Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled,
Heavy to get and light to hold,
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold,
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled,
Spurned by young, but hung by old
To the verge of a church yard mold;
Price of many a crime untold.
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Good or bad a thousand fold!
How widely it agencies vary,
To save - to ruin - to curse - to bless -
As even its minted coins express :
Now stamped with the image of Queen Bess,
And now of a bloody Mary.
~ Thomas Hood
"Imagine the riches," said Bart as the clunky Arrowsmith dropped out of hyperspace.
She was an old ore-mining ship from 3258, and it now being the year 4000, she was a bit outdated. Bart looked over at his partner, Chego, and winked as he flipped a gold coin repeatedly in his hand. It had the Galactic Queen's grinning mug on it's scratched surface, and the flip side had the Galactic seal.
"What are we doing out here in the Kepler-35 star system again, Bart?" said Chego, frowning as he looked at the holo display. In front of him sat a gas giant, about the size of Saturn, with glaring twin suns blasting him with light, even through the viewscreen.
The usual creeks and moans of the ship disrupted their conversation, and both ran some nervous diagnostics on the ship's systems to make sure that this wouldn't be their last conversation.
"There is a hidden temple here Chego. I paid good money to that old preist to get this info, and I know what we have is legit."
Chego seemed annoyed, his Euro-Pan-American features showing his hand for him. Chego wore his emotions on his sleeve. His annoyance was further prodded by the fact that this was a gas giant with no land to walk on or build a temple.
"I know what you're thinking Chego, don't even say it," said Bart. He pulled out a hand-held device and displayed some information on it for Chego to see.
The data displayed showed that a "floating" temple existed in the upper atmosphere of the planet. It used the swirling gases of the planet to power large wind turbines, and the large amount of solar energy provided by two suns was used to gather the rest of the power necessary to generate a neutron field large enough to keep the temple 'afloat' and shielded from the harmful toxic gasses of the planet.
The gas kept the temple hidden well from sensors, in fact unless you knew it was there, it would be near impossible to find out here in this rarely-visited star system. But here they were.
"Tell me about these two idols we're after again," Chego said as he looked over the data.
"Solid gold, my friend. 1500 years ago, some pagan cultists, believing that somehow these idols had magic powers, placed them at this temple to protect the stars."
"Protect them from what?"
"From THE DARK BRINGERS," Bart said while laughing. He uncorked a glass flask and took a drink of a turquoise liquid. He coughed at the harshness.
"Who?"
"Somehow these twin suns are supposed to be sacred. Apparently, the core of the planet is some fancy gateway to another dimension, or some such bullocks. The suns provide enough light to to keep these Dark Gods at bay."
Bart showed Chego more information on the data pad, explaining how the two gold idols, one representing each sun, kept the 'Dark Gods' from using their Elder Magick to literally blow the suns out like a pair of candles.
Chego and Bart both took another swig of the turquoise drink and went to go prep the yacht for an outing. Soon, the small craft was launched from the Arrowsmith and headed into the swirling and tumbling gases of the Giant.
They found the temple surprisingly quick. The directions were very accurate, and within a short amount of time, they were docked and inside.
"I can't believe they are just sitting there," said Chego, extremely surprised that the temple was very small, and lacked any maze-like hidden passages. In fact, it lacked almost any features.
"Well, the place was supposed to be secret."
The two gold idols, one of a lamb, the other of a serpent, lay on a small, un-assuming iron block. The two men grabbed them, and wrapped them up in light-weight protective-foil. Everything seemed easy. But the duo didn't stop to think that it was too easy.
###
"Admiral, we've just lost the entire Kepler-35 system," squeaked a rookie officer, troubled at the news. It was his first day to boot.
Before the admiral could respond, Ensign Estes blurted out more.
"Sir, lost may have been a bad word to use. It's just gone, completely removed from existence. The physics team is already working on theories. But there's more; before the system was, um, erased, an encoded transmission was sent out of the system. It used a centuries old encryption, we broke it instantly. Must have been an old ship."
"Spit it out, ensign," beemed the gray-haired Admiral.
"Here's the message sir."
"[STATIC].......Echo?....[STATIC]..... of course this is Bart. Listen, Echo, I got a great deal for you. Solid gold here, but it could be sold to an art dealer....you should see these...[STATIC].............what the?.......did you feel that, what's shaking the ship. Wait.....[STATIC]...........hand me the flash light Chego.....[SCREAMS]......[STATIC]."
"That's the whole thing sir."
###
As the Galactic Army sat and studied the empty hole of non-existence, the Dark Bringers ate at the darkness, fed upon it like a leech feeds upon blood. They were hungry now, they needed the dark, yearned for it. Where they went, so did the darkness. And the Galaxy is so full of stars. They grow ever stronger, able to withstand the slight sting of light now. But it is only a fleeting sting, for where they go, the scourge of darkness descends.
