14 January 2013
The jackal-headed god Anubis trained a hand-held anti-gravity device on the ponderous stone block and raised it easily into the air, guiding it smoothly and precisely into its planned niche in the tier of the pyramid under construction.
The overseer of several hundred workers paused only briefly in his supervision of men hauling heavy stones with block and tackle to regard the work of Anubis above him. He had seen the miraculous take place so often that it now seemed almost commonplace to him. Such things he regarded as forever beyond his limited mortal understanding. The overseer counted himself as fortunate to be assisting the work of living gods to help build the eternal abode of Pharaoh, himself a god on Earth.
Anubis glanced at what appeared to be a bracelet on his arm, and recognized that it was time to recharge his holographic projector by which he maintained the appearance of the jackal-headed deity. It wouldn't do for the Egyptians to see him in his real physical form, which was much less inspiring. Far better was it for those of his mission to key into the mythological creatures of the ancient Egyptian religion, appearing to be those deities and gaining the ready compliance of the people. The masquerade additionally amused the traveler through time and space, who rather enjoyed playing Anubis.
As he dematerialized, Anubis summoned a crew member who would appear to the Egyptians upon his arrival as the falcon-headed god, Horus. Anubis beamed to his starship in the vast desert which was cloaked to the eyes of the ancient men. He and his crew were in effect the distant descendants of those people, having deployed light to warp space and travel backwards in time to where they might begin to organize their ancestors to make the evolutionary strides that would someday enable them to reach the stars, becoming in a way like the gods they once worshipped.
And Anubis smiled at the thought...
Days Of Future Past • Opuss № I