Treasure Hunting

Kyp found the spot easily of course, even though he had never been to the third planet of this solar system before. He had the instinctive sense, as all Throns did, which drew him, much like a magnet, to where the mineral unbinilium could be found.  

This ability also could lead them to other metals and minerals like gold, emerald, silver, platinum, etc. But they primarily sought out unbinilium, a soft, malleable blacklight-emitting material.  This was the fuel that powered the life dome over their world. They had used all the unbinilium on their home planet, so now they travelled the universe in search of this vital mineral. 

There was one location on this planet where long ago the Throns had discovered a massive store of unbinilium. They had been sending miners there for a millennium and had never been detected by the inhabitants.

After landing his transport outside the cave entrance in the bottom of the canyon, Kyp turned on his atmosphere shield, collected his tools and entered the cave. The atmosphere shield acted like a bubble, surrounding Kyp with the fluorine he needed to maintain life. A human would have to crawl through the cave to get to the unbinilium. The Throns were very small in stature, much like elves. So Kyp had no trouble trudging through the cave to the unbinilium mine.

Once he was there, the appendage on his back extended through his atmosphere shield to connect with the unbinilium. He then expanded the pouch on his back and the arm-like limb began to seize cubes of the mineral and pack them into the pouch.

A few feet away from the edge, Gem perched herself on a rock and carefully studied the topographical map that she had pulled from her gear pack. The trail had petered out several kilometres back, so she had abandoned her ATV and continued through the increasingly sparse forest on foot. She hadn’t been sure what she would end up finding, but she had not expected this.

“Well, this canyon is definitely not marked on this map,” she addressed the tiny video recorder that she carried in her pocket. “So, who knows what I might find down there. This could be the one.” She made a marking on her map and tucked it back in her pack and began assembling her rappel kit.

Gem was an experienced canyoneer. She always kept a video & audio diary of her excursions in anticipation of an historic or valuable discovery. Exploring canyons had started out as kind of a hobby, but since the pandemic came along and wiped out her day job, she spent almost all her time seeking out canyons in more and more remote areas of the country. Finding something unusual and worthwhile was more important than just the thrill of climbing and rappelling now.  She was falling behind in student loans and rent payments. A big find could be a lifesaver.

Having secured her rappel device and anchor to the rock she had been sitting on, Gem hung the  video recorder around her neck and lowered herself carefully over the edge of the canyon and paused. “It isn’t as deep as I expected, maybe 500 feet to the bottom,” she said to the recorder. The grey wall of the canyon looked smooth as glass. There were some small jutting ledges here and there, but they appeared to be very narrow. “This is kind of a weird canyon wall.  Doesn’t look like there’s any plant growth anywhere on the slope. It looks like it goes almost straight down. Definitely not what I usually see. Doesn’t look like many bolting places available since the wall seems so smooth.” She lowered herself a little more and hammered a bolt into the wall that she would need to be able to climb back out. To her relief, the grey stone of the wall held the bolt without cracking or shredding. “The good thing about this is that it looks like I’m probably the first to access this canyon so if there’s anything to find, I’ll be the one to find it. Stay tuned,” she said with a bit of a giggle. Letting out more rope a little at a time, she made her way to the bottom while placing bolts and nuts every few feet.

Gem unharnessed at the bottom and twirled slowly around so that her video recorder captured her surroundings. The sound of rushing water echoed across the landscape, and she saw a narrow river through some stubby looking green shrubbery several yards beyond the rocky ground on which she stood. Lichen and other mosses poked through the rocks and stones and there were a few straggly bushes here and there, but that was about it for vegetation. Gem took off her puffy jacket and stuffed it in her pack. She piled her hair on top of her head, securing it with a baseball cap and wiped her brow. The flat area stretched for as far as she could see.  “It’s very warm here. I see no sign of any animals or birds,” she spoke quietly. “And definitely no evidence of any human presence.”  She picked up her backpack. “There’s mostly a lot of nothing, it seems. That’s disappointing. But let’s see what we can find.” And she began to walk, following along the canyon wall.

She nearly missed seeing the cave entrance. The smooth grey of the canyon side was almost hypnotizing, and the entrance was small and low.  She bent down and pulled a flashlight out of her pack. The light revealed what seemed like a tunnel that ran for a few feet and then widened.

She studied the opening for a minute. “It looks large enough for me to crawl through,” she said for benefit of her recorder. “Don’t think I can take my pack though.  I’ll go in for a little way and check it out.”

Gem shrugged off her backpack and tentatively entered the tunnel. She crawled forward a few feet. Both excited and jittery, she  started to stand as she reached a widening and was looking into a large open space in the cave.  Her eyes widened and she froze.

Kyp would have spun around from his work at the sound of Gem at the cavern entrance, but spinning wasn’t a thing his three stubby legs and duck-like feet could do. But the dorsal appendance quickly retracted and Kyp turned around.  

“Are you really an earth humanoid?” he asked Gem. “I have only ever seen images of humanoids. I’ve never seen a real one before.”

Gem was so stunned that she was momentarily speechless. She could hear someone talking to her, but she was pretty sure that the thing standing in front of her didn’t seem to have a mouth. Not one that she could see anyway. “How are you talking to me? I can hear someone talking to me, but it can’t be you. You have no mouth.”  Gem wasn’t even sure this creature that she saw was real. “What…who….are you? Are you real?”

“You can hear me because I do have a mouth. You just can’t see it. It’s not where yours is,” Kyp answered. “My name is Kyp.  I am a Thron from Udarvis. Who are you?”

Gem took a couple of steps closer. Oddly, as she drew nearer to Kyp, she began to feel relaxed and calm, as if she talked to an alien being all the time.  “My name is Gem. I am a human from here. I mean earth.” She looked at Kyp quizzically. “I kind of don’t understand what’s going on.  I should be scared, or at least nervous, about meeting and talking to an alien. But I’m not. It’s weird.”

“Hello, Gem. The reason you feel like that is because the atmosphere shield that wraps around me also emits a kind of radiation that calms and soothes things and beings around us.  That’s so that predators and others don’t attack us, especially when we’re working.”

“Working?” Gem had moved even further into the chamber and was just a couple of feet from this strange alien creature now.

“Yes,” answered Kyp. “I’m a seeker Thron. We’ve been coming to earth for years and years, because we find minerals and metals that we need but don’t have on my home planet.”

“Minerals and metals?” Gem was beginning to have an idea. “You mean like gold or silver or platinum?”

“I can find those,” said Kyp, “But I do not seek those. I seek only unbinilium. That is the mineral we need to maintain our home on Udarvis. And there is a rich supply of it right here. That is why I come here. But this is the very first time I or any other Thron has had communication with a life form here. We don’t want contact with others.”

“Then why are you talking to me?” she asked.

“We have been coming to this location for many years. We have never seen any evidence of any living creatures in this area. We were confident that we could continue to procure the unbinilium until it was depleted without being detected. Your presence was unexpected, and I could not escape your detection.” Kyp paused. “And I was curious.”

Gem walked over to where Kyp had been extracting the unbinilium. She put her hand lightly on the strangely phosphorescent ore. She smiled. “Well, Kyp, your existence and visits to earth can stay a secret. I don’t need to tell anyone. But you would have to do something for me then.”

The arm-like limb on Kyp’s back briefly extended, then retracted again. His two large eyes suddenly illuminated, then faded to their normal size and colour. “I don’t understand Gem.  Why would you tell any others about us? Unbinilium is useful only to us. This is not the only planet that has it, but this is the only place on earth that has it. And what would I do for you?”

Gem removed her hand. “You said that you can find other minerals and metals, right? Well, I really need some gold and you can find it for me. And then I would not tell anyone about you.  Do you see this?”  She held up her little video recorder. “I have you, as well as everything we’ve said, saved on this device.  And I have a map that shows where this canyon is located. If I tell others and show them the video recordings, a lot more humans would come here. They would probably take some or even all of the unbinilium. And our space agencies would start searching for you and your home.”  Still smiling, Gem tucked her recorder back into her shirt. “That would not be a good thing for you, am I right?”

“I don’t understand why you want gold. It is not a useful metal. But I can find where there is gold.”  Kyp looked at her intently and his large eyes seemed to blink. “Then you will leave, and I will leave, and you will never come back to this place and you will not inform any other earth beings about this place, about the unbinilium, or about Throns?”

“For a non-human species, you have grasped the concept of blackmail very quickly,” said Gem. “And yes, that is how it will work.  I will even give you my video recorder for you to keep or destroy. Whatever you decide.”

Kyp appeared to ponder on this for a moment. “Very well, Gem.  I will find and bring you some gold. But you will not be able to come with me. Obviously, my transport will be too small for you.”

Gem had not considered that. “I’m not sure I like that idea. Would I just wait here and trust that you will return with the gold I am asking for?”  She wiped her face with the hem of her shirt and tucked her hair more tightly under her cap.  She was feeling a bit light-headed and nauseous as well as warm. “I’m not sure I want to stay much longer in here. I think I would like some fresh air. And some water. But I left my backpack outside.”

“I will accompany you outside,” Kyp started shuffling towards the cave entrance. “My atmosphere shield allows me to function anywhere. It keeps me enveloped in flurorine and protects me from all other gases in whatever environment I’m in, both harmless and,” Kyp paused. “And harmful,” he finished.

Gem followed him through the tunnel entrance. Of course, she had to crawl to get out. “What could be harmful to you here?” she asked Kyp as they exited the tunnel, and she stood up.  She was swaying slightly; her face was flushed with fever and she was drenched in sweat. She sat down quickly beside her backpack and dug into it for a bottle of water.

“Not so much the oxygen and carbon dioxide,” Kyp answered. “But the unbinilium that’s in the cave, and scattered throughout this canyon, is somewhat noxious to Throns, so we have to be careful handling it.” 

He watched while Gem dropped to her hands and knees and threw up violently. Then she moaned out in pain as lesions started appearing on her face and her arms. “What…..what is happening to me?” she whispered.

Kyp made a sympathetic clicking noise. “Unbinilium is merely noxious to Throns, but my understanding is that it is extremely toxic to humanoids. I believe it is because of the type of radiation it emits. You might have noticed its soft black glowing light in the cave.”

Gem was barely conscious, but Kyp continued anyway. “Some plants are immune to its effects, but all other life forms will sicken and die from exposure, especially actual contact with the unbinilium, quite quickly. For humanoids, the only good thing, I guess, is that death is pretty quick.”  He looked down at her as she lay curled up on the rocky ground.

“Most life forms instinctively avoid any area that contains unbinilium. I think it is the scent. Or maybe the strange light.  Didn’t you wonder why there were no animals or birds in this canyon?”

There was no answer. He did not expect one.  “Don’t worry Gem.  I won’t leave you out here.  I will move you into a sheltered place before I leave.”  The limb on his back extended out and up.  His eyes briefly illuminated, then dimmed. “No one will know of us and our unbinilium will be safe. But you won’t be needing the gold now, will you?”