Ankhtenak

**Ankhtenak** was a New Egyptian who became a companion of Zach Archer. After meeting Zach on New Egypt, they helped defeat Pharaoh Sevekchus, who threatened to destroy the planet. Ankh left with Zach in the Jet, and they began to travel together. On Kadius, the two of them were joined by Ekanz R-868.

## History

### Early life

A native of New Egypt, Ankhtenak had become the leader of Asychis by 2406.

### Rescued from Sevekchus

After Pharaoh Sevekchus grew tired of his dying wife Meskhenet, he ordered for several new candidates to be shown to him.

Ankhtenak was taken to the Temple of Rekhtan, despite not wishing to be the wife of Sevekchus. The slave Ebak first showed him Ta-khat of Lower Husani, but the pharaoh rejected her. Upon seeing Ankhtenak, Sevekchus chose her, and left her with Ebak, who handed her over to "Ka", a newly recruited slave who was to assist her. However, "Ka" was Zach Archer, a time traveller who was merely visiting New Egypt. As Ebak left, Ankh apologized to "Ka", telling him that she did not want to be in the situation either. Zach told her that he wasn't actually a slave, and she assumed he was there to rescue him. As they were about to leave, Ebak returned. Ankh told Zach to run, but he stayed behind to hold Ebak off. He accidentally killed Ebak by pushing Sevekchus' throne onto him, and the two of them left the temple.

Ankh and Zach entered the abandoned town of Amset, discovering its last resident, Vacten Hadakis. A dying Hadakis informed them that Sevekchus used the foreigners in Amset as test subjects, testing fatal diseases on them. As Ankh tried to help Hadakis, he passed away from the diseases he had been infected with. Wanting to find out more, Ankh took Zach to Academy Sevekchus, getting a student to take them to the pharaoh's office. There, they discovered an antifield transmitter, and Ankh theorized that it was how he gave the town of Amset the diseases. However, before they could investigate further, they heard the voices of Lans and Nebak, who had been told where Ankhtenak was by the student. They hid inside a storage room, but Nebak walked inside, noticing Zach but not Ankh. Zach willingly gave himself up to protect Ankh, and Nebak took him away. Ankh escaped the academy and visited the house of her friend Zev, wanting to use an illegal teleporter that he owned. Zev reluctantly let her do so, and she was teleported to the base of the Rekhtan Sphinx. As she arrived, she noticed Sevekchus' Eye of Horus aim at Sector 42XVV-C, having tracked Zev's teleporter. She was horrified as she watched the Eye of Horus fire a blast at her friend's city, vaporizing it.

In an attempt to get Zach's attention, Ankh let a reporter interview her about the Eye's attack. Asking to send a message to someone she claimed was in the city, she spoke out to Zach, who noticed her while watching the news at a hotel after Sevekchus let him go free. He made his way to the Sphinx, meeting up with Ankh again. When she learned Sevekchus had simply let him go, she remarked that it wasn't a good sign. From behind her, Sevekchus agreed, telling them that he planned to destroy New Egypt with the Eye of Horus at the request of the Tarhson Collective. However, inside the Eye of Horus, the kidnapped foreigners led by Rawkin Thurne overthrew their guards, escaping and causing the Eye to self-destruct. Before Sevekchus could be captured, he escaped with a shift exit. Ankh went with Zach back to the Jet, and was at first sceptical of it being a time machine. Zach let her inside, and she was shocked to discover that it was a transdimensional space, much larger than it seemed on the outside. To prove to her that the Jet was a time machine, Zach offered to take her anywhere that she wanted.

### Travels in the Jet

#### An unexpected detour

At Ankh's request, he took her in the orbit of Aycarda 37, a planet that reportedly had a living sky. Ankh wanted to know whether the sky was truly alive, but before she could find out, a message from Cadar Hamish interrupted them. Despite the fact that the message was for the Jet's previous owner, Than Yttar, Zach followed Hamish's request, landing on Earth in 2158.

Exiting the Jet, they were confronted by a man named Suce, who accused them of doing something to Yttar. When Zach explained who they were, Hamish took them back to his office at ColonyControl. Hamish explained that the human colony Kadius had recently seceded from the Earth Union and gone silent. Despite being somewhat unsure, Zach and Ankh allowed Hamish to use the Jet to transport a military team to investigate Kadius. The team, led by General John Harking, entered the Techor Inc. factory, and one of the operatives was killed by a trap. They entered the office block, and Zach inspected the body of one of the workers. As he did so, one of the Techor, who had pretended to be a statue, attacked the team, blocking Ankh and the others from Zach. Ankh called out to Zach, who told her and the team to run, which they did. They discovered more bodies, but General Harking told them to continue moving. Another Techor, Vsuyt F-261, attacked them, killing several team members. The Techor left to chase Suce, leaving Ankh, General Harking, Hector Adams and Hamish alive. Zach met up with them after noticing a body fall down to where he was, and they continued exploring.

They discovered the factories where the Techor were created, but were approached by one of them. The Techor, who introduced himself as Ekanz R-868, stated that he wanted to help them. Harking and Adams suspected Ekanz would kill them, but Ankh and Zach believed him. Alpha A-000, the leader of the Techor, confronted them and explained that he had recreated the Techor after their homeworld was destroyed. Zach ran off to try stop the Techor from being created, and Ankh ran after him, followed by Ekanz. They entered Alpha's office, where Ekanz attempt to activate a failsafe that would destroy the Techor. However, as he was different to the other generic Techor, the button did not accept his command. Vsuyt entered the office and attacked them, but Ekanz threw him at the computer, making his hand touch the failsafe button and activate it. All the Techor aside from Ekanz and Alpha were deactivated, and the survivors returned to the Jet. With nowhere else to go, Zach let Ekanz travel with him and Ankh. Zach asked Ankh where she wanted to go, and she replied that she was fine with anywhere. Telling her that a planet named Anywhere actually existed, Zach decided to visit it.

#### Overthrowing the government

However, instead of going to Anywhere, Zach landed on Detizan 5 in 5600. After they exited the Jet, a woman ran up to them, telling them not to trust "the Senate", running away again before they could ask what she meant. Wanting a peaceful vacation after the adventure on Kadius, the group forgot about it, checking into the Avenue Hotel. Turning on the news, they learnt the woman who they met earlier had interrogated a senator named Latham about the "Uaros crisis". The report ended with Latham inviting the woman into his office. Later, the same woman was found dead outside the Detizan 5 Senate, and a terrified Latham claimed she jumped from his window. Zach planned to investigate what "Uaros" was, and Ankh went with him, with Ekanz choosing to stay at the hotel and keep up with the news. Zach and Ankh landed on the planet Uaros, witnessing several ships shooting down at the planet. A resident of Uaros named Yy'kaan told them to get back into the Jet and out of the toxic atmosphere, explaining that the ships belonged to the Trition Republic, who had attacked Uaros for no apparent reason. Yy'kaan told them that Detizan 5 had not responded to their calls for help, and Zach decided to investigate.

Zach, Ankh and Yy'kaan returned to Detizan 5, going back to Ekanz at the hotel. On the news, they watched Senator Latham win the planet's election after the previously winning candidate Michaels died of what was reportedly old age. As soon as his victory was announced, Latham declared that he would not send any help to Uaros. Ankh, Ekanz and Yy'kaan visited the Senate building with Zach to find answers themselves. Using a universal key, they snuck into the building and met Xarkus Vyken, a senator who lost to Latham, who told them of rumours about Latham working with the Trition Republic. They devised a plan to catch Latham, recording him boasting about the truth and broadcasting it live to Detizan 5. With no way out, Latham shot himself rather than be imprisoned. Ankh returned to the Jet with Zach and Ekanz, and Zach was disappointed at still not having a vacation. Deciding to try again, Zach told them that he knew the time that he wanted to visit, but not the place.

#### End of an era

Choosing a location, Zach landed the Jet on Harketius, finding it was a warzone. He decided to choose somewhere else at the same time, and Ankh questioned when it was. Trying again, they landed on Radical 72e, on the very last day of the year 9999. As they exited onto a rooftop, a drunk woman raved about seeing the Jet teleport in front of her. Ankh was vexed by the woman's drunkenness, and her friend Marina Carder apologized, sending Evelyn to go and relax. Once Evelyn was gone, Marina asked how the Jet seemingly teleported, but did not believe their claims of time travel.

#### Without Zach

After finding a liferec on Xakdu, Zach planned to return it to Rent-D'Far. However, after stepping outside, he was shot by armed soldiers due to being human, falling back into the Jet. Ankh was distraught, thinking Zach was dead, but he was just barely alive.

She helped him get into the liferec, promising to find out what was happening on Rent-D'Far. Zach was worried about letting her go on her own in a hostile world, but Ankh promised him that she would stay safe and come back to him alive. To disguise herself, she used skin paint to colour her skin dark gray, pretending to be a non-human. She and Ekanz explored the city, running into the soldier Unit 8298. When the soldier asked her if she had seen any humans, she denied it, but their conversation was interrupted by a second soldier pursuing a human. As Unit 8298 ran to assist, Ankh followed him, watching the human get backed up against a wall. She knocked Unit 8298 to the ground and used his gun to shoot the other soldier. The human did not trust Ankh at first, but became more trusting of her after Ekanz told them more soldiers were nearby. As they walked away from the area, the human introduced herself as Betha, telling Ankh she had been on the planet to see if her humanoid friend was still alive.

#### Manipulating a paradox

Seeing Zach inspect a card covered in what appeared to be meaningless lines, Ankh questioned why he thought it was strange, not realizing that the card had teleported into the Jet. When Zach tried to get the Jet to decipher the card, it read it as time-space coordinates, landing on Androharnis in 3565.

## Appearances

* *New Egypt*
* *The Strike of Kadius*
* *Monitored*
* *Out of Time*
* *Rising Heights*
* *Xenophobia^2*
* *Seeing Double*