Part 7 of Indiana Jones and the Ring of Ra...
Previous parts: I / II / III / IV / V / VI

The trip to Giza was uneventful. From the outskirts of Cairo they drove west to the plateau, where the mysterious Sphinx stood guard over the pyramids.

Indy drew the jeep to a standstill a little way away, so that no-one would notice their approach. It was only then that he noticed that Catherine was holding the photograph of the stone ring in her hands, studying it intently.

"I don't understand what it could be," she said. "I don't know what my father saw that made him so anxious."

"Where was the ring found?" asked Indy.

"Just over there," she said, pointing to a spot on the plateau.

Indy removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. It was grimy, like the rest of him. Maybe when all this was over he'd have time to have a bath.

"Take these," he said, drawing the binoculars out of his bag. "Tell me if the Germans turn up. Or your father. Or both. Okay?"

"Okay, okay," said Catherine.

Indy stood up, planted his hat back on his head, and strode round to the other side of the jeep. He bent down so that he was at eye level with Catherine.

"I'm taking these photos and I'm going over there," he said. "If you need anything, call me."

Catherine nodded, turning her gaze towards the pyramids.

Indy walked a little way away and sat on a lump of masonry protruding from the sand. He spread the photos out beside him and looked at them carefully.

He started with the coverstone. There were two rings of symbols, and a cartouche in the centre. The inner ring was written in the classic figures, but the outer contained the same strange symbols as the cartouche. He couldn't even begin to translate them without spending a lot of time on them. But he COULD translate the inner ring.

He ran his finger along the hieroglyphics, deep in thought. "A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God, sealed and buried for all time, Star Gate." It made no sense! Presumably it was describing the thing buried underneath it, which meant the stone ring. Why would anyone go to such lengths to bury a stone ring? A Star Gate? What was a Star Gate?

Sighing, he picked up the picture of the Stargate. The symbols were the same as the mysterious untranslatable symbols on the coverstone. The six inside the cartouche were clearly there, and after careful examination he found something similar to the seventh symbol underneath the cartouche. Perhaps the symbols weren't a language. If the Stargate was a device of some sort, perhaps it was a code that had to be entered.

The more he thought about it, the stranger it all seemed, but Indy was capable of believing all sorts of crazy things. He'd seen the Ark of the Covenant turn Nazis into dust, screaming as they were transformed. He'd seen the Holy Grail heal his father from a mortal wound amidst clouds of steam. He'd seen things that few people would believe. Unfortunately the "few who believed" always seemed to include the Nazis.

If the inscription was to be taken literally, it was a doorway to the heavens. It was a portal to who knows where, a million years into the sky.

No wonder the Nazis wanted it.

posted by Fiery Fred @ 9:00 PM