Egypt

Back in England

As linc went back through the portal, he saw that his Father and the
teams were gathered around a portable table talking and looking at
some maps.
Linc talked to the time masters and filled them in on what went on in Pangea.

Linc looked around him, and saw the teams and his Father didn't seem
to see him and the time Masters. Until now he hadn't given any
thought as to how the time Masters were able to travel back and forth
in time. It finally dawned on him that they were doing this in the
fourth dimension. If so, how did they lose the power to do it ? Now
he could see how Bernard was able to pass thru the portal and get
things and be able to return, because he was going back in time, and
coming out of the portal in the same time he left. Linc could now
understand why he could see the time Masters and the others couldn't.
Now he could reason how he could be back in time for a long time and
gone from the present time, only minutes. He wanted to question them
about it but no time to now. They said something about the teams
going to Egypt, since some new burial vaults had been found. Said
Linc could access some portals there in Egypt while he was there. The
time master said he would keep in touch with him where ever he went.

His Father called to him, and explained how the team was going to go
to Egypt and join a different team to open and explore some new tombs.
They were in a place called, Saggara. A town south of Cairo. One
tomb was for a fifth dynasty noble.
Saggara was crowded when they got there. Good thing the Egyptian
team had foreseen this and had got them fairly good accommodations.
The news had spread like wildfire and there were teams from all over
the world, wanting to be in on the big opening to the public. The team
would be heading out into the countryside early the next morning so
while his Father met with some of the other teams, Linc went out into
the streets to have a look around. He browsed an old antique shop.
In it he found an old paint kit. Was like nothing he had ever seen
before. Still quite messy with old paint, but for some reason he was
drawn to it, and went up to purchase it. He asked the store keeper if
he knew anything about it. The only thing he could tell Linc, was
that he bought it off an old man who said he found it out in the
desert a long time ago, and it had been sitting around in the shop for
years. Linc paid the guy then left the shop. On the way back to the
hotel, he sat down on a bench and looked at the paint kit in the
brighter light here outside. On the side of it, in very faint
letters, he could read Ruben J. Hanks. "Well I'll be damned" he
exclaimed. This is hard to believe Linc thought. Of all places to
find something that had once belonged to a Hanks. Back at the hotel,
he talked with an antiquities expert on the Egyptian team. Asked if
he had ever heard of Ruben Hanks, and the man said, funny you should
ask that, because he had just recently heard that he was captured by
pirates and sold as a slave to an Egyptian tomb maker back in the 25th
century BEC, because he was an artist. It was said he became a tomb
painter. It would have been strange for a non native Egyptian to do
this, if so he must have been very good at the task.

At The Site of the Tombs



There was quite a crowd way out here in the middle of nowhere.
Everyone was milling around, waiting for the dignitaries to have
their speeches before the press. They explained how the tombs were
four thousand years old.
In the meantime Linc wandered around getting the feel of things. The
heavy equipment used in the excavation of a lot of the sand that had
drifted over the tombs since they were covered up, was parked off to
the side of the road coming into the site. Linc wandered over that
way. As he went around a backhoe, he saw a blue glow of a portal
against the side of an old small broken down pyramid. He approached
it then stepped through. He found himself in a long underground
tunnel, that had various offshoots. Looking in some of them he could
see that they were going to be burial spots for some very elite
people. In one he found an old man who was almost as startled to see
him as he was to see the old man in there. The old man asked," Did
you bring back me paint kit? You know I don't ave a lot of time to
get this ere tomb painted". Hey! The old man spoke to him in English.
Linc told the old man he didn't know a thing about his paint kit, and
asked him who he was. " My name is Ruben Anks. And I'm a trying to
get this ere tomb painted as soon as I can cause ole man Khuwy ain't
gittin any younger., an I ain't been able to find any blue or green
pigment that don't fade out almost before it dries down ere". Linc
could see that Ruben had outlined everything with a black paint and
filled in with white, brown, yellow red, and a rusty color. The very
pale blue's and green's hardly showed up. He asked Ruben how the
paint was made and Ruben told him it was made with ground up
minerals, mixed with egg whites. Linc thought a bit then asked Ruben
if there was a copper mine around. Ruben said, " yer wastin yer time
ere, cause I already asked about at", What Ruben had done so far was
fantastic, and Linc wanted to help him. Linc saw that there was
cups on the sarcophagus that contained black, white and red paint.
He could see the old guy needed cups for the other colors he was
using. He could help him out if he could find the minerals he needed
and more cups for the paints. He started to leave, then looked
around. The tomb was L shaped. Linc went around the corner of the
tomb, and saw a blue glow. He walked up to it and muttered to
himself, wonder where this goes. He stepped inside and came out in a
huge abandoned copper mine. The time master knew just where he had
to go. There was an old assay office that wasn't locked, where Linc
was able to get an old blasting cap box. He took it out to the mine
and collected all the minerals he needed. Back in the assay office he
found a mortar and pestle, and crushed and ground the minerals. He
then ran them through a screen then put the powered azurite,
malachite and turquoise into some big old acid jars. He collected a
bunch of old crucibles that lay on the floor, put everything back into
the box He went back out to the portal and back to Ruben. He showed
him the jars and asked him to show him how they were mixed. Ruben
couldn't believe his eyes. Here were the very vibrant colors he
desperately needed to finish up in this particular tomb.
He put the crucibles on the sarcophagus, poured the pigments and egg
whites and mixed the colors up. After painting, they dried a glowing
bright blues and green, that didn't fade. Ruben gave many thanks.
Linc watched him paint for a while, then asked why did he paint these
different figures like this. Ruben told him he had a script to
follow. Said most of the stuff he had to paint never even happened
but the script was to make Khuwy look good. Make him look like a
powerful person that did a lot of good. Linc thought they even had
hypocrites way back then too.

Back out side again, the dignitaries let the men pull back the stones
that covered the doorway to the tunnel. The teams all went to the
farthest tomb which was the one of Khuwy. Linc was amazed at what
Ruben had painted since he was there. He looked all around while the
dignitary explained the paintings prior the removal of the offerings
and lid being removed from the sarcophagus. The teams all admired
and exclaimed over the offering in the tomb before they were removed.
The dignitary was at a loss to explain how the modern, big acid jars,
crucibles, and blasting cap box was in the tomb. Linc has to smile to
himself, because he knew but wouldn't explain either. He looked where
Ruben had signed his name in a border. Part of the plaster had fallen
off because it had been too wet when the tomb was sealed, and it read,
ben ank. That was all that was left. Linc wondered what ever became of
Ruben Hanks. Since he was a slave, was he ever given his freedom for
painting the tombs? Did he end up alone here in Egypt, or did he get a
family at some time? A lot of questions he had no answer to, but he
was happy to have helped him get the pigments he needed.

The lid to the sarcophagus was removed and set aside. The coffin was
quite ornate. It was said Khuwh was someone who ruled for some forty
years. Also rumored to be related to the Pharaoh Djedhare Isasi. The
coffin was to be removed at a later time, and the teams moved on to
another tomb. After it was explored, the dignitary called it a day and
the teams went back out of the tunnel. Linc and his Father went back
to the Hotel, where two telegrams awaited them.