The Cloaks of Deception

Larden was a scavenger. The term didn’t bother him anymore. In spaceports far away and long ago he insisted that he be called a collector or trader. He was beyond that now. That was thousands of light years ago.

Being a scavenger was the perfect job for Larden: He had no family, no friends, was a loner, and a dreamer. For Larden knew deep in his heart that one day he would find that treasure. A treasure he could haul back to the trading post on Alteris-9 or sell to a rich arts dealer in the Rings of the Naonian System or even haul it all the way back to Earth. He clung to that belief; it was his sole reason for living. He knew that someday, somehow he would find his riches.

He made his living simply by flying to abandoned, desolate or dead planets and using his specially modified TNQ-550 surface scanner he would search for materials that when retrieved and perhaps polished up a bit could fetch enough credits to get his ship and his belly refueled. He was satisfied with his life.

Larden’s ship, Treasure Hunter, was known in most of the major spaceports. Larden, by most accounts, had logged more space miles than any but the most experienced explorers. And he had done it alone. Larden didn’t care for partners. "I don’t share with no one," was his common response when asked. "If I had a partner, I’d hafta teach him how to fly my ship, use my equipment and then he’d do it wrong. I’d have to fix his screw-ups and to top it off he’d expect half the loot. No. I don’t need and don’t want a partner getting in my way." Larden’s treasure was only for one man.

Most of Larden’s finds were artifacts from ancient races and civilizations that he later sold to museums or to individual collectors. Along the way he found some trinkets and had decorated the Treasure Hunter. In his living quarters were wall hangings of a long-since extinct race of giant undersea creatures with huge fins and bulging, sad eyes. He also had a type of painting depicting two races of humanoids in a raging, bloody battle. At the center of the war was a raised platform and resting on it was a large diamond, glinting from light and blood. Larden reasoned that these races fought for the right to worship this giant, all-powerful diamond; the riches it beheld and the power it bestowed. What other God was there to worship? He had traveled to hundreds of planets and systems and the only thing held power was money.

At the Jaynovian-10 spaceport Larden heard rumors about a "shining" planet made of jewels. He had heard similar rumors before and dismissed them. Spacers are always telling stories about magical planets, encrusted with jewels. His favorite story from childhood was of a volcano ridden planet that belched rivers of molten gold and hills made of diamonds. It was this story that inspired a lifetime of searching for that treasure.

After 35 years of searching the universe for that treasure Larden knew the end was near. He could feel it in his gut. He prayed for it in his heart.

The beeping of his light-drive engine brought Larden back from a dream of the planet of golden volcanoes and to the reality that he was nearing the end of this hyperspace jump. He was headed to an uncharted and unnamed system known merely as 374-MQ5-36-9. He used to be able to explain what the planet designation meant but had long since forgotten the codes.