Captain Midas

A weather‑worn veteran of the early space age sits on a hospital cot, his voice crackling with the memory of a doomed voyage. He recalls the sleek Martian Maid, a two‑hundred‑foot cruiser that once skimmed the red dunes of Solis Lacus, and the desperate crew of hard‑bitten men who would have sold their souls for a handful of solar dollars. When the ship drifted into the dark beyond the asteroid belt, a derelict wreck glimmered like a promise of unimaginable wealth—yet the captain knows that such glitter always comes with a price.

The narrative unfolds as a gritty, first‑hand account of greed, ambition, and the unforgiving void that tests even the toughest spacemen. Listeners will feel the tension of a night on Mars, the eerie beauty of distant moons, and the looming dread that the treasure may be a curse. It’s a raw, human tale of early interplanetary daring, told by someone who barely survived the very lure he once pursued.