Zorro’s New Horse

Full Security.  Commander: Code Black. Privileged information: Code Black One. Salvage Report (20th cent. english trans.) submitted Earth Timeline 2167 from salvage Vessel P9947Zed, call sign: Zorro.

Vessel recovered: KC33X-ray cargo vessel, 4X warp drive-tight galactic range 4niner, small freighter, cap. 1000x standard container, no living life forms.

(Note: vessel sweep yields 8 human remains. Long dead, evidence of conflict, interior small blaster damage) (Strangely, engine swaps make this small cargo vessel capable of 9x warp and range expansion well beyond the Milky Way, as well as weapons fitment inconsistent with ship class. Cargo explains this). Cargo: 44x standard container solid domino configuration showing 2% space waste loss. (Note: exceptional density packing)

AI data search of Firmament Transport Ltd. comprehensive manifest listings yields no match in official manifests submitted. (Note: Suggests stolen or smuggled cargo)

Cargo specifics: 99.99999% pure Rhodium ingots STD (standard trading dimensions) for Earth timeline 2051-2151.

Elucidation 1: Frankly, Commander, Holy Nova! Requesting immediate protection from your Guard squadron to Base 987 Proxima. The cargo in this derelict vessel is more valuable than the last 100 years of transport business. We do not remotely have the firepower to protect it in subspace or warp velocity. This transmission is critical and despite the encryption assurances of FB and MS, I fear an intercept. I must let you know what we have in tow, but anyone reading this would assuredly kill my entire crew instantly and take this cargo into the Outer Nebula. This amount of Rhodium in one place... History... Sir, there are entire planets worth less than these containers. Analysis in our lab shows this to be pure mined Rhodium, not that nuclear waste product kind the banks are trading so furiously. This shows no isotopes degrading. It's the real deal. Request immediate escort. And, I must say, sir, I would not trust your fractured board to agree to anything. Pirates sit in that room. Sir, respectfully. Our science officer has added this brief: <Rhodium, identified on Earth in 1803. Noble metal, part of the Platinum group. Silver white, high reflectance, extraordinarily stable. Named for the ancient Greek work "rhodon" meaning "rose" for a pinkish red color of one of its salts. Used in flash plating for anti-corrosion. Employed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in catalytic convertors to reduce emissions from primitive fossil fuel burning. (Little did they know). Does not bond with Oxygen. Does not "rust." Rare in the Earth's crust -- .0002 parts per million. Meteorites, as you know, I'm sure, contain trace amounts. Price in 2020, $12,600 Earth dollars. Price in March 2021, $29,800. And the rest is history. As you know, pure mined Rhodium is the most precious material across the galaxy based on the controllable manipulation of relativistic effects when alloyed with Elements above 124. Warp travel could not happen without Rhodium. Civilizations converging across the reaches of space depend on this Element.>

Elucidation 2: Commander, there is also an artifact on board in a plasma vault -- an art piece, as near as we can tell, dated 2014. Stainless steel alloy 316L, stamped with the circular touchmark of the legendary Bruce Robinson MacDonald and inscribed on the back with a signature. It looks like the real thing. (Computer confirmed). It is for Element 45, sir, Rhodium. There are notes on the back referring to the nature of quantum reality as being made of stripes, directional fields. I have no idea how an early 21st century artist could be prescient regarding warp travel and the quantum physics requiring Rhodium. The art piece has the atomic symbol on the front. It's uncanny, sir. The computer says it's priceless and missing. Obviously, your Guard will get to the bottom of this, but I think we are looking at a getaway vehicle for a theft of unimaginable value. On top of the quantity, the purity of the metal, the sheer engine power of this small ship, these crooks were bringing the original Rh classical art piece in the getaway. Who were these guys? What went wrong? Have to sign out. Alarms blaring in the ship RN. Will contact again, asap. Send reinforcements to get this all to base...

Sir, Mutiny here. Trying to maintain. Tactical. I'll transmit when possible... 

(Location beacon offline).

You know, commander, never did like you... sitting there at your desk. Here's your old salvage boat. Zorro has a faster ride now. Hasta la vista... 

As a coda:

What is the most valuable thing in the universe? Rhodium! Uh, no. Time. That is all. Pause and consider that twenty years from now you would wish to be here today, this body, this health, at this time. Every day is magical. Nothing more precious. (Maybe kids, but that's another missive). 

P. S. However, something like Rhodium, whose hypothetical/fictional powers involve controlling or navigating time and space, would immediately become more valuable than time itself. Time's power is strangely, its irreducibility and its persistence -- it is change itself. Time is defined as change. Before my head warps, let's call it a wrap.  

P. P. S. The above tale is the entry in my Elements book for Rhodium. If you like this one, you are going to love Xenon and Nitrogen.