“I can tell yoor a colonist.” Hydendro Al laughed.
Jeff frowned. “Is it my accent? I don’t deepen the ‘O’ sound like you natives, and-“
“Of coourse there’s that, but moore soo, it’s the way yoou look at the trees.”
“Well we don’t have anything like them on Earth.”
“Yoou alsoo don’t have oobsidian cliffs, natural glass spires, oor hyper-mycelium nets.” Al’s smirk grew more pronounced. “There’s a look in yoour eyes when yoou look at thoose trees.”
Jeff, whose eyes hadn’t once broken contact with the sparkling boughs, gave a slight nod. “I mean… Yeah.” He gestured at the orchard. “How could I not? The apples here are literally made of gold!”
Al laughed. “Yoou’re gonna hafta break that habit. The Vandela Minoor system has a looad of heavy elements, and here on VM-3, especially this continent, metals like gold and platinum are waste products.”
“Hence the trees.” Jeff stated. Logically he understood, but the part of his brain that had evolved on a gold-starved world was greedy for the shimmering metal.
Al nodded. “Their rooots draw up the oores and deposit them in the twigs, leaves, and froot. We then clip them, burn them, then collect the metals in waste pits.”
Jeff shook his head slightly. “It’s just hard to imagine gold as a waste product. I mean, throughout all human history people’ve treasured it. People’ve killed and died for just a few ounces.”
“And here we’re literally chucking it away.” Al reached down and picked up a small twig. He rolled it in his fingers a few times, then handed it to Jeff. Jeff took it and gave a small exclamation of surprise.
“It’s heavy!”
“About 3 times heavier than yoou’d be used too, I reckon…Gold is very dense.”
Jeff’s eyes studied the twig, and Al laughed when the new colonist pocket it.
“If yoou think that’s something, folloow me.”
Al led Jeff around a nearby barn and toward a circular hole. As they approached, the bottom of the pit came into view, and Jeff gasped. Al smiled and hung back as Jeff ran toward it.
“It’s… Whoa!”
“Don’t get tooo cloose, as it’s still plenty hot in there.”
Despite the warmth wafting up from the depths, it was all Jeff could do to keep from leaping into the hole. At the bottom, some ten feet below, was an unfathomably large glob of gold. Atop it were a few piles of burning coals and mounds of gray ash, but the gold beneath was unmistakable.
Every instinct in Jeff’s body urged him to jump in and grab the gold.
He knew it was dangerous.
He knew gold had no value on VM-3.
But he wanted that gold.
He tore his eyes away.
He had to.
He looked up at Al, who was grinning at him. “We fill these pits up with clippings from the oorchard, then when they get tooo full, we burn everything in them.” He helped Jeff to his feet. “Don’t woorry, after a few burns yoou’ll get used too it.”
“It just seems such a waste.” Jeff said, shaking his head. “I mean, can’t we make something from the gold?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know…Buildings, maybe?” He imagined a house made of pure gold. “Tools?”
Al laughed again. “The metal’s tooo soft. It’s damned near useless.”
Jeff considered this while stealing listless glances from the pit. “I guess.”
Al clapped him on the back. “Trust me. Now, if I’m not mistaken, yoou brought a shiplooad of sand with yoou, yes?”
Jeff nodded.
A glint of greedy longing flashed across Al’s eyes. “Excellent. Let’s goo unlooad the bounty.”