Alternate History Lesson

The office that Buck had given Mitchell had only been in use for a couple of months, but it still looked like it had accumulated centuries of dust on some of the books stacked around. CJ was more than amazed that he could find anything in the chaos his office had become in the short space of time he’d had it. Something she had voiced more than once. His answer was always the same, “Even chaos has some kind of pattern.”
She poked her head into the room and saw him scribbling furiously in one of those vellum notebooks he preferred. She cleared her throat, but for a moment she thought he hadn’t heard. Then he motioned her over without even looking up or stopping the scribbling.
“I think I may have something. Those inscriptions from the first Canyon site.”
CJ perked up. He’d been working on deciphering the various writings from the canyon tomb almost non stop. If he cracked it, it meant they might finally know what the tomb was doing there to begin with. “What’s up?”
“Well, there’s nothing like a Rosetta Stone, so a bunch is guess work based on what I could dig up. There’s a lot of anachronisms here.”
“What do you mean? I’m not an expert, but this site looked authentic. Not to mention the two others we found along the side canyons.”
“No, you’re right. Everything points to the authenticity. All the tests, everything. The problem is, well, this cuneiform was used at least a millennium prior to the New Kingdom. By the time the style of tomb we found was in use, cuneiform was far more abstract than this. Mostly collections of lines.”
“What does it say?”
“Most was a collection of names, like we thought. The sarcophagi had names and lists of accomplishments. Pretty standard stuff. The interesting part was that slip of paper Hitomi found. It’s a death prayer. Committing the priest to Anubis, giving the mummy a jackal head in reverence. Plus, a mention of a death cult.”
“Not another one,” CJ muttered. Mitchell looked confused, “I’ll explain later. Go on.”
“Uh, right. Anyway, the cult is not mentioned by name, just that it pays reverence to Anubis over all gods. In fact, it gives him way more significance than any other death right of the day. Here’s the strange part. While the paper is small, it gives a coded sequence that, when matched with the writing along the walls, tells a larger story. It seems, that this tomb was built by a small confederation of peoples that came over. Phoenicians, Egyptians, all kinds. They all had one thing in common.”
“What was that?”
“They were all dedicated to bringing Anubis to Earth in a physical form to rule over them. In fact, they were so dedicated that they were sent into exile. There were no longer welcome anywhere in the known world.”
“So they found a new one.”
“Exactly. The tomb was the last of the high priests of the cult. The people they served were going to disperse after the tomb was built. Obviously that didn’t happen, or there wouldn’t be other tombs. Although, I’m hoping the others will provide more to this story.”
“This is rather huge.”
“Yeah, it is. I’m fairly sure this was the oldest of the three. If any of the people did disperse, who knows where other tombs are hidden. I’ve got some of my team taking rubbings of the inscriptions in the other tombs, hopefully I can put more together in a few days.”
“Well, let me know if you need anything. I gave Buck the equipment list.”
“Great, thanks CJ. Maybe we can grab dinner tonight.”
“Yeah, that’s be nice. Although, soon enough, you owe me a real date.”
“You’re on.”