Space Pioneer 1 - 15. Chapter 15

Hulton was working on gaining access to Ezer’s computer, while the others were monitoring Ezer’s ship and the planet Earth in the distance. The engineers were once again checking on the ship and refining the systems. An hour had gone by when Hulton reported that he had established a line to Ezer’s main computer. The man set to analyzing the incoming data. Another two hours passed by and then Hulton announced that he was ready to report on his findings. He turned to the men who had assembled on the bridge.

"Ezer and his crew were monitoring the planet after the time jump for a couple of days," he said. "They spent three days with gathering and analyzing data. Gravity, climate, atmosphere, everything you need to look into before going down on an unknown planet."

"Perfect," Lest said. "This will save us a lot of time. We won’t have to rerun the analysis. I trust Ezer completely in this respect. What did he find out? Anything worth of interest?"

"The planet’s conditions resemble Daglon’s largely," Hulton replied. "The oxygen level is slightly different, but this shouldn’t be a problem at all. Daglon and Earth are almost twin planets."

"The Seth discovered two planets suited for settlement, but unfortunately the ones in charge acted too late on the finding. They missed the chance to evacuate the whole planet. That’s the whim of fate or maybe just bad timing," Lest said. He straightened. "Anyway, I suspect Ezer left in a shuttle. When did he leave for Earth? Did you find out about it, Hulton?"

"Three persons left the main ship in a shuttle five days ago. Ezer Malk, Dayton Deer, and Espos Min, according to the passenger manifest that was saved to the main computer," Hulton said.

"I’ve never heard the names of the other men. Did you find any information about them?" Lest asked.

"Dayton Deer is a pilot, navigator, and engineer," Hulton said after scanning the data again. He looked up with surprise. "He’s twenty years of age. He has just finished spaceflight school."

Lest’s eyes narrowed. "Another young pilot who Ezer will try to spoil or already has. It’s absolutely sickening. I kind of hate Ezer Malk. I must admit that I’ve never really liked the man. It was blindness on my part," he said.

Hulton gave him a puzzled look and glanced at the other men, but none of them said a word, although everybody knew exactly what was going on. Lest made a gesture with his hand and inhaled deeply.

"Ezer Malk tends to take advantage of his students," he said in a more sober voice. "That’s it about it."

Hulton was apparently still not able to make the connections. He looked from one to the other and then cleared his throat.

"Espos Min is a scientist, a linguist to be precisely," he continued. "He published several studies on the late Seth and early Daglon language."

"I suspect the man is supposed to serve as a translator," Lest said.

"Why?" Hulton asked. "Centuries have gone by since the Seth landed on Earth. Their language most likely disappeared long ago. We know from Earth’s database that many different languages were already spoken on the planet at the time of the Ancient Egyptians."

"I could imagine that the Ancient Egyptians have preserved the Seth language," Jeff said. "They preserved everything. I could imagine that Pharaoh Cheops and his High Priests knew how to read and speak the Seth language. Think of the Great Pyramid. It’s a masterpiece. I can’t imagine they built it entirely on their own. They must have had plans and instructions, written in the Seth language most likely."

"Yes," Lest said. "Some words have also survived in the Daglon language to our day, the name of my spaceship, for instance. The meaning of the word Horus is the same in the Egyptian language. Falcon. I looked it up in the data that we have pulled from Earth."

"It’s not a very creative name for a spaceship. I find it lacks ingenuity," Hulton remarked.

Lest frowned at the man. Jeff intervened.

"It’s a fitting name for a spaceship," he said quickly. "Two lunar modules on Earth were named Eagle and Falcon. Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969, ninety-five years ago. The name of the landing module was Eagle. A later landing module was called Falcon."

"Are you saying your species entered space for the first time ninety-five years ago?" Hulton asked with a staggered look.

"A few endeavors were undertaken earlier, but we landed on the Moon ninety-five years ago. That’s correct," Jeff said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"You said you were on your way to Mars when Captain Lest picked you up in space. Are you saying it took your species ninety-five years to make the next step into space?" Hulton asked in disbelief.

"Sort of," Jeff replied curtly. He leaned back in his seat.

"I cannot believe it," Hulton said. "That’s simply archaic. I don’t have words for it."

"Then why don’t you hold your tongue and keep your mouth shut?" Lest asked sharply.

Hulton turned away, shaking his head.

"We need more information. What did the linguist find out? Also, any ideas how we want to proceed in case we must get off the Horus? I can’t imagine we’d pass as Egyptian natives," Jeff said. "And where will we hide our spaceship or shuttle?"

"Where did Ezer hide his shuttle, by the way?" Lest asked. "Hulton, can you trace the flight of the shuttle and the landing site? The flight data should be documented and saved to the computer of the main ship."

"I’ve already found out that they went down on the planet at night," Hulton said. "I should be able to locate the landing place of the shuttle. Give me a minute. I’m re-scanning the data."

"We’ll land with the Horus and not with a shuttle," Lest said after a moment of consideration. "I’ve made my mind up right now."

"I’ve traced the landing site," Hulton said, pointing at the screen in front of him.

A map showed a river and symbols that marked ancient monuments.

"This is the river Nile," Jeff said. "And this is the Nile Delta. The pyramids are located south-west of it."

"Ezer’s shuttle landed here," Hulton said. "The red cross west of the pyramids marks the landing place."

"He landed in the desert," Jeff said in astonishment.

"Where else should he land without taking the risk of being detected right after touch-down?" Hulton asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jeff ignored the man. "How far is it from the landing site to the pyramid?"

"Twenty minutes or so with a Daglon Cherti shuttle," Hulton said.

"A Cherti shuttle? I heard it was not supposed to be released before the Alliance Grand Meeting in two years," Lest said.

"The official version of the Cherti is not yet released," Hulton replied, "but the beta version is already available for testing. Available to the space companies that have a license for testing, I mean."

"How did Ezer manage to get hold of a Cherti?" Lest wondered.

Hulton shrugged. "It wasn’t difficult, I guess. Ezer Malk runs a private space institution, he knows how to pull strings, and he has a lot of money and many connections."

"This is true," Jeff replied, thinking of their flight to the Beliad region. "What’s it about this Cherti shuttle?" he asked.

"A Cherti shuttle can fly in space, air, and hover over the ground," Hulton said. "It has advanced stealth technology. It can hide completely from sight. Alternatively, it can reflect an image to deceive observers. The technology isn’t exactly new. It has in fact been in use for centuries, but it’s said that it was brought to perfection. Combined with the wide range of applications, the vehicle is perfect for Ezer’s operation. They can hover from their landing place to the pyramid site and park there without being noticed. The Cherti is faster than other shuttles of the same size and it can take off a planet with a cold start unlike any other shuttle. This is the key advantage. The Cherti can also carry a lot of weight. They can easily transport small to medium sized artifacts. They would have to land with the spaceship in order to retrieve bigger objects, however."

"They might want to land with the main ship at a later time," Lest said. "I suspect they landed with the shuttle in order to scan and scour the area."

"The word cherti sounds Egyptian," Jeff said.

Hulton checked Earth’s database. "Cherti is a god of the underworld and the ferryman of the dead," he said.

There was a brief silence.

"Sounds like a bad omen, if you ask me," Jeff said.

"It shows again that the Egyptian language and the old Daglon language originate from the language spoken on Seth," Lest said.

"The old Daglon language?" Jeff asked.

"The words horus and cherti aren’t used in everyday Daglon language anymore, although everybody still understands them," Lest explained. "They’re still used in classic literature and for example in stage plays. They’re also used for naming ships and spaceships."

"It’s the same with the name of my ship," Jeff said with a smile. "Daidalos is an ancient Greek name."

"It seems that Daglons and Earthers have very much in common. This habit is probably in your genes," Hulton said. "Anyway, Captain Lest, why did the Daglons name their shuttle after Cherti, the ferryman of the dead?"

"Chert is something between a carrier and a cruiser. Cherti is the smaller version of it," Lest said. "Cherti is a shuttle, a ferry, in the Daglon language, albeit it is not the ferry of the dead. The meanings of the Daglon and the Egyptian word are not entirely the same. Ezer hired a linguist. Did the man save anything to the main computer? A dictionary maybe or voice recordings, anything that might be of help?" Lest asked.

"I’m going to check on this right away. I will report back to you," Hulton said, turning to his devices.

The others left the bridge.

***

An hour later, Hulton joined Lest and Jeff in the lounge. He carried a pile of papers in his hand.

"The linguist fed the main computer with his studies and the computer generated a list of words," he said, waving the papers. "The list is kind of a dictionary. The man listed Daglon and Egyptian words and their respective meanings."

Hulton placed the papers on the table. The men bent forward and studied the lists.

"Quite a number of corresponding words," Lest said after brushing through the papers.

"I’ve found a voice recording also," Hulton said. "The scientist recorded the words. I can send the recoding to your neural implants, if you want to listen."

Lest gave Hulton a nod. The man focused on his implant and sent the message. The men listened to the voice recording.

"There’s no doubt about the Daglon words," Lest said. "Can we be sure about the Egyptian words, though? I suspect he derived the pronunciation from the old Daglon words."

"We’ll find out about it when we speak with the natives," Hulton said.

"I don’t think this is a good idea," Jeff said. "We’ll never pass as Egyptian natives."

"We need not pass as Egyptians," Hulton said. "We could be traders, coming from afar. It’s not entirely incorrect, is it? I can check Earth’s database to find a fitting country of origin."

"Postpone this for later," Lest said. "I don’t really intend to meet any humans down there. My major concern is where we can land the Horus without the ship being detected."

He seized a portable device that was placed on the table. Lest opened it and connected it with the main computer. A map of Earth showed on the display. Lest zoomed in.

"How about we land in the eastern desert?" he asked, pointing at the Sinai Peninsula. "The computer can check the area and pick a suitable landing site. We’ll leave the Horus there and move on in a shuttle. Our shuttle isn’t a Cherti, but it’s not a bad shuttle either. We can cover the distance from the landing site to the pyramid in a couple of hours. Nobody should spot us, if we travel at night."

The others agreed. The captain and the crew got back to work. Le’Ton plotted a course and Corr started the engines.

The Horus was approaching Earth.

***