Desert World Savages Part 3: Hunted: A SciFi Alien Serial Romance (3 page)

Tracy climbed to the highest point around here and found some hills nearby with dark shadows. There had better be shelter there or she was going to be cooked.

Tracy placed one foot in front of the other as she crossed the scorching sand. Each crunch of her boots felt like a small victory against the intractable waste around her. She was starting to feel light-headed from all the exertion.

As she approached the rocks in front of her, she felt the ground solidify underneath her feet and more details of the structure revealed themselves. She saw a great face of red stone, etched by winds and aged into bands of pink, red and reddish-brown. Nature carved a giant arch into the structure, which provided entrance into a canyon.

She stepped through the threshold and saw a crevasse surrounded by a ring of stone. The ring consisted of great slabs of red worn rock that tumbled over each other. It was quiet here and the wind was kept at bay by the rock walls. Stone folded on itself, creating small open areas of undulating sandstone where the sun beat down from overhead. As Tracy moved and her perspective shifted, she noticed tiny sparkles in the rock faces.

If she wasn't in such a dire situation, this could be a vacation for her.

At the furthest end, the walls buckled to form a dark fissure. Tracy made for this and hoped there would be enough room for her to squeeze through.

When Tracy stepped inside the breach she found it both wider and deeper than it had appeared from a distance. She could stand up, and the sun did not penetrate further than a couple feet.

Oxygen levels critical. Find an alternate source of oxygen.

Maybe it wasn't the exertion that was making her feel woozy. Dropping the parachute and putting her hands on the helmet, she felt for a clasp or a latch but she couldn't find a way to release it.

Great, she thought. I survived a high altitude jump just to die of asphyxiation on a planet with breathable air. At least, she hoped the air was breathable. It would have been pointless for Rev to send her here if there wasn't.

To disengage helmet, twist it to the left.

Tracy giggled at the absurd thought that her head was covered by what amounted to a twist-off top. With a hard tug, she turned the helmet slightly and pulled it up. A loud POP released her head from the bubble.

Her face was immediately assaulted by scorching heat and waves of hot air which wicked off her sweat in a second.

It was HOT, and she was in the shade! Tracy wanted to take off the jump suit right away, but reasoned that as long as it collected her body's water for her, it was better to keep it on.

It was time to explore her surroundings. Holding her helmet, she walked further into the cavern. In the darkness of the cavern, her helmet began glowing, illuminating her way. Surprised, Tracy held it up, and the helmet sent light into the shadows.

Expecting to see things like bats clinging to the walls, she was relieved to find the cavern bare and smooth with no signs of animal life. Still, she stayed alert. If she thought this cave looked like a safe place to stay in, wouldn't other creatures? If it WASN'T populated with native life, there must be a reason.

Tracy didn't know how the helmet light was powered, so she moved back closer to the mouth of her temporary home where there was some light from the entrance. She was getting hungry. Rev said something about supplies, and as she patted down the pockets of the jump suit, she felt reassuring bulges there. She quickly figured out how to open the pockets. A sharp tug opened the seals, and she withdrew the contents of each pocket separately.

One pocket revealed a cache of foil wrapped items. Other pockets held a long tube with a lens at the end and similar foil wrapped pouches with something that sloshed. When she touched the tube, the lens lit and scattered light throughout the cavern. Tracy was pleased. At least she had a flashlight.

She also found a long knife in a sheath. The knife was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was very thin and lightweight, but it was not made of metal. The sharp edge and the point made its function very clear.

These aliens were clever!

She picked up a pouch that appeared to be food. She squeezed it until it opened and drew out a long thin bar of semi-hard brownish and grainy gel. Yuck. The bar was separated into four sections. She broke off a section, wrapped the rest back up in the foil and let it close off. Tentatively she pressed her tongue against the bar.

The taste wasn't awful, but it wouldn't win any food awards. It had a sharp bite that reminded her of allspice, but there was little sweetness to it. As she chewed a mouthful, she compared it to drinking a spice tea without sugar. Tracy wasn't thrilled with the food on the alien planet, but she wasn't going to complain either. She took little nibbles of the bar, then drank some water from the suit.

The spice in the food bar made the recycled water taste better somehow, so at least she wasn't gagging from that.

She was more impressed with the survival gear than with the food and water. Once you understood how the equipment worked, and they seemed to have made that easy for anyone to figure out, it appeared to be constructed for ease of use. She had food, water, light, and a knife. She assumed from the suit's instructions that it would be easy to convert the parachute into a makeshift shelter if necessary.

All she needed to do now was wait to be found and rescued.

Tracy munched on her food bar slowly. She assumed that the food bar was designed to fill her up and provide essential vitamins as long as she drank enough water to go along with it. That was how diet bars worked on Earth, and she hoped that aliens capable of space flight would have the same nutritional advances that existed back home.

She thought about what she could do next.

Tracy could wait until Rev found her, though she couldn't imagine how that would help in the long run. They'd still be stranded in a desert with no way off this rock.

She could try to find the miner's camp, though she had no clue as to where that might be.

She finished the last bit of her bar and took another swig of water. Maybe she was getting used to the taste, but it didn't seem so bad now. With a sigh, she picked up the helmet again and put it over her head. If she kept it over her head, but not sealed tightly, she could still breathe and not lose as much water through respiration.

When she tilted her helmeted head against the rock, the sunlight struck it at an angle. Tracy then noticed slight tracings in the face of the helmet, like an electronic schematic. She got excited. Maybe the helmet could do more than just talk to her.

Tracy hoped the helmet was activated verbally. "Show me the terrain," she said.

There was no response. Great. Maybe her command was too complicated.

"Map."

Instantly a three dimensional picture fanned out across the face of the helmet. It displayed hills and valleys for a wide area. It was impossible for her to tell exactly how big the area was without a reference for the scale of the map. A little pinpoint of red light glowed in the center which Tracy took as a "you are here" indicator.

Map is incomplete. Additional sensor data required for an accurate rending of the planet's surface.

Maybe it was incomplete, but it was still a lot better than nothing. Unfortunately, this information did not tell Tracy what she needed to know. She tried again.

"Miner's camp."

Searching.

Well, at least there was a response this time.

After a few minutes, a second red star blinked on the screen above her own point of light.

Possible location of humanoid habitation. Ninety-five percent probability location was populated at one time. Seventy-five percent probability it is currently inhabited.

Heck, she'd take those odds. In the Girl Scouts, she learned that it was best to go towards civilization, whatever the direction. She looked out the entrance to her cave to see heat dancing in waves on the sand.

When the sun goes down, she thought. I'll head out when the sun goes down.

REV

As the truck traveled northeast on the sand flat, red dust spewed up from under the tires. They were moving toward an outcropping of rock. The Staukub women clustered around Rev, Bris, and Grenta, each stroking the men where they could. Rev tried to urge the women on him to sit down, but they would have none of it. They were all too horny from the transformation, and their hands were all over the men closest to them.

Grenta and Bris were obviously enjoying the attention as the women grew bolder in their touches. Telli stroked the bulge in Grenta's pants with enthusiasm as another woman touched Bris in the same area.

Rev looked away and noticed that only Grubba separated herself from the women with a confused expression on her face.

The truck pulled smoothly to a stop. The miners got out of the truck, walked to the back and lowered the tailgate.

"Bring the females," said Quam.

The women couldn't keep their eyes off the male who was speaking. "Nice quills," one said.

Quam turned and gave a crooked, lipless smile. "Come with us," said Quam. "Lots of men with nice quills here. We are waiting for you."

"Oooh," the women said together.

"Yes," said another preparing to jump to the ground. "Let's go with him."

"Ladies, ladies, we'll take you there," said Grenta. Bris jumped from the truck, followed by Grenta and Rev. They helped the women get off the vehicle. After Rev had lifted Grubba onto the ground, she looked around, then turned to Rev.

"My friend isn't here. Where is my friend?" she said plaintively.

Grenta, hearing this, moved next to Grubba. "Your friend is with the miners. Go with the others, and they'll take you to her."

She nodded her head.

"What's wrong with her, Grenta?" said Rev. "She's not acting like the others."

"The others were in stasis longer. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Rev wasn't reassured, but he followed the others to a fissure in the rock. Stone walls rose around him to form a narrow corridor that only accommodated one person at a time. They were forced to traverse the length of the hall single file until they arrived at a large cave. The cave was round and had a curved ceiling that opened up in the center to the sky. In the center of the cavern was a depression in the floor filled with sand. A fire burned in the center, and the rest of the mining crew, about twenty men, stood waiting in the pit.

When they saw the women, they let out a lusty cheer. The men rushed forward, and soon they were milling around the women, touching them on different parts of their bodies.

One of the miners brought three metal mugs to Bris, Grenta, and Rev, smiling. "Drink. Drink. Good liquor. We make it ourselves."

Rev sniffed it and decided to pass, though Bris downed his and Grenta tasted his gingerly.

"Grenta," said Rev. "Shouldn't we get our money and go?"

"No, no. You should see this. This is how the Staukub choose their mates."

Rev had no interest in how the Staukub chose their mates, though by the gleam in Grenta's eye, and by how he was leaning forward, Grenta was very interested. Rev, however, was growing more anxious by the second. Something seemed seriously off here. The miners should have paid the money by now.

Then again, he'd never gotten this close to wiver's operation, so what did he know?

Grenta stared out at the pit. The miners were shepherding the women around the campfire. The male Staukub, their quills now nearly at full mast, formed a ring around the women. Everyone was standing up. Music started from a group of four miners. There were two with stringed instruments, one drummer, and one with a long rectangular pipe that sounded like a flute but had a deeper pitch.

The music started slowly. The females stood and started dancing in rhythm, moving counterclockwise around the fire. As the music increased in tempo and intensity, the Staukub women moved faster and more suggestively.

The men hooted and cheered, and some of them held out their hands. Rev noticed that the males only did this when the woman a miner was interested in came close. When the woman passed by, they dropped their arms until she came near again. The music rose into a fever pitch. Some of the men became more aggressive in reaching for the women, making sounds of frustration if their interest wasn't returned.

Rev noticed Quam watching Grubba very closely each time she passed by him. His face screwed up in frustration when she would not pay attention to him. Finally he reached out to her, and as he put his arms around her waist, he swung her out of the line of dancing women. This set off a round of similar activity among the other miners. They immediately ran their hands over the bodies of the Staukub, tearing off their clothes with hard yanks to expose their breasts. Groans rose up from the excited women, and their quills rose as the miners played with their breasts.

Next to Rev, Grenta was lost in concentration. His hand strayed between his legs, stroking himself.

Bris was nowhere to be seen.

The women helped the men strip their clothes off and couples rubbed their bodies against each other as the music played. The males' erections were on display for everyone, bobbing cocks of different hues of blue. With this new show of male virility, some women pushed their men away to rub themselves against a different partner.

Some women fell to their knees, eager to take the blue pricks into their mouths. Their yellow eyes gleamed in the gloom of the cavern. People weren't happy when they were displaced, and there were brief scuffles here and there. The men were quick to grab any female left standing alone, sometimes even taking a second female to join with the first.

Moans rang against the rock walls of the hall as the couples sank to the sandy floor, the males sinking their cocks into the females, fucking them in earnest. Screams, sighs, and groans filled the air.

Even as the hall rang with sounds of fucking, this did not stop the partner swapping. When the males were done, they'd rise and move to another woman. It didn't matter if she was alone or still in the middle of coupling. If she was alone, the man would be accepted enthusiastically, but if not, the male would push the other away and take his place. This didn't bother the males, who were more than happy to move on to someone else.