Ra's words were a constant reminder, echoing again and again in his mind. Khnum, the god of creation, shook his ram head, as if nodding to himself, and typed on the metallic keyboard.

"Humans destroyed themselves once more. We need them to survive. Make them Khnum. We know you can."

His laboratory was one of the few that had survived the sun storm which had destroyed everything. His temple, a tower of pyramids station with solar regenerators, was one of the few where humans used to come and worship him and his mastery of creation. Stationed on a constant orbit around Earth, Khnum would always watch the desolate, destroyed from sun storms planet.

He was, besides, the one who had created the Nile, using a bit of tears and gel, nothing special really, as also he was the one who had the unique gift on creating anything from nothing. And always watch his creations from afar, always alone, always surrounded by success and failure.

The lights on the experiment room, a square wide part of his laboratory covered from every side with glass, shone as Khnum walked towards the glass door. His jeans and open black leather jacket looked casual upon his toned, sun-kissed body and broad shoulders. He would look 'hot', as the women would say, but he knew that Isis had gotten the looks. She was the finest of them all. The rest of the laboratory was a fine mess of cables, hanging and dangling metal pieces and somewhere at the bottom of everything a long gone pizza box used to be.

Khnum's eyes were opal; the dark, shiny stone which would look beautiful on a human face but on the ram head of the god the color looked eerie as if he was dead inside. But for him, the very basic need for creation demanded imagination, which after all needed feelings. This was one of his curses after all; to enjoy his creations, share them occasionally with humans, but at the same time watch in horror, his own children die from his gift. The planet below him was a fine example.

He entered the experiment room; this project had taken eons to be completed but Khnum was a patient god. The round globes were hanging from the ceiling where each one of them, two hundred in total, were also connected with a pipe. Inside the globes were empty but Khnum traced his fingertips on the surface of one with affection. "Alright. Let's do this." He murmured and closed the door behind him, pressing at the same time the button which was activating the final part of his program.

The wide pipe on the glass ceiling filled with the pinkish liquid, a mixture of bionics and clay and also a small part of his divine power. Khnum watched quietly as the liquid flowed downwards filling the artificial wombs. When all of them were filled, small bubbles appeared inside the globes and soon after that, tiny, but visible to Khnum's eyes, spots began forming. They grew and grew with each passing minute until, after three hours, the first after the destruction babies were formed.

Khnum pressed the button on his right and stalled the process. If he was to continue then the babies would grow into adults, all of them capable on surviving but also filled with the knowledge of the past. That was the only slip from Ra's orders; he wanted his new children to know what had happened to their predecessors, wishing for them not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

He got out from the experiment room and pulled from his jeans his iPhone. He had forgotten if that was the 20th or the 30th model. "Ra, it's me. Come and see for yourself." And he snapped the phone shut.

Khnum walked to the window and stared at the deep space. He longed to live on Earth again, breathe the fresh air and swim in the blue waters. In the past, he liked even to play with the followers of Nut, the sky goddess. Her stars would always blink shy of his appearance.

But he was at the same time so, so lonely. Ra may be the king of the gods but he was also quite jealous. After the creation of the Nile, Ra had kept a distance from the god with the ram head and to his dismay, sometimes Ra liked to use the sun and burn the waters on the already deserted land.

The humans then would offer sacrifices and adore the sun god, fearing his wrath at the same time. Khnum was to be forgotten and a forgotten god was a finished one.

At night Maat, Ra's exiled daughter would send him visions of a dancing woman who would give birth to rivers and seas. The god didn't know if she liked to spite him or if she wanted to show his future. But he would remember that her eyes were pale grey and her hair was black like night. Khnum sighed and closed his eyes willing the vision to return.

***

"Excellent my brother." Ra's hawk head and solar crown at the top of it, moved as he walked around the filled wombs. He preferred to dress like the ancient times, with a white wrap around skirt, leaving his upper half bare. His torso bore tattoos of the sun and the planets indicating his power over the solar system.

The babies were sleeping soundly, boys and girls in all skin colors. Ra tapped one of the wombs and the girl inside it moved slowly her hands into tiny fists. "And is that sufficient enough to ensure the continuation of the species?"

"Yes, and everyone carries the knowledge capable of ensuring their survival. How is the cleansing going?"

Ra turned to him. "Bastet is taking care of it. And Anubis is really cranky with her methods."

"I see."

Ra and Khnum got out from the glass room and walked slowly to the glass window from which Earth could be seen. "Have you finally remembered your place brother?" Ra asked with an edge on his voice.

Khnum knew never to disobey him. "I have my king and I shall never repeat my past mistakes."

"Good. For now."

"What do you want me to do next?" Khnum spoke slowly, having his hands clasped behind him.