Kemetians
29-11-2005, 18:40
The sun was shining, for the first time in many fractions. The still blue ocean glistened beneath its gentle red glow, and several of the umbrella plants had opened themselves up and turned to face it, their big red leaves basking in the refreshing warmth. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and not a breeze in the air. It was a perfect day.
Which was an unusual thing on this wet, hot world. A small planet, Geb orbited a red dwarf star. Which meant, in order for anything to live on the world it was dangerously close to the dim star. To make matters worse, it was a flare star -- it frequently bombarded the small planet with intense amounts heat and radiation. Most animals had evolved to survive them, provided some degree of cover could be found. The plants in particular only needed to fold away their red leaves and they were fine. Like many animals on Earth, most sensed such things coming before they presented a risk. Other animals, like the Gebians themselves, had to seek refuge underground for the duration of the flare or suffer some... unpleasant consequences. In the past, they had relied on mystical prophesies and the behaviour of other animals to tell them when a flare was going to occur, but in this industrial age they had more sophisticated monitoring equipment. The flare was still an important part of every culture on the planet, but it was less of a danger these days.
Mamchak thought himself lucky, as Junopa was the only country on Planet Geb that had any decent weather since the last flare. It was hard to imagine that everybody in this place had been forced to the underground shelters only a few days ago by the deadly solar flare. For today, people bustled around the narrow streets of Junopa city, taking advantage of the first decent amount of weather in a long while. Most of them wore fairly revealing clothes, exposing their pinkish mottled skin in excess to try and keep cool.
He stood on Main Street, flapping his thin ears and looking around at the impressive architecture of the city centre. It was surely the grandest city on Geb. The towering City Hall sat at the end of the street, its design reminiscent of a strange cross between Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek architecture. An enormous golden plaque was fixed firmly to the top of the building, which signified the founding of the city and the founding of their nation. Beside it, the even larger Museum of Nature & History, which contained the largest and most impressive exhibit in the world, and some of the finest minds of their nation worked there on various discoveries. On the opposite side of the street were various other official buildings, including the police headquarters for the entire nation, the national bank and the Department of Military Operations. In the centre of the collection of prestigious buildings was a tall obelisk, reaching towards the sky.
It was the museum that Mamchak and his brethren of younglings were trying to get to. Its enormous main entrance was so close, and yet with all these people in the way, so far away. They pushed through the crowds of people, almost being swept away in the torrent a few times but always maintaining their course. With a cry of success they finally reached the main stairway, and made their way up towards the entrance.
As the posters inside testified, the museum had just received a new set of artifacts from a dig down in the Equatorial Wastelands. An ancient nation which called itself 'Kemet' once inhabited the barren climate slightly north of the equator, almost 8,000 years ago. A superpower of the era, Kemet was far more advanced than any of the other civilisations at the time, and they left behind enormous monuments of their greatness. Statues of their gods, huge obelisks much like the one that stood before him now, temples and cities of enormous size. The glorious white pyramids were particularly famous. They appeared to be perfectly symmetrical, and were obviously built to last much longer than the 8,000 years they had stood. But how they were built, and why, remained a mystery to this day.
Recently, in a particularly hazardous dig on the equator, scientists had unearthed a previously undiscovered pyramid, and with it, a whole new series of artifacts. They were said to be some of the most magnificent finds to date, with literally tons of golden treasures. A sarcophagus was also located and extracted, much to the anger of some religious zealots who still believed in the old gods. All of it had been brought to Junopa and put on display. The scientists hoped that the exhibit would raise enough money on its own so that they could begin an analysis of the artifacts.
Trying to control the three younglings who followed in his wake, Mamchak eagerly paid the entrance fee and followed the directions on the walls. The foremost exhibit in the museum had always been the massive purpothod skeletons. These massive creatures could not really be classified as mammal or reptile, as they shared few characteristics with either. They were more like a cross between the two, with some insect characteristics thrown in. They were amongst the first large creatures which had evolved to resist the deadly solar flares. Standing at nearly 40 feet, Mamchak was glad they had been extinct for nearly 10 million years.
Passing by the ferocious series of purpothod exhibits after satiating the curiosity of the younglings, they entered into some of the less imposing exhibits. A recreation of a Junopan town 500 years ago, a display of old weapons, some models charting the progress of architectural techniques over the ages. Finally, hanging above a large set of glass doors, a banner which read; "Ancient Kemet Exhibit".
Mamchak was looking forward to this part of the exhibit. He had always been fascinated by Ancient Kemet. He was less pleased to see the queue that had formed outside the double-doors, but nevertheless he patiently stood at the end of the line with the younglings and waited.
"Father! Let's go back to the monsters!" they kept yelling to him, pulling on his jacket.
"Stop it," he said. "I will buy you a frosted jung-jung berry each if you just wait patiently. Father wants to see this exhibit... we can do whatever you want when I am done." That seemed to satisfy them for now. They began to play word games with each other as the queue gradually began to move closer towards the doorway.
An hour passed, and the queue finally moved him and the younglings to the front. After stamping his pass, the attendant nodded to him and allowed him to enter.
And the world he entered was awesome. It seemed as though the room was practically made of gold and precious gem stones. The glorious artifacts were everywhere, covering every horizontal surface and most of the walls. The centre of the large room was cordoned off with some glass divides. Mamchak couldn't tell what was inside the fenced-off area, as it was almost completely obscured by a crowd of people scrambling over each other to look.
He looked around the room, the younglings following quietly, apparently eager to get their bribe. He looked at all of the exquisite jewelry and clothing, all of the royal treasures, which included golden swords and the like. There was so much of it that he couldn't take it all in... which reminded him that he needed to buy a visitors book before they left.
Eventually, the section in the middle was the only part he hadn't seen. He politely made his way through the crowd, which was finally starting to dwindle as the museum got close to closing time, until he finally reached the glass fence. A man, who was probably one of the scientists involved in the excavation, milled around inside, using protective gloves to pick up various artifacts and look them over. Inside the area was all the more delicate stuff. A series of four stone canopic jars, the various ancient texts (which nobody had been able to decipher), and the sarcophagus. It was the sarcophagus which was most impressive of all, as the lid had been removed and inside... a perfectly preserved mummy!
"Wow..." Mamchak whispered.
"Ooh father, is that a corpse?!" his only male youngling exclaimed enthusiastically.
"It is a mummy," Mamchak corrected him.
"Mummy doesn't look like that," the youngling said, furrowing his brow.
"A mummy is a preserved body," the scientist inside the area said, looking up and smiling at the youngling. "To stop the body from rotting, it is drained and preserved with these bandages. Of particular interest to you I might imagine, they used to pull the brain out through the breathing hole with a sharp hook."
"Cooool!" the youngling said, which received a glare from Mamchak. "I mean... gross..."
"How old is this mummy, anyway?" Mamchak asked the scientist. The badge he wore read 'Dr. Hulak'.
"We do not know," Dr. Hulak shrugged, his pink ears drooping slightly. "This is the first place it has been since the excavation. We are hoping that this exhibit will provide us with the funds to continue our studies. I personally would very much like to subject this body to an X-ray. It looks remarkably well-preserved, and generally larger and bulkier than most we have encountered in the past. I believe that this mummy represents a new form of preservation discovered by the Kemetians prior to their disappearance."
"Interesting..." Mamchak nodded thoughtfully. The mummy was certainly larger than most he had seen in books. It seemed to be at least a foot taller than he was, and quite broad. As Dr. Hulak wandered off to other artifacts, Mamchak looked closely at the mummy. There was something odd about it.
"Come on father!" the younglings said, and started pulling at his trousers again. Seems like standing in one place for too long was too much for them. As he turned around to give in, he was certain he saw a flicker of red light in the corner of his eye, but... it was probably nothing.
"Alright you three, where do you want to go?" he asked. The younglings had suddenly fallen silent, gazing through him. The crowd all around the central exhibit had fallen silent too, all staring past him.
All he heard was the rasping sound of breathing, right behind him.
Which was an unusual thing on this wet, hot world. A small planet, Geb orbited a red dwarf star. Which meant, in order for anything to live on the world it was dangerously close to the dim star. To make matters worse, it was a flare star -- it frequently bombarded the small planet with intense amounts heat and radiation. Most animals had evolved to survive them, provided some degree of cover could be found. The plants in particular only needed to fold away their red leaves and they were fine. Like many animals on Earth, most sensed such things coming before they presented a risk. Other animals, like the Gebians themselves, had to seek refuge underground for the duration of the flare or suffer some... unpleasant consequences. In the past, they had relied on mystical prophesies and the behaviour of other animals to tell them when a flare was going to occur, but in this industrial age they had more sophisticated monitoring equipment. The flare was still an important part of every culture on the planet, but it was less of a danger these days.
Mamchak thought himself lucky, as Junopa was the only country on Planet Geb that had any decent weather since the last flare. It was hard to imagine that everybody in this place had been forced to the underground shelters only a few days ago by the deadly solar flare. For today, people bustled around the narrow streets of Junopa city, taking advantage of the first decent amount of weather in a long while. Most of them wore fairly revealing clothes, exposing their pinkish mottled skin in excess to try and keep cool.
He stood on Main Street, flapping his thin ears and looking around at the impressive architecture of the city centre. It was surely the grandest city on Geb. The towering City Hall sat at the end of the street, its design reminiscent of a strange cross between Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek architecture. An enormous golden plaque was fixed firmly to the top of the building, which signified the founding of the city and the founding of their nation. Beside it, the even larger Museum of Nature & History, which contained the largest and most impressive exhibit in the world, and some of the finest minds of their nation worked there on various discoveries. On the opposite side of the street were various other official buildings, including the police headquarters for the entire nation, the national bank and the Department of Military Operations. In the centre of the collection of prestigious buildings was a tall obelisk, reaching towards the sky.
It was the museum that Mamchak and his brethren of younglings were trying to get to. Its enormous main entrance was so close, and yet with all these people in the way, so far away. They pushed through the crowds of people, almost being swept away in the torrent a few times but always maintaining their course. With a cry of success they finally reached the main stairway, and made their way up towards the entrance.
As the posters inside testified, the museum had just received a new set of artifacts from a dig down in the Equatorial Wastelands. An ancient nation which called itself 'Kemet' once inhabited the barren climate slightly north of the equator, almost 8,000 years ago. A superpower of the era, Kemet was far more advanced than any of the other civilisations at the time, and they left behind enormous monuments of their greatness. Statues of their gods, huge obelisks much like the one that stood before him now, temples and cities of enormous size. The glorious white pyramids were particularly famous. They appeared to be perfectly symmetrical, and were obviously built to last much longer than the 8,000 years they had stood. But how they were built, and why, remained a mystery to this day.
Recently, in a particularly hazardous dig on the equator, scientists had unearthed a previously undiscovered pyramid, and with it, a whole new series of artifacts. They were said to be some of the most magnificent finds to date, with literally tons of golden treasures. A sarcophagus was also located and extracted, much to the anger of some religious zealots who still believed in the old gods. All of it had been brought to Junopa and put on display. The scientists hoped that the exhibit would raise enough money on its own so that they could begin an analysis of the artifacts.
Trying to control the three younglings who followed in his wake, Mamchak eagerly paid the entrance fee and followed the directions on the walls. The foremost exhibit in the museum had always been the massive purpothod skeletons. These massive creatures could not really be classified as mammal or reptile, as they shared few characteristics with either. They were more like a cross between the two, with some insect characteristics thrown in. They were amongst the first large creatures which had evolved to resist the deadly solar flares. Standing at nearly 40 feet, Mamchak was glad they had been extinct for nearly 10 million years.
Passing by the ferocious series of purpothod exhibits after satiating the curiosity of the younglings, they entered into some of the less imposing exhibits. A recreation of a Junopan town 500 years ago, a display of old weapons, some models charting the progress of architectural techniques over the ages. Finally, hanging above a large set of glass doors, a banner which read; "Ancient Kemet Exhibit".
Mamchak was looking forward to this part of the exhibit. He had always been fascinated by Ancient Kemet. He was less pleased to see the queue that had formed outside the double-doors, but nevertheless he patiently stood at the end of the line with the younglings and waited.
"Father! Let's go back to the monsters!" they kept yelling to him, pulling on his jacket.
"Stop it," he said. "I will buy you a frosted jung-jung berry each if you just wait patiently. Father wants to see this exhibit... we can do whatever you want when I am done." That seemed to satisfy them for now. They began to play word games with each other as the queue gradually began to move closer towards the doorway.
An hour passed, and the queue finally moved him and the younglings to the front. After stamping his pass, the attendant nodded to him and allowed him to enter.
And the world he entered was awesome. It seemed as though the room was practically made of gold and precious gem stones. The glorious artifacts were everywhere, covering every horizontal surface and most of the walls. The centre of the large room was cordoned off with some glass divides. Mamchak couldn't tell what was inside the fenced-off area, as it was almost completely obscured by a crowd of people scrambling over each other to look.
He looked around the room, the younglings following quietly, apparently eager to get their bribe. He looked at all of the exquisite jewelry and clothing, all of the royal treasures, which included golden swords and the like. There was so much of it that he couldn't take it all in... which reminded him that he needed to buy a visitors book before they left.
Eventually, the section in the middle was the only part he hadn't seen. He politely made his way through the crowd, which was finally starting to dwindle as the museum got close to closing time, until he finally reached the glass fence. A man, who was probably one of the scientists involved in the excavation, milled around inside, using protective gloves to pick up various artifacts and look them over. Inside the area was all the more delicate stuff. A series of four stone canopic jars, the various ancient texts (which nobody had been able to decipher), and the sarcophagus. It was the sarcophagus which was most impressive of all, as the lid had been removed and inside... a perfectly preserved mummy!
"Wow..." Mamchak whispered.
"Ooh father, is that a corpse?!" his only male youngling exclaimed enthusiastically.
"It is a mummy," Mamchak corrected him.
"Mummy doesn't look like that," the youngling said, furrowing his brow.
"A mummy is a preserved body," the scientist inside the area said, looking up and smiling at the youngling. "To stop the body from rotting, it is drained and preserved with these bandages. Of particular interest to you I might imagine, they used to pull the brain out through the breathing hole with a sharp hook."
"Cooool!" the youngling said, which received a glare from Mamchak. "I mean... gross..."
"How old is this mummy, anyway?" Mamchak asked the scientist. The badge he wore read 'Dr. Hulak'.
"We do not know," Dr. Hulak shrugged, his pink ears drooping slightly. "This is the first place it has been since the excavation. We are hoping that this exhibit will provide us with the funds to continue our studies. I personally would very much like to subject this body to an X-ray. It looks remarkably well-preserved, and generally larger and bulkier than most we have encountered in the past. I believe that this mummy represents a new form of preservation discovered by the Kemetians prior to their disappearance."
"Interesting..." Mamchak nodded thoughtfully. The mummy was certainly larger than most he had seen in books. It seemed to be at least a foot taller than he was, and quite broad. As Dr. Hulak wandered off to other artifacts, Mamchak looked closely at the mummy. There was something odd about it.
"Come on father!" the younglings said, and started pulling at his trousers again. Seems like standing in one place for too long was too much for them. As he turned around to give in, he was certain he saw a flicker of red light in the corner of his eye, but... it was probably nothing.
"Alright you three, where do you want to go?" he asked. The younglings had suddenly fallen silent, gazing through him. The crowd all around the central exhibit had fallen silent too, all staring past him.
All he heard was the rasping sound of breathing, right behind him.