Beyond the Gate

by Xeir Zith

The last thing Tanith remembered was Cameron cracking a very bad joke and Daniel cracking up in laughter. The next thing she knows is that she has a splitting headache and is in the dark, literally. As she unravels where she is, she finds out things she would rather not know. The SGC and Atlantis learn more of who the Furlings really are, and where they were hiding all that time

19. Daniel 3

Beyond the Gate

Chapter 19 Downstairs

Earth

Tell Basta Egypt

Sunrise two days later

The crew was ready, we all had shovels, I had two guys watching the tablet inside the museum to let me know if it was triggered, another guy watching the news and weather. Mahumed had ensured that the Tell Basta property behind the museum that housed the ruins of a once great temple was properly sealed off for us to explore once we dug under it.

"Dr Jackson, we're sure what you're looking for could be in here ?" Siler asked me, I looked at him, the man was dressed in a typical arcaeologists outfit, complete with a very dated pithelmet but it did the job to keep the Egyptian sun off our necks.

"Very sure. Though there is the possiblity that I could be wrong. However according to the scans from the Hammond we were able to lock on this location as having an underground system. We just need to find it and explore it." I replied, we started digging at what I thought was the main entry as another group dug at what the Hammond detected to be a massive statue of some kind of a rare obsidian like stone.

In an hour we had managed to do a slew of digging to the point where we'd need wheel barrows to get the dirt out. So a conveyor was set up, every shovelful was conveyed from our digging site to a neat pile meters away from the edge. With an organised fashion we worked like clockwork from sunrise until about noon when we took a break, We'd found what looked to be the remains of a front gate of some kind. A polished sandstone that had only rotted a little bit was on either side of our hole, and we found it was only two feet or so wide.

It ended up being a doorframe on one side, and a window on the other. We continued digging and soon had to add another conveyor and then dug some steps to get out of the hole. A few ladders were set up as well. Turned out the brick we had found once supported a paraphet.

I climbed from the hole. In four hours of work we'd managed to uncover a strange tile and it looked like a floor. So we used that as a guide of how deep we had to dig, or could dig. I went over to the group digging out the statue, they had uncovered the head, of a cat. "Look familiar to you ? Dr ?" Mahumed asked me

I shook my head. "No, not entirely. Maybe a litte, but I cannot for the life of me think of where I had seen a cat with that kind of face" I replied as I tried to think of where a face like that felt so familiar.

"In a way it kind of reminds me of my beloved wife Mai." Mahumed said in thought as we regarded the massive head. The crew had gotten to the point of using dentist tools to dig out the finer details.

"In a rather eerie way it reminds me of a musical that my foster parents once took me to before my foster mother died back in the eighties." I said thoughtfully. Somehow, almost as if I could envision it, but not exact, the cat face we were standing next to, it was as big as we were tall, reminded me of a musical I had seen as a kid.

"Either way, Daniel, what have you uncovered ?" Mahumed asked me, we requested some more conveyors to get set up to dig out more dirt. Turned out that the temple, if that was what once built here had a sloping courtyard for water draining, and that meant the statue had either settled in the sand deeper than it should have, or its base was lower than we thought and the tile we found was infact the paraphet of the temples outer walls

"Right now, tile flooring about four feet wide, It might be a parapet that we found" I said, it was possible that in three thousand years the sand had shifted to the point of filling the temple grounds. So it was also possible we'd find some empty chambers and not have to dig them out. I then said "What we first discovered there looks to be a break in the outer wall, the tile is smooth, ceramic"

"Egyptian pottery is ceramic from long ago." Mahumed said in thought. He shook his head. "But this place does not feel like it it is made of Egyptian pottery"

"If I were to carbon date it, I'd say this temple was built exactly five thousand or so years ago, However, in the sunlight. The tile glitters as if it were brand new and just set into place. And this statue is only slightly tarnished, so if it were to rain the water on the stone would look quite alluring." I said in thought.

"So with what you have found so far. What happens now ?" Mnahumed asked as he removed his suit jacket and picked up a shovel. His bodyguard, watching as the Prime Minister of Egypt did such a thing, looked slightly preturbed but then also removed his own suit jacket and picked up a shovel. Both men were ready to help.

I grabbed up my shovel after taking a long drink of cold water. "For now, We keep digging. I think I know what to do." I said, with that we went back to the hole we were digging at the front of the temple courtyard and went about five feet from its edge and started digging down. While some of us dug into the wall at the same location. We found there was indeed a paraphet wall about three feet high before reaching the tile level. We continued to dig. Another hour passed and our initial two digging areas were much larger than I had originally planned, I esitmated about half the courytyard space was dug out when the first discoveries of possible structures and rooftops were found around the statues back.

"I think I see the reason for the statue" Mahumed said in thought as we dug, dumping a shovelful of dirt onto the conveyor He looked at me. A thoughtful look on his face, so close to finding history in his backyard

"Really ? How so ?" I asked him I dumped a shovelful of dirt on the belt. I stuck my shovel into the rocky dirt and struck something hard. Brushing with my hand a bit I found the wall. The tile above was indeed a paraphet, built in such a manner that over time the sand had perfectly preserved everything. We dug a bit further.

"I think it must be a Temple dedicated to the Goddess Bastet" Mahumed said. His voice was in thought, but his tone was in that arcaeologist mode that I normally worked in when trying to figure out puzzles. "Five thousand years ago this place was more then likely built. So now..." Her trailed off as we continued to dig.

I never answered his thought, too focused on what we might find.

Within a few minutes we had uncovered what looked to be the top of the couryard gates. We continued to dig, making the hole bigger on the outside of the original hole. And found petrified wood. I knocked on it. "Well, Looks like we found the front door of the temple grounds" I said

"If this is indeed Basts temple, the statue in the courtyard must be her" Mahumed said, I had to think carefully on exactly how the possibly could work. The only person named Bast that I knew was a dead System Lord who was killed by my old girlfriend.

"Bast" I asked him, he nodded and pointed at the statue we had dug out.

"That statue is more then likelly a representative of the Goddess, Bastet." Mahumed said in thought. "If this place indeed was the home of the Furlings, for all we knmow, they built this statue"

"If this is Basts temple, we just hit the jackpot because these gates were not built by hand, at least, they might have been put in place by human hands, possibly feline hands. Or by magical means" I said in reply. The gate glowed a dim white under the early afternoon sunlight. It was just barely seeable but I could have sworn there was a weird rune floating over the surface of the lock on the gate itself.

"You mean ancient or alien technology could have built this ? We know my people back then were advanced." Mahumed said to me. We climbed from our hole and went to the otherside, there was no strange swirling symbols floating in the sand against the pretrified gate on the inside.

"If we had to, we could blast, but I dont think ruining the front gate is a good idea." I said in thought. A shout went up behind us. I turned and saw Siler waving us over. "What is it ?" I asked when we went to him.

"I think this is an oblisk, might have been put here when the temple was built." Siler was a smart man, was a wonder the tech sgt was still around. I liked the guy. He had a tablet computer in his hand.

"What makes you say that ?" I asked him, He pointed at the plaque. It was written in ancient Egyptian. "Seti the First..." I said reading it, and understanding it clearly. "Holy shit" I swore aloud.

"What is it ?" Mahumed asked

"This oblisk was put in place by or at least given to whoever put it here, when the Pharoah, Seti the First, was ruling Egypt." I explained. I briefly recalled that Seti the First was the father of Ramses and his brother Moses.

"So this place was built either just before the time of Moses or during that time period in our history books ?" Mahumed said in thought, I was incliunded to agree with him.

However something more important was on my mind. "We found the front gate" I said to Siler. "All we need to do now is clear out the courtyard. And find the way in. From what I recall, two of our digging teams found a building or two near the base of the statue ?" I said

He nodded in reply. "Yes, Team Two found the roof of a building, they could only dig about six inches further before they tried outside the edge of the area they were digging, they found a door and started digging inside." He reported, "Team one, well, they're still digging out the statue as you can see."

I was then thoughtful as I turned towards the mostly revealed statue. "If that Statue is supposed to represent Bast, if I am seeing this right." We went over to the map of the layout of the possible ruins the Hammond had mapped nearly the entire area out. But not all of it, so we had a rather accurate map. "How soon you think we can clear out the courtyard before moving into any of the buildings ?" I asked to Siler.

"If we were to have all four teams going at once, conveyors and all. About two hours. After that point we can start looking for enterences into the buildings. Or at least get some lights inside the one we found already" Siler replied

"Right, alright, we'll take a break now for a meal, soon as everyone is rested and fed, we get back to work, and I mean everyone work. That is of course if you still want to dig with us, Mahumed, you're more then welcome to take off, you're the Prime Minister of Egypt after all" I said turning to him, with all four teams digging we could have the courtyard cleared of sand inside of two hours.

And in a way that made me excited. With the courtyard cleared we could have roofs over our heads when digging out the rest of the place. Unless they were properly sealed. "If the rooms inside the structure are properly sealed, we can easily find the doors, and work to get them opened" I said in thought.

"Two hours worth of work is not enough." Mahumed said with a sigh, he smiled. "We have plenty of research here just waiting to be discovered, who knew we could have a goldmine of such important history buried beneath our ruins. Of course I will stick around and help you, Daniel." I had to smile, Mahumed was like a kid in a candy shop just waiting to be let free to explore on his own.

Just like me. Bill came over to me. "Ok so, Team two found that the first building they had must be some sort of staging area, there were two windows on either side of the door" He said pointing them out as the team had just finished clearing out the sand. "There's apparently a hallway too that goes behind the base of the statue, it might be a guards barracks considering where it is" He said as he showed on the map, the rendering software the Hammond had made a pretty accurate layout of the base structure and its grounds.

"A guards barracks, or a cathouse" I said, that made Bill smirk but he didnt say anything. "Its possible the entire tribe of Furlings that lived here, if that is indeed who lived here. They more then likely made this structure as a small city. Intending to live here a long time." I said in thought.

Mahumed stood at the edge of the tent looking to where some palm trees once stood before we knocked them over "Back then, this place had an Oasis, it was close to Zagazig at the time it was called Bubastis." Mahumed said when he found some text on one of the walls of the building currently uncovered.

"OK now it makes more sense, only the children of Bast could make a place so close to the city named for her so long ago" I said, I turned to Mahumed "You said it yourself, Bast was the patron of the family, and also the patron of the cats. So when cats were cared for, it was as if Bast herself was giving her blessing to those people"

"For the most part yeah. This structure is five thousand years old, time of Moses, possibly even older older. However, judging by the condition of the front gate itself, and the tile along the edge of the site." Mahumed said to me in thought.

I too went thoughtful at this wonderment. "Its possible this place has only been left empty for three thousand years, and then built up around it by traditon." I mused

"Five thousand year ago also had a large oasis here." Siler said, he pointed to the layout of the area that the Hammond had mapped for us. "Its possible the oasis could still be there judging by how it was built."

I looked at the design, the 3d software on the Hammond had mapped it perfectly. "From the look of this layout. It looks incredibly well built, almost as if by magical means." I said in thought. Just by looking at what had to be made by hand or technology. "Its possible the Furlings had skills with weaponry, but not with other types of technology. The Egyptians were advanced for their time period, based on history alone. How else would they build such elaborate traps into their burial sites." I had thought on that fact for a long time.

The only problem was the Oasis itself was within the boundary of the site, but buried deep in the sand itself.

"There is one thing I am not sure of" Mahumed said

"And that would be ?" I asked him.

"I am thinking that the Furlings trusted the Egyptians they came to know here, and as a result, not even the Egyptians dared impose on them or build burial traps, instead, when the Furlings disappeared three thousand years ago, the Egyptians instead built around their temple, and in doing so, sand over time had built up from all the counstruction." Mahumed offered the thought.

I nodded, "it is also possible that maybe a tradtion was handed down that nothing is to be built on this site. For it might be holy or something to the Egyptians from way back when."I started pacing then while speaking my mind. "An ancient statue, a gate with a still active sealing rune. And a guards barracks, and a prapeht atop the wall." I pointed to each location in turn on the map. "Have we found any corner towers ?"

"So far we were able to find just the one, its off the left side of your initial hole. We followed the tile pattern up there" the leader of my dig team, a guy named James, pointed at the tile we found and then he had his guys dig their way to the left and right. Using the tile as a floor as they cleared away the sand. "It looks like there are four guard towers, the roofs would be long gone for sure however." James pointed out.

"Just looking where two of them are" I said pointing to the one James guys had found, and were about to find at the front gate. "And then where the Hammond says there might be two more." I pointed at the other two, it was as if the temple grounds were in a wedge shape. But then I found something else. "Wait, look here, apparently the front gate has two towers on either side, then the paraphet goes along the wall furthere here to two more towers"

"According to the layout of this map from the Hammond, its possible we're looking at multiple levels, more then likely also some of them are also sealed levels. No real types of technology however." Siler said as he looked at the rendering. With the two additional towers I found it looked more like a large rectangular keeplike space.

I finally nodded to Siler. "Have team four start digging here to uncover along the wall here" I said indicating the point at the guard tower we had discovered at the gate, "Have them do what James and his guys did, use the tile as a floor and work their way towards here, there should be, according to this rendering, another tower of the complex." I said to a guy named Brown. He'd been with the Air Force a few years, and joined the SGC as a curior type, he'd never been through the stargate. But he knew of the technolgoy and had seen it in action. "Have your guys dig for an hour using the tile as a floor, in one hour, come back and join us in clearing out the courtyard of sand for another hour. We'll see how far we get at that point" I said

Everyone then had their jobs, it was time to get digging... into the dinner. With twenty seven of us, not including myself, Mahumed or his bodyguard, a guy named Reno, as that would have made it thirty of us, doing the major digging in, I grabbed a small plate of food, Reno took a sald and some milk, while Mahumed had a leg of lamb and some cheese. Twenty minutes later and all four teams were back at work, with Teams one, two and three digging out the courtyard and main statue area, while team four followed the tile floor of the paraphet as far as they could for an hour.

Within two hours we had the initial front courtyard within the closed and still sealed gates cleared of sand, and Team Four was able to get a good dozen or so meters deeper past the point on the wall itself, as if the wall was the wall of our digging site alone.

By the time two hours were up, we managed not just clear the courtyard, but one of the side courtyards as well before finding another sealed door. We finally stopped work after clearing the second courtyard we had found. In the evening sunlight I saw that the statue was an obsidian black with strange flecks of what appeared to be gold in it. "What kind of stone is that ?" Apparently the golden outer shell of the statue, of which some of it still was present, covered the true stonework.

"No clue" Mahumed replied, he rested on a bench, reno stood nearby. He sighed and drank some water. "Sometimes I miss my wife when I am at work, now I mess her all the more when digging here in our own backyard, literally finding our history only centimeters below the surface!" he said wistfully wishing his wife was with us at hat moment. But we knew she was alive and safe somewhere.

"Sir!" It was one fo the two guys watchig the table, he had spoken with the guy watching the news and weather.

"What ?" I asked looking to him, Mahumed drank from a mug of water as the soldier came up to us out of breath. "Easy soldier, take a breath, get a breath, calm down. Whats going on ?" I said to him seeing his condition, the soldier thanked me for the moment to take a breath, he was breathing hard from his run.

Between breaths he said. "The news and weather report, this time its from Hong Kong, a block of the city was destroyed jus down from the Kowloon City Park, witnesses said it was an implosion of the theater district, and lightning strikes driove people running for safety, twenty seven people are missing from the apartment structure that was destroyed in the inital lightning blast, the rest are all accounted for, most are injured but some are unharmed."

"And the tablet ?" I asked as I stood from the table of stuff I was leaning against. We had found pottery, some kinds, and what looked like feline collars buried in the sand.

"It shut off just a few moments before the news report was aired. Hong Kong is now under a severe weather watch warning until further notice while police and fire crews tend the fire and search for others missing." He replied to me, giving a full account as he was able to do so. Twenty seven people were confirmed to be missing, an apartment building where the troupe it seemed were staying was destroyed, at least most of the rooms were, some of them still were untouched.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, this was not going well, I had hoped the tablet would remain dormant for longer, at least long enough to find what we were searching for. But it looked like such hope was in vain. At least we knew where the tablet lead "Alright, return to the others and keep track of the thing. Let me know the instant it fires up again for the tablet's hologram. Mahumed, the game is afoot, we can finish digging things, or..." I turned and spotted something Team Two brought in from the dig. "Whats this ?" I asked

"Team two found it in the barracks like structure" Siler replied, it was a book, in remarkably good condition. It was written in hebrew and Egyptian, Hebrew was not something I was really familiar with, but Egyptian made more sense. I read through it.

"Oh my" I said after a few minutes of reading, the page I was flipped to was a shopping list "Papyrus six scrolls worth; three gold, inkwells twenty five; twenty gold pieces, quills, scrolls, hens, meats." I looked up from it, I set the book on the table. "Whoever lived here, this is their shopping list. Either that or a full accounting book of living here." I said, I pointed ouyt he total ammounts for each item on the list.

"It looks relatively new ?" Mahumed said when I passed him the book he flipped through it, to the last date of an entry. "Daniel, listen to this. The time of the last entry and the shopping list. 'August the first, ninteen sixty three AD, I looked for a local funeral home who still observed the Egyptian tradtions through use of a kind human helper, I have my burial site readied for me. I am ready to be laid to rest.' I cant make out the name, its just a face of some kind, a cat ?" Mahumed translated the last entry.

"So someone was living here, in Tell Basta, up to that point," I said in thought. Whoever it was had died in sixty three, but with the tablet hologram still working as if it was brand new... I looked at the statue. Something glittered that wasnt gold nor stonework. It was in the lap of the structure. "Huh"

"What is it ?" Mahumed continued to peruse the shopping list book.

"Is it just me or is there something in that statue ?" I asked in reply as I left the tent and went to the statues base. Looking up at it I felt a bit nervous. But it was a gorgerous structure in and of itself "Hmmm" I got a ladder an climbed up it, level with the lap of the statue I spotted it better, it looked like a solar panel I reached for it, and pulled it from the statue, a long stick trailed from it. It was not the least bit ancient Egyptian, but clearly Ancient in design, as it activated slightly then shut off.

"What is it ?" Mahumed asked as did Siler as I came back down. Device in hand. All three of us looked it over.

"No idea, well, no form of an idea, yet at least" I said in reply, I looked the device over, it was about the size of a staff of office that a common leader might use. I looked it over carefully, there were no markings on it to define who made it.

"It appears to be advanced in design, and yet old as well" Mahumed said

"Its possible the device was a communication device of some kind, if the Furlings truly lived here." Siler spoke up.

I turned the device over in my hands. "Did that book say where the person who wrote it is buried ?" I asked out of the blue.

"Yes, just off the main highway in the Cairo Royal Cemetary." Mahumed said, he handed me a list of numbers, "This marking, it is longitude and latitude, as well as depth below ground, it will allow a lock on the coffin the person is buried within." He said to me.

"Perfect, soon as the Hammond is back from her patrol we can have the coffin and the body in it beamed up. Its possible we found the burial site of a dead Furling who died in nineteen sixty three at some point in August." I said in reply

"But what if it is not a body ?" Siler spoke up, that was a good question. Odds were good that it could be an empty coffin.

"We'll worry about that when we get to that point." I said in reply I set the device on the table. "In the mean time, we have time to kill, so have all the teams take a load off for the rest of the evening, at sunset we'll have the sand moved away. Then come tomorrow we can get into the insides of this complex." I said to Siler, who nodded Siler nodded and went to relay the news to the rest of the teams as Mahumed and I went back to the tent. About a third of the Tell Basta courtyard ruins area of the complex had been dug out of sand, and we were running out of space to put the sand.

Less than an hour later and Mahumed and I were talking to a local trucking company owner who owned a bunch of dumptrucks, we could transport the sand to a site to the north, but rather then close the streets and use the conveyors to transdport the sand, instead we were going to use the conveyors to fill the trucks with sand and have the trucks transport the sand to the temporary site to hold the sand away from our digging site. Finally the plans were all set, we had team three and team four take the rest of the night off, teams one and two worked on loading the trucks to remove the sand we had dug out. It was faster than expected. The conveyors made short work of the sand. Soon as teams one and two were finished they were allowed to rest for the rest of the night.

Finally I was in Mahumeds penthouse home and relaxing as time allowed. It was about eleven at night, local time. "So we found two things, possibly somebodys body, and also their shopping list. Along with all sorts of pottery and egyptian type jewelery." I said in thought.

"There is also the device you recovered from the statue" Mahumed said in thought, I nodded as he spoke. "The device reminds me of something we used once when I was a boy, my dad would use a similar device, a screen on a stick, to check the purity of the well from sand."

"So its like a metal detector, but when I took it from the statue, it shut itself off as if disconnected." I said in thought, I was laying on a low sofa in Mahumedss house. I sat up in thought. "If thats the case if I were to reconnect the device to the statue, would it come back on and who would it connect to ?"

"I doubt it, given that there is no real way to plug in the thing" Mahumed said in reply "Best case scenario, Teams three and four clear out the sand around the base of the statue tomorrow, you can test the device then."

I set my jaw in thought. "Good point" I said to him, it wasnt as if the device was plug and play, which hopefully was the case. I nodded in agreement, tomorrow, a new fresh day, and hopefully I could have something to show for it. I laid back on the low sofa again, "What if its Furling in origin ?" I asked then while staring at the ceiling fan as it lazily span in a circle above us.

"If that is the case, would it only work if it were in the hands of a Furling ?" Mahumed suggested as Reno went to the nearby minibar and began mixing some drinks for us both. "Brandy for me Reno, on the rocks" Mahumed told him

"Soda water for me please." Reno again nodded and prepared for drinks and brought them to us. "Thank you." I said to him, Reno also took a seat and a drink for himself at Mahumeds insistance. After a long drink of my soda water I spoke. "Hypotheoriatically speaking here." I said in thought, "the device is Furling, do we know any Furlings, at least aside from your wife and my friend Tanith ?"

"Its possible the coffin could have more answers" Mahumed mused, "But it is also possible the coffin does not have the answers. As to asking if I know any Furlings, if I said I knew a guy named Bob and he liked to go to, what were they called, conventions..." Mahumed said, cracking a bad joke, I chuckled

"Yeah I never thought of that" I said as I laid once more back on the sofa. "But lets say the coffin holds more information and not a body, in theory we could find a way to the Furlings. Our Stargate never connected to any of the stargate adrresses we found with the poem under california." I explained to Mahumed

"So that is where the Odyssey went ?" Mahumed said. I nodded, Cam had gone two days before, to find why we couldnt connect to the addresses I had found. "It is also possible that the Odyssey found more than it bargained for, shouldnt they contact you by now ?"

"I wouldnt worry about Cam, he's done all sorts of things over time." I replied, Cam was a good guy, smart and resourceful, if anything he'd found the reason the stargate couldnt connect, and tried to repair it, which was a scary thought. "From what I remember, the Furlings were incredibly close allies of the Ancients and the Asgard." I said in thought.

The Furlings were, according to the database on Atlantis, a very close ally and had been relocated from their original world of Sparia, the Ancients and the Asgard both provided time dilation devices to prevent the supernova sun to absorb the planet, allowing ample time for the Furlings, and their entire fauna and flora to relocate to Ascretta. But some of them also went to other worlds too by that point ?

Maybe it was possible those outposts had Furlings, and they had disabled their stargate to prevent intruders ? That would make sense. Or had their technology advanced to the point wherein the mere need of a stargate was rendered a relic of a bygone age ?

It didnt matter, Cam was looking into why the stargate wouldnt connect, and here I was digging in the dirt, like I was on Abydos that first time. I was thoughtful then. "You know I just thought of something," I said as I finished my soda water.

"Do tell" Mahumed said in reply around his brandy.

"The temple of Bast is close, reletively so, to Bubastis, otherwise known as Zagazig. What would the records library here in Zagazig have concerning the ancient path ? Would anything from five thousand years ago survive to now ? Would there be anything related to those that built the temple or why it was built ?"

"Its been said that Pharoah Ramses the Second, Moses' brother, had ensured that all of his failures were kept secret. However it is said he once went out to the Delta to speak to someone, and learned many things, learning wisdom from someone from the stars above. As if Bast herself had her servant attend to him." Mahumed said

"So Ramses II was a smart guy, but he also had his detractors that he tried to keep them hidden." I said in thought.

"Most if not everything from the time of the Pharaoh Ramses is hidden away or lost to time." Mahumed said in thought as he drank his Brandy, "But because of the time period the only true account, or so I hope in Faith, is in the Bible"

"The time of Moses, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt." I said in realising what Mahumed was getting at. He looked at me as I sat up. "Ramses II never wanted his failure of reclaiminmg his slave population, the Israelites, to get told to anyone, so it was struck from every possible Egyptian history book. Execept the Hebrew Bible" I said looking at Mahumed, "the reason its in the Bible is because its the Good Book, the Book of the Law. Things like that. The Israelites recorded everything they could, and put it into their Book."

"So its true then" Mahumed smirked, he sipped his brandy. "The only accounting of what happened between Ramses II and his brother, Moses. Try as Ramses might, he was unable to keep the Israelites from telling their side of the story."

"Its possible the Israelites side of the story is a biased one yes, but it is also possible its the true story of the events as they occured" I said in thought, as much as I hated thinking the Bible was a biased book, I personally took it as the truth on many levels mostly because it was not just how Cam grew up, but when I was growing up with my uncles and aunts, many of them were church goers.

"Either way, at this moment. It is the only account of the evnts during that time period, which is also around the time of the arrival of the Furlings here, possibly well before it if I recall correctly there was notes of a vernacular occuring in the Hebrew bible of 'Cats similar to man, caring for and aiding those in need. Our God looked to them as if a friend had guided them to his embrace, and allowed them to thrive upon our land.'" I turned to Mahumed as he stood up, setting his Brandy on the coffee table, he went to his desk and started rooting through it. After a moment or two of searching he found the bible he was looking for. He held it out to me, after finding the page.

I read some of it and found something that caught my eye. It was written in Furling And sat up straight. "You know what this means right ?"

"Not entirely" Mahumed said to me. "When I got to the point where the words never made sense because it wasnt in Egyptian or Hebrew, I passed over it, why ?" Mahumed retook his seat across from the low sofa, Brandy once more in hand.

I held the bible in my hand and tapped it as I spoke. "It means that the Hebrew Bible is not the only account of the events during the Exodus, this is a Furlings personal account of what she witnessed in Pharoahs court during the plagues!" I said, excitement was in my voice.

"She ?" Mahumed asked me. Confusion in his tone. "How do you know the author of that book is a she ?"

"Because her name appears at the start of the first entry." I said before reading, "'I, Bombitari of the Furling, make this account.' Bombitari can only be a female name, Egyptian in style for sure, but also if set up in a looser term it might be something else entirely." I explained to Mahumed. He nodded at that point, I was greatful to make my point.

Now we were getting somewhere.

I read further in the passages. "Apparently within five days of their arrival, Seti I and his family came to them, they apparetly had healed Moses. Who at the time was a Prince in Egypt. According to this he was about fifteen or sixteen years old" I said reading the entries a few more lines. I closed the book. Not only was the Bible a first hand account from the Israelites, but this new set of passages was an account of a people who wewre friendly and on good terms with the Israelites. It was as if Bast herself saw to it to work with the Israelites God and in some manner allow her own people to survive ?

That was of course if the book I had in my hand was indeed telling the truth. Which somehow I felt it was. I then chuckled. The Bible was similiar, but not identical to the Book of Origin. Infact if I wanted to spread a proper reliegion through the stars, I'd do it with the Good Book itself, not with a false book similar to it.

"Whats so funny ?" Mahumed asked me

"Just remembering another book similar to the Bible. It was called the Book of Origin. In this case the book is designed to be a bible, but it isnt exactly The Bible itself. It does have some similarities however." I explained to Mahumed. I got his bible and opened it after fidinng the page number. "For example the book of Tobit in the Bible here, there is a book in the Book of Origin called the Book of Benjamin that basically reads the same as this book, but the differences is that instead of blinding Tobit, the lord speaks of raining fire and bimstone upon unbelievers and that he wouldnt be blind when it happened." I explained.

"So this book of origin, compared to our own Book, which would you say would have more power behind it ?" Mahumed mused aloud

I smiled and held up the Bible, "If you want my opnion, this book, is the The Good Book, it superceeds the book of Origin in the sense that it is far older, and also made for a much more humble people who are allowed to have their choices made on their own." I said simply, I was never planning on getting into a religious debate but here we were. I set the bible on the table next to the second book. The passages in the second book were more like a library of notes made by that one Furling, Bombitari or some such. I sat back down on the sofa. "If you ask me, I think the Book of Origin is just a really bad collection of fan stories that some religious nut tried to spread"

We shared a good laugh then. Mahumed finished his brandy. A few minutes later and Mahumed signaled it was time for sleep. By that point the sand we had dug out of the ruins had been fully cleared from the Tell Basta dig site and was being sorted out for later. I went to bed in the offered room.

The Next Morning

Seven Am

I snapped awake and looked at the clock, it was morning on the tenth of May. By this point in my career, I had given up on trying to remember the year because of the planets we visited each had different ways of tracking time. For example Atlantis had 36 hour long days with twelve hours of that being nighttime. And here was me on earth used to it just being twenty four hours with an occasional few extra seconds somehow adding an extra day every four years.

I came from the offered bedroom for breakfast and and stepped down a short flight of stairs into the livingroom of the house. Somehow I felt at home but also not at home. I saw Reno cooking breakfast, "Good morning sir" He said to me. The man was making bacon and eggs and offered me a plate, I took it greatfully and also a glass of fresh lemonade.

Mahumd I saw was hard at work pouring over a book Team One had found while digging out another building they had discovered whilke clearing the sand the night before. "Good Morning." I said to Mahumed

"Good Morning, this is amazing" Mahumed bid me to take a look at the book, it was more like a scroll. It was similar to the shopping list only this was more of a personal journal of a girl called Diza, clearly a furling, there were drawings also in the book

"That's interesting" I said seeing the images, most of them were clear and precise in design of clothing, feline facial markings, hair styles, even the conture of the ears. As I looked at the images I hummed in thought.

"Still think the Furlings only lived here five thousand yerars ago to just before the time of Christ ?" Mahumed asked me.

"Where was this found ?" I asked

"Last night when Teams one and two were clearing sand they discovered the roof of another building, they dug into it and found stacks of books. This was revealed first and they took it straight to me first thing." Mahumed

"Did you get any sleep last night ?" I asked him

He smiled, "Some" He replied, "But not as much as I had hoped, the mere thought of meeting as Furling, my wife for example, is what kept me up last night" He pointed at one of the images the team had also delivered after they had found it.

I stared at the image for a good long minute. It was Mai as a cat, the face was identical to her, but the name of the cat in question ? Tunia. This raised more questions then answers. "Why is your wife in a book ?" I asked to Mahumed, he shrugged unable to answer.

We just had some more questions given to us.