Dreadnought Ocelot by Heppner Vaughn

Author:Heppner, Vaughn [Heppner, Vaughn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B084G19JZL
Goodreads: 50999444
Published: 2020-02-02T08:00:00+00:00

-28-

I reached the footpath and began to hoof it hard, soon panting. I tried not to dwell on the situation. By that I mean, I would not allow myself to realize I was on an alien world. There could be dinosaurs here. By the elephant gun the ape captain carried, I was pretty certain Nerelon Brontios believed dinosaurs lived on this planet.

As should be obvious, I dwelled on the fact far too much. It was sapping my morale and making me hungrier.

“I need something to eat,” I panted.

“I know,” Rax said. “I am monitoring you. There is a stream ahead, but it will be dangerous.”

“Predators?”

“Exactly. In fact, I believe one of the smaller dinosaurs has already detected your scent. It has begun to hunt for you.”

“How small is smaller?” I asked.

“Three meters tall.”

I did some mental calculations. “Nine feet?”

“A little more than that. One meter is more than three feet.”

“Is it a raptor?” I asked.

“No. It is something worse.”

“I want to go home. I want to sleep this off for a month. I hate this place.”

“We are in a dangerous spot,” Rax said. “But we have been in dangerous spots before.”

“Not with brilliant dinosaurs hunting me in a Jurassic jungle. Can’t you do something?”

“What would you suggest?”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Okay. We have to kill this thing.”

“Agreed. I expect it is not familiar with laser rifles or your Polarion facsimile.”

“No. Do you have an ambush site in mind?”

Rax gave me one, and I won’t waste time giving a blow-by-blow account of what happened next. I ambushed the murderous dinosaur, killing it with a beaming shot to an ugly head full of teeth. It kicked its great big hind legs longer than I wanted. I had to wait, which I couldn’t afford. But I was hungrier than ever. I couldn’t go much longer without food.

Some of you must be wondering how I could eat alien protein. The quick answer was that I couldn’t. That should answer the next question. It wasn’t alien protein, but reptilian meat like a rattlesnake or a monitor lizard. Naturally, the third and most interesting question was how Earth-type protein was on an alien planet possibly hundreds of light-years from our world. The portals were the answer.

In any case, I burned off a chunk of meat, letting the heat from the Polarion ray char my food. I lacked a knife and time to build a fire. I ate the hunk of dinosaur meat on the run, devouring the half-raw flesh and deriving immense satisfaction from it. Fortunately, my Polarion garb did not soak up the drips of grease and blood.

I halted at the stream and drank on my hands and knees like a dog, slurping up great gulping swallows. I drank as much as my stomach could hold. For some reason, the other predators had fled at my approach.

I felt drowsy soon thereafter and only walked for a time. My altered metabolism began to kick into gear, using the substance I’d given it to help repair tissue damage.

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