Attack of the Mutant Miners Read online

  Attack of the Mutant Miners

  Fight for Glitter & Glory

  Chad V. Holtkamp

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  The SPOOK & GOON Space Adventures Series

  Domination of the SPOOKS

  Invasion of the Frorees

  Escape of the Glitter Princess

  Attack of the Mutant Miners

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  For all creatures great and small…

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek - Unleash the Truth

  Did you like Attack of the Mutant Miners?

  Author Notes

  More fiction by Chad V. Holtkamp

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  1

  Polarus

  Jock grabbed a towel on his way into the ship. The sweltering heat of the island planet was enough to melt his face off. He dripped sweat and didn’t want to ruin the new leather seats of the TX with all the perspiration soaking through his clothes. He tossed one to Dom and Desire, too, certain that they were in the same boat. Surprisingly, Desire looked calm, cool, and collected.

  “How is it you’re not sweating from that heat?” Jock asked as he wiped himself down.

  “It’s one of the benefits of not being Human,” Desire said. “My body does a better job of regulating heat. I can withstand much more than you, so I guess I’m just lucky.”

  They stepped into the cockpit, ready to get off the planet and on their way back home. They’d only meant to take a quick trip to Polarus and back. With the extra detour with the Princess and the slave traders and then back and forth to Aesneia, they couldn’t wait to get home.

  Jock draped the towel over his seat and motioned for Dom and Desire to do the same. Technically, it wasn’t his ship, though, in his mind, it was. And they were going to keep it in nice shape.

  “JAXXY, send a message to Commander Weisman that we’re back on schedule and on our way home,” Jock said.

  “I’ve tried sending the Commander several messages,” JAXX replied, “but with all the solar activity lately, the messages currently aren’t going through.”

  “We just talked to him 30 minutes ago,” Jock said, puzzled. “Well, keep trying and set it on auto-send mode,” Jock said. “Just let me know when it goes through and he replies. While we’re out this far, I want to make sure he doesn’t have any other errands for us to do. I’d hate to get most of the way home and then have to turn around to pick up some sushi or something he can only get on the outer planets.”

  Dom chuckled at that last bit, though he was honestly thinking the same thing. All he wanted was to get back to Turks and Caicos, get in the calm water, and float away all the stress of the last few weeks. He enjoyed space but needed the connection with Earth and the water to recharge and rejuvenate. Plus, there were some stunning women on the last trip, though they’d probably be gone by now. “Oh, well,” he thought. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Desire shook her head, trying to be discreet about reading Dom’s thoughts, but she gave herself away with a chuckle of her own.

  “What’s so funny?” Dom asked, embarrassed that she caught his last thought.

  “Nothing, just boys will be boys,” she said. She couldn’t blame him. She had a great time on her trip to Akumal and understood the attraction he had for the tropics, the current island planet notwithstanding. A thought of going on a trip with Dom raced through her mind, which she quickly squashed. She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes preparing for takeoff.

  Jock eased up on the stick, and the TX lifted off, pulling up above the tree line. He took a quick glance down as the lab facility came into view. He saw a man, who he assumed was the scientist, racing around the area like a crazy person.

  Lydia tended to the crate in the back of her shuttle. But she quickly ran over to the man, waving and pointing frantically. Jock didn’t like the look of what was going on, but there was no way he was getting suckered into saving another damsel in distress, no matter how electric she was.

  The ship pulled away through the atmosphere and soon they were in the deep black of space. Jock set the boosters on high, trying to gain some time on the way back.

  Dom settled in with his comm reader and found where he’d left off earlier with the latest Hollywood gossip. One of the lead actresses of the new Venusian film, Angels Spurned was looking at property on Turks and Caicos. “Hmmm…he thought, wouldn’t that be a nice coincidence.”

  “God, I wish I would have taken a shower before lift-off,” Jock said and shuffled in his flight suit. “Man, that planet was hot.”

  “We should have taken a dip when we had the chance,” Dom said.

  “Agent Wagner, I don’t have a bathing suit with me,” Desire teased.

  “That’s ok,” Dom replied. “We’re all adults here.”

  “You kidding?” Jock said. “Probably filled with electric eels. Speaking of eels, I’ve never felt any kind of shock like that before. That was pretty weird.”

  “What’s a science hottie like that doing living with a bunch of creepy eels and frogs and snakes anyway?” Dom asked.

  Jock rolled his eyes. “Maybe she digs the work they’re doing.”

  “Maybe she has a thing for the scientist,” Dom said, trying to get a rise out of Jock.

  Jock rolled his eyes again. “I doubt it. She didn’t seem like the type to mix work and play.”

  “Well, well, well,” Dom said. “Someone has a little crush after all. That was fast.”

  Desire giggled. She liked the thought of Jock getting a second chance after the princess thing.

  “I didn’t say that,” Jock said, trying to change the subject. “Oh, and by the way, Dom, I forgot to mention an Adjuster showed up on Veibos looking for you.”

  “What! When? How!” Dom asked, starting to sweat again. “Did you blast him?”

  “No, that's the funny part,” Jock said. “He showed up right before we let the snakes and frogs loose and then I never saw him again.”

  “Wow, so our slimy buddies took him out?” Dom asked.

  “No, he wasn’t in the pile of dead things when we cleaned up,” Jock said. “Maybe he’s following us.”

  Now Dom was really sweating. “So what happened to him?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” Jock said. “But he said you owe him 50 million Earth dollars. Guess you lucked out. That could have been worse than getting stuck with your little flippery wart friend.”

  Dom was seriously uncomfortable. “Next time I get kidnapped, I’ll bring my checkbook, I guess.”

  Desire giggled. “It’s a Gwart.”

  “Wart, Gwart, potato, potatoe,” Jock said. Anyway, I hope our time as carg
o pilots is at an end. Maybe after this last drop, we’ll be out of the doghouse and never have to think about that again.”

  “We can only hope,” Desire said.

  Dom was trying to cool down but to no avail. He flipped through the comm chip but wasn’t able to find anything he hadn’t read. He put it down and vegged out while he tried to cool off. The sweat from his flight suit wasn’t drying, and he could smell the stink of his body underneath.

  “I need to take a shower before I make myself puke again,” Dom said. “We just got the stench of the last mission out of the ship, and I don’t want to add to it.”

  For a brief second, Desire thought about joining him. But that moment faded quickly. Dom tossed her his comm chip, unbuckled himself and walked to his quarters for a long, hot shower.

  Desire started flipping through it, not really reading, more just passing the time. She slowly drifted into a micronap, dreaming she was once again home, seeing her father, envisioning her mother long ago, feeling the love from her parents as she dozed off to sleep.

  Jock put his hand on her knee, gently shaking her awake. She looked uncomfortable with her head at an awkward angle.

  “Why don’t you head back to your cabin and get some real sleep?” he said. “It’ll be several hours before we’re back home so someone might as well get some rest.”

  She slipped out of the seat and headed to her cabin. She heard Dom’s shower turn off, but he didn’t come out of his quarters. She guessed he was just going to sleep, too.

  All alone in the cockpit, with only JAXX to keep him company, Jock enjoyed the silence of space, craving a night of sleep in his own bed.

  The passing sky grew darker and the stars streaked by as they made their way into outer space and beyond. Soon Jock would make the warp jump home and get back to his usual routine on the space station.

  JAXX sounded a siren across the ship to wake the crew. After the warp jump, Jock had put the TX on autopilot and fell asleep at the wheel.

  Dom sat straight up in his bed, cursing. Desire was already awake after several micronaps and thought it was peculiar. Jock immediately went on alert.

  Dom and Desire both raced to the cockpit to see what the commotion was about.

  JAXX chirped up with a message from Commander Weisman. The connection was bad due to the solar activity, but they could read the tension in his voice.

  “Where are you, Major?” Weisman asked.

  Jock rubbed his eyes and pulled up the coordinates. “Just on the other side of the Equus system,” Jock said. “We should be to the Constellation later tonight.”

  “What happened to the scientist?” Weisman asked.

  “What do you mean? We dropped off the creepy cargo to his assistant and went on our merry way,” Jock said. “We never actually met him. I may have seen him when we were taking off, but I’m not sure.”

  “Well, something happened then,” Weisman said. “We haven’t been able to reach him since you left.”

  “Maybe it’s just the solar activity?” Desire wondered. “Our connection with you is breaking up. Maybe that’s why you haven’t been able to contact him.”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Weisman said. “Are you sure everything was okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re all hunky dory up here,” Dom said. He looked over at Jock and shrugged, then turned to Desire. But then his eyes widened as he looked past her into the passageway to the back of the ship.

  “Except for the giant frogman playing hopscotch in the cargo bay on his way toward the cockpit,” Dom said, leaping to his feet.

  Desire screamed!

  Dom wasn’t being brave, but his instincts told him to get up and run toward the giant frogman. It was more of a reflex action than any sort of plan. He had no idea what he was going to do once he got to the creature.

  “Sorry, Commander,” Jock said. “We’re going to have to call you back.”

  He unbuckled from his seat and raced after Dom. “JAXXY, see if you can find any info on how to kill a giant frogman.”

  Desire gasped but quickly followed to see what she could do. By the time Jock and Desire got to the cargo bay, Dom and the creature were face to frog.

  “Damn, Dom,” Jock yelled. “I didn’t realize you were that short.”

  Seeing the creature up close was quite a sensory shock for Jock. There was nothing cute about a two-meter high slimy, warty, toady creature suddenly all up in his spaceship, preparing to do whatever it wanted to his crew.

  Dom punched it in the nose. He didn’t know what else to do, and instinct took over again. He punched it a second time. The creature stopped and stared back at him. It seemed just as confused as Dom as to its sudden larger presence. And the fact that it had been punched in the nose, not once but twice.

  Dom punched it a third time.

  The frogman took stock of the situation and looked down at his stubby armlegs. The flurry of punches had stunned him, but now its instincts kicked in or at least its newly developed mutant-grown instincts. He reached out with his stubby appendages and picked Dom up and flipped him into an upside-down bear hug.

  “Why am I the one who always gets into it with these freaky creatures?” he yelled.

  Jock and Desire inched closer, as the creature hopped back to the cargo hold where it had more room to move around. It started shaking Dom up and down, not sure what to do with its captured prey. The frogman lifted him over his shoulder to make hopping easier and flicked out a long tongue, which lapped Dom’s face.

  “Oh, my God!” Dom yelled, “he just slurped me!” He looked over at Jock and Desire. “A little help over here would be nice! Anytime now!”

  Jock moved around to the side of the creature where Dom was closest.

  “I can try to pry you loose from the frog’s armleg,” Jock said. He didn’t know what else to do, but it seemed like a good start.

  Jock lunged toward the creature, but it moved and flicked him back with his other armleg. Jock flew back against the wall, his back jammed into a light panel.

  “So much for that idea!” he said, stumbling to his feet.

  The frogman seemed to be learning about his new mobility, growing stronger by the second.

  Jock shook himself off and made another run at the frog creature, pummeling it with a headbutt to the abdomen. The creature faltered and dropped Dom, but quickly regained its sense of balance. It grabbed both of them, one in each arm, and hopped around the cargo bay.

  The two men looked at each other. “Well, at least we’re not in the cockpit where we can crash the ship!” Dom yelled.

  Desire raced past the hopping creature, ignoring the screams of her male companions. She needed to get back to her stateroom and figure something out. The ship rocked back and forth with the weight of the frogman and his two grown prey.

  “JAXXY,” Jock yelled, “any secret tricks or internal weapons you think we might not have noticed on the ship? Any kind of sprinkler system or laughing gas canisters you can deploy?”

  “I’m sorry, Major,” JAXX replied. “I’ve done a quick scan of the weapons system, and nothing was designed for internal use. You’ll just have to fight it off yourself.”

  “Thanks, JAXX,” Dom said. “That’s a really big help. Can you see if you can rouse sleeping beauty Desire in her stateroom? It looks like she went to take a nap while we’re fighting whatever the hell this thing is.”

  The frogman’s strength was growing by the minute. It seemed like he had the strength of ten men. He was slowly alternating between squeezing his prey in his arms and jumping up and down, with the slobbering goo from his tongue bathing Jock and Dom in smells they’d never dreamed.

  Desire ran back to the cargo bay with a laser blaster. The frogman seemed to be enjoying his exertion with Jock and Dom.

  “Um, are you going to blast this thing?” Dom yelled. “If so, do you want to make sure you’re close enough so that you don’t blast us?”

  “Well, that was the plan,” Desire screamed. “Do something to get it i
n position and duck your heads back,” she said.

  “Special Liaison Desire,” JAXX said, “I do want to warn you about firing a blaster of that size inside the ship. The chances of damage are 248 to 1. Please be careful.”

  Jock and Dom ducked and tried as they might to pry themselves loose from the frogman’s armlegs. Desire stepped closer and lined up the shot with the frogman’s bumpy belly. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

  “Bull’s-eye!” Dom yelled.

  Jock and Dom dropped to the floor as the frogman doubled over from the shot. Desire pulled the trigger again, shooting it in the head for the double-tap kill shot. That only made things worse for Jock and Dom as the brains and blood and guts from the frogman splurted out all over them. It wasn’t a pretty sight. And it smelled terrible!

  “Damn, there goes another flight suit!” Dom screamed.

  “So much for a clean ship, Desire,” Jock said. “I just finished getting the fish puke smell out of it.”

  Jock turned to Dom and threw some goo in his face. “Thanks for knocking open that cage on Polarus by the way.”

  “Hey, would you mind grabbing us a few of those towels from the cockpit?” Dom asked as Desire stepped forward to help him and Jock off the floor.

  She had to twist one of the frogman’s armlegs from around Jock’s waist as its reflexes hadn’t let loose yet. He was being squeezed around the stomach and could barely breathe. Dom didn’t have as much of a problem, what with trying to take a bite of the frogman’s armleg as a last-ditch effort to free himself.