Hunted on Predator Planet Read online

  16

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on my own breaths. I leaned over her chest once again to listen. The tiniest of breaths expelled. She yet breathed on her own.

  As gently as I could manage with clawed fingers, I lifted her eyelids one at a time to see her eyes. They were rolled back. I couldn’t see their beautiful color, but I remembered them.

  Unlike my own eyes, hers had a central black dot. Her eyes reminded me of the awaafa, the giant winged blue-green butterfly native to Ikthe.

  I found a clean cloth from my pack and folded it upon the stone floor as a pillow for her head. I allowed the back of my knuckle to caress the tender skin under her eye. So pale. I could see the tiniest network of veins beneath her skin. What race sent a fragile female to do the work of a spy? Someone whose bones could snap if I squeezed hard enough? Suspicions raced in my mind. What would an alien race desire from Ikthe? We valued the meat and the challenge of hunting here. We valued the healing Waters of Shegoshel and a single prized metal. Ikthe was sacred in its violence. Out of death, sprang life.

  Attuned to her breaths, I could resist the call of her hair no longer. I lifted her head enough to pull the length from under and combed through it with my claws. Every stroke wafted the scent of it to my nose. I reveled in the fragrance. I plaited her hair into a hundred braidlets. When she wakened, she would have the woven hair of the women of the Royal Court, the symbol of victory over death.

  The Royal Court!

  In my worry, I had forgotten the invitation.

  I looked around the cave. The light from her helmet faded. The burning agothe-fax was embers now.

  I must leave to attend the Lottery drawing. But she would awaken in the dark.

  I bent one last time, my ear to her chest. Another breath.

  I could not bring her to Ikshe. It was forbidden. I could not hide her in the hold of my ship. It was overflowing with the meat for my people. And the orbit guards inspected every ship bow to stern anyway.

  I was obliged to leave the female here.

  With the deaths of the agothe-faxl, it was the safest location at the moment. I placed her helmet upon her chest. When she awakened in the blackness, her hands would find the helmet. It was the best I could do.

  I would hasten to return to Ikthe after the Lottery. My name hadn’t been drawn in fifteen cycles. Auspicious hunting expedition aside, why would it be drawn this time?

  I felt the ache return when I left the cave behind and ran many lengths to my ship. It did not abate when my ship entered the orbit of Ikshe. I suspected I would find relief once I returned to the surface of Ikthe. The Goddesses were playing with Naraxthel today. I imagined the Sisters tittering at the thought of the Mighty Hunter eager to return to Certain Death to gaze upon the face of a pale dead female and inhale the fragrance of the valley lilies from her hair.

  17

  The back of my head throbbed, but the most urgent pain belonged to my sternum. I had yet to open my eyes, choosing instead to inventory my aches. “VELMA, what is my health status?”

  I heard a mumble.

  I frowned and opened my eyes. Complete blackness surrounded me. Then a powerful, dank smell assaulted my nose so heavily I almost gagged. What the—where was my helmet?

  Ah, the weight on my upper chest. I must have put it there … I grasped it with both hands.

  I remembered the monster spider coming at me from the shadows. I yelped and scrabbled backward until my back hit the wall, my helmet rolling away from me with a clatter as I crab-crawled with my hands. I gasped and whimpered, fearing for my life. I looked everywhere, but the darkness was complete. And now I didn’t have my helmet, unless I crawled around looking for it.

  What had happened to the spider? I wracked my brain, trying to remember the last thing. The spider came at me. Was I singing that song? I couldn’t remember. Why had I taken my helmet off? My suit was saving my life on an hourly basis.

  Without the barrier created by my helmet, I smelled a strong musty odor with a slight sour tang to it. I could smell clay and water and salt. And something burnt and stale.

  There was also the trace of something earthy and peppery. But it was fleeting.

  I listened. Was there anything else in here with me?

  I put a hand to my thudding chest, discovering my open suit. My sternum and surrounding area was numb. I must have been losing my mind, because I did not remember taking off my helmet or unfastening my suit. Maybe I inspected my injury and passed out.

  I needed my helmet. I refastened my suit and then groped my way along the floor of the pitch-black cave. Frantic to find my helmet, I patted the gritty ground with each crawling step, reaching around to try and find it. My hand fell on something hard and angular—my multi-tool!

  I pressed on until my hand met something furry and I yelped and jerked away. My squeak echoed against the cave walls. Snap. I needed my helmet before anything came after me. I reached forward again. Petting the fur, I pressed my fingers into it and felt the hardness beneath. Gulping, I tried to wrap my fingers around the limb. They didn’t quite reach all the way around, but I knew what it was. It was one of the many legs of the giant spider beast. Lifeless, it still had the power to send my breathing into spasms. Especially in the dark.

  I had heard the clattering of my helmet, but noises echoed in here, and I had no idea where it could be. My frustration grew as I continued to crawl around. I had no way of knowing if I was canvassing the exact same area or what. And why the hell was my helmet light not on? That only happened when I’d been without solar power for over twenty hours. Oh crap.

  “VELMA, activate auxiliary light.”

  Its light pierced my eyes and gave me an instant headache, even though it was a soft orange glow. “Ow.” I closed my eyes against it, then squinted between my fingers until I was used to it. It was feet away from me, the light emanating from interspaced LEDs around the neck ring and inside at the top.

  Using the glow, I looked around and stutter-stepped when I saw the humongous corpse of the spider-beast. At least it was dead.

  Moving my arms hurt the bruising on my chest. I bent to retrieve my helmet with care. I was used to the odor in the cave now, but I needed a medical assessment. I put it on and ran a diagnostic.

  “Esra Weaver, you have suffered a concussion, as well as blunt force trauma to your sternum, resulting in a large area of contusions and a subdermal hematoma just below your sternum. Please return to the EEP to receive emergency medical treatment.”

  Oh schist. What the hell happened in here? I looked back at the huge spider. I walked closer to inspect the dead body. I couldn’t tell which was the head-end and which was the tail-end. I shined the light on its many-eyed head and realized it had been split in two. I didn’t do that, did I? I leaned in closer. Gooey junk clotted the huge wound, but it was clear something sharp had cleaved it in two. My multi-tool wasn’t large enough to have achieved that.

  I looked back around to the small pile of ash. Then I looked in all the dark alcoves of the cavernous room and the offshoot tunnels. Did some other terrifying animal, maybe the natural predator to the spider thingies, come in and …? No, the corpse wasn’t eaten. Or even picked at.

  Something, or rather, someone, had split its head open. Killed it. I placed a hand on my chest. Prevented it from killing me.

  Double schist. That armored alien had found me.

  Then I remembered my suit had been opened and my helmet off. What had he done to me? I took off my helmet again and reached up to the sore spot on my head and felt heavy locks of hair. What in the Sam Hill? I placed the helmet on the floor beside me and felt my head with both hands.

  My head was full of tiny braids. I threaded my fingers through the braids, marveling at the patience it would have taken someone to do. And the time. How long had I been out?

  Okay. I blew a breath out. It couldn’t have been the hunter. Based on his helmet alone, he would have split me in two. There had to be another sentient being on the planet. It
was the explanation that made sense. Some kind of benevolent, aboriginal, compassionate female.

  I cocked my head, the flicker of a benevolent female’s visage coming to mind. Then it fled before I could capture it. Did I dream…? Shaking my head made it throb more. “Ow.”

  I cringed at the pain. The adrenaline rush was wearing off.

  “Please return to the EEP for emergency medical treatment.” VELMA’s voice was muffled.

  “I know. Give me a hot minute, will you?” I replaced the helmet, made sure everything was right and tight, and asked for a map back to the EEP.

  Maybe my benefactor would meet me on my way out. Maybe it was the braids or the cloven head, but I suspected their medicine wasn’t as advanced as mine.

  Using the cave wall for support, I made my way through the tunnels. Each step jarred the ache in my chest, and each sway of my arms caused a deep throb to pulse at my sternum. The map overlay was taking me in a different direction from where I entered. This could be good, or very, very bad. Although my breathing was labored, I was pretty sure my ribs weren’t broken. Thanks to Chris, I already knew what that felt like. The tunnel I was in narrowed. I lowered to a crawl, aching with every movement. I had to stop frequently to rest.

  I tried to imagine the female who braided my hair. I hadn’t had anyone touch my hair since Earth, and I paid them to do it. A cut and style by a girl in a hurry. I remembered feeling disappointed the head massage didn’t last long enough. Once again, the hazy memory of a woman’s—no—a female’s face, crossed my mind. She wasn’t human. There was another one, too. I paused and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to catch the image. It wafted away. My chest hurt. I had to take another rest.

  I laid my head back for a minute. Everything pulsed inside me.

  “Return to the EEP for emergency medical treatment.”

  I am, VELMA, I am.

  18

  I stood still and naked as the eunuchs removed all the fakathe from my skin with large amounts of scented water and rough cloths. Gritting my teeth when they scraped the filth off my skin with pieces of bark, I closed my eyes.

  My thoughts turned to Ikthe again and again. More to the point, to the female lying on a stone floor in the dark. Had she awakened? Would she stay within the safety of the cave once she did?

  I cursed aloud. She would not.

  The eunuchs jerked away from me, alarmed at my use of the profane word kathe. Some words were not to be used in the Fortress of the Royal Court. I ground my teeth together and submitted to their ministrations. Hunting was a filthy work.

  Next came the arm bands denoting my kills. The eunuchs welded the bands around my bicep, the heat from the closing tool burning my skin. I glimpsed their curious glances when I endured it.

  I closed my eyes and frowned. The female showed strength and bravery, as well as determination. She had a hunter’s spirit. I wondered how extensive her injury was on the inside. I heard no evidence of a heart-home. Did her race not have the sacred chamber that held the heart? Should not a species as delicate as hers have the heart cage? From my palpations, I only detected a few bones one such as I could snap with little effort. Perhaps her Goddesses gave her strength elsewhere to protect her heart. I could not work out a logical explanation, but then the Goddesses were seldom logical. Only consider the old tales that told of Theraxl hearts leaving their solid cage upon finding the proper mate after a turbulent adolescence. Such ridiculous nonsense. The heart would be forever vulnerable were such a thing to occur. The eunuchs flinched when I snorted.

  Now they layered royal clothing upon me. A swath of green fabric around my waist, a thick belt of animal hide, and metal plates on my chest. A headpiece made of orange rodaxl feathers flared out from my brow. Gems were pushed into my temples, small barbs working their way into my thick skin. I chafed under their hasty treatment of my hair fronds and their constant touching. I hadn’t been touched this much since I was tripping around my mother’s skirts.

  The eunuchs frowned incessantly, as they had to work twice as fast. I had arrived late. Their green skin showed the faded marks of past beatings. A flare of guilt threatened to consume me, but I tamped it down. We were all enslaved by the Queen, in one way or another.

  Another eunuch poked his head in the doorway, looking around the smooth floors and tapestry-covered walls as if searching for something. At last his eyes fell upon me. He frowned.

  “They are ready for their honored guest,” he said, his eyes slanting up and down my body.

  I lifted a brow. None of them addressed me as Theraxl, but spoke as if I wasn’t in the room. It was as I suspected. My sight-capture had been shown across the planet. That would have resulted in Theraxl researching my lineage and my history. The fact I hadn’t created offspring since I was inducted as a hunter for Theraxl meant there was a subtle distrust of me and my parentage. I growled at the two fussing with my headpiece, and they slinked away from me.

  “Take me to the dais,” I said.

  The third eunuch dipped his head, and I followed him out of the bathing room, the steady dripping of water echoing off the white clay-smeared walls with a lonely sound.

  My heart was back at the cave, even as I strode through the halls of the Royal Court, annoyed by the pomp. To think yesterday I would have sung the song of raxshe raxma, in preparation for the Lottery draw, and have been satisfied to sit on the dais with the Elder Sister and Younger Sister puzzled me. For today, in this tik, I wanted out of the ceremonial clothing, out of this Court, and off Ikshe.

  19

  Dim light woke me from a sleep so sound, I thought I was in my childhood bedroom. I stared at the gray wall across from me, trying to figure out where my lacy white canopy was. Then I heard VELMA’s synthesized voice.

  “Auxiliary battery charged,” she said. “Return to the EEP for emergency medical treatment.”

  I blinked twice, and everything came back to me. I had a hematoma that needed to be treated, among other things. My suit lost some power, but the light from the distant exit was enough to charge its emergency stores to full. Exhaustion had caught up to me.

  It was just as well. I could imagine the kinds of delightful night-time creatures I had missed by sleeping one off in a cave tunnel. Upon further reflection, it was a lucky break I lost consciousness. I was in no shape to fight off anything tougher than a butterfly. Correction: an Earth butterfly.

  I also realized my fairy alien-godmother hadn’t returned in the night. Maybe she turned into a pumpkin. Shrugging off the mysterious source of my braids, I stood up, feeling every bruise across my chest and reaching down to my abdomen. What had that thing done to me? Its mandibles hadn’t pierced my suit since its integrity was at a hundred percent. I’d been hit.

  I couldn’t force the memory to return, so I used the wall to help me stand, and made my way out of the cave.

  The exit opened out to a meadow. Was it the same one I called the picnic meadow? A breeze rippled across the green and yellow spikes with their salmon featherettes, and once again I was captivated by the beauty of this primeval place. I scanned for those crow-sized wasps. I didn’t think I could handle an attack by them today, suit notwithstanding.

  I looked at my map and dropped to my knees. I would crawl there. I was wiped out and it hurt to stand.

  I gripped my multi-tool and gritted my teeth. I needed to reach the EEP.

  I fell in and out of consciousness. I was in the picnic meadow but running through the grasses. Then I was crawling again. Then I was climbing a mountain. Everything felt like a distant dream. The pain grew stronger. But according to the map, I was almost there. Such as it was, the EEP was my home now, and I longed to be within its safe confines.

  I felt rumbling through my hands and knees.

  No.

  Oh, please no, don’t let those huge reptiles be coming back here.

  I had to run to the EEP. I would not survive unless I did.

  I hitched up to my knees and tracked the area.

  “VELMA, locate th
e nearest lifeforms.”

  “A pack of large reptiles is approaching from the northwest.”

  Wonderful.

  I looked around but still couldn’t see them. Ahead I saw the shiny cone of my EEP. I had to run, even though my entire chest ached with every motion.

  I started running, and seven steps into my sprint I saw the beasts at my ten o’clock. They were massive. I was a dead woman unless I ran like hell.

  I pulled it out, sprinting faster than my pole-vaulting days, and soon I couldn’t hear my own gasping breaths over the roar of the galloping reptile feet and growls. I didn’t know if they could see or smell me, but I didn’t want to find out.

  I made it to the vehicle and slammed my palm on the reader. The opening shot up with a hiss and I dove in, screaming at VELMA to shut the door and go into camo mode.

  I curled into the fetal position when the reptiles hit the pod, and I felt it tip and roll. I bashed around inside, frantic to grab a handhold. It felt as if they were playing soccer with my EEP. Praying to God and any dead rocket scientists, I squeezed my eyes shut and whimpered throughout the ordeal.

  After what seemed like forever, the movement stopped. I was holding onto a long rail so hard my hands cramped. I opened my eyes and looked out the window. I saw dirt.

  There was no way in hell I was egressing this vehicle until ambassadors from Lucidity dragged me out. I would just sit here in the dark and live out my days.

  I anchored my helmet to its spot and crawled into my alcove. The EEP was set up for the passenger to sit in a semi-reclined position for its flight, but the seat could also adjust to standing. While the beasts had knocked the pod around, it was still functional. I strapped myself in and relaxed as much as I could, considering the pod was tipped. Again.