The Jovian Legacy (12 page)

“I
don’t mind, really,” she assured Jack when he showed
concern. “I’d like to be by myself for a little while
anyway. I’m okay.” She squeezed his hand and kissed him
on the cheek.

The
rest of the night was taken up with much talking and hugging, and
Jack convincing himself of the reality that he had finally been
reunited with his parents, parents that he believed had perished five
years earlier, years that had been especially difficult for him. He
had grieved for so long; then came a period when he had accepted
their deaths and had grown up faster than his friends. Now
everything was upside down again, but this time he couldn’t
have wished for a better outcome. The family spent the rest of the
evening in deep and sometimes emotional conversation, retiring to
their rooms at a very late hour.

The
distant gonging awoke Jack. In the next room it also woke up Megan.
A giant gong on a mountainside chimed every morning, signalling a new
day.

“Haven’t
they heard of alarm clocks?” Jack sniggered, realising there
weren’t any clocks in his room. He dragged himself to the
shower, wondering what they will discover today. He met Megan in the
foyer of the decontamination section they were supposedly in, though
he looked upon it as more like a plush hotel. He kissed Megan on the
cheek and asked her if she’d slept well.

“Like
a log,” she answered, grinning. She looked as pretty as a
picture in the clothes that she had picked from her supplied
wardrobe.

“Wow,
they even know what you look good in!” Jack exclaimed, standing
back to admire her. Megan blushed.

“You
look pretty sharp yourself,” she replied cheerfully. Jack did,
in fact, quietly think that he looked pretty good in the clothes he’d
found in his wardrobe.

The
limousine arrived with his parents already inside. It was a black
Volvo.

Nicer
than the one the Jovian men kept turning up in,
Jack thought.
I wonder if all the cars on Jovian are
Volvos. Seems strange that they would have Swedish cars on Planet
Jovian.
It was then that he
noticed that it wasn’t actually a Volvo. Well, it was, but the
badge read something else. It was in Egyptian. Inside the limousine
were facing benchseats, his parents at the front with their backs to
the driver, and Megan and Jack facing his parents. The vehicle
glided along smoothly and quietly, and entered through two large
majestic gates.

“Must
be the security area,” Megan guessed.

“Yes,”
Jack’s father confirmed. “We’ve just come out of
the Djoser complex building where all new arrivals have to stay and
decontaminate.”

Megan
and Jack had no idea what they were about to discover next. A sample
of Jovian was about to be revealed to them. It would be a sight they
would never ever forget.

T
he
limo glided along down through a stand of beautiful old trees with
leaves of a deep shiny green. At the end of the row their limo
pulled into an area that overlooked a valley.

As
Megan and Jack looked out of their windows they both uttered a cry of
wonderment. The valley before them was a kaleidoscope of colour,
with a lake a deep blue and encircled by trees of various colour;
trees with bright red leaves, dazzling yellow leaves, and a number of
trees with the deepest green leaves. The meadows surrounding the
lake were plush and green. Above the lake a waterfall made a
spectacular backdrop, high and wide though not thunderous. A white
veil of water gently cascaded over, glistening, suspended in the air,
like jewels in the sunlight. Below the waterfall, wild flowers grew
everywhere. The sight before them was striking.

“This
must be where God lives” Megan said like an excited child.
“This definitely looks like the Garden of Eden.”

Nancy
smiled. “The Jovian people are constantly trying to master the
five senses. You have had a sample from what you have seen already.
In fact, there are very few places in this world that are not
picturesque. Even the buildings are beautiful. We will show you
some enormous projects, and art that is unbelievable, art that is
dedicated to the Middle Kingdom era in the 11
^th
Dynasty of 357 - 1986 BC.”

“Wow,
you know your stuff, Mum!” Jack exclaimed, realising it was the
first time he had called her Mum to her face in five years. They
smiled at each other, so happy that they had each other again. It
was still very hard to swallow for the whole family.

The
limosine cruised through mountainsides and valleys, through areas
full of plantations and workers with large ingenious machinery. As
they rounded a bend Jack and Megan sat in awe at the sight of two
huge pyramids majestically standing at the entrance to the city.
They glided through the entrance and arrived at a walled area on
either side of the roadway, setting their eyes on a grand
construction. A replica of the Sphinx of Giza, and just as large;
forty-five metres in length, the paws alone being fifteen metres
long. The ten by four metre head resembled the King of Thebes.

“Each
country has its own Sphinx and each resembling its king,”
Jack’s father explained.

The
driver parked the vehicle, and the family strolled up to the huge
construction with the body of a lion and the head of a king, the
structure symbolizing strength and wisdom.

“People
regard it as the Guardian of the Horizon,” Ben stated. “You
are going to see the art that your mother was talking about.”

The
entrance read, ‘Supreme Council of Antiquities’. They
entered a grand foyer. The great Guardian of the Horizon was hollow,
with its walls encrusted in jewels and ancient art. Jack and Megan
gaped in awe at the strikingly beautiful art before them. In various
areas were strategically placed Egyptian figurines and artefacts.
One in particular took Jack’s interest. It stood seven metres
high and resembled a slender cat. Ben walked up to his side and
said, “That, my son, has been crafted from pure gold.”

Jack
blew through his lips. “Cool! A gold cat. That is one
obscene amount of gold!”

Megan
and Nancy had disappeared into one of the side galleries, which was
completely covered in diamonds.

“I
knew they would be in there,” Jack’s father said with a
smirk, “draws in women like a magnet.”

Jack
and his dad caught up with Megan and Nancy, who were admiring a
figurine that had been cut from a large diamond. It was the size of
a football. As Megan stroked it a rainbow of colours sparkled off
her fingers. Jack literally took a step back. It was the same thing
that happened with his Lucre Box. Only then did he notice some
Egyptian wording above on the wall. It read,
“Sinestu-ipini-itxaro-ahalguzti”.
Underneath it were the
words,
“To believe is to
place your trust in the Almighty.”

“Mum,
Dad!” Jack announced with great excitement, “do you
remember my Lucre Box that Nick Findlay gave me for my tenth
birthday? Well, this is the exact
wording it had on it. And
the colours that came off it are the same as what I just saw when
Megan ran her fingers along that thing!”

“Oh
yes, I remember,” exclaimed Nancy, looking at Ben. “We
never did hear back from the man at the shop, did we?” Ben
didn’t answer her, but turned to Jack with a concerned
expression.

“Was
that really what you saw on that box that Nick gave you?”

“Yes,
exact same wording,” Jack replied, still excited.

His
father gazed at him with an apologetic look. “Jack, I didn’t
take it back to the shop, I put it away. I had been given one myself
as a boy, as a birthday present too, actually, from my father. I
don’t know where he got it. It might’ve have been handed
down through the generations as it was quite old. My mother thought
it was evil and demanded that my father destroy it. When you got
yours I put it away, and I’m afraid I made up that story about
taking it back to the shop. I found it again when I was clearing out
the house. It went into a box that we included in the garage sale,”
he confessed.

“Ben!”
Nancy cried, “you even told me that you’d taken it back
to the shop to ask about its history.”

“Sorry,
love,” Ben apologised, filled with guilt about lying to his
family.

“Now
it’s probably in the hands of another boy, or girl, who will be
brought here in time,” Jack said, resentful that someone else
had the box when it was supposed to be his.

“Yes,
I believe so,” his father agreed. “I’m sorry, Son.”

The
limo drove them back to the Djoser complex building. Just before
Jack said goodbye to his parents for the night he asked them why he
had seen no clocks at all. A small thing, but it bugged him.

His
father explained. “As Jovian is Egyptian orientated they go by
the ancient Babylonian time system, something that will take you a
while to figure out. Give it some time,” he said, grinning at
his little pun.

Jack
and Megan returned to their respective rooms, exhausted from the
day’s outing. Ben and Nancy carried on back to their house.
It would be another week before Jack and Megan could take up
residency with them, although they were permitted to show Jack and
Megan their home the following day.

The
next morning they slept in. Megan rose before Jack, enjoying her
breakfast in the dining room when he joined her. Ben and Nancy had
arranged to pick them up mid-morning. Jack had taken only minutes to
choose something to wear for the day. Though, as with any girl
blossoming into a young woman, Megan had spent a lot of time with her
new wardrobe. She looked very attractive in what she had selected.

“You
look amazing,” Jack said, gawping at her.

“Thanks,”
Megan replied with a grin, quietly pleased with herself.

Once
again the Volvo-type limousine arrived for their pick-up, and the
pair climbed in, keen to see where Jack’s parents lived.

Mr
and Mrs Dunlop had a palatial home situated in an orchard. It
boasted a sweeping driveway of small coloured stones that crunched
beneath the vehicle as it slowly rolled up and stopped outside the
entrance. Ben and Nancy were waiting on the steps to welcome their
son and Megan into their home.

“Wow!
This is awesome! Dad, is this place really ours?” Jack cried.

“Yes,
indeed. Everyone lives well. You will not see a dwelling of any
less level of comfort than this. You wait until you see the king’s
abode,” his father smiled.

After
much admiration noises by Megan and Jack, they were taken to the
eastern wing, onto a slated area under a wooden gazebo for morning
tea. A well-dressed man brought them something to drink with small
tasty treats.

“You
have a waiter?” Jack asked, incredulous.

“Yes,
but he isn’t called a waiter,” Nancy corrected. “His
name is Antoninus. Antoninus, this is my son, Jack, and this is my
niece, Megan.”

Jack
quickly glanced at Megan. It was the first time his mother had
referred to her as her niece. So true. Jack had mixed feelings.

“It
is a pleasure to meet you both,” Antoninus replied. “If
there is anything you would like, just let me know. If you wish to
take a ride for instance, I will arrange the mares.”

“You
have horses?” Jack asked his father.

“What’s
with the twenty questions?” his father laughed.

Ben
had something else in mind. “This afternoon we would like to
take you to meet the scientists that made this all possible.”

“Okay,
good with me.” Jack turned to Megan. “How about you,
Megs?”

More
daunting though it was for Megan, as she had been monitored by these
people all of her life, and, in fact, were the people behind the team
who’d successfully genetically engineered her. She felt
violated, but bravely agreed.

Megan
and Jack took up the offer of the horse ride, and were surprised at
the impressive looking animals. Their steads were mares, as
Antoninus had said, and had two young foals trailing behind them. To
Megan and Jack, it was overwhelming to ride through such magnificent
countryside, with two beautiful colts trotting at their mothers’
sides, keeping up.

The
fresh air was invigorating, along with the sights along the way. The
horses seemed to know the way so Jack and Megan let them be taken.
They rode around the hillside and back towards the house. Not far
from the homestead the horses cantered to a trot, then slowed to a
walk as they passed through a small gate and into the orchard. There
appeared to be a tree for every variety of fruit. Plums the size of
oranges, and apples and oranges the size of grapefruit. Megan’s
horse took her up to the apple tree purposely, it seemed, for her to
reach out and pick a shiny lime green apple.

“Careful
Eve, remember what happened last time?” Jack teased.

It
was enough to make Megan hesitate, and think that maybe they were
actually in the Garden of Eden. She looked at Jack and they both
laughed. As soon as Megan bit into the juicy fruit her tastebuds
went crazy.