Category: Space Opera

Image Credit Vitaliy Raskalov/Vadim Mahorov/Marat Dupri. Check out their daring and illegal climb atop the pyramid.

Sample Chapter

Guillermo rubbed his temples. Hard.
“You can’t just take ‘a pyramid.’”
Kyveli scoffed. “Why not? You have three of them.”
Guillermo breathed in deep. It was surprisingly chilly for being in a desert. “Because… It is an ancient monument to a Pharaoh, a tomb, actually. It has stood there for about three thousand years.”
The Teddy Bear held up a ridiculously tall parasol that only covered her from the sun, leaving him out to get a tan.
Kyveli tilted her head. “A Pharaoh?”
“Yes. Royalty. Like you, actually. You wouldn’t want someone to show up after eons and just pick up your tomb as if it was a vacation souvenir now, would you?”
She opened her pretty mouth to speak.
“Yes,” he interrupted. “I know, there won’t be a tomb left. There won’t even be a solar system left. But you know what I mean.”
Kyveli turned back to the magnificent view from atop the pyramid. Her eyes glinted as they darted around. Translucent images appeared in her field of view, and Guillermo was shocked to realise that she was actually looking up information on the Pharaohs. The ship’s Mind digested the volumes of data and gave her the highlights that it knew she’d like.
He let her take it all in.
He stood in silence, watching her. How would the Ancient Egyptians react to a visit from her? He had no doubt in his mind that she’d fit in nicely right next to Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Delicate features, thin fingers, red skin like velvet. Throw in one of those characteristic Egyptian crowns that frame the entire head and she’s a Queen now.
Worshipped by trillions.
The mind doesn’t just boggle, it shuts down completely. Guillermo tried to imagine what that actually meant. And he was no novice either, he had stood next to kings as they addressed crowds beneath them.
He spun around to watch the desert. Trillions of souls. What had they called them? Panhuman species, variations on the same theme and archetype of two hands, two feet, standing upright, across the stars. Like grains of sand.
Grains of sand at her feet.
Yes, that was the only analogy Guillermo’s brain could come up with to make the comparison.
He snorted at his thoughts. He was under the mistaken impression that the humans of today seemed somehow more advanced than the Egyptians were. But the difference of two thousand years of science was negligible next to the Ekrignontes. He squinted up at the shiny orb in the sky that called itself a silly name and had a silly Teddy Bear avatar and had the power to slice Jupiter up like an orange.
Humans were just playing with rocks, stacking them pretty.
Kyveli gestured and dismissed the AR data.
He smiled back at her.
“So I can’t take one? Not even the little one?” She pointed hesitantly at the smaller pyramid of the three and gave him the puppy eyes.
To force himself away from the urge to please her was like scratching a sunburn.
“No.”

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