the sun to work by?”

This time the shorter guard spoke up, “You slaves will sleep in shifts next to the work site, food will be delivered and consumed on the job site, and the moon is full and we have plenty of torches.  No excuses, woman; now get to work,” he said gruffly as he grabbed Heket by the arm and forcefully ushered her down the row of tents toward the work site.

Hathor followed immediately before the taller guard decided he needed to grab her by the arm, or someplace less comfortable for that matter.  As they walked she looked over at her escort and asked meekly, “May I ask, sir, what is the rush to finish all of the sudden?”

Slowly, the guard donned a tortured look as if he was about to burst into tears.  Realizing the break in his composure, the man shook his head and straightened himself back into his dominant pose.  “The great one has fallen ill.  The enchanters have done all they can, but they don’t think he will live through the week.”

“Oh no,” Hathor said while trying to sound as saddened as possible.  It was a tough task given the extreme joy she felt upon hearing the news that the architect of her servitude was near death.

“Curse that Mosa,” the tall guard continued as he brushed away the swarm of flies buzzing around his face.  “This is all her God’s doing.  This place will fall apart without Pharaoh’s guidance.  Anubis has promised to take Pharaoh with him when he ascends to the heavens once the pyramid is finished.  Then they’ll be able to restore his life force and return him to us so he can finish his great mission.  If Pharaoh dies before the journey to the other side, he’ll be lost to us forever.”

“So Pharaoh’s survival hinges on the pyramid being finished before he succumbs to his illness,” Hathor summarized.

“A slave with a brain, remarkable.  Mark my words.  If the monument isn’t completed in time, every last slave who slacked off during its construction will be executed.”  The guard suddenly stopped Hathor and spun her around by the arm so they were face to face. 

He snapped his index finger up
and pointed it right at Hathor’s nose with a menacing glare.  “Every single one, even if I have to hunt you and the rest of them down one by one.   So when you think about it, not only is the great one’s life at stake, your own is as well.”

“Then we had better not waste any more time; let’s get to work,” Hathor said to disarm the threatening situation.  The guard released his iron grip, and she immediately turned to proceed toward the work site.  In the back of her mind, she noted that her feelings about Mosa’s God were now gravitating to Heket’s cynical point of view.