Dr. Felloniker's Cosmic Book of Peculiar and Amazing Short Stories

The Space Bounty

Zintikk is an artificial planet, made entirely out of stone, mostly in the form of bricks. It was made to be a sanctuary for the Shakzi monks 7,000 years ago. Its source of heat and power for the artificial gravity came from a Kryllixiam Crystal that was carved into an Idol. This Idol was worshipped by the monks like nothing else in the universe mattered. Galactic archaeologists have searched for decades now for the planet in attempts to document its beauty. However, many more than just archeologist have been searching for it too, most of them attempting to steal the Idol that keeps the planet together.

This only recently became possible though. The intergalactic gangster boss, Sif Barbalokkins, finally tracked down the coordinates to Zintikk, and with that, hired a Mercenary to follow the coordinates, and steal the Idol from the planet. That Mercenary, goes by the name Rix Starjumper. Starjumper was the obvious choice for the job, as he has always been praised by his clients, and has a specialty in stealth missions, stealing things, and overall just being a smart bastard. He is a Homosapien from the panet Kron, has been living for 39 years, and his current home, well that's debatable. And as mentioned before, his job is to go to the planet Zintikk, and retrieve the Idol that powers the entire false planet.

Upon landing, Rix noticed that he was standing on brown stone bricks that had been etched with bright green moss. He could only see this because of the lights provided by his scout ship. He took a lantern and activated it, before deactivating his ship. He could very clearly see the stars, some were much larger than others, and just about all of them were a slightly different color. At which point, Rix began to walk, in search of this Idol. Stories had it that the Idol was in the center of the planet somehow, and Rix wasn't about to doubt that. Especially considering just how smooth and flat the planet was. He could see the abyss of space in the horizon, and nothing else. That was, until he stumbled upon a small Platform for him to stand on. Rix did just that, and then around him, a glass cylinder formed. From there, the cylinder moved him beneath the surface, and into whatever was inside the planet. While going down, the Cylinder turned forward, and Rix fell flat on his face. In time, he made it to a mossy stone brick platform, and he had fallen back onto his feet. At that point, the cylinder oppened, allowing Rix to step out. The Artificial gravity of the planet had changed, so that one could easily walk on the platforms. Everything else around Rix was completely dark, save for a few green lights, which came from other nearby platforms.

Rix kept wandering through the darkness, being guided only by his lantern, and the green lights along the pathway. In time though, Rix had stumbled upon another small, round platform for him to stand on. Once again, upon stepping onto the platform, a glass cylinder formed around him. It moved away from the pathway he was on, and then turned in a way that made Rix fall on his back. He sighed in annoyance, planning on never returning to this place. From there, a hatch opened above where Rix was, and all gravity became lost. Rix got up, and zoomed through the opening, now entering a blue lit chamber full of taser gates and laser induced plasma beams. But in the middle, in the center of it all, was a very small extraction field, and floating in the middle of that, was the clear crystal, glowing with white, and carved into an Idol of worshiping. Rix used the lack of gravity to propel himself towards the Idol. But in that instance, a volley of lasers began to lower horizontally right in front of him. Rix straightened himself up, and then used his electro pulser on the lowest setting, to stop himself right where he was. He stayed in place, until the lasers had passed. At which point, he launched himself closer to the Idol. However, the extraction field with the Idol was surrounded by taser gates, which prompted Rix to stop himself on the slim bar that projects the deadly gates. At which point, he pulls out an electro-discombobulator, and throws it into one of the gates. This causes the gate to go haywire, and then deactivate. From there, Rix slips behind where the rest of the gates are, and then reaches through the extraction field, and grabs the Idol. From there, he pulls it out, feeling its warmth in his hand.