Page 1 of Hooded

FERN

This was a terrible idea. All of it, not least my idiotic belief in myself that I could somehow make a go of it.

Now I’m trapped in this awful place, and the only weapons I have are a quasar multi tool and a pulsar pistol which are, as far as I can tell, useless against the great spider creatures which have filled the gladiator dome, a place not dissimilar to a Roman colosseum, only far vaster and with carpets.

I pull out my comm device again as I watch the mass of Bogarok swarming the arena below me. I’ve been trapped here for three nova-days. Fortunately I’ve been able to bypass the food replication to get power back into it, so I’ve been able to eat and drink, plus there is an attached bathroom to this hospitality pod, but, as comfortable as I’ve made myself, I’m not convinced I can avoid detection much longer.

My comm device is still dead. I can’t call my ship remotely or even one of the transport drones to get the hell off this planet.

But if I leave without my mark, I’m most likely dead anyway.

“What the hell made me think I could be a bounty hunter?” I mutter out loud.

A soft squeak comes from under my coat, and Beebie snuffles out, his coal-colored fur shining in the light and his beady eyesglittering as he searches for treats. I give him a stroke and he hums to himself. I’m not going to get an answer from the creature, but I appreciate the little vidra’s presence.

Movement outside of my pod high up in the dome’s stands catches my eye. This place cost me a fortune, or it would have done if I’d actually paid for it rather than hacking into their systems, and my assumption is the Bogarok went after those they could get at easily, so the open stands, rather than those of us within the pods.

It looks like that might be about to change as the things start to swarm up the walls, their long spindly legs moving expertly as they climb. Occasionally one stops, smashing open a pod in a search for something.

“Time to go.” I scoop Beebie up and put him into my pocket along with a couple of crusts, which should keep him happy for the time being.

I check the pulsar for the millionth time. I dislike the weapon. I dislike any weapons, which is a joke in itself given I worked for a security company back on Earth providing mercenaries and protection to whoever paid the highest price.

Shame I was the IT girl in a warehouse in Milton Keynes, thousands of miles from the action. The one in the chair. Behind the screen. Not stuck in a huge dome facing down her imminent death at the pincers of spiders the size of elephants.

“Nope!” The word explodes out of me. This is not how I’m going to die today. The Bogarok can do one.

I open the door to my pod a crack and peer into the passage outside before checking my comm for the specifications of the dome, something else my hacking discovered. Two pods down, on the opposite wall, is a conduit which should take me into the service passages.

And away from a spidery demise.

Behind me, a long leg tap-taps on the clear frontage to the pod. I repress a shriek of alarm and dart out of the door, making sure it closes firmly in my wake. I race down the passage, my auburn hair and long coat flowing behind me, to the conduit and use my multi tool to lever it open. There’s the sound of smashing, and I jump inside without a second glance.

Turns out, this tunnel goes one way, down.

I release a stream of whispered curses as I drop, doing my best to slow my descent against the slippery walls. It doesn’t work. I’m shooting downwards like a pea in a tube, and this absolutely cannot end well.

I feel like my life should be flashing before my eyes, except even death isn’t interested in my boring existence until I was abducted by aliens. Even afterwards, it’s not like I’ve set the galaxy on fire. Dumped on an icy moon, where there were no buff blue horned aliensat all, I found the particular skills I had could be useful and now I’m the universe’s worst bounty hunter.

Who is presently about to go splat somewhere in the bowls of this colosseum.

My descent slows naturally. In a stroke of luck which has been sorely missing from my life, the conduit has narrowed, and my coat is sticking to the walls enough I’m able to put out my hands and feet to bring myself to a halt against a small ledge which runs around the rim of the tube.

“Light on,” I whisper at the comm, and it produces a bright glow which I use to inspect my surroundings. Between my feet, I spot something which at least makes my heart hammer less.

With a quick jump, I’m off the ledge and dropping the last few feet until I hit the ground. My muscles burn at me with the jarring fall. But then I could have broken something…could my luck be about to change?

Ducking down, I use the light on my comm to inspect where I’ve fallen to.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” I murmur.

It looks like I’m in some sort of cave, which I wasn’t expecting at all. Above ground, the dome is one of the more recently built buildings in Tatatunga, rising over the dusty streets and rough built dwellings like a squatting metal toad. I wasn’t expecting it to have a cave system underneath.

I check my comm, but it’s glitching. Either the underground isn’t covered by the schematics or it’s struggling to maintain a signal. Either way, I’m on my own.

And, away in the dark, there is a long, low growl which reverberates until I think it’s inside my head.

I think I’m probably in even more trouble than before. Luck most definitely is not on my side.

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