Hyperia Jones and the Olive Branch Caper (Hyperia Jones, Book 1) by David M. Kelly

 

Release date: October 22, 2020

Subgenre: Humorous Science Fiction

 

About Hyperia Jones and the Olive Branch Caper:

 

The Hype is real!

 
Hyperia Jones is at the top of her game, and she knows it. By day, a glamorous pro-rasseler who dominates the TwistCube world of FIRE--the Federation of Interstellar Rassling Entertainment. By night, the daring, resourceful, and entirely unscrupulous Tekuani, master thief.

But when the law catches up with her unexpectedly, she's forced to accept a dangerous mission working for the very people who’ve been trying to catch her for years, and steal evidence against a powerful drug smuggling operation that reaches deep into the elite levels of Seventeen Realms society.

Now it’s a battle on all fronts. Hyperia must put everything on the line and decide what means the most to her: the lives of her fellow rasslers or her freedom.

 

Excerpt:

 

One

I slammed into the glowing, blue virtuwall of the TwistCube ring, the impact hard enough to make me gasp. Despite that, I rolled with the blow, taking advantage of the shift in gravity to propel myself back to my feet and across to the left wall. I slapped the orange tag patch in the middle of the field forming the wall. I'd already tagged two, so only another three to go, but nobody wants to win by commandeer—the punters don't like it.

"That was an incredible Full Body Avalanche!" yelled lead commentator Donk "The Donkey" Vansteenb, the announce system managing to temporarily overpower the screaming crowds that filled the arena.

"Have to agree, Donk." Rutzali Strogonar, the second announcer, was an old-school rassler who'd come up the hard way as he was fond of telling everyone. He and Donk made up the FIRE—Federation of Interstellar Rassling Entertainment—lead announce team. "These two ladies have a long and bitter rivalry that's been reaching fever pitch on the run up to PowerFall—and that's only a couple of months away now."

"And you know neither of these two are gonna back down." Christine "Crazy" Conner sat at the end of the announcers' table, with Rutzali between her and Donk. "They're fighting for the number one challenger slot in the All-Realms Women's Title. A winner-takes-all match against Courtney Bonor at RassleFrenzy Twenty-Three in three standard months."

"That may be so." Donk deliberately didn't acknowledge his ex-wife. "But tonight it's all about this fight right here, right now!"

Glacia, my opponent, recovered her footing, and I crouched in readiness. I pushed off the virtuwall, using my leg muscles to drive directly at her. As I reached the gravity null point at the center of the TwistCube, I pulled into a tight ball, using the lack of inertia to perform a dramatic spin, and hit Glacia in the midriff, smashing her into a corner.

"Oh my god!" screamed Donk, slamming his meaty fist into the announcers' table. "A Pulsar! Hyperia just hit Glacia with a massive Spinning Pulsar! I felt the impact all the way back here. This could be it, folks. It may be all over. I don't think there's any way Glacia can recover from that. Let's see it again in flashback."

I drew a breath, knowing the broadcast channels would run the slo-mo replay of the last bit of action. This was the time to land the final blow and end the match with my signature move.

The lights next to the announce table switched to green, telling me the flashback was over. Glacia was slumped between the two opposed gravity fields, her face distorted with agony, emphasizing the icy blue cracks painted on her face. I bent my knees and drew my head tentacles back so as not to damage them and tensed the spine on top of my skull to push it up from my skull. She weighed over twenty kilos more than me, not that it mattered—this was all part of the script.

"This is it! The Venomous Spine, ladies and gentlemen. Hyperia is about to unleash the deadly, career-ending Venomous Spine!"

 

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About David M. Kelly:

David M. Kelly writes intelligent, action-packed science fiction. He is the author of the Joe Ballen sci-fi thriller series and the short story collection Dead Reckoning And Other Stories. He has been published in Canadian SF magazine Neo-opsis.

David’s interest in science and technology began early. At the age of six his parents allowed him to stay up late into the night to watch the television broadcast of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the surface of the moon. From that day he was hooked on everything related to science and space.

An avid reader, he worked his way through the contents of the mobile library that visited his street, progressing through YA titles (or ‘juveniles’ as they were known back then) on to the classics of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Harry Harrison.

David worked for many years in project management and software development. Along the way his interests have included IPSC combat (target) pistol shooting, crew chief on a drag racing team, and several years as bass player/vocalist in a heavy rock band. He also managed to fit in some real work in manual jobs from digging ditches and work on production lines to loading trucks in a haulage company.

Originally from the wild and woolly region of Yorkshire, England, David emigrated to Canada in 2005 and settled in Northern Ontario with his patient and supportive wife, Hilary. Foot surgery in 2014 temporarily curtailed many of his favourite activities – hiking, camping, piloting his own personal starfighter (otherwise known as a Corvette ZR-1). But on the plus side, it meant a transition from the world of IT into life as a full-time writer—an opportunity he grasped enthusiastically.

David is passionate about science, especially astronomy and physics, and is a rabid science news follower. Never short of an opinion, David writes about science and technology on his blog davidmkelly.net. He has supported various charity projects such as the Smithsonian’s Reboot The Suit and the Lowell Observatory Pluto Telescope Restoration. He also contributes to citizen science projects such as SETI@home.

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