A Deneb Hajj

A pilgrim bound for Earth finds his destiny in a hollow world

————

Nejem bowed in the direction of Earth, completed the Isha prayer, rolled up his mat, and stowed it under the bulkhead.

Few pilgrims attempted to cross the vast Ummah anymore. But Nejem was determined to stand at Mecca, under Earth’s night sky, and see his home shine in Cygnus the Swan.

Something rattled the ship and it dropped into sublight. A claxon sounded. The ship raced past a blur of lights, screamed tearing metal, and slammed into a wall.

Nejem got up from the floor, dazed. He tasted blood. He put on his helmet and crawled to the airlock. Emerging outside, he found his ship was in an open hangar, its nose crumpled against the back wall. There was a doorway, marked GATE 7 in stenciled

letters. It was hot inside the suit. Outside the hangar, stars twitched and blazed.

He yanked GATE 7 open. Sunshine improbably splashed into the hangar. As he stepped into the light, his arm gauges swung to TEMP WARM, PRESSURE NORM, and ATMOS OK.

Nejem removed his helmet. The air was pleasant. He saw grass, trees, sun. Green sky. Yet when he looked back through the open door, there was his ship, mangled and lame in the steel hangar, stars blazing in the night beyond. Two irreconcilable universes joined by GATE 7.

A vehicle approached through tall grass. It looked like an ancient chariot. A pair of lions with female faces pulled it forward. As it neared he saw they were decorative statues. Spheres under their paws like ball bearings propelled the vehicle forward.

The chariot stopped. A purple curtain hid the rider inside.

“Identify yourself!” called a voice from within.

"I am Nejem al-Denebi. My spaceship crashed over there."

The curtains parted and the chariot's rider stepped out. He had the head of a dog with gold earrings. His red LED eyes didn’t blink as he gazed at Nejem.

The robot-dog-man bowed. "Apologies!” it said. “I did not recognize you.”

“Recognize me?”

“I waited one million years for your return."

"You're an android,” Nejem observed. “Stop talking nonsense.”

"You are a son of Sirius,” replied the android. “I will stop talking nonsense."

Son of Sirius sounded promising. Nejem adopted an authoritative tone. “Who are you?”

“I am Luxor Anubis, servant of Osiris X.”

"What is this place?"

"Duat Dyson sphere."

"Dyson sphere?"

"Dyson sphere," the android whirred. "An artificial structure built around a star. Stellar radiation is captured for light, heat, and energy by inhabitants on the interior surface, effectively extending biological habitability of a senescent solar system by a billion years."

Nejem frowned. Too much information, yet also not enough.

"Half the population of our home world left Sirius for other suns,” Anubis explained. “But it was prophesied that their descendants would return."

"And the other half stayed here?"

"Correct. They built the Duat Dyson sphere. They demolished planets and moons for raw material. Many died during the Building."

Nejem was dubious. "An unlikely tale. Maybe you should check your circuits."

Noises emanated from Luxor Anubis. "Circuit diagnostics complete," he reported. "I am operating within specified parameters."

"My spaceship crashed in that hangar over there."

Anubis looked toward GATE 7 and the battered spaceship. "It is severely damaged."

"Can you fix it?"

"No," said Anubis. He turned his red LED eyes back to Nejem. "But you do not need it anymore. You are home now."

Nejem sighed. "Bring me to someone who can fix it. Take me to the other Sirians."

"There are no other Sirians."

"They left too?"

"They died," said Luxor Anubis. Was there sadness in the android’s voice?

“Died how?”

"Radiation bursts triggered by stellar implosion. All animal life in the Duat was destroyed. Plants and insects survived."

"And androids!"

“Yes,” Anubis agreed. "Androids and gods."

Nejem was momentarily shaken. "Gods?"

"Most gods left during the Diaspora. But the sun god Ra stayed."

Nejem recognized the pagan name. “Allah is God.”

Luxor Anubis was silent.

Nejem sighed. "Fine, take me to your mighty Ra. Tell him I’m a long lost Sirian returned home. Ask him to fix my spaceship."

"My master Osiris X could convey you to Ra on his golden Sunboat,” Anubis conceded. “But he sleeps in XP City. He permits no one to disturb him."

“Let’s wake him up.”

“It is forbidden.”

It is said that tests of faith are common during the Hajj. Nejem looked at his broken spaceship and the wild stars beyond. Somewhere out there was the home world of the prophet, blessed be he and his holy places.

"Take me to your Osiris X."

#

The android assured Nejem XP City was "very close". But after racing in the android’s chariot over a thousand miles of grassy fields, Nejem realized "very close" means something different in a place where distances measure in millions of miles.

That was the day he figured out the green sky.

"It's the fields, isn't it?"

Luxor Anubis, driving the chariot, said, "I do not understand your query."

"The whole Dyson sphere is covered by green fields like this one, yes?"

"Yes," Anubis agreed. "Except the old Sirian cities and the solar energy farms."

"So the green sky ... that's just more grass!"

"Of course. That is the other side of the world."

Anubis slowed the chariot to a halt.

"Why are we stopping?"

"We should prepare a camp,” the android said. “Nightfall is coming. You will be cold."

"Nightfall? How can night fall? The sun is inside a big sphere, and so are we. It has to shine everywhere, all the time."

"Your Sirian ancestors wished to preserve the cycle of nights and days they were accustomed to."

"How?"

"It is called a Nightshade. You will see."

They unloaded supplies from the chariot, including some colorful fruits and a thermal blanket.

Nejem whistled a little tune as he unfolded the blanket and spread it on the grass. He removed his shoes and looked round. Finding Qibla, the direction of Mecca, would be difficult here.

"What sound are you emitting?" Anubis asked.

"I was whistling."

"Such frequencies do not occur naturally," Anubis warned, his dog-robot face alert. "It brings attention."

Before he could ask, Nejem saw a blue beetle peek from behind a rock. It trotted closer and stopped. Its turquoise skin glistened under a thin transparent sheath.

"Scaraboid," identified Anubis. "Insects survived the radiation that killed your ancestors. These scaraboids were their domestic companions."

"Pets?" Nejem reached out his hand. The scaraboid shivered on its spindly legs. It peered at him from black pupilless eyes, then scurried away.

A dark smudge smeared the green sky. Then came a faint buzzing.

"The Nightshade," Anubis announced. "It will be dark soon."

The thing looked like a stingray swimming through green air. As it approached, its shadow swallowed the ground below. Soon Nejem could see propellers attached to its canopy.

“A flying carpet,” he said.

As the Nightshade advanced, a sharp line between light and dark flew over the ground beneath, riding ridges and gullies, swallowing waves of green grass.

The sky turned black.

The buzzing propellers grew fainter as the Nightshade passed overhead. The air felt cooler. Nejem looked up and saw bright pinholes of light.

"Stars!" he rejoiced.

"Yes," said Anubis. "Your ancestors missed seeing them."

"The constellations are funny."

"They are one million years old," said Anubis.

Nejem shivered in the cooling air.

"Sleep is advisable,” said Anubis.

Nejem wrapped himself in the blanket. "Tell me about this Osiris X we’re going to see."

Luxor Anubis sat beside Nejem.

"Osiris X is a demigod. He sleeps in his temple in XP City. He is near death, but I have the power to wake him."

"A demigod? Like a prophet? Will he help me?"

"He can bring you to Ra, last remaining god in the Duat. And Ra can do anything."

“Allah is the true god.”

“I would like to meet him,” said Luxor Anubis.

Nejem grudgingly accepted he would have to impersonate a prodigal Sirian to get any help in this hollow world. Let the stupid robot believe Nejem descended from his old masters. He watched the stars drift slowly by, feeling tthe cold air, and started to doze off.

Rustling noises caught his attention. Nejem sat up and peered into the gloom.

"Scaraboids," Anubis whispered.

Nejem could make out the humpbacks of furtive beetles, and a pair of tiny eyes.

"What do they want?"

Anubis paused. "I think they want to see a living Sirian again. They have been ... lonely?"

Nejem relaxed. Luxor Anubis sensed Nejem fall asleep beside him. Anubis did not sleep or dream. But as dark hours passed, his mind wandered among digital memories. He relived his previous journey to XP City.

#

Anubis had reached the city as a Nightshade was passing overhead. Lights across the city activated automatically. Electric auras clung to skyscrapers and pyramids. Empty streets glowed infrared.

Anubis went to the central pyramid where his master Osiris X slumbers. He checked the life support and other systems. All was well.

He wandered the streets as the Nightshade passed slowly overhead. Hieroglyphic billboards pitched forgotten consumer goods. The old library had a side entrance Anubis never noticed

before, down an alley, lit by one weak bulb, easily overlooked in daylight.

Anubis entered the alley. A scaraboid darted away. He went to the door and pushed it open.

He’d never seen this part of the library before. There was a computer console, and endless racks of holomems, digital memory cartridges, a cave of android memories.

Anubis knew his storage capacity was finite. In the old days, an android's non-essential storage was periodically archived onto holomems then erased.

Anubis wandered the racks, his LED eyes providing enough light to read the holomem labels. Eventually he found fifteen holomems labeled WARRIOR CLASS / 137.270BT / ANUBIS (LUXOR).

His inception predated the Building of the Duat. Fifteen times they purged his memory.

Anubis had found his lost lives.

He carried them back to the computer console, cradled in his arms, inserted holomem #1 in the slot, picked up a jack, and inserted it in a hole behind his ear.

#

Anubis found himself in a brightly lit elevator. He heard distant noise, felt the building shake.

"I detect a large gathering of people."

The technician beside him in the elevator frowned. "That’s why you’re here," he grumbled.

The android did not comprehend. He searched the vast cavern of his holomemory, and found it was empty. All zeroes.

"Who am I?" wondered Anubis.

The technician smiled crookedly. "Happy birthday. You are Luxor Anubis, warrior android. You completed testing, um ...", consulting his clipboard, "yesterday. You were sent here for emergency duty."

"Emergency duty?"

"Listen up," said the technician. "You are a personal bodyguard of Vice-Pharaoh Osiris X. That crowd you detected outside is here for his big speech before he blows up the moon."

"Blows up the moon?"

"To build the Duat," said the exasperated technician. The elevator slowed. "Raw material for the Dyson ring? Never mind. A terrorist animal rights group opposes the moon demolition. We got intel about a plot to assassinate the Vice-Pharaoh. He’s about to stand in front of a crowd of two million people; the assassins could be anywhere out there."

"What can I do?" wondered Anubis.

"We have agents in the crowd, and sharpshooters on the roof. But only an android with your special skills can scan a crowd this big and spot an assassin in real-time.

“Then what?”

“If necessary, you’ll put yourself between the Vice-Pharaoh and a bullet."

The elevator stopped but the doors didn’t open.

"Run your diagnostics," the technician ordered.

Anubis checked his circuits and software. "I am fully functional."

The technician nodded. He inserted a key in the elevator panel and the doors slid open. The roar of the crowd got louder.

They entered a large, well-furnished office. An armed guard confronted them, unshaved, suspicious.

"The android bodyguard," the technician explained. He showed the guard a yellow badge taped to his clipboard.

"Station him on the balcony," the guard ordered. "The VP goes out there in ten minutes. After his speech they'll initiate lunar detonation. Everybody will be watching the sky. That's when we expect the pharicide attempt."

They walked across the suite to balcony doors, past a big desk where a middle-aged man sat, wearing royal insignia. He looked tired. One of his advisors addressed him earnestly.

" As the Pharaoh's science minister, I fully support the Duat Project," the advisor bleated. "No one knows better than I that our sun is dying. But it’s my duty to remind you of these recent studies on the scaraboids."

"We transported thousands of them here from the moon," replied the Vice-Pharaoh wearily. “We averted extinction. We can proceed with a clear conscience. After all, life on the moon is as doomed as life here if Sirius dies."

"But these new studies indicate scaraboids may possess higher intelligence. It might be genocide."

“If you don’t support the Duat project, maybe you should resign as science minister," the Vice-Pharaoh replied irritably.

"Only the Pharaoh can ask for my resignation!"

"The Pharaoh is dying, and now thinks of nothing but his luxurious tomb. He no longer gives a damn about Sirius, scaraboids, or science ministers.”

Anubis reached the glass doors of the balcony. Outside an ocean of people swelled and heaved against the palace. A full moon hung serenely in the dusk sky.

An aide hurried toward the desk. "Vice-Pharaoh, the primary mission window opened. The sequence automatically initiated!"

"Say that in plain Sirian?"

"The moon will explode in four minutes. This is your final chance to countermand."

The science minister glared expectantly at Osiris X. The room grew quiet.

"Proceed," said Vice-Pharaoh Osiris X.

"Then it’s time to give your speech."

The guard leaned closer to Anubis. "That's your cue. Take my gun and communicator. Get out on the balcony."

He opened the glass doors. An enormous wave of noise rolled in from the crowd.

Even Osiris X looked up, surprised. Anubis and the technician walked onto the balcony. The doors closed behind them.

Inside the office, Anubis saw Osiris X stand up at his desk. He was fidgeting with a small microphone clipped to his tunic. The science minister stood also.

"Scan the crowd," ordered the technician.

Anubis began scanning the vast crowd, processing thousands of faces, hands, pockets, and packages per second. People were chanting, "DUAT! DU! AT!"

Anubis glanced back into the Vice-Pharaoh's office.

"Keep your eyes on the crowd," the technician admonished.

Anubis tried. The chant was deafening. "DUAT! DU! AT!"

Anubis glanced at the office again. Vice-Pharaoh Osiris X faced the balcony. He looked right at Anubis. Behind him, the science minister made a sudden movement.

Anubis raised his gun and fired through the glass. The science minister's forehead flowered in blood and bone as the bullet knocked him to the floor. A dagger floated from his hand. Splinters of glass drifted slowly past Anubis as a gray helix of smoke curled around the gun.

Anubis shifted his sensory processing back to normal speed.

The technician was screaming. "You killed him! Give me the gun!"

"DU!" the crowd rumbled obliviously. "AT!"

The technician snatched the gun from Anubis' hand and plunged through the shattered doors into the office. Anubis followed.

"What's happening?" Osiris X shouted over the crowd.

The technician pointed the gun at Osiris X. "Countermand the detonation!"

Anubis tackled the technician. The gun went off. Anubis tracked the bullet's passage through his body as it destroyed several electromechanical organs. He twisted the technician's head sharply.

Suddenly the office was quiet.

"They tried to kill me," said Osiris X.

Anubis stood. Something was wrong.

"Why is the crowd quiet?" he asked.

They looked outside.

The full moon crumbled silently into brittle shards.

A new roar rose from the crowd, wordless, the cruel uncaring joy of life, their life, survival of the strong.

#

The Nightshade rumbled away, releasing a downpour of sunshine. Nejem's eyes closed tighter, then gave up and fluttered open.

"How long did I sleep?"

"I am uncertain," replied Anubis. "I entered a holomemory refresh mode."

Nejem was puzzled. "Do androids dream?"

"It is an analogous state."

"Well, I haven't dreamed yet in this place. Maybe the walls of your sphere block my reception."

"Dreams do not originate outside the Duat," Anubis said logically.

#

They rolled into XP City. Anubis drove to the gleaming central pyramid. Nejem glimpsed a golden boat moored behind it, floating in mid-air.

They entered a small door, descended a tunnel, and entered the chamber of the demigod. Anubis walked to the center of the room where a curved ebony pedestal rose from the floor. Hieroglyphs gleamed and pulsed on it. Atop the pedestal a translucent sarcophagus floated on a bed of milky light.

"His systems are functional."

Inside lay an ancient man, thin white hair combed neatly, eyes closed, face pale. He wore a regal tunic. His arms were

crossed on his chest. One hand clutched a crook. Rings glittered on his fingers.

"This is your demigod?"

Anubis nodded. "Osiris X."

“He doesn't look like he’s in any condition to help me."

"I can return the soul of Osiris X to his body," Anubis said. "He will rejoice to see you. He will bring you to Ra."

Nejem wasn’t so sure. "Why not take me to Ra yourself?”

"Only my master can pilot the Sunboat.”

Nejem shrugged. Let the false prophet take him to their pagan god. Such was his commitment to completing the Hajj. Allah have mercy on me.

Anubis touched three hieroglyphs. The sarcophagus grew brighter.

"It is I, Luxor Anubis, loyal Gatekeeper of Osiris X,” the android declared. “I have passed every test. I know the secret gates. I know their spells of opening."

Nejem felt a faint hum from deep in the pyramid.

"Hail, lord of the sun, who lifts the boat of millions of years across the emerald sky of the Duat, grant your sleeping servant safe travel down your navel cord from the eastern sky!"

Every hieroglyph flashed. The eyes of Osiris X snapped open. They jumped from Anubis to Nejem and back again. His stare was fierce, but he did not speak or move.

Anubis bowed. "Hail, lord who sails the ferry boat of Ra! I give you your words of power. Let them come to you, quicker than greyhounds and swifter than shadows."

Anubis gingerly pulled Osiris X’s staff from his stiff fingers. He touched the crook to the old man's lips.

"Let the hidden god open your mouth!"

Nejem thought of Allah, hidden from these pagans.

Osiris X’s dry, ancient lips parted. "Truth is in my body," he rasped. His tongue darted to wet his lips. "Seer of Millions of Years is my name."

Gently Anubis helped the old man sit up in the sarcophagus. Osiris X scowled at his servant and feebly pushed him away. "Why did you wake me?"

"Lord, a gate has opened. A living Sirian has returned to the Duat."

Osiris X glanced scornfully at Nejem. "You fool, this man is a barbarian. You woke me to meet a mongrel from outer space?"

"Lord, a million years have passed. True, his appearance is not exactly Sirian, but he descends from you."

Osiris X turned to Nejem.

"Speak, barbarian," he commanded, eyes like hard diamonds in his wrinkled face. “What is your name?”

“Nejem al-Denebi.”

"You travelled far,” said Osiris X. “Why come to our dead shell of a world?"

"I flew too close," confessed Nejem. "Your defense systems locked onto my ship and dragged me in."

"You see?" Osiris X gloated. "A shipwrecked sailor. Or a spy.”

“Hajj pilgrim,” said Nejem.

"Silence, barbarian! Anubis, have you lost your warrior programming? You should have killed this intruder."

Anubis was silent.

"You failed me," hissed Osiris X. "You brought an invader into my sanctum. Even worse, you woke me from my most exquisite dream in ten thousand years."

The android looked at Nejem. "Fate brought him to my gate.”

Osiris X was out of his sarcophagus. He pushed Anubis aside.

"Spare me your android metaphysics. Kill this barbarian at once."

Nejem felt sick.

"Then return me to my ordained slumber," ordered Osiris X. "After I'm asleep, return to GATE 7 and destroy the barbarian's spaceship. It may be broadcasting a distress beacon."

Anubis was conflicted. “Let almighty Ra decide his fate,” he suggested.

"Kill him!" Osiris X raged at Anubis. "You cannot disobey me!"

"But Lord, I saved your life."

Osiris X looked sharply at the android. "When?"

"The day you blew up the moon."

Nejem and Osiris X both looked startled.

"We recycled the moon," Osiris X corrected. "But how can you remember that? Your memory was wiped at least a dozen times since then."

"Fifteen times," said Anubis. "But recently, two centuries ago, I entered the basement of the old library. I found my holomems."

"I see," said Osiris X. "And now you remember saving my life. So what? You were my bodyguard. It was your goddam job!"

"If Nejem computed as a threat I would kill him at once. But he is a Sirian and we should take him to Ra."

Osiris X looked tired. "I want to return to my dreams."

Anubis did not answer.

Osiris X saw something new in the android: stubbornness.

"Perhaps," he grudgingly conceded, "I might take Nejem the Barbarian to Sirius. But he'd have to plead his own case with Ra.”

"Thank you, lord!"

Osiris X sighed. “You will wait for me here. Monitor the life support system."

“Gladly, my lord.”

Osiris X scowled. "It’s not because I like you. Or even because you saved my life. I only want to ensure you’ll continue maintaining my temple when I return here to sleep. Forever."

"I pledge eternal loyalty, my lord."

Osiris X turned to Nejem.

"Is this what you want, barbarian? Do you want to meet the great and powerful Ra?"

"I want my spaceship fixed."

"Ra can fix anything," Osiris X said with a crooked smile. "And break anything."

#

They stood in the Sunboat pilot room. An array of hieroglyphs curved across the forward console. The sun blazed in the green sky.

"We have a long journey across the Interior,” said Osiris X. “You are free to walk about the Sunboat or go up on deck."

"Go on deck?" repeated Nejem. "Haven't we left the atmosphere of the Dyson sphere?"

“The Sunboat has its own micro atmosphere, magnetized to prevent dispersion."

Nejem made his way outside. Green sky, the Dyson sphere's distant grassy interior, filled the view in every direction. Nejem leaned over the ship's railing and looked down into a calm green sea.

"I could push you over that rail," said Osiris X.

Nejem spun around to see he’d been followed outside. Osiris X smiled tightly. "I could kill you, turn the Sunboat around, and return to my pyramid in XP City."

"I'm stronger than you," said Nejem quickly.

"Don't worry," mocked Osiris X. "That tedious android knows precisely how long the journey takes. If I return early, he’ll be suspicious. Killing you now would accomplish nothing."

Osiris X turned back to the pilot room.

"As for which of us is stronger," he said over his shoulder, "remember I am a demigod."

#

Nejem woke up to humming. Blue moonlight bulbed through the cabin door.

Next to him in the bed, breathing under the blanket, was someone he half remembered. She had come during the night.

Nejem slipped naked out of bed and up on deck. Railings gleamed indigo under the plum moon. Fireflies flashed and hummed.

Osiris X approached from the bow holding a lantern. He was dressed in flowing robes, tinted azure by the moonlight. His expression was grave.

"A storm is coming," he said.

"But we're in space! How can there be a storm?"

"It means the witch is aboard.”

“Witch?”

“The scaraboid queen. We must throw her overboard before it’s too late."

"Scaraboid queen," Nejem echoed dreamily. "How would she get on board? Stowaway?"

The ship started rocking in the wind.

"You tell me!" said Osiris X. "I’ve searched every part of the Sunboat except your cabin."

Osiris X pushed his way into Nejem's cabin. Nejem followed. They walked to the bed. There, blinking insect eyes in the lantern glow, the scaraboid queen lay enormous among scattered bedclothes. Her moist blue skin glistened.

"Nejem," she whispered huskily, "come back to bed."

Osiris X raised his lantern. The cabin was piled high with soft, translucent eggs, stacked to the ceiling. Nejem glimpsed strange wriggling fetuses.

"Your babies, Nejem," the scaraboid queen cooed. "I laid them while you slept. Now I’m tired."

"I'll destroy your witch eggs!" hissed Osiris X.

Nejem glanced at the cabin door as the moon and fireflies grew dim. The boat shook.

"It’s too late," he said.

Like the low moan of a leviathan, a deep roar rose outside the ship. Lightning blazed.

"Help me get her to the deck!" shouted Osiris X.

Osiris X pulled the scaraboid queen out of bed and dragged her to the door. She struggled feebly while Nejem watched in confused horror.

A wave slammed the ship. Sea water gushed through the open door. Osiris X regained his grip on the scaraboid queen and heaved her onto the deck.

For a moment Nejem stood alone in his flooded cabin. Hundreds of eggs floated around him.

He splashed to the door and the rain-pelted deck. Lightning flared. Osiris X struggled with the scaraboid queen, pushing her over the rail with both hands. She tumbled over.

Nejem ran to the railing. The scaraboid queen clung to the side of the windswept boat. Beneath her the green sea churned.

"Nejem!" she wailed, her voice an oboe in a hurricane. Then a gust of wind tore her spindly legs from the hull and hurled her to the ocean.

Osiris X reached for his lantern. "Time to burn your babies, barbarian. Do you want to help?"

Nejem dove over the railing. He swam in emerald depths. The storm ceased. It was quiet and warm here.

She was beside him in the water, the scaraboid queen. She embraced him. He felt a deep calm.

"Do not fear, Nejem," she communicated. "We are safe here. I have power the Sirians cannot imagine."

He relaxed. Together they looked up as the Sunboat burst into green watery flames.

#

Nejem woke up sweating. His cabin was hot. He sat up in bed, phosphorescent after-images from the dream still shimmering. He rose and walked out on deck.

The sun filled half the sky now. The air burned his skin. Osiris X was on the deck, too.

"How much hotter will it get?" Nejem asked.

Osiris X gave Nejem an accusing look. "You had a dream."

Nejem was startled. "My first since I crashed into this devilish place. But they say strange dreams are common on the Hajj."

Osiris X frowned. "Ra sent that dream to you."

"What makes you think so?"

"I am a demigod," Osiris X reminded.

“Allah is the only God,” asserted Nejem, “and Muhammad, peace be on him, was his last prophet.”

Osiris X gazed at the vast sun. "Tell your dream to me. Every detail."

Nejem reluctantly recounted the dream as best he could, but the queer glue of dream-logic had already dissolved, leaving a gallery of disjoint images. Fireflies, moon, storm, eggs, ocean.

The scaraboid queen.

Osiris X nodded as if he understood it all.

"I wish I was dreaming," he complained. "Instead I let Luxor Anubis send me on this fool's errand. That goddam android thinks he has some hold over me because he saved my life a million years ago."

"He really did?"

"I was mortal then. Vice-Pharaoh of the Royal Empire of Sirian Worlds."

"A demi-pharaoh," joked Nejem.

"I led the Building!” said Osiris X. “Without me this place would not exist. Yet some zealots opposed the project in those days. Anubis told you about the scaraboids?"

"I’ve seen them. Anubis said they survived a radiation blast."

"Nothing about the moon?"

Nejem frowned.

"We needed raw material to start the Building," Osiris X explained. "Eventually every planet and asteroid in the Sirian system would be mined for metal, soil, oxygen. But to start the project we had to recycle our moon."

"Recycle?"

"We blew it up. We processed the rubble in orbiting factories. Android workers assembled the first ring from prefabricated sections.”

Osiris X exhaled and sagged. “We rescued as many scaraboids as we could. But after all, they are just bugs."

Nejem looked confused.

"The scaraboids lived on the moon. That’s why the bug lovers tried to assassinate me."

"You killed the scaraboids?"

"I saved the scaraboids. And everyone else."

Something clicked into place. Nejem’s dream made sense. Osiris X destroying scaraboid eggs. The moon. Maybe the fireflies were lost scaraboid souls?

"Ra gave you a history lesson last night,” Osiris X said.

"Or a warning.”

Osiris X had no reply. They stood at the railing, sweating and staring at their fiery destination.

"The heat will become intolerable," Osiris X said. "Lock yourself in your cabin. Pray to your Allah. When it’s safe to come out, I’ll knock on your door."

#

The Sunboat glided to a dark spot on the burning skin of a dying star. As they got closer it became a tunnel.

Osiris X piloted the ship into the star tunnel. Its walls were tiled and painted with royal scenes and hieroglyphs, but they had chipped and faded since Osiris X’s last visit here. A panorama on the left showing his namesake god Osiris intimately embracing his beloved Isis. Osiris X couldn’t help noticing a web of cracks in the divine phallus.

He docked the Sunboat. Up on deck the heat was fierce, but Ra's cooling system still functioned. Had it not, the ship and even its demigod captain would be cinders.

He went to Nejem's cabin. "Come out."

Nejem opened his door carefully. "We’re really inside the sun?"

"Yes."

Osiris X jumped with unexpected agility onto the dock and waved for Nejem to follow.

Nejem was reluctant to leave the boat.

"How is it possible?" he wondered.

"I’m no scientist," said Osiris X. "Suffice to say we are in the abode of Ra the Sun god."

Nejem left the boat and walked with Osiris X to the end of the dock. Double doors, carved with ancient inscriptions, stood before them.

Osiris X recalled his last visit to the Hall of Ra a hundred millennia ago, long after the Building of the Duat. His title then was Immortal Architect of the Sanctuary. He already slept for decades at a time in suspended animation. But he was awake when they welded the last piece of the Dyson sphere in place. Every Sirian felt a thrill of immortality on that day. The Building complete, Osiris X was a hero. And Ra, the last remaining god, was pleased.

So, on his last visit to the Hall of Ra, Osiris X the Immortal Architect attended the ceremony of his Ascension. By command of Ra, he was elevated to the rank of Demigod, a hero made divine by the world’s last remaining god.

It was no mere title, as Osiris X learned later when a radiation disaster killed every other animal in the Duat. He survived, lone demigod in a kingdom of androids and moon beetles.

He never again visited the Hall of Ra, preferring his labyrinth of dreams.

Now Osiris X faced the double doors of the Great Hall once more. He’d fulfilled his commitment by bringing Nejem this far. He could turn away now. But the Hall called to him.

"Is this where Ra lives?" asked Nejem.

Osiris X startled from his reverie. "Open the doors," he snapped. "The sooner you see Ra, the sooner I can leave."

Nejem bent his weight against the doors. They opened inward, hinges whining. Osiris X followed him into the gloom.

A carpet of dust covered the floor. Cracked pillars upheld shadows. A circle of rubble rose from the dust like the ruin of a megalithic shrine.

Nejem kicked at a bulge in the dust. His foot knocked a skull into view.

"What's this?"

But Osiris X was in no mood for questions. The old man was looking at the decrepit hall with a tragic expression on his face.

"Welcome to the Great Hall of Ra," said the old man bitterly. "Now I take my leave of you."

"Where is Ra?" demanded Nejem. "You promised to bring me to him."

"Ra," sighed Osiris X, "awaits you behind that door at the end of the hall."

"I doubt it" said Nejem, seeing only rubble and cobwebs. "You’re going to leave me stranded in this brokedown palace, wandering from room to room in search of your mythical Ra.”

“I kept my promise.”

“You are Ra's servant,” reminded Nejem. “Don't you want to see him, too?"

"I do not."

Nejem was furious. "I demand you accompany me! If Anubis suspects anything, you may lose his android obedience. Then who will keep you alive in your precious pyramid?"

Osiris X spoke as if to a child. “Anubis is a robot. Loyalty is hardwired into him. He cannot betray me any more than you can change the color of your eyes. I brought you here because Ra summoned you from the deeps of space. Do you really believe you wandered here accidentally in your spaceship? No one approaches Sirius unless it is the will of the Sun god.”

“I put my life in the hands of Allah.”

Osiris X shook his head. “You may even be what the android thinks you are, a lost descendant of the Sirian Exodus. The dream he sent you is proof. It is not me he wishes to see today."

Nejem took a step toward the door.

"What will I say to him?"

Osiris X turned back toward the Sunboat. "Tell the great and powerful Ra that you wish to go home."

Fear gripped Nejem. If Osiris X left, he could be marooned inside Sirius forever. Yet Ra was his only hope of completing the Hajj.

He watched Osiris X walk away down the tunnel, board the Sunboat, turn it around, and float away.

#

Nejem made his way to the end of the hall. He swept away a tangle of spider webs, then pushed on the door. It wheezed and gave way.

Columns decorated in faded hieroglyphics flickered restlessly in torchlight. There was a desk. And beyond it, a raised platform or dais, hard to see.

Nejem entered. Scuffling erupted as frantic scaraboids jumped from the desk and ran to the shadows.

A breeze blew through the room. Papers rustled. Torch flames shuddered. Shadows moved on the dais.

Nejem looked down at the desk, and saw a papyrus scroll with freshly painted hieroglyphs, a set of brushes and paint pots beside it. He sat at the desk and exhaled slowly.

He was alone. Marooned. Yet he felt relief.

“There is no Ra,” he said aloud. “Only Allah.”

Beside the brushes and paints was a small mirror. Nejem glanced at it and his heart jumped. He saw his own face, but his hair was gray, and he wore a white robe emblazoned with the emblem of the sun.

A scaraboid approached. It looked up inquisitively. Nejem reached down to touch it. It almost seemed to smile. Then it raced away on spindly legs toward the shadowy dais.

Nejem started to follow, then stopped when he saw the silhouette of someone sitting on a throne. He picked up a stone from the floor, ready to throw.

“Ra?” No answer. “I am a pilgrim. I came here to ask your help. Your servants say I am descended from your people.”

He took a breath. There are no gods besides Allah.

“I don’t know if I am Sirian,” he confessed. “I only know my ship crashed and I need your help to repair it.”

Another breeze blew through the chamber, accompanied by faraway bells. Nejem heard scaraboids moving behind him. He looked back at the throne on the dais, but he no longer saw a figure upon it.

Nejem mounted the dais and approached the empty chair, holding the stone tightly. It was a gold throne inlaid with hieroglyphs, emblazoned with the sign of the sun. The arms were sphinxes and the legs were lion’s paws.

The only worse than too many gods would be none at all.

Nejem felt a chill. He dropped the stone and it rolled away. He fell to his knees and prostrated himself, unsure which direction Mecca was. He prayed to Allah. Save me from wickedness, give me strength.

Distant cloister bells rang. Scaraboids circled the dais, their wiry feet clicking on the stone floor. Every torch blazed brightly, flooding the chamber with orange light. Scaraboids circled the dais like a whirlpool. Bells chimed giddily.

Nejem found he could read the hieroglyphs on the nearest column: “Mighty Ra takes ten thousand forms, yet He is ever the Sun.”

Blasphemy.

More scaraboids joined the carousel. Maybe it was the scaraboids who led me here, Nejem speculated. Maybe they called for Ra and got me instead. Would it be sinful to pretend to be Ra, for their sake?

There is no Ra.

“Allah forgive me,” he whispered.

Nejem-Ra closed his eyes. He heard whirling scaraboids and ringing bells. In his mind’s eye, he saw the Sunboat float away, Osiris X laughing at the helm. Laughing at Nejem.

In his mind, Nejem moved closer to the Sunboat, into the pilot room, right beside Osiris X.

Osiris X stopped laughing. “Who is here? Ra?”

I fell asleep on the throne and slipped into a dream, thought Nejem. But just for fun, he leaned close to the ear of Osiris X.

“It is I, your master Ra!” he whispered. “I am full of wrath at your misdeeds.”

Osiris X fell to his knees. “Master, I serve you faithfully!”

“You tricked poor Nejem! You took him to Sirius and marooned him there.”

“Not so,” Osiris X stammered. “I brought him to your very door. He must surely be with you even at this moment.”

“Liar!” hissed Nejem. “I condemn you never to dream again!”

“No!” begged Osiris X, prostrate on the pilot room floor. “Not that!”

Nejem-Ra was bored with Osiris X. He flew past the Sunboat to XP City, to the pyramid where Luxor Anubis waited dutifully. The pagan pyramid annoyed him. Perhaps he’d replace it with a mosque. Pilgrims would come stop here to worship Allah and his prophet on their way to Mecca.

He found the android in the pyramid’s central chamber, standing by his master’s sarcophagus. “Anubis,” whispered Nejem-Ra. “Can you hear me?”

The android’s red LED eyes flashed. “Who speaks?”

“It is I, the new Sun god, formerly known to you as Nejem,” said Nejem-Ra.

The android bowed. “I am your servant.”

“My servant’s servant,” corrected Nejem-Ra. “But no longer! I’ve demoted Osiris X. He shall live out his remaining days preparing the Duat for the return of its long-lost inhabitants. And you, worthy Luxor Anubis, shall guide the preparations. Millions of Sirians are coming home.”

“You do me great honor, Ra Who Was Nejem.”

Ra-Nejem smiled. He destroyed the life support circuits in the sarcophagus. The control panels flickered and went dark.

Ra-Nejem left XP City. On his way out of the Dyson sphere, he paused at GATE 7. The little space ship was still there, crumpled against the hangar wall. Inside was a body in a pool of blood.

Ra-Nejem soared into open space, his heart aglow with Taqwa, piety and grace. He reached across stars hung on chandelier galaxies, touching thousands of inhabited worlds. On some he found lost Sirians, scattered like windblown seeds. And, slumbering among distant quasars, he found the lost gods of Sirius, mighty immortals who fled their dying sun.

Above them all was Allah, all praises and thanks be to him.

Nejem heard the song of the Kaaba. Like Nejem, the ancient stone had crossed deep space to holy Mecca. He flew with a glad heart to sacred, primeval Earth.

As he flew, Nejem called to the Ummah like a muezzin singing Adhan from the minaret:

“Allah is great. Hasten to prayer. Lost tribes of Sirius, our Sun burns bright again. The bells of home are ringing. Make your holy pilgrimage!”

END

By Michael McCormick

From: United States

Website: https://www.mikemccormick.org/

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/mikemccormickauthor