life or death?<\/h1>\n
<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n If the price is too high, you don\u2019t want it enough.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been telling myself, but if I\u2019m honest, I\u2019m afraid I miscalculated my ability to withstand pain. After stumbling across a secret so dangerous my enemies would break universal laws to keep it, I formed a plan that would ensure the safety and freedom of my loved ones. But now I\u2019m staring evil in the face, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll make it to the next suns\u2019 rise. When my savior arrived in the form of a hunky daydream, I thought I must have died. But now I\u2019m suffering a different kind of pain, the cost of which I\u2019m willing to pay \u2026 but does he feel the same? Maybe we aren't exactly fated mate material. But even if he does, can we both survive the chaos that threatens to destroy everything and everyone we love?<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> Additionally, I had to wonder what a government would resemble if Goddesses ruled the heavens, and so a matriarchal society governed by Elder and Younger Sister-Queens was the logical next step. I have to admit I loved imagining a reverence bordering on fear in the hulking hunter-warriors for all females, but especially these new human interlopers found traipsing across Certain Death.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, even with these otherworldly aspects, the Predator Planet series really touches on what it means to be alive, to be close to death, to love and be loved. I hope you fall in love with the Predator Planet and all its denizens as much as I have.<\/p>\n *Some links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from purchases, but it has no bearing on your costs.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div> Dozens of reviews of the Predator Planet books mention the worldbuilding. If you're the kind of reader who loves full immersion in an alien culture, you're going to love this series.<\/p>\n When I was crafting the book, I decided to use the exotic celestial bodies to form the basis of the alien culture. What would a race of beings believe about deity if there were two suns and two planets, and if many of the creatures on the planets formed sister-pair bonds?<\/p>\n It wasn't a leap to imagine that that race would form a religion and mythos revolving around Sister Goddesses, and that they would imbue deep meaning in the cycles they observed both in the stars and in the woods.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> \"Cece is an unstoppable force and Rax is an immovable object. If pitted against one another they go nowhere but when the two are allied.... Well, you get what's coming to you.<\/span><\/p>\n I will correct myself at this time. Ms. Holt has not built a world. It would be better to say she has built a universe.<\/span><\/p>\n I truly hope that she continues to expand the universe she has created and I look forward to seeing all of these characters and many more in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n IGMC is still out there.\"<\/span><\/p>\n Excerpt from a Reader's Review on Amazon.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> 5 Lightyears Away and Some Time Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCrystal,\u201d I said, standing up.<\/p>\n \u201cWonderful,\u201d Co-Director Hackney said with a glance at Co-Director Clemmins who wore a thin smile. Something about him gave me the creeps.<\/p>\n I was finished playing games with these low-lifes. It ended now.<\/p>\n \u201cChris, walk CeCe to the door, if you please,\u201d Kellan Hackney said and returned to his holographic console. \u201cI\u2019ll get this report in straight away and you can proceed as planned, Ms. Pain.\u201d<\/p>\n His back to me, he missed the blaze in my eyes at his intentional lapse of my doctoral title, but I said nothing. Worried my fury would take on a life of its own and jeopardize my plans, I kept my lips sealed and my movements stiff. I felt like the tiniest shift in the artificial gravity responders could upset my controlled equilibrium.<\/p>\n Chris Clemmins stood at the door and gave me a slight bow; I didn\u2019t miss his lingering gaze on my chest, and I didn\u2019t doubt he got an eyeful of my ass when I walked out, but his ogling registered at point zero don\u2019t care on my \u201cfuck it\u201d scale.<\/p>\n I counted three strides before I heard the door slide to a close; a fast peek confirmed it, and I broke into a sprint down the corridor to the bank of elevators. Slipping inside, I pulled the panel of controls and entered my macro program.<\/p>\n Hackney\u2019s bogus meeting went one hundred percent the way I\u2019d predicted it would, and I\u2019d planned for it accordingly. Macro entered; the elevators wouldn\u2019t stop at the Executive Suites for five standard hours. It should give me time to implement my plan plus a spare hour or two before they knew what I\u2019d done.<\/p>\n The car stopped at Communal Area 14, right near the women\u2019s bunkers, where I jumped out and fast-walked to the auxiliary control station. Popping my head in the room, I caught Jake\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, Elevator B is acting kind of weird,\u201d I said, and he shrugged. \u201cI mean, makes no difference to me, but it\u2019s not stopping at the executive suites. Do you think they\u2019ll mind?\u201d<\/p>\n Jake popped out of his chair so fast it spun, and he elbowed past me without so much as an \u2018excuse me\u2019.<\/p>\n Counting to five, I watched him disappear into Elevator B, then I spun into the control room and found the klaxon controls. Two presses of a button and a switch later, the Under Attack alarm blared, and I dashed out of the control room and raced down the corridor. I had exactly four minutes and forty-three seconds to get Joan in a pod, VELMA-X secured in the P-MIV, and myself strapped in that sardine can the engineers called an orbiter.<\/p>\n With silent footfalls as my toes barely touched the floor, I could hear my own breaths pounding in my lungs and throat. Focused solely on finding Joan, I startled when a tall, beautiful First Nations woman stepped in my path. I veered, but not enough, and we crashed shoulders.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry \u2018bout that!\u201d I shouted but was already turning the corner to the Communal Area. There! Joan, my dearest friend, stood like a sandpan caught in hoverlights. God love her, this widowed exobotanist needed a keeper. An unexpected sob stuck in my throat.<\/p>\n Not now, dammit. Work now. Emote later.<\/p>\n Skidding to a stop in front of Joan, I snapped my fingers in front of her pale face. \u201cJoan! Pod!\u201d<\/p>\n Confusion marred her perfect brow as her hooded dark eyes tracked the people around us hustling to their places while the klaxons sent vibrations from the floor through our footwear and into our chests.<\/p>\n \u201cSweetie,\u201d I uttered under my breath and grabbed her elbow. For a second, I remembered what she was like after David died. Aw hell, no. She better not do that to me again. I needed my girl more than she ever needed me. She just didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n Her pod lit up when I nudged her through its hatch, and I saw her snap out of her daze. Meeting her gaze, I waited a split-second for her nod.<\/p>\n \u201cGo. I\u2019ll meet you on the Other Side,\u201d I said and chucked her chin, then turned tail and raced back to the auxiliary ship docking bay.<\/p>\n If anyone noticed that I wasn\u2019t running toward the pods, they didn\u2019t say anything. The only people I was worried about noticing were stuck on the executive level while the elevators dinged and descended, stopping at every floor except theirs. With no other access to the suites but via elevator, one had to wonder: was it an engineering design flaw? Or executives reaping the consequences of another terrible idea? Guess I would never know.<\/p>\n Skidding in front of the P-MIV, I muscled the hatch open and climbed in, stepping carefully around the cubbies since the vehicle was \u201cparked\u201d on its side. Grabbing the lanyard from around my neck, I kissed the badge for luck and stuck it in the best place I could think of, inserting it in the main console.<\/p>\n Tapping the keys, I woke up PHRED and coded the same parameters the EEP X215s used, then added the macro that would allow me to control it remotely from the orbiter.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, boom,\u201d I said to myself and made an explosion motion with my hand and retraced my steps out the hatch, sealed it, doublechecking the controls, and then ghosted between the P-MIV and a mech drill until I got to the Single Contained Occupant Orbiters.<\/p>\n Checking my watch, I saw I had a minute thirty-nine seconds to spare.<\/p>\n \u201cHeck yeah,\u201d I murmured and climbed into the orbiter, pulling the cockpit shut with a final click and hiss. I\u2019d done a preflight check yesterday on a hunch, thank God.<\/p>\n Toggling the controls, the dash lit up like Christmas on Old Vegas, and I grinned.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeak to me, SCOOBE baby,\u201d I said. \u201cMama wants to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInitiating auxiliary bay egress, K-90 Miner 107,\u201d SCOOBE said. \u201cPrepare for launch and subsequent cryo-sleep protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGot it,\u201d I said and fastened the final latch of the harness. I keyed in my last macro, this one the program that would wake me up in time to control the P-MIV before it cycled into its planet insertion. I\u2019d already tethered the two vehicles wirelessly; PHRED and SCOOBE would remain in constant contact while we fled from the Lucidity<\/em> and the megalomaniacs that ran IGMC.<\/p>\n The orbiter\u2019s software, Single Contained Occupant Orbiter Bio Equerry, was programmed to keep me alive through the reaches of space until the P-MIV and I reached our destination. Ideally, it would be the exact same destination as the EEP X215s, but my algorithm allowed for tiny adjustments that could plop me on an orbit around a planet\u2019s moon or even an asteroid orbiting the same star.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>Sweet baby Jesus, let this work,\u201d I prayed aloud and pressed \u201cEnter\u201d.<\/p>\n Lights inside the orbiter dimmed, and I could see out the clear cockpit when the giant auxiliary vehicle bay doors opened. The field of stars lay open before my eyes, and tears pricked at their corners. Mama and Daddy said I was made for this: unexplored frontiers. And there it was\u2014immense, sparkling, vast\u2014measurable only in terms of numbers and theory. It waited for me.<\/p>\n The cockpit shut out all sound, but I could imagine the alarms and the zip-whoosh of the pods as the launchers jettisoned them.<\/p>\n SCOOBE began the countdown, and I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes as the cryo-mask slipped over my face and adhered around my nose and mouth.<\/p>\n Did I do the right thing? Every time I second-guessed myself, all I had to do was remember my Mama, helmet under her arm, down on one knee and peering into my eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll miss you too, baby,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll miss you every day, and I\u2019ll wonder if I did the right thing by leaving. To have a child is to forever be torn in two.\u201d She put her hand on my chest. \u201cMy heart will be here.\u201d<\/p>\n I had put my hand on her forehead. \u201cAnd your reason will be here.\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded and grabbed my hand and kissed it, tears running down her face.<\/p>\n \u201cGod above let my reason and heart be right,\u201d she said when she released my hand and pulled me into a fierce hug before standing and kissing Daddy goodbye.<\/p>\n Daddy rested a heavy hand on my head, and we watched her join her team on the temporary dais the Aux Space Agency, a subdivision of Space Global, set up for the pre-launch ceremony.<\/p>\n Mama\u2019s team was the first human envoy to meet the Qhudret in neutral space after they initiated first contact.<\/p>\n Every choice I made today was governed by my heart and my reason. But every choice had incalculable consequences that would spiral in an irretrievable domino effect that might be felt for eons. That sob I\u2019d swallowed earlier rose right back up, and I cried.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn, CeCe,\u201d I said to myself. \u201cYou really know how to party.\u201d<\/p>\n The orbiter launched into the field of stars, its FTL engine blurring them into streaks, but they would have blurred through my tears anyway.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Book 5 is the riveting and explosive conclusion to the epic Predator Planet series. Discover the creator of VELMA in all her humanity and follow CeCe as she tries to save everyone from the soulless IGMC, only to learn that her choices may have jeopardized an entire alien race.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>![\"The](\"https:\/\/lovevickyholt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Hidden-Gold-Type-Smaller-File.jpg\" "\\"Hidden")
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<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>About The Series<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>What\u2019s inside<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Reluctant Hero<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Slow Burn<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Powerful Woman of Color Heroine<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Women Supporting Women<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
They Save Each Other<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
All Questions Answered<\/span><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
<\/a>\u201cIf you find yourself in a seemingly desperate situation when all the odds are against you. Even if you are in the middle of the most hostile environment, do not give up. Believe in yourself and fight, fight for life.\u201d ~ Vladislav Rogozov<\/h3>\n
Chapters<\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Pages<\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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