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Chapter 20

A few minutes later, they had put on their suits and were trudging through the empty ship.

"Where are we going, anyway?" asked Camilla.

"We're boarding one of the small cargo ferries and heading for the southern end of the space base, leaving the gate city behind."

"I see they're already fully briefed," intoned Isis, pleased.

"As you take it. The pilot had already made contact and made himself known shortly before we landed. That's where I got the coordinates from. We need the suits, since we will leave for Sirius B immediately. Food and drinks are sufficient on board," Onari explained, "Captain Degreen had found another source, but we don't use it. Someone else offered itself."

"And all this without informing me," Anuset became indignant, "After all, I could have been let in on it."

"Then there would have been a danger that you would turn around and leave," the first justified herself.

"Why?" interposed Camilla.

"It is Maahes," announced the hyena.

"Maahes? The god of carnage?" it escaped Camilla.

"The old Maahes," laughed Anuset.

"I find that slightly disrespectful now," the fox-wolf rebuked her partner.

"Why?", Anuset started, "He's an Antermerian like me."

"But ..." began Camilla, "... didn't you say that the bodies of the Egyptian gods were destroyed and that's why you're in the Taurian body?"

"Then Nephtys would not be on the ship and currently with us. What is destroyed are the bodies of one of our clone series."

"You'll have to explain that to me now," Frank Simson nasalized.

"True, the real Antermerians are already the ancient Egyptian gods. But we weren't always present. Most of the time we had our clones on the job. We originals only interfered when urgent decisions had to be made and our direct presence was irreplaceable."

"Interesting," Onari snapped. "So there was a copy of each of you."

"No. Thousands."

"Thousands?" it escaped Camilla.

"Yes. They weren't originally gods, either. That was never the plan. They were our copies, which had a wide variety of tasks. The Seth clones were responsible for internal security, the Sachmet clones for external security and combat operations, as were the Maahes units. Ptah was responsible for leadership duties. Only Osiris and Isis exist only in the original, as does Ammon."

"And they're immortal, too?" asked Onari.

"No," Nephtys interjected, "they have a life span of a few centuries and are sterile bred."

"Oh, you've forbidden them to reproduce?"

"Not forbidden. Sex was important to the clones too, and practiced sufficiently; they were merely infertile."

"Except for the exception with Sachmet 8 ages ago on Earth," Isis recalled.

"Oh! What was there?" probed Camilla curiously.

"A curious thing," Anuset lifted, "Very early, that is, during the first visits, to the increasingly biodiverse Earth, Sachmet 8 and her clone partners, among others, were on duty on the planet's surface. It was about water samples, soil samples, air purity and flora as well as fauna. The clone lioness got to know a part of the fauna. According to her statement, while taking a soil sample, she was attacked by a leopard of the terrestrial fauna from the bushes. However, this one, it was a male, was not after prey, but after satisfaction and reproduction."

"You mean he had raped her?" asked Camilla.

"Yes. And, although she could not become pregnant from the sperm of a clone, the foreign seed overcame the built-in barrier and Sachmet 8 gave birth."

"How and where?" the fox-wolf exclaimed.

"Osiris made a decision," Isis interfered, "Normally such a thing means the death of the offspring. He put them in the care of a Horus clone and another Sachmet clone, let them move on Earth and build a life of their own."

"But that means interference with the natural development of a planet," growled the fox-wolf.

"In principle, yes, but on Earth everything was mixed up anyway and there the three and later four didn't stand out anymore."

"What happened to them?"

"We don't know exactly. We found only insufficient records, which had preserved themselves in a bog. The lines, which were still decipherable, indicate that Sachmet 8 gave birth to a hermaphrodite and by a strange coincidence this one had saber teeth. In any case, they all gradually parted ways and in the end natural death befell them."

"How melodramatic," Camilla sighed.

"Yes yes," groaned Nephtys, "all very touching."

"Nephtys," Anuset snapped at her, "you were already obnoxious back on Cyndra, but now you're breaking all boundaries."

"Didn't Sachmet teach you manners," Nephtys teased.

"Yes, she did. Camilla will do the rest."

"You just keep being you, kind, gentle, direct, lecherous, and my sweet, four-legged, tender ejaculate slinger."

"We're in a suit right now, so it's hard to do that at the moment," Anuset pointed out.

"I know, besides that, the suit shouldn't give you enough wiggle room," Camilla added.

"How sweet," Nephtys learned.

"No. Very salty," it slipped from Camilla's lips and she blushed under her coat.

"Could we please change the subject," complained Butler Frank.

"Why?" inquired Nephtys, looking deep into her Doberman's eyes, moving closer to him, pressing against him, and suddenly panting.

Frank Simson cleared his throat, Nephtys looked down at him and grinned broadly. "I see Isi's miracle drugs are already working, if only a little."

"Oh no. Our butler is becoming a full-fledged male," Stephen sighed.

"Miss Nephtys ...", Frank started.

" ... We were at Nepy's," the goddess intervened.

"... That's right ... I feel a little strange and embarrassed."

"You'll get over it. When your thing is right for the first time and you're inside me, you won't feel embarrassed. Especially the first time you have an orgasm."

"I know very well what that is."

"Frank!" exclaimed Camilla.

"Miss Queen?"

"You're my butler."

"I know Miss Queen. However, I have an extensive database and so I know what a climax is and how an ejaculation occurs."

The fox-wolf took an unobtrusive breath. "Let's get on with it already," she deflected.

"Very good idea," Frank Simson confirmed, audibly relieved.

"About time," Onari growled, pointing in the direction of march.

Four corridors, two decks of the ship and eight corners down, the group finally stood in the hangar, boarded the small shuttle and was on its way to the rendezvous point.

"Why aren't we flying on this ferry in the first place?" asked Camilla.

"Did you bring any weapons?" asked Anuset back.

"No," the fox-wolf replied meekly.

"Besides, this shuttle is for cargo only and is designed for pure atmospheric flight," Onari added.

"Ah. Then I understand," Camilla confirmed.

"We'll be there shortly," Onari interjected, pointing to a destination in the distance.

"I don't see anything," Stephen muttered.

"Never mind, the ship's sensors see more than we might like for that," Onari growled.

"Is something wrong?" inquired Camilla.

"If I'm not mistaken, there seems to be a police patrol on the way, crossing our path. I'm going down, maybe they haven't spotted us yet."

"I don't think they're interested in us," Anuset interjected.

"I think they are, especially since we are a cargo ferry from the cruise ship that just landed, are far from the reception terminal, and are still unregistered."

"That could indeed be a problem. At least my Taur isn't a robot anymore," the fox-wolf sighed.

"It shouldn't matter much," the Hyena continued, "but we seem to be in luck. The patrol has changed course and is moving away, must have found a more rewarding target."

"Whew," Camilla took a breath.

"There it is," Onari interjected, pointing to a spot between the rock walls ahead.

"Ah, yes. That matches Maahes," intoned Anuset, grinning strangely.

"Are you pleased?" asked his lover.

"As you take it. On Cyndra, the last time we worked hand in hand. After that, when the war on Earth ended and later an underground movement managed to make humanity reduce itself and we finally disappeared from the scene, retreated and the Chafren and Cherit took supremacy in the majority, the contacts of that time were also lost. He won't remember, certainly not in my present guise."

"I think he will remember," the fox-wolf cheered him up.

"Quiet! We're landing now," Onari ruled briefly and swung in aft, setting the shuttle down next to the transporter. "Out now and in next door," she ordered briefly, opening the access bulkhead.

A few moments later, the cruise ship's small ferry stood abandoned in the rubble and everyone was aboard the much larger transporter.

"With whom do I have the honor?" rumbled Maahes thunderously, and stood up in the middle of the wheelhouse, looking sternly into the faces behind the helmet visors. "And take off those dorky helmets, you don't need them yet."

Camilla stepped forward and nodded curtly. "My name is Camilla Queen, this is my butler Frank Simson, my stepbrother Stephen Fang, first officer Onari, ..."

"... Isis and Nephtys," Maahes added, "The former is very convenient for me in attendance, the latter - I don't know. - What are you doing here?"

"Thank you for remembering me," Nephtys fluted, playfully exuberant.

"Better not," growled the lion, turning to face the Taur, standing directly across from him and looking him in the eye.

"You know me," Anuset said.

The male lion said nothing, just grinned and suddenly hugged Anuset, patting him hard on the back. "I never thought I'd see you again, Seth. Especially not in a body with Anubis. Who is the dominant?"

"Since my name is Anuset, I am both."

"Anuset? Huh? And Camilla is your partner?"

"I am, and I can speak very well for myself alone," growled the fox-wolf.

"You do realize that your Taur is more Seth in a sexual sense."

"I know that. I've come to know and love the jackal, but I've also come to love the stallion, and I know what he's like."

"Ah, then I don't have to enlighten you."

"He already has, and much more than that," Camilla said, pushing herself between the anthro lion and her taur, giving Anuset a long, hot kiss.

"Yes, that's enough. Let's get going, and enlighten me during the flight. I like to be adventurous, but I don't want to run into it completely blind."

"I've lost contact with my army."

"Which one?"

"The mythological one, the one that guards the Osiris fragments so Anubis can't get to them."

"Shit!" escaped the two-legged mane.

"You said something."

"No way to get through somehow?"

"Tried everything. The only thing left is direct contact."

"In your outfit, a suicide mission."

"How is Sachmet, anyway?" deflected Anuset.

"How do you want her to be? You were with her until we were forced to leave. Since then, nothing has been the same. The lioness lives in seclusion, won't let even me get close to her."

"Are you still in contact with her at all?" echoed Anuset.

"Sporadically, but only at a distance. A lion doesn't seem to be enough for her after she had a handsome stallion."

"True!" interjected Camilla, "I wouldn't want the male anymore either."

"There you go," laughed Maahes suddenly, "With his thing Seth gets them all weak."

"Don't give me that line of talk. The situation is serious," Anuset admonished.

"Fire away," the Antermerian Lion became more serious.

"We have the coordinates for a tranquil plateau," Onari began, "stored on this flash drive. See that you get us there without damage, land, and secure the place. The rest is up to us."

Maahes looked first at the hyena, then at Anuset. "Reminds me of Terra and later Cyndra."

"Just like old times," Anuset replied, grinning.

"Okay. Whatever, but I'm coming with you. That one," he pointed at the Taur, "can't be left alone, even with you there, it won't work."

"You don't know my persuasive ways," Camilla turned to Maahes and smiled ambiguously.

"You don't even know what you're dealing with," the lion orated.

"You know our history," Anuset admonished.

"The whole of it? Even that of the Cherit and Chafren? Do they know that they are their descendants and are outnumbered only because they can handle ionizing radiation at higher levels better than humans?"

"What do you mean by that?" inquired Camilla.

"The Chafren live in the Elara system, on Genro. They are genetically created, were meant to fight against their origin, against the Cherit. In the course of this artificial birth, they received a great many characteristics, which remained hidden from humans during their creation, development and existence. The origins of the Chafren were bred mercenaries with the ability of rapid self-healing, extreme endurance, determination, accuracy in combat, high sexual reproduction will, the ability of so-called learning by doing, and ultimately a high resistance to radioactive radiation," Maahes explained.

"You mean that we still have all of these traits?" the fox-wolf echoed.

"Those that are of use to you, yes. You must remember that thousands of years have passed from the arrival of the first Cherit and later the Chafren. For us Antermerians, millions of years. A little over 500 years have now passed since the last war. The radiation is still very high and has therefore decimated mankind and large parts of the original fauna of the earth. There also did not help humans that the genes, a damn crossbreeding, feedback and who knows what, are."

"That's why humans aren't too thrilled with us," Camilla concluded.

"That's right. They blame us."

"Who's really to blame now?" interjected Stephen Fang.

"The humans and the renegades. The first war in which Chafren and Antermerians were involved went out saving Earth. Unfortunately, the humans wanted to get rid of us again, at least a sub-number, but unfortunately very powerful."

"What happened exactly?"

"Nuclear purgatory," Anuset sighed, "On Genro, a peace treaty was made between the renegade Antermerians and us loyal to the system. Although everything took place under very complicated conditions and there was repeated fighting, in the end the treaty stood. On Earth, a massive underground resistance formed. Relevant systems were infiltrated, synthetics were infiltrated, these eliminated functional variables and replaced them, made momentous decisions in their place."

"That laid the foundation?"

"Yes. After that, everything happened very quickly. On Norad, the general staff, which consisted of human, antermerian, and cherit feedbacks, was wiped out, then the crews. The nuclear weapons were activated, the opposite side, which was also infiltrated, ignited them instantly, the first strike was done. Everything else is just ashes and scorched ground," Anuset concluded.

"But why is Osiris dismembered?"

"I was, but it was more of an accident. We had unfortunately fallen victim to the intrigues, which had existed for millennia."

"You actually killed Osiris?" probed Camilla.

"Yes. I explained that to you at the beginning. However, this was not the original Osiris. It was one of his three backups. We had to give the ancient Egyptians something, after all, and build up the myths first. It had to sound so unbelievable that later no one could even begin to think that it wasn't pure fantasy."

"And where is Osiris now?" asked Stephen.

"He is indeed dismembered. However, that was under duress," Isis interjected, "To make our retreat believable, Seth agreed to epically dismember him once again."

"Yes, I became a repeat offender. After that, we took everything to the Sirius system."

"Now I get it!" cried Camilla, "That's why autonomous non-organic systems are banned from Sirius C onward. They are to be protected from the synthetics."

"That's right!" echoed Maahes. "This regulation came from our pen. We stored the bodies of Seth and Anubis on Sirius D, that knowledge of both was stored in the Cloud and is now in this Taur. Likewise, Osiris' head lies there. The army should kill everything that is not Seth. That should be the absolute security. Couldn't have known that the shit we came up with would backfire so gloriously and they'd both find themselves in a Taur and leave their actual bodies."

"Would Anuset split into the bodies again?" the fox-wolf asked.

"If Osiris is composed, theoretically, yes."

"I don't want to anymore, though," Anuset stated energetically.

"Neither do I. I want to keep it as it is," Camilla determined.

"Then so be it on my account. Bear in mind, however, that you have yet to convince Osiris, and he will not be very enthusiastic about your wish."

"And if we don't put it together?" asked Frank Simson suddenly.

"Then everything would stay as it is right now. We'd only have one problem," Anuset continued.

"And that would be?" asked Camilla.

"The chaos. My army. We'd have to clean up Sirius B, one way or the other," Anuset indicated.

"What would that mean?" echoed Stephen.

"Fumigate everything," Maahes snapped, "and Osiris stays dead."

"No. No. No," Isis intervened. "I want my consort back."

"Then we'll choose the complicated way," sighed Anuset, nodding in affirmation.

"We'll start now," Maahes ordered, pointing to the seats. "We'll sort out everything else when we land."