 How did Ned become a mummy?
Ned Vince was still dimly conscious when that black, quiet pool geysered around him in a mighty splash. A launching catapult for the last space ships built by the gods in exodus, perhaps it was—half a million years ago. The final instrument he used to test the mummy, looked like a miniature stereoscope, with complicated details. It might move, speak, remember its past! The mummy was taken to Loy Chuk's laboratory, a short distance below the surface. Still submerged in liquid, the corpse was submitted to a flow of restorative energy, passing between complicated electrodes. Ned Vince did not know how Loy Chuk had probed his brain, with the aid of a pair of helmets, and the black box apparatus.
 A combination of the alkali and mud his body had been soaked in. Also, the years of dryness after the world became a desert.
 Loy Chuk's workers wrapped Ned's body in strips of cloth to preserve it in transport.  The earth became a desert wasteland. All the moisture was leached from the corpse.  A combination of the alkali and mud his body had been soaked in. Also, the years of dryness after the world became a desert.  The body had been devoid of moisture for a million years.