The Gold Beast was something else; something very fundamental in the energy state of the planet had changed, and the yellow metal, in a single action, seemingly planet – wide; and effecting all gold on the surface of the Earth, all changed at once. If the influence reached below ground to unmined or reburied gold, I could not say, but certainly all possessed of gold definitely displayed this new, and very disturbing attribute. For the gold began to emit lethal radiation. It became, in the course of three weeks, maybe longer, violently radioactive. The most disturbing aspect of this was that it emitted various types of radiation, and as it’s radioactivity ramped up, other, more traditional radionics such as Uranium and Plutonium, stopped being radioactive, or more disturbingly, disappeared altogether, causing atomic facilities worldwide to grind to a blubbery stop. Nobody noticed the radiation from the gold for at least three weeks, maybe more. Not being at the time possessed of either gold or a Geiger counter, I can’t say that it came to my notice with any particular force, even after the people wearing gold jewellery and gold false teeth began to fall off the horse in their thousands. Gold wearers; or worshippers; were not my crowd. I did not know Baal, I had no use for gold; the whole detail didn’t strike me as being very important, until I saw the effect on the ‘ big ‘ picture. I started to pay attention at that point, but beyond suggesting that people discard their gold jewellery in an environmentally friendly fashion, I didn’t have anything worthwhile to contribute. I kept a record; and I noticed its place in the scheme of events; and I tried then to place the gold phenomenon in its correct chronological order. All of the events, however, are very hard to pin down with any certainty; but I have lately become quite sure that the radionic massacre was actually the first step in this diabolical campaign. It is the only place where it really fits logically, and it certainly helps to explain the other events, from the blue bumblebees to the great carbon reset. If there was something impacting atomic structure, as the disruption of the carbon compounds suggests, it would logically happen all at once, and all of the atomic phenomenon would occur at the same time, though they differed in their overall flamboyancy, they all seemed to come from a common source. Certainly, the blue bumblebees and the oilfield explosions had showmanship by the double trunk full, but they didn’t show beyond their direct spheres of influence. But the gold, and its transmutation into a lethal element, was a silent and utterly devastating blow. Its impact was worldwide. Everybody possessed of the urge to show off had gold; some of them in huge quantities. These were the ones who went first; into that silent, dark place where gold has no value; dying from mild to severe radiation burns and acute radiation sickness. Rich and not so rich, alike in the fetish of gold; all died. Where a person tries to show off; wealth in particular, gold is usually his chosen means of expression. And gold, being a very ductile and malleable metal, can be shaped into nearly anything, from brutal chunks into fine jewellery, fillings for teeth, to foil so thin it can be used as a window shield to cut down on glare from the sun outside. So versatile, so useful in its own peculiar way, that gold, in some places is ubiquitous. Over two hundred thousand tonnes of the yellow metal have been extracted from the ground since time out of mind; and although a lot has been buried again, or lost at sea, there was enough to ensure a good spread over the face of the world. Gold is also found in electronic circuits and switch and plug contacts, even though it’s conductivity isn’t as good as its long time rivals copper and silver, it wore better in contact points and wasn’t so easily eroded by sparking. However, when it became radioactive, its conduction and other vital electrical properties changed slightly, and this resulted in some of the electronic failures of the time. It was a factor, but not a major factor, of the collapses that followed. Worldwide at the time there was nearly two thousand tonnes of weapons grade radionics; the other side of this radiation based record; some was already deployed in weapons of mass destruction. The rest had been prepared for use in atomic reactors, fixed and mobile, for use of energy deployment, either electrical, mechanical or the further refinement of other radionics to weapons grade. The atomic weapons, missiles and bombs and other frightful means of self destruction, sat in their places glowering at the world; nobody really paid too much attention to them other than to hope that one day they would be gone. And one day, although the metal casings remained, the radionics within, the vehicle of all that appalling energy; they were gone. But once again, most of us didn’t notice. We were all much too busy with other things, such as bees and diamonds and automobiles that wouldn’t move. The only time that people started to notice that something had changed; and the governments of the world – such as they were – began to admit that they might not have a handle on things, was when the atomic reactors producing electricity stopped getting hot enough to do their jobs. The monkey species of Planet Earth must be the only species in the intelligent galaxy that skates routinely so close to the edge. Certainly they are the only species that use atomic power in such a crude and broken manner. Nowhere else in the entire galaxy do intelligent beings use atomic energy to produce heat – then to boil water, make steam, thereafter to drive a conventional – and rather crude – steam turbine. An atomic bomb – to boil a kettle – to make steam – to drive the generators. Four steps – four crudely balanced and desperately dangerous steps – to produce electricity; when one direct electron resonator is all that is needed. There are better ways to do things. They claimed to be in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, yet they were lodged – seemingly immovably – in the steam age. Artificial intelligence (sic) produced by people who had suborned their brains to crude and destructive machinery, and who had no inkling of natural intelligence in the first place. How could an entity who used an atomic bomb to boil water thereby to produce electricity be expected to know what intelligence was? But they did begin to notice when their crude contraptions failed one after another; when their bits of string and bicycle inner tubing stopped getting hot enough to produce steam. The groups responsible for producing power investigated, and whispered in ears that the fuel rods of the atomic reactors “seemed to be depleted far ahead of time” and the radionic material “didn’t” seem to be there anymore. A fuel rod deep in the core of an atomic reactor is the one place where even a very talented thief might be expected to fail; where even he might encounter difficulties in his efforts to steal enriched uranium or plutonium. It’s an environment not conducive to the activities of nimble fingers. Yet the heavy metals were no longer there; tonnes of radioactive metal had been turned out of its dimension into the void and darkness of the unknown. No pit of Chaos could hold that answer better, and the scientists of the time were alike struck dumb with surprise. Noone had answers for the universal and simultaneous failure of all the atomic reactors. The governments; on being pressed – very hard – reluctantly admitted that the atomic fuel was missing; and not only was it missing from the fuel rods, it was missing from the fuel stock piles as well. On being pressed even harder than before, they admitted that the reactors on their ships and submarines ‘ might’ also not be working. They weren’t happy about making these admissions, as it meant for the most part that their military machinery would be at ten percent of their original capacity; this before the total breakdown engendered by the reduction of carbon fuels. People then decided that as all the radionic metals had disappeared, that it was time to get their buckets and spades and dig up some more. It was at about this time that people began to notice the Faria bees; the blue bumblebees with death in their stings; for one of the places where you were guaranteed to find them; and some had suggested that the bees originally came from, were the uranium and thorium mines. A fellow could not say what was going on underground in the mines, because the bees were holding strategic salient points around and in the mine grounds. Vents and ducts were favoured spots, from where the bees conducted their campaigns with diabolical finesse. I suppose that other mines, especially in bushy places, were also impacted, but at the time other minerals were actually not as important as the radionics; as people felt that they simply had to get their reactors working again, thereafter to deal with the other issues of that troublesome day. It was at about this time when people began to realise how valueless gold – and diamonds – really were, in the face of a global energy catastrophe. Nobody uses gold or diamonds to heat water and make electricity; and there are a lot of other activities for which the two ‘ valuta’ have positively no use. I suppose that the other mines, iron and chromium, vanadium and whatever else, may have also been experiencing difficulties; or maybe not. The information simply wasn’t there. The mines that were still operating just carried on with nothing to say for themselves; and the other mines, torn apart by swarms of lethal luminous blue bumblebees, had nothing to say for themselves either. It was the uranium mines that interested me, and at the time I didn’t inquire further. Then after that, it was too late to inquire, unless a fellow didn’t mind taking a walk there to acquire new knowledge first-hand. And in those times, walking through typhoons and hurricanes to look at a none- functional mine just wasn’t on my list of things to do. There was a surreal feeling about that time; this time; nothing seemed solid, nothing seemed to have value; as the gold beast gained momentum, this was practically true. People were dropping off the horse in droves; in myriad thousands; and it took an unconscionably long time for the doctors who were consulted to conclude that the problem was radiation poisoning; and very much too long for them to pin down the source of the radiation once all their fruitless tests had left no other conclusion to be considered. Having come to the conclusion that gold; or something in the gold, was the source of the radiation they tried, very discreetly; to make this detail known. This, of course was the wrong thing to do; from an economic point of view, although I saw no ethical options; and certainly I didn’t care much about gold becoming the yellow plague metal. Other people and organisations, apparently, cared very much, and a large number of companies; and countries, became bankrupt literally at the drop of a hat. People tried to continue selling the metal, but the big noises, the ‘ responsible people ‘ put a stop to that. In a matter of days, gold lost all its value, and gold reserves, tonnes of valueless metal, were placed under even greater guard. Jewellers were the least of the problem; and all jewellery stores were to be equipped with automatic Geiger counters. People wanted to know how gold could be ‘ fixed’; and refineries were swamped by people wanting the radiation to be burned out, although nobody got that right. Other people simply dumped as much of the metal as they could remove from their homes and their persons, although those with gold fillings; or necklaces; usually didn’t manage even this. First the refineries were overwhelmed, then the hospitals, and finally the mortuaries. Between the radiation poisoning of thousands of millions of people, and the ravages of the blue bumblebees, there was too much to process. Institutions, organisations, public order then governments gave way. A million deaths, such as were the numbers during the Covid outbreak, could be dealt with, as long as they were spread out a bit. A thousand million deaths, in a matter of a few weeks, however, was a distinctly different scenario. People didn’t try to cope, once the scope of the disaster became plain; they gave way before the open gates of mortality, and fell where they stood. From what I saw of the confusion, I could see that most of the gold victims passed on without realising that gold was the root of their troubles. A lot of the bodies that I passed by were intact with rings and chains; those that had not been looted by friendly natives keen on the yellow glow. I suppose that the gold went from one victim to the next, and eventually stayed with the final victim; because there was noone, foolish enough or otherwise, left to steal the metal. Three metals, two of which were distinctly similar in colour and character; all acting in a way that could not be explained. None of the governments, while they existed, said anything about the radionics that had gone missing from out of their atomic bombs, but I have it on excellent authority that the radioactive metals did in fact disappear, to where I have a shrewd idea, but of the end location I have no definite proof. The radioactive gold did not disappear, much to everyone’s chagrin. There was just too much of it, and it was simply everywhere. The degree of radioactivity, it had been found, varied with its proximity to people; the closer it was to a person, the more radioactive it became. It was almost as if the wearers of the jewellery were triggering the radioactivity; or that the radionic effect of the gold had been deliberately put where it would do the most good – or bad. It seemed, to me, to be another deliberate attack; but I suppose I sound a bit paranoid, voicing such a theory. However, the events were otherwise inexplicable. If it was indeed an attack, it was diabolically clever; and no move I could have devised would have stopped the inevitable collapse of society that followed; not with the weapons raised against humanity. But the gold was a fell blow; and stealing the cores of all the atomic weapons was probably done to ensure that the weapons could never be used; a wise enough move in ordinary circumstances. The most difficult question as far as the radionics were concerned was this; how did a fellow remove hundreds of pounds of hot, radioactive material from inside an active reactor, or inside the bomb casings, without seriously endangering life and limb? It was an interesting problem, mostly because some of the facts in each case were clearly missing. Impossible deeds accomplished implied that details were missing in each assessment; important details that would change the nature of the deed from totally impossible to somewhat hard to do. The main problem; radioactive gold; lent itself to no amicable; or even possible solutions. It has been postulated in these later times, that the radioactive gold caused most of the changes that followed; but in my opinion, distance, chronologically speaking, has lent convenience to the view; the timeline of the three major occurrences, so swiftly followed by the fourth, cataclysmic finalé, doesn’t fit in. Even with such high levels of mixed radiation, an evolutionary jump as represented by the blue bees, or the carbon shift, where carbon spontaneously changed into diamond, just doesn’t happen. Bees, sensitive to radiation as they are, would not evolve between one generation and the next. They would simply perish when faced with such a radiation load; as did many other species, man included. It has also been supposed that there may have been huge sunspots; this might explain the aberrant behaviour of gold and carbon; it would also explain why so many electronic devices failed of their duties; the components governing the radio telescopes and satellites come to mind at this point. A huge solar flare; or flares, would certainly explain why most of the satellites ceased to function. Certainly there was a lot of space debris at the time; two little pebbles come well to mind in this respect. Something; maybe more than something may have fallen into fiery ruin on the surface of the sun, causing disruption and indubitably releasing huge torrents of solar energy. There were arguments against sunspots effecting gold and carbon; two elements that really had very little in common. Some suggested; rather sensibly, that gold and carbon were not the only two elements effected, a fair supposition in view that there was no way to test all of the other elements and see if something mysterious had happened to them too. The other big impact of gold falling off the horse was that nearly all the governments collapsed on the strength; or weakness; of this event; and the financial systems all collapsed too; mostly due to the huge amount of wealth that became inaccessible or completely redundant in the face of eight thousand, three hundred and twenty million ounces of gold becoming valueless; and a distinct liability at, literally, the drop of a hat. India, from a population point of view, was definitely the worst hit by the gold beast. Seemingly, the Indians could not cook a plate of food without bringing gold into the picture, be it only a bracelet, necklace or an ear ring or two. It seemed that every Indian woman; and a good percentage of the men, had at least one gold bauble of some sort. Some of these bracelets, made of old gold, handed down over sometimes as many as fifty generations; all became contaminated, with readings as high as a hundred microcuries in some artefacts. The absorbed radiation counts were also lethally high, and the consequent radiation poisoning, due to the amount of exposure, was nearly inevitably deadly. It was very sad; but the gold beast had bitten back; and the gold fetish died an agonising death. There was, after the first few weeks, no attempt to treat the radiation injuries and poisoning. The facilities from where treatment could be sourced were rapidly overwhelmed in the richer countries where diagnosis was available. A lot of people died without their symptoms so much as being diagnosed, and the few who were able to begin treatment usually were not able to complete the course; as the facilities had collapsed. It all occurred, with the bees and the diamonds, over a three month period. When the storms engendered by the carbon crisis were in full blow, there was such severe damage to properties that a lot of medical facilities, already deprived of any source of heat and power, were literally blown away. Some of the radiation victims attempted home treatment; but I really don’t know how many of them succeeded, as records pertaining to this are not available; or were never made. Gold loomed huge and ugly over the land; a new channel through where the old threat of atomic war had been redirected. Its victims were the gulled; the people who valued gold; that least valuable of all our least valuable resources. It was a bitter and ironic twist of values; and those who valued gold the most died first.