SLAVE OF THE GOA'ULD
Chapter One "Oooo-eee!" the Doctor said as he opened the door, "like Oklahoma, only sandier." They all stepped outside and coughed at the blowing sand for a moment before they got used to it. In the far distance they could see the three pyramids and the sphinx but they were across the desert. "Where are we?" Jenny said. "Memphis, the site of the pharaoh's royal court," the Doctor said. "Only recently restored after Tut's father, Ankhenaten moved the capital city to Amarna so he could establish his new religion, a worship of the Aten, the sun. Tut's father basically disenfranchised the Amen priests and dismantled the old religion in an attempt to get everyone in Egypt to worship what he believed was the one true god." He pointed up to the sun. "And no one went for that, right?" Jenny said. "Right. Once Ankhenaten died, the priests forced his son to restore them to their former glory and move the capital back here to Memphis and restore the original pantheon. Tut was originally named Tutankhaten and he changed the last part of his name to Amen to distance himself from his heretical father and show the priests that he was dedicated to restoring the old gods to their former glory. However, there were some who never fully believed that he had rejected his father's teachings." "And that's one reason why he might have been killed?" Rose said as they began to walk across the desert to the outskirts of Memphis a quarter mile away. "Perhaps, he came to power when he was about nine years old and there were some around him who were salivating at the chance to knock him off the throne. He also married his sister, Ankhsenamen, and she was viewed as a pawn by some in gaining the throne. When Tut died, she sent out a frantic message to the king of the Hittites, a traditional enemy, begging him to send one of his sons so she could marry him. But the prince was killed on the way to Memphis, supposedly by bandits, and Tut's vizier, Aye, married Ankhsenamen. After that, she disappeared and was never heard from again. "So Aye might have something to do with his death?" Jenny said. "Perhaps. Another suspect is the leader of Tut's armies, Horemheb. He came to power after Aye died. It could be either one of them that killed Tut or both of them working together or perhaps someone else entirely. But I tell you this to set the stage, so to speak, to give you an idea of the climate surrounding Tutty-boy. Most Egyptians welcomed him and the old gods back but not all did. We need to be cautious if we're going to solve this mystery. I'm sure there will be some who might target us if we try to help Tut and Ankhsenamen." They walked into Memphis and headed towards the palace. All around them were mud brick houses that had flat roofs where people could go up and work or sit and talk in the noonday sun. Many of the houses had a bit of color around the doorposts and there were even some who some paintings on their walls of various deities or scenes of pleasure or work. They slowed down when they saw a painting on the white wall of one of the houses. It was a little dwarf-like demon. "That's Bes, protector of households," the Doctor said, pointing to it. "I love the colors, they're so new and vibrant," Jenny said, walking up to it. "And it's cool that they painted their houses like this, they never show that in the books about Ancient Egypt." "Well, that's one reason why you should never trust archaeologists, they get a lot of things wrong," the Doctor said. They walked on, occasionally running into an Egyptian who would give them a passing glance and go on their way. "They're not saying anything about the way we look," Jenny said. "I told you, Memphis is a cosmopolitan city. They might say something down south in some of the smaller towns but here, this is one of the major cities of the ancient world. They probably think we're from Greece," he said to her. They walked out of the alley and paused when they saw a plaza with a large gold statue in the center of it. The statue depicted a man who was dressed in a linen shrift. He wore a blue skullcap and was holding a staff in both hands. The staff was in front of his body. "That is Ptah, the patron god of Memphis," the Doctor said, pointing to it. "It's gorgeous," Rose said. "Can you imagine how much gold went into making this?" "Enough to give your mum a stroke, I know that," the Doctor said. He giggled when Rose swatted his arm and then looked at Jenny when she tapped his arm. "Yes?" the Doctor said to Jenny. "Um…something must be wrong with my brain, I look at the hieroglyphs on the base and I can understand what they say." "That's the TARDIS," the Doctor said, giving her a brief explanation of the translation circuits. "Cool, you mean I can speak Egyptian to these people without even trying?" Jenny said when he finished his explanation. "That and you can read anything like that base there," the Doctor said, pointing to it. "So it does say, Blessed Ptah, protector of our city, may you live forever?" "Yup," the Doctor said, nodding. "Bitchin!" Jenny said while Rose giggled. They turned left and headed towards the palace in the distance. The palace was easy to find since it was the biggest and grandest structure in the city, made of mud bricks that had been painted white so it gleamed in the sun and trimmed in some places with gold which also gleamed. It also had blue diamond designs painted along the top of the building. They could also see several palm trees around the building. Most of the roads were packed sand or dirt but the road leading up to the palace was made of mud brick tightly packed together like cobblestones. The road had statues on either side of it, all of them of Tut in various poses and all of them gold like the statue of Ptah. The statues showed Tut at different ages from the age of nine on up. As they walked along the road, Jenny stopped at one of them. Most of the statues were of Tut by himself but the one Jenny stopped at had a hawk headed god standing behind him, his arms around him as if he was protecting him. She looked at the gold base. "Tutankhamen, may he reign forever in splendor and glory is protected by Horus, The Great One," she read. "Isn't that who they associated the pharaoh with anyway?" "Yes," the Doctor said, pleased the Jenny knew some of the history, "he was considered the living Horus while he ruled, the representative of god on Earth." "Lot of responsibility for a nine year old kid," Rose said. "Which is why children had regents who ruled until they came of age," the Doctor said. "Problem was, a lot of these regents weren't willing to give up power when the time came." "And did Tut have a regent?" Jenny said. "Yes, Aye," the Doctor said. "He helped Tut govern the country. But at the moment, Tut is eighteen and he rules by himself." "Or so he thinks," Rose said. "Yes," the Doctor said. "Aye wasn't of royal blood, yet he managed to become ruler after Tut's death. He may have stepped aside when Tut came of age but he still had his eye on the throne." "And Ankhsenamen got caught in the middle?" Jenny said. "Yes, I think so. I think she became a pawn, a way for Aye to seize the throne and once she served her purpose she was done away with because Aye ruled alone for most of his reign." "But if Ankhsenamen was royal blood, wouldn't it be better for him to keep her around so it looks legitimate?" Rose said while they walked. "Perhaps, but remember she was trying to make deals with the enemy in order to marry a foreign prince and prevent Aye from coming to power. She was probably too much of a troublemaker for him after he became pharaoh so he had her quietly done away with. If Horemheb was working with him then he had the power of the Egyptian army behind him and I'm sure not many people protested anyway," the Doctor said. "After all, she was the last remnant of the Aten religion which is why I'm sure Aye might have had no trouble doing away with her." "Uh-oh," Jenny said as they neared the palace and saw guards on either side of the road guarding the last mile to the palace. "So how do we get past all these people?" "You!" the guard nearest to them said when he finally noticed them. "Um, I think we should run, actually," Rose said as the guard and the one directly across from him came towards them. They had on heavy linen kilts with bronze skullcaps that gleamed in the sun. Both of them had on heavy kohl makeup around their eyes and both of them had long spears with iron tips. The guard who first called to them walked up to the Doctor who gazed back at him calmly. "Who are you? No one comes this close to the palace without authorization, especially not barbarians like you," he said. "Sorry, we're tourists traveling through your fair city," the Doctor said. "Also, I'm trying to start the fad of planking about 5,000 years before its time. See?" The guards gave him an odd look when the Doctor lay down flat on his stomach in front of them with his arms to his sides. "Snap a photo, Rose, I'm planking!" he yelled to her. "I don't know what planking is and I don't think I wanna know," Rose muttered to Jenny. "It's this stupid fad where people lay down and pretend to be a board so they can get their picture taken in weird places," Jenny said to her. "Ah, well, I figured it was something stupid like that," Rose said. "Get up!" the guard said to the Doctor. "And leave the vicinity of the royal palace immediately!" The Doctor leapt to his feet. "Sorry, just being typical tourists," he said to them. "Say, I could always walk like an Egyptian." He struck a pose resembling the ones on tomb paintings while he sang "Walk like an Egyptiaaaan!" The guards glanced at each other and the Doctor gasped when the shoved him violently. Rose and Jenny caught his arms before he fell. "Get out of here or lose your heads!" the guard snarled as he pointed at him. "Fine, fine, we'll be going. I think I'll go plank on the Great Pyramid anyway. Come along, my dears," he said to Rose and Jenny as he walked past them. Rose muttered an apology to the guards as she and Jenny hurried to catch up with the Doctor. "Okay, we'll just have to figure out another way to get inside," the Doctor said to them while they walked off the main road onto a side street.
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