The Land Of The Pharaohs: Book 5 In The Mars Series

FOREWORD

The recent call from Pope Francis for the World’s leaders to seriously tackle the issue of climate change has given environmentalists a big boost. The Pope was addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as part of his tour of America. Pope Francis, as head of the Catholic Church, is in a position to inspire many Catholics through his compassion and concern for people, not only for his own followers but for all the World’s peoples.

The World’s leaders have so far failed to reach agreement on the steps to be taken to address global warming and the resulting serious changes in our climate. As often is the case, the inhabitants of developing countries are the ones to suffer the most, and they are the people who contribute the least to the increase in carbon emissions. The developed nations are unwilling to provide the necessary funds, and to cut emissions sufficiently, knowing that such actions harm their economies. Some countries have promised to cut carbon emissions over the coming years, but the level of reduction is just not enough. There is a possibility that the Pope’s words will have an effect on the deliberations at the United Nations Climate Negotiations in Paris in November 2015. I hope so.

Bill Steadman, the English boy who tells the stories of The Mars Series adventures, is committed to helping the environment, through his NGO, Youth for the World, and with the help of his Martian mentor, Zeris. In my books I am constantly bringing up the subject of global warming and climate change, in the hope that I can add my voice to the campaign through exciting adventure stories. I believe that it is imperative that we all pull together now to save our world from environmental degradation. If we continue to bury our heads in the sand we shall be leaving a severely damaged planet to our children and grandchildren. This aspect was clearly stressed by the Pope.

The Oil Industry is a big spanner in the works. Oil companies have invested billions of dollars in searching for new oil fields, and therefore they are against efforts to find alternative sources of energy. The continued extraction of oil from underground is bound to have long term effects, in the form of earthquakes. It is also worrying that nations may destroy the Polar Regions in the search for oil.

In Land of the Pharaohs, Bill Steadman is invited by UNEP to address a conference on Climate Change, on behalf of the younger generation. I think the youth have a right to speak up on critical matters that affect their own future more than the future of the political leadership and its generation.

Some of the accepted history of ancient Egypt is contested by many scholars on the fringe of Egyptology. There seems to be a lack of will on the part of the establishment to follow up on certain discoveries in the Giza Necropolis, such as the metal door that was discovered in one of the shafts of the Queen’s chamber of Khufu’s pyramid. What lies behind that door is still a mystery. The reason given by some researchers for the authorities’ lack of action is that they do not want anything to be discovered that upsets the established view. Then there is the accepted belief that the pyramids of Giza were built using enormous ramps and thousands of slaves. Some scholars have pointed out that this method is totally impractical. A convincing argument has been put forward by another researcher, and his theory I have accepted and included in the book. Most Egyptologists believe that the great Sphinx of Giza was built by the Pharaoh Khafre, with his own head on top of the body of a recumbent lion, at the time he built his pyramid, the second one in the Giza complex. Others have postulated that it was built many years, even hundreds or thousands of years before the Pyramid Age. There has been much evidence to support this idea. I have used this version in this book.

The pyramid is a figure with special qualities. It not only relates to a hemisphere of the Earth, but its dimensions conform to sacred geometry, which is thought to have been invented by the Greeks, but clearly belongs to the time of the Pharaohs, and even before that time. It has been shown that items placed in a pyramid are naturally dried. This could be the reason why the ancient Egyptians used the pyramid to inter the mummies of royalty, so that the bodies desiccated and did not decay.

Much of the detailed information in Land of the Pharaohs is factual, such as the Kings, the pyramid sites along the River Nile, the city of Memphis, the limestone quarries and the layout of the Giza Necropolis. It is incredible that so much is known about the Dynastic Period, now that the hieroglyphics have been thoroughly translated. Djedi, the nephew of the Pharaoh Khufu was real, but the relationship with Bill and his friends is fictional. Hetepheres was in fact the daughter of Khufu, but her relationship with the time-travellers is a product of my imagination.

I am a believer in reincarnation of the soul. All realised Masters teach that souls reincarnate on Earth many times before they become realised themselves. It is widely thought that Jesus Christ himself taught reincarnation, and that it was part of the ideology of early Christianity, until Constantine the Great, the Holy Roman Emperor in the 4th Century AD, was alleged to have removed any trace of the mention of reincarnation in the Bible. To back up the existence of reincarnation, there have been so many incidents told by those who have experienced past lives, and those who have had near death experiences. That, and the wisdom of the Masters, convinces me that reincarnation is a fact. One of the themes of Land of the Pharaohs is the possible effect on two bodies with the same soul, being alive at the same time. This can only be possible where one body goes backwards or forward in time, and since time- travel is still in the realm of science fiction, the subject is just a figment of my imagination.

The bubble has been a major element in all the books of The Mars Series. The idea that humans can travel through time and space inside a bubble is another idea from my imagination, as is the existence of humans living on the planet Mars. As for conditions on the Red Planet, I believe that conditions were once supportive of life, and that at some level there is still life on Mars. NASA has recently come out to say they have found evidence that some water does exist on the surface, and that Mars once had salt water seas. In The Mars Series I have acknowledged the existence of water just below the surface in the form of ice, and using my imagination, fresh water pools deep underground. Whether scientists will ever discover this, I cannot guess. But I do believe that salt water seas were extensive on Mars before a major catastrophe occurred, which caused the atmosphere and the water to evaporate and drift off into space.

The Zoggs from Altair were created out of my imagination. Many people believe that Earth has been visited from time to time by beings from outer space. There are many stories of people seeing and photographing flying saucers, and there was one particular incident in the United States some years ago, where extra-terrestrials were alleged to have landed and to have been exterminated by the authorities, who were alleged to have covered up the incident to prevent panic among the citizens. I like to think that we have been helped in the past by beings more advanced than we.

Nairobi, Kenya

1 October 2015

The Story So Far...

Secret of a Red Planet

Bill Steadman is just an average teenager with dreams of interplanetary adventure.

Then one day those dreams explode into reality as he is whisked off to Mars, where he is welcomed by a race of humans who have developed a unique and peaceful way of life. He is shown the wonders of The Red Planet and learns their deepest secrets, some terrible secrets that might just mean the end of their existence and perhaps even mankind’s existence on Planet Earth.

When he returns to Earth with the help of his new Martian friends, he finds himself the victim of greed and betrayal. He also has to face the American secret service, who want him silenced – permanently, and the Russians, who want his secrets to achieve their cosmic ambitions. Will his Martian friends tune in to his pleas and arrive in time to save him?

Operation Stargazer

Bill Steadman and his friends may still be average teenagers, but now the grave responsibility of saving Planet Earth has landed squarely on their young shoulders.

Operation Stargazer is the sequel to Secret of the Red Planet, and the second book in The Mars Series. It tells how Bill and Sonia, together with their friends, Ben and Tim, involve themselves in the battle to save Mars from Zigismo, the evil dictator of Zeronera, who is intent on enslaving the inhabitants of the Red Planet. And other challenges await them. The Zoggs, a race of strange beings from another solar system, aim to use Zigismo to conquer Mars and use it as a springboard to attack our own beautiful planet. And the ultimate adversity; a huge, dark and dreadful asteroid is reported to be on a collision course with the Earth.

The Quest Of Captain Ernst

It is a race against time for Hermann Winke and the Russian scientists to perfect the technology, the only technology that is capable of dealing with the monster that threatens to blow the Earth to pieces.

Hermann Winke, the brilliant inventor of the Magnobile is dead, and the manner of his death is shrouded in mystery. In his will, he leaves his valuable papers to his only son, Ernst, who has just returned from years in the Amazon jungle. At Hermann’s funeral in London, Bill, Sonia, Ben and Tim meet the mysterious Ernst.

Having helped the Martian people defeat Zigismo, the evil dictator of Zeronera, and having saved the world from annihilation by the massive asteroid, appropriately named Attila, Bill and his friends have been asked by Zeris, the Chief Elder of Similaria, to undertake a dangerous mission that involves travelling back in time, a mission that no Martian would dare to even contemplate. But things don’t go according to plan. An act of betrayal and a chapter of accidents befall the party, causing deep rifts in their togetherness, and casting doubt on their ability to return to the 21st Century. Would they be doomed to live out their lives in prehistory? It would seem so, but aid comes from an unexpected and scarcely believable source.

The Lost World

After weeks of hair-raising experiences in the Amazon jungle, as narrated in The Quest of Captain Ernst, Bill and his five friends sail down the mighty river on the raft that Ernst and members of an African boat-building tribe had constructed, and which had brought them across the wild Atlantic Ocean in a vain search for a lost civilisation.

The year is 11,995 BC, the year before the ancestors of Bill’s Martian friends escape the death sentence imposed upon them by the cruel and decadent rulers of their homeland, and survive to found a colony on the Red Planet. Bill had been entrusted by Zeris, the Chief Elder of Similaria with the task of bringing back to 21st Century Mars details of the history and cultural heritage of their Earthly ancestors that had been lost. The Lost World tells how he and his friends find the scientifically advanced society and become perilously involved in its politics, and how one of the party gets entangled in a potentially dangerous relationship. And it transpires that the valuable records they obtain cannot withstand rapid time travel. Read how the six intrepid time-travellers and seasoned space explorers strive to overcome a succession of life-threatening challenges, with some help from the Andromedans, who are never far away.

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

NAIROBI

As I passed through the busy departure gate at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 I turned and blew a kiss to the slim, red-headed girl who had accompanied me as far as she was allowed. She lifted her hand and waved. A few seconds later I turned again but she had gone. A knot formed in my throat at the thought of parting from my fiancée.

The queue for passport control was long but fast moving, so that within no time I had shown the solemn official my passport and was negotiating the zigzag, ready to have my hand luggage X-rayed. I smiled to myself at the amusing thought that no such complicated procedures were involved on my frequent trips to the Red Planet. One day, perhaps, when we complicated humans have destroyed our own planet and have colonised our near neighbour, such tiresome bureaucracy would become necessary there too. I studied the travellers in front of me. A middle aged, well-dressed man must be on a business trip, I thought. A young couple, dressed in khaki and exuding an air of love and freedom, were likely joining me on the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, but for a very different reason.

Having checked in early and sat with Sonia for an hour over a cup of coffee and a sandwich roll, I had only a short time to wait before boarding the Airbus that was to carry me to the capital city of Kenya. I sat in the departure lounge and my mind considered the enormous challenge that awaited me. I had been invited by the United Nations Environment Programme to address the latest World Conference on Climate Change, an honour that I still found hard to believe. I was in effect representing the youth of the world. At barely twenty years old, I was to speak into a microphone to a healthy gathering of world leaders and environmentalists. Was I up to the job? Would my words motivate the Old Guard into action and stimulate the young into exerting more pressure for change? I had chosen my words carefully and I had rehearsed in front of a glowing Sonia.

‘Bill, it’s a great speech!’ she had cried.

‘Do you really think so?’ had been my reply. ‘You’re not just saying that?’

‘Would I? I really mean it. It’s a great speech!’

I fingered my boarding card, turning it over and over, as if the answer to my doubts was written in small print somewhere. But I have the whole of today to modify it, instead of escaping to the in-flight entertainment. Then I have two more days to change it, after listening to the first sessions, and having gauged the mood of the conference. Of course UNEP had insisted on having a copy of my speech in advance: they wanted to be sure I was not about to disgrace them.

My musings were interrupted by the announcement that boarding was about to begin, wheelchair cases first, mothers with children next, followed by Premier Class and Business Class passengers. Since I did not qualify for any of those categories, I resigned myself to joining the fit and unencumbered majority. The pretty young stewardess who checked my card smiled sweetly. I almost told her I was attending an important conference and was one of the guest speakers but I swallowed my pride and just smiled back.

Then it hit me! Opening my mouth in front of a hall full of politicians and technocrats; was it such a big deal? I, who knew the Red Planet almost as well as I knew the Earth; who was an expert in the use of short-haul bubbles, long-haul bubbles, space bubbles, time bubbles and any other kinds of bubbles; who had seen with my own eyes the Monuments of Cydonia; who had fought and helped to defeat a powerful Martian dictator. I, who had commanded a space vehicle powered by electromagnetism and had deflected a giant asteroid that was on course to destroy our planet, and who had been wined and dined by the Prime Minister of Russia himself. I, who had gone back in time 14,000 years to discover the controversial civilisation of Atlantis and had witnessed its destruction; what was so daunting about this conference?

With my confidence restored, I gave in to the luxuries of intercontinental air travel. With a cold lager and my own personal screen, the speech was soon forgotten.

From my window seat I stole occasional glances at the Earth’s surface 39,000 feet below, at the west coast of Italy, the town of Palermo on the Island of Sicily, the deep blue of the Mediterranean and the yellow sands of the Sahara Desert. In the late afternoon sun I admired the pale blue waters of Lake Turkana in the extreme north of Kenya and understood why it was called the Jade Sea. By the time the plane had dropped down over the industrial area of Nairobi onto the runway, it was beginning to get dark.

UNEP had arranged a visa for me. A representative was waiting to guide me through the passport control and customs formalities and to a waiting car. I was impressed and chuffed at the reception accorded to one so young. During the drive into the centre of the city, the pleasant young African chatted about Kenya’s problems, its difficulties in effecting the new Constitution that had been passed by a national referendum the year before, and his hopes and fears for the national elections due to be held in just over a year. He helped me check into the plush hotel in the city centre and then excused himself, saying that a car would be at the entrance to the hotel at 7 am the next morning. I checked in and was shown my room. Time to relax, I thought, but first to ring Sonia and tell her I arrived safely.

I was enjoying the bathroom facilities, the free shampoo and bubble bath and the embroidered face flannel, all carrying the logo of the hotel chain. I put on the pink shower cap and took a quick look in the mirror, before whipping it off hurriedly. At that moment the telephone rang. Dripping soapy water and wrapped in an extra large white towel, I tiptoed to the bedside table and lifted the receiver.

‘Hello.’

‘A lady is here to see you, sir,’ said the receptionist politely. ‘She says her name is Wanjiru.’

‘Wanjiru?’ Who can that be, I thought?

A pause, then she said, ‘Jennifer Wanjiru.’

I broke into a laugh. ‘Okay! I’ll be right down.’

I replaced the receiver and went back into the bathroom. I had not seen Jennifer for nearly two years and the interest in bathing luxuries gave way easily to excitement at meeting her again. We had talked on the telephone several times on official matters. Apart from being the girlfriend of Tim Armstrong, Jennifer was the East African representative for Youth for the World, the NGO I had founded in 2009 at the request of my great Martian friend and mentor, Zeris, the Chief Elder of the Similaria Clan.

‘How’s Tim?’ was her first question after a hug.

‘Fine,’ I assured her, ‘though he misses you!’

‘I miss him too,’ she admitted with a frown. ‘Anyway, it’s great to see you, Bill!’

‘And it’s great to see you too, Jen! So, let’s have dinner together.’

She glanced at the clock in the reception. ‘Well, I can’t stay too long. I have to get home, and the matatus to my place stop at about half past nine.’

‘What, those minibuses with the yellow stripe down the side?’

‘Yeah, those people who hold the city to ransom every time they have a small argument with the Government.’

We decided not to eat in the hotel. Jennifer recommended a nearby restaurant where they served good African food at a reasonable price. After selecting our meals at the counter and sitting at a table we began to talk of old times.

‘I miss the fun we all had together,’ said Jennifer warmly, ‘Ben, Tim, Sonia… How’s Sonia, by the way?’

‘She’s fine, except…’

‘Except what?’ Jennifer asked.

I smiled. ‘She keeps pestering me to fix the wedding day. I’m actually so busy with the environmental work and trying to get studying for my degree I hardly have time to think about wedding plans.’

‘And your parents?’ she enquired.

‘Mum was sad when I told her I was moving out of Dover Street. But there was no way I could operate in that house. I need space for the computers and stuff. I got a brilliant place in the centre of town; my office on the street and my living room and bedroom upstairs. It’s perfect!’

‘And your dad?’

I swallowed a mouthful of githeri before replying. ‘Oh, well! You know, Dad has never really understood me. Deep down he admires what I’m doing, but he can’t show it. He still hasn’t forgiven me for pushing off without confiding in him. He never visits me. Mum does often, and Dawn too.’

‘How’s the little one, the one Dawn and Albert adopted?’

‘Valentine? A smart little guy, that one!’

Jennifer laughed. ‘Wow!’ Then she sighed. ‘But I kind of miss bubbling. When am I going to get an invite to Mars?’

‘I’m planning to go once the conference is over. I really need to talk to Zeris.’

‘Can I come?’ She looked at me intensely, putting down her spoon.

‘We’ll see,’ I replied. ‘I’ll ask Priam. He’ll have to clear it with Zeris. Priam’s on Mars just now, but he flits back and forth like a butterfly on a sunny summer afternoon.’ I paused. ‘Then there’s Sonia; she might feel left out if I take you along. You know women!’

Jennifer laughed. ‘I am one, you know!’ She paused. ‘So you came by KQ; why not by bubble? It’s quicker and cheaper.’

I laughed. ‘UNEP paid for my air ticket. I could hardly tell them, no thanks, I have my own bubble. Imagine, a guest speaker slipping into the country illegally. I think Immigration would have something to say about that!’

‘True,’ she agreed with a smile. ‘So how long are you planning to be away… from Earth that is?’

‘I can’t afford to be away at all actually, but then that’s easily solved, with Zeris’ approval of course.’

She drew back and looked at me. ‘How’s that?’

‘I’d come back by time bubble,’ I said simply. ‘I’d put a notice on the door of my office, Back in 30 minutes.’

‘And you’ll like have all the time in the world to talk to Zeris, right?’

‘Right! Three days with Zeris in the space of half an hour.’

Jennifer sighed. ‘Wonderful things, time bubbles! How’s the githeri?’

‘Not bad. The place could be a bit smarter though.’ I gazed round at the plain dark green walls of the deserted restaurant, on which hung the odd cheap print of Kenya wildlife at various degrees of crookedness.

‘We Kenyans don’t think it’s important: what’s important is, the food’s good and cheap… and there’s loads of it.’

‘Yeah, it’s cheap enough. Eating out in England these days costs an arm and a leg.’

We reminisced about our journey back to the 12th Millennium BC, and how we finally discovered Atlantis after weeks of hair-raising adventures.

‘You know, Bill,’ said Jennifer, ‘I still have bad dreams, you know… seeing Atlantis on fire. I’m like I’ll never forget the sight from space.’

‘Nor me,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I’d love to know if anyone survived the holocaust.’

‘Do you think we’ll ever know?’ asked the Kikuyu girl thoughtfully.

‘If the Andromedan could be here, we would ask him… I mean them. I keep forgetting they are not separate beings.’

Jennifer sighed deeply. ‘Meeting the Andromedan; one of the most fantastic moments of my life.’

‘And they helped me so much, I’ll never be able to repay them,’ I said. ‘But they’re still helping the people of Atlantis to recover, I guess. Not in our time; back then, 14,000 years ago. So no way of saying thanks now.’

At that moment a heavily built and smartly dressed African man approached our table, from where, I couldn’t figure out. I had not seen anyone else eating and neither had I seen anyone entering.

‘No thanks needed, young man.’

The words came, not from the man’s lips, but as a thought directly into my mind, in a voice instantly recognisable. I looked up, startled, and then sought Jennifer’s face for a reaction. She was looking at the man with a mixture of surprise and joy.

‘I can’t believe it!’ she gasped. ‘It’s you!’ She rose to her feet and pushed back her chair.

‘Yes, it is us!’

Jennifer’s eyes half closed as she took his large outstretched hand in both her own. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘Zeris was like, Andromedans are with you in the 21st Century. He was like, you should try calling them sometime. But imagine, I never thought of actually doing it!’

‘Well, we are here. Can we take a seat at your table?’ It was a silent request.

‘Sure!’ I said, pulling out the chair.

The Andromedan sat down. I was about to ask if our guest would like a bite of supper, when I remembered that Andromedans have no need of Earthly food.

‘This is crazy!’ I was hardly able to believe it. ‘How the Hell did you…?’ Then I understood, and added, ‘Well, of course, you always used to answer a request for help, but…’

‘But nothing,’ was the Andromedan’s reply. ‘Time and space are no obstacles to us, and you know it well.’

‘But I thought Andromedans didn’t like time-travel,’ I said.

‘You have not yet understood, my young Bill.’ A broad smile spread across the dark face, highlighting a set of gleaming white teeth. ‘This is not the same body you met in Atlantis, but we are the One, the One that was, is and will always be.’

‘But the voice; it’s the same as the others.’

The Andromedan put a hand on my arm. ‘We are speaking in this voice because it is the one you know well and trust.’

I shook my head. ‘Nothing will ever surprise me again, I swear!’ Then a thought crossed my mind: I have said that before, I’m sure.

‘At least ten times,’ said the Andromedan with a wink. ‘So you wanted to know whether anyone survived the catastrophe that you both witnessed from space.’

I looked up in surprise.

‘Well, we shall tell you,’ said the Andromedan.

Jennifer and I leant forward, eager to hear the unspoken words of the being from our nearest galaxy. Neither of us had finished eating but food was now a long way from our minds.

‘Indeed, the damage was tremendous,’ began the Andromedan in a grave voice. ‘The east coast of the central island of El-Atlan, where most of the major towns were, was completely destroyed. The northern island, although it escaped the blasts, was severely contaminated by radioactive fallout. Only part of the southern island of Generis escaped with