Hounded on Predator Planet, page 1
Hounded on Predator Planet
Vicky L. Holt
Copyright © 2019 by Vicky L. Holt
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Contents
Glossary
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Chapter 32
33. Chapter 33
34. Chapter 34
35. Chapter 35
36. Chapter 36
37. Chapter 37
38. Chapter 38
39. Chapter 39
40. Chapter 40
41. Chapter 41
42. Chapter 42
43. Chapter 43
44. Chapter 44
45. Chapter 45
46. Chapter 46
47. Chapter 47
48. Chapter 48
49. Chapter 49
50. Chapter 50
51. Chapter 51
52. Chapter 52
53. Chapter 53
54. Chapter 54
55. Chapter 55
56. Chapter 56
57. Chapter 57
58. Chapter 58
59. Chapter 59
60. Chapter 60
61. Chapter 61
62. Chapter 62
63. Chapter 63
64. Chapter 64
65. Chapter 65
Epilogue
Playlist
Acknowledgments
More Book Links
Glossary
Glossary
Amity Diaz Female Main Character (FMC) of Book 3. An exobiologist, she brings her love of living things with her to planet Ikthe. She befriended one of the planet’s deadliest creatures and has an ineffable positive attitude. Heart mate to Natheka.
BoKama Supporting Female Character in all five books. Co-governs with Sister Queen the Ikma Scabmal Kama. She has been trying to usurp her place without luck so far.
CeCe Pain FMC of Book 5. A hydrogeologist, free diver, and neural network developer, CeCe put the finishing touches on VELMA, the artificial general intelligence used on many IGMC ships.
Chris Abusive ex-partner of Esra Weaver in Book 1, also works in administrative echelons of IGMC.
Demolition and Propulsion Hyperconnected Network Entity Software that runs systems on Mining Planet 13. (Stranded on Mining Planet)
Diablo Male pazathel-nax pup wounded in Book 2 that Amity befriends and heals in Book 3. Mischievous but lovable addition to Predator Planet.
Drail Male Main Character (MMC) of Stranded on Mining Planet, the free novella offered to newsletter subscribers. He’s part of the security for the Causeway Passage Authority administered by the Dam Svai, a reptilian alien species in the outer reaches.
EEP X215 Emergency Egress Pod designed by mechanical engineer Pattee Crow Flies of Book 2. A self-sustaining mini-ship designed to scan planetary bodies in search of one habitable by its single occupant, it has everything needed to sustain life from six months to a year. Provisions, limited tools, medical and surgical functions, multiple scanning abilities and VELMA all serve to make the EEP the only way to travel. It is Land Only, however; no leaving once it enters the atmosphere.
Esra Weaver FMC of Book 1. Exogeologist and miner, Esra tried to leave her baggage behind, but was forced to face it all again when fighting for her life on Ikthe. Heart mate to Naraxthel Roika. Curious, plucky, and a little sarcastic, she really loves rocks.
Heart mate In the old stories, it was told that one might find their heart mate or soul mate when one reaches adulthood. Heart mates share their lives together rather than separating to pursue solitary lives.
HemoSupp An electrolyte/supplement solution to be used in drastic situations where blood loss or profound dehydration have taken place.
Hestra Gas giant planet under the relaxed stewardship of the reptilian race, the Dam Svai. Featured in Stranded on Mining Planet (SoMP).
Hestra’s Handmaid Hestra’s moon which is on a crash course with the planet in three or four revolutions, and the base of limited IGMC mining operations. (SoMP)
Hivelt MMC of Book 2. A ferocious but introverted hunter, Hivelt regrets all dealings he had with the queen and feigned his death in Book 2 in order to escape her clutches. He’s a simple hunter who just wants a nice bowl of fish stew.
Holy Goddesses of Shegoshel Represented by the binary star system, the Holy Goddesses are an Elder and Younger Sister goddess pair who oversee the Theraxl people and any beings that visit the sister planets. Loving and beneficent, their greatest joy is giving gifts and blessings and often, spiritual dreams and messages, to sentient beings on the sister planets. They tend not to interfere but give encouragement and inspiration to aid their so-called “children”. Are they real or somehow manufactured by hallucinogens found on the planets or otherwise induced?
Ikma Scabmal Kama Female Antagonist for entire series. The queen has grown worse over the years in her thirst for blood and sex. She trusts no one, and no one trusts her.
Ikshe The home planet for the Theraxl race. Governed by a matriarchal society, it is peaceful, organized, paradisiacal, and populated with a creative and hungry race. Culture, art, science, engineering, architecture, and agriculture all play important roles on Ikshe with females engaging in every part of the work. Males are encouraged to become hunters, but some do choose other vocations. Except eunuchs. They didn’t choose that.
Ikthe The sacred hunting grounds planet where the hunters fly to hunt big game. Bringing back ship loads of butchered meat, they provide much of the protein and fats the alien race requires to fuel their powerful and muscular bodies. Females are forbidden from visiting the hunting grounds.
InterGalactic Mining Conglomerate A gigantic collection of mining corporations with its reaches throughout the known universe but always in search of more and better. Innovative, wealthy, powerful, people flock to IGMC for employment and high-risk jobs for high pay.
Joan Wu FMC of Book 4. Joan is an exobotanist who lost her joy in living when she lost her husband two years ago. Going through the motions, her only tether to life was her best friend, CeCe. Waking up on Ikthe, she discovered she was trapped in the most dangerous region on the entire planet and surrounded by danger, had to decide whether life was worth living.
Kerberos 90 A distant asteroid intended to be mined by an intrepid group of IGMC miners.
Kezti Bug-like alien race, enemies of the Dam Svai race and known pirates always eager to make shady deals. (SoMP)
Lucidity IGMC’s executive science class ship in a convoy of other ships headed to Kerberos 90.
Machete Common tool used in jungle habitats for clearing foliage.
Mass spectrometer One of VELMA’s many scanning tools used to measure the chemical makeup of things for identification and classification purposes.
Mining Planet 13 A distant moon on which common ores are being mined. (SoMP)
Mining Ship A massive destructive ship used to exploit the most possible resources with the least amount of caution.
MRE Meals Ready to Eat, standard IGMC issue freeze-dried food. Just add water and enjoy!
Naraxthel Roika MMC of Book 1. The mightiest hunter of all hunters, good and noble warrior who has yet to win a chance at a sanctioned mating that would produce offspring. Heart mate to Esra Weaver.
Natheka MMC of Book 3. A runner, a dreamer and a singer, Natheka never doubts his heart or his mate, even when his heart transition happens at the worst possible time. Heart mate to Amity Diaz.
Pattee Crow Flies FMC of Book 2. Descended from a First Nation, Pattee was uncharacteristically suited to life on Predator Planet thanks to the dogged instruction from her blue-collar father. On Ikthe, she must come to terms with the misdeeds of her past in order to embrace her future as Hivelt’s heart mate.
PH-4RT The gas giant planet around which Mining Planet 13 orbits. See also Hestra and Hestra’s Handmaid. The miners of MP-13 call it Phart. (SoMP)
Planet Mass InsertionVehicle P-MIV for short, because PIV was too provocative. An advanced mining ship that penetrates a planet’s first twenty meters of crust and initiates a massive erosion event to hasten the mining process during planet harvesting.
Pre-Harvest Recon Exploratory Device PHRED, the machine-learning artificial intelligence that runs the P-MIV.
Raxkarax MMC of Book 4. Brave and fierce, Raxkarax has an Ace up his sleeve when it comes to hunting on Ikthe. When he travels to rescue the unknown human from the Agothe-Fatheza bog, he must bring all of his knowledge to bear. Heart mate to Joan Wu.
Raxthez
Shay Leviticus FMC of Stranded on Mining Planet. Shea is smart as a whip and loves her career in mining demolition. She also has a side project that could change the course of human history. No big deal.
VELMA FMC in entire series. Vector Egress Liaison Machine-learning AI knows it all, literally. Without VELMA, nothing that occurs in the series would be possible, and where would we be without a solid understanding of poop?
1
Amity Diaz
“A person moving through nature—however wild, however remote … is never alone.” Richard Nelson
I crawled out of the mangled and twisted metal that used to be my emergency egress pod into the blinding light. A huge spider web of fractures laced my helmet. With the inner screen bleating alarms and flashing red and yellow lights, I knew the integrity of my suit was compromised.
My left leg had no feeling. I grimaced as I crawled, my leg dragging through the dark gravel of this desolate terrain. I scanned the rocky landscape for a secure place to assess my injuries and the state of my ship. Spying a cave in an outcrop of orange and black rocks, I headed in that direction.
Five feet from the entrance, I gathered a handful of pebbles and tossed them into the opening. I heard them scatter on hard rock, but nothing else. “Let this one thing go right,” I mumbled to myself and crawled inside. My helmet light didn’t work. Grabbing my utility torch from a pants pocket, I shone it inside. It wasn’t much of a cave, but all I needed was seclusion and a defensible position while I figured out what in the ever-living-hell I was going to do now.
With a final cry, I entered the cave, taking care not to bump my injured leg over the rubble at the entrance. The cave was about four feet deep and five feet high. I wouldn’t be able to stand, but something told me my standing days might be on hold. I collapsed against an inner wall where my body was obscured by the rock formation, but I could still see my broken ship.
Smoke billowed out from one of the engines and sparks rained from where the nose cone used to be. That worried me. I shifted on the ground, took a deep breath, and lowered my eyes to my leg. I hissed at the sight. A twisted piece of black metal jutted out from my thigh. That explained the warmth. Two inches farther and I would be bleeding from my femoral artery. Good night, Amity.
“Computer, what’s my location?”
“Your suit’s integrity is compromised. Please return to the EEP for possible emergency treatment.”
“The EEP is busted,” I said. “What’s my location?”
“Unable to comply.”
“What about the nanosatellite array?”
“Unable to comply.”
Dammit. “Computer, where is your hard drive located?”
“I have redundant hard drives located in the nose cone and the insulated buffer trap.”
I craned my neck to see the crumpled pod. The smoke cloud had lessened to a gray ribbon. Well, the nose cone was out. “Where is the insulated buffer trap?”
“Access panel to the insulated buffer trap is located on the flight computer’s side wall.”
The flight computer, comprised of a set of monitors facing the single occupant’s chair and an enclosed processing unit below, normally filled a small desk’s worth of space inside the pod. I recalled climbing straight out from the chair into daylight. Through the non-existent computer panel, to be exact. I tracked the scar on the hill where black metal shards peppered the rocks. If my leg wasn’t permanently skewered, it might be worth scavenging the wreckage, in case the hard drive was salvageable.
“What are your capabilities right now?”
“I am able to assess suit integrity and monitor life support systems. I can also access a large downloaded file found in your helmet’s computer memory. Would you like me to access the file?”
I blew out a breath. “Not yet. My IntraVisor screen has too many cracks. Can you read my vitals out loud to me?”
“Blood pressure is 120 over 80. Your pulse is 87 bpm and your temperature is 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Since your landing, I have monitored your vitals for thirteen hours and seventeen minutes, twelve hours, and forty-three minutes of which you were unconscious inside the ship.”
“Great, great,” I muttered while inspecting the metal shrapnel in my leg. “I don’t know that I’d call that a landing, but whatever. Can you tell me how to safely remove a metal shard from my thigh?”
“Scanning suit, please stand by.”
So far, I wasn’t feeling woozy. Once I removed the impaled shard, there were no guarantees. Adrenalin flowed through my veins, and I noticed my vision acuity was amazing. Every detail jumped out at me, from the grain of the rocks to the particulate swirling in the air from my smoking vessel.
“Puncture located two point five inches from your femoral artery. Femoral pressure bladder activated. Please wait.”
I felt a squeeze build in my leg, exactly like a blood pressure cuff.
“Do you have access to your MDpak?” the computer asked.
“Yes,” I said. Tingling began to burn below the wound. My hands shook as I unzipped the pocket with the MDpak.
“Locate the green blister packet.”
“Okay, I have it,” I said. My breathing escalated. I examined the inch-square pouch with a small bio-absorbable nozzle.
“That is the blood clotting agent. When you have removed the object, you will place it in the wound.”
“Okay,” I said. “What do I do first?”
“Use the alcohol wipes to sterilize your gloves or hands, and wipe around the puncture.” The computer said.
I cleaned everything twice. “Okay, computer.”
“Can you shorten the object?”
I looked at my multi-tool. “I don’t have anything that will cut this metal,” I said. “Do I have to shorten it?”
“No. Prepare the blister packet and the wound dressing.”
With heart racing, I forced my shaky hands to unscrew the lid of the nozzle of the blister packet and to cut a length of sterile polymer-infused biodegradable dressing.
“Administering a small dose of analgesic accompanied by a tetanus booster. Please be still,” the computer said. I felt a tiny pinch in my arm. “Grasp the object. If the object is straight, pull out in a smooth motion. If the object is bent, you must work it carefully in each direction. Immediately apply the blister packet and wind the dressing around your thigh.”
“Dios mio,” I moaned as I grasped the metal piece. I had no idea how deep this thing was in my leg, or if it was twisted inside. “Three, two, GAAAHHHH!” My vision swam, but the shard was out and the section that had been embedded looked smooth. Good, no need to dig around in the wound any further. I fumbled the packet but stuffed it into my wound with the nozzle side-down as instructed and sprayed in the coagulate. Then I wept as I wound gauze around my thigh multiple times and secured it. I looked up toward the broken smoking wreckage, and then fell back onto the hard cave floor. “Computer, it just got really dark.”
2
Natheka
A pleased growl erupted from my throat after I bid the brotherhood good day and struck out on the black rock. My patience had rubbed thin as our group crossed the desolate divide of craggy rocks, the soft travelers moving too slow, inhibited by their physical limitations. Their spirits were as strong-willed and brave as Theraxl, I noted with admiration. But I wanted to move faster. To run.
The afternoon suns beat like the hooves of the ice-walkers on my back and sweat rolled down my neck and between my armor. But I felt no heat.
My brothers showed agitation at the notion of an invisible net entrapping Ikthe. They scowled to think of beacons welcoming countless races to our hunting grounds. But I felt no anger.
Water sloshed in my canister. It was running low, so I would need to find a water source deep in the Black Heart range. But I felt no thirst.
From the moment I heard Hivelt’s heart mate, Pattee, refer to another human on a ship, followed by her frantic voice shouting in her language, my heart-home seized. The draw to the new human was a tangible force, a tether braided in woaiquovelt pulled taut.
This, I could not explain, except to look at the facts in front of my fangs.
