Survival Factor by Charles V. De Vet
Charles V. De Vet’s “Survival Factor” follows surveyors Ivan Wallace and Gus Saxton as they flee an alien electronic bloodhound seven parsecs beyond the Rim. With only one desperate jump through spacebridge available, they land on a blue planet with a breathable atmosphere and conceal their ship while the bloodhound circles overhead, waiting to detect their departure. They have little food and no reliable way to escape. Their s-tracer shows that the bloodhound moves randomly around the planet; at times it may be far enough away for them to leave, but they cannot know whether its absence will last the three hours required to clear the atmosphere. Outside the ship, they meet Al-fin, a naked, filthy native who unexpectedly speaks a few Earthian words. He leads them to a small group of similarly impoverished people. Though apparently primitive, the natives possess an unnerving confidence and seem unconcerned by the dangerous catlike predators in the woods. Wallace and Saxton suspect that they descend from a long-lost human colony. They later discover an ancient, carefully maintained spaceship bearing a plaque from the Dukobors, who left Earth in spring 2676 seeking a place where they could worship their God as they believed proper. The surveyors try to understand how the natives have endured for nineteen hundred years without tools, weapons, or visible means of producing food. The natives offer them a woman as a mate and seem to promise meat, but cannot provide it. Wallace and Saxton observe the group’s treatment of a fat, scarred old man who seems important. When a huge cat approaches him, the natives calmly withdraw and prevent Wallace from using his gun. The beast leaps toward the old man, only to fall into a concealed pit containing the carcasses of earlier cats. The natives stone it to death. Their calm assurance suggests that they knew where the predator would appear and what it would do. Wallace and Saxton debate whether the colony has developed an extraordinary survival trait. Saxton considers heightened hearing or an effect produced by local food, while Wallace proposes that an inherited “sport,” or wild talent, has emerged and spread because it was essential to survival. Al-fin later races to the surveyors’ ship, gestures toward the sky and the bloodhound’s movement around the planet, and repeatedly motions for their vessel to depart. Wallace realizes that the bloodhound is directly across the planet and accepts Al-fin’s warning. The men launch immediately, escape through hyperspace, and reach the Ten Thousand Worlds safely. Only afterward do they unwrap Al-fin’s farewell gift: meat from the scarred old man’s arm. Saxton concludes that the natives are cannibals, though Wallace sees this as another possible necessity of survival. Wallace identifies their adaptation as intuition developed into a dependable awareness of the near future. The natives can foresee imminent events well enough to evade predators, prepare traps, and recognize the moment when the bloodhound’s position allows escape. Wallace fears that colonizing the planet will destroy this ability, while Saxton wonders whether the descendants of the savages may instead bring changes to civilization.
By Charles V. De Vet · First published 1969 · Genre: Science Fiction, Space Adventure, Survival Fiction · 7,683 words
First lines
_They were trapped on a viciously primitive planet, by an electronic bloodhound that was viciously unpredictable! _
The survey team was seven parsecs beyond the Rim when the bloodhound picked up their trail.
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Genres
- Science Fiction — The story is built around interstellar travel, hyperspace technology, alien conflict, automated pursuit machines, planetary surveying, and future human expansion.
- Space Adventure — Its plot follows two stranded surveyors fleeing an alien bloodhound, making desperate decisions on an unfamiliar world, and attempting a dangerous escape.
- Survival Fiction — The central conflict concerns survival under pursuit on a hostile planet with limited supplies, dangerous predators, and no certain means of rescue.
- Planetary Romance — The narrative centers on explorers encountering a primitive human-descended culture on an alien planet whose unusual environment has shaped its inhabitants.
Tags
science fiction · space opera · planetary adventure · far-future setting · interstellar exploration · human-alien conflict · alien surveillance machine · electronic bloodhound · hyperspace travel · stranded surveyors · primitive alien planet · lost human colony
What this Textopian page supports
Survival Factor is listed on Textopian as a novella by Charles V. De Vet, dated 1969 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novella
- Author: Charles V. De Vet
- Date: 1969 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Science Fiction, Space Adventure, Survival Fiction, Planetary Romance, Science Fiction Thriller
- Length: 7,683 words
- Structure: 1 section, 208 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Survival Factor by Charles V. De Vet
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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