The Iron Man [Serial]

Stars

 I sat atop a large masonry block in the ruins of a temple near the Sphinx, holding a battery-powered torch, and waiting for the sun to rise. I had barely slept. After the meal with the Malik, he'd shared some of his plans. He had been working with the archaeologist Dr. Selim Hassan from Egyptian University-- the school Alpha and Murphy had also attended --to excavate the monuments from the sands. The work had begun in years past; robbers and scholars alike had visited Giza for ages, he said. Since the Pax included agreements for government assisted employment, it had become usual for those who did not find work, or whose work was seasonal, to be assigned to excavations. This included many of the fellahin, as the annual Nile flood submerged their fields.

The excavation itself was not the Malik's end goal. He meant to study the monuments, learn how they were made, and then restore them if possible. To this end, he had formed a special cabinet of advisers to conduct the study, which included Dr. Hassan, Mr. Tesla, and also Thierry Jewel.

How the man from La Nouvelle had found his way into The Malik's employ, and so quickly after our encounter in Venèxia, I did not know. I worried for the Malik's project, but I was not afraid of anyone in particular.

Our monarch was invested in his plans for the monuments both financially and emotionally, from what I had witnessed my first day in Giza. He had chosen the occasion of the Autumn Equinox to invite many guests to view the season's progress in excavating the Giza Necropolis, including potential investors, diplomatic guests, and reporters. It was out of a need to keep these guests, as well as the Malik and special cabinet, both safe and entertained that our team were required to be present, along with many members of Egypt's Regular Army.

Waiting for the duty that would come with activities starting at dawn, I looked east. I could see the reflection of the lights from the urban sprawl reflected in the nearby waters. Need for city living space meant Cairo and Giza were riddled with canals to divert and direct flood waters, which was evident even to a foreigner such as myself, as the waters now met the stony Necropolis here with barely a border of greenery.

The stars were difficult to read over the streetlights. Locating and naming the constellations was one of the last things I remembered doing with my father, and it was something Murphy had done from the fin of the Narcís.

If I held my hand out to shade some of the light, I had a marginally better view of stars above the eastern horizon. They were not positioned much differently than when I had arrived in Alexandria, and I was just able to distinguish the zig-zag pattern of stars that marked Leo's chest, as its stars rose before me. 

I sat a while longer, awake, but resting and thinking on my personal prayers to my goddess. When I heard a small scraping on the rocks, I opened my eyes and switched on my torch. I saw then a boy in gallabeyya holding a lantern.

He spoke first in Arabic, asking who was there.

"Hello, Hakim. It is Julien," I said, believing I recognized the boy, "You were with Dr. Hassan when Malik Paris Arafa introduced us." I had met him briefly the evening before and knew only that he was allowed in the camp and was from a nearby village, which had been built overtop of the location of one of the ancient causeways. "What are you doing out here? It is not yet call to prayer."

The boy, Hakim, replied in English, "I am not Muslim," he said, "this place is like my own yard. I should ask what you are doing."

I shone my light on the ground, grasped my sword at my side, then jumped down from the stone block. "I went to bed early, knowing I would have responsibilities this morning, then woke rather too early. I was watching the stars. I used to do it with," I hesitated, "with people in my family."

"I know how to find the three kings," Hakim said. He walked closer, then lifted his face to the sky. He pointed, and I followed his gesture to the sky. "If you see that bright star, the three will be almost in a line with it."

"The belt stars," I said. That the three were close and in a line made them stand out.

"In the summer, when the flood is rising, she would be rising with the sun," Hakim said, "near to where the lion is now."

Now, the constellation Orion stood high over the southern horizon and that bright star Sirius was below and to the left.

"Right," I said, and half to myself, "the stars move across the sky each night as they rise and set, but where and at what time they rise or set changes through the year." There was not even a glow of dawn to be distinguished from the lights of Cairo and Giza, and the moon was at barely a quarter, so the Necropolis was dark.

I shone my light on the stone pavement and walked along the front of the temple ruins.

"I should head back."

"You want a camel or a donkey?" Hakim asked, "We have good ones in my village. It is close."

I did want to try riding a camel but the time didn't seem right. "The Malik's guests will want the animals later in the day," I said. "I walked here. I can find my way to Mena House."

"This way," Hakim said, gesturing in the lantern light. "Stay on the causeway and then the foundations of the pyramids. You can fall into one of the pits or tunnels if you wander."

"There are tunnels?"

"All around." He waved his hand across the Necropolis. "You can swim in them this time of year."

------

Chapter 64!

The media for this chapter is a nice song, Lost Stars by Adam Levine (who happens to be cast as Aje in this work), but I wrote most of the chapter listening to other music. I thought the chapter would go in a particular direction, and I had trouble writing, before deciding I needed to establish this part before getting to so much of the action to come.

This chapter has an external link to the Giza3D interactive site by Dassault Systems. It's pretty interesting.

I put it in the Dramatis Personae, but I should maybe note here as well that Selim Hassan and Hakim are both based on historical figures.