Eros
The ship gracefully lands on the surface of Eros, shining metal coming to a rest over the plant life in the field. Captain Albert opens the hatch and ventures out into the foreign land.
“This is the same planet that the legendary Captain Blake landed on and explored, or so the legends say. He was a one eyed explorer and scientist, I wonder if he’s still here.” Said Captain Albert to himself.
Captain Albert spends three hours exploring the area near the ship and comes back to it with many plant samples and a strange gold idol he found. It’s starting to get dark, the scientist brings the samples into the cock pit and leaves the gold idol with the plant samples.
He wakes with a stir in the cabin and is now staring at the gold idol.
“I thought I left you in the cock pit.” He said to the idol.
As he gets up to bring the idol back to the cock pit he notices a large bag in the cabin.
“I don’t recall packing such a large bag.” Said Captain Albert.
He puts the gold idol back down and walks over to the bag and opens it. He’s surprised to see what’s inside it. It’s a skeleton! There is a deep cut over one of the eye sockets. It must be the remains of Captain Blake. He reaches deeper into the bag and finds a small gold idol, identical to the one he found earlier.
“Oh no, Captain Blake never made it off this planet, neither will I.” Captain Albert said in horror.
He puts the idol back in the bag and runs out of the ship. He looks under the ship, dim light shining from one of Eros’s moons illuminates the fuel tanks which are deeply cut by the stems of plant life. Fuel is pouring out into the field.
“No,no ,no this can’t be happening, I won’t be able to make it back without fuel.” Said Captain Albert.
He climbs back into the ship defeated, slowly walking up toward the cabin. Captain Albert spends the next sixty years wandering the surface of Eros, finding edible plants and animals. He abandons the ship and sets up camp in a far off clearing in the woods. He never could figure out the mystery of the gold idols. Maybe they represent the enigmatic quality of the planet. Maybe they were left here by an ancient alien or traveler. What he does know is that they follow him no matter where he goes, the gold idols travel, somehow, with him.
Captain Albert died peacefully in a cabin that he built by hand. Surrounding him were the many plants he collected throughout his adventures. Among these were the two gold idols, taunting him, always watching him.
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