In this third novel in the Gateway series, the reference to ancient Egypt is incidental, but interesting in that it allows us to note the usual link between this civilisation and the notion of Otherness. It all takes place in a precise passage describing a puppet made by the little Dolly, which is intended to reproduce the appearance of the Heechee mentioned in the title of the novel. The narrator describes this puppet in the following words:

Dolly’s Heechee had a receding forehead, a beaked nose, a jutting chin, and eyes that tapered back to the ears like an Egyptian wall painting.

It is worth remembering that at this point in the saga, the Heechee have not yet appeared in the plot in a direct way. The protagonists visit their ships, their space stations, and uses their technology, but so far there have been no encounters with these beings. This absence is relevant because Dolly's image of the Heechee is thus (unintentionally) evidence of the otherness and strangeness with which Dolly imagines this unknown extraterrestrial entity. The Egyptian civilisation has often represented this otherness in popular culture. This justifies the frequent use of the Egyptian in the context of extraterrestrial creatures or other supernatural beings, such as vampires or monsters. We are also all aware of the existence of the "ancient astronaut" hypothesis, according to which beings from other galaxies came to earth in the remote past to enable the development of early human civilisations. In Frederick Pohl's novel, the Heechees, from somewhere in the Universe, also control the evolutionary development of humans.

Author: Abraham I. Fernández Pichel