Robert Sheckley’s "Blood Harvest" Summary

Published in 1993, this science fiction action thriller is the fourth installment in the multi-author Aliens series, which also includes Steve Perry’s Earth Hive and Nightmare Asylum. The plot centers on a terminally ill scientist’s dangerous expedition to an abandoned planet to harvest biological material from alien monsters.

Conspiracy at the Gramercy Mansion

Stan Makovsky lost his fortune. A state court confiscated his spaceship, the Dolomite, for failure to pay debts to the Bio-Pharm corporation. Dr. Johnston diagnosed the researcher with advanced cancer and prescribed an illegal drug to alleviate his suffering: "It’s royal jelly. Have you heard of it?" The substance was produced by the wombs of alien monsters and temporarily dulled the excruciating pain.

That evening, Julia Lish knocked on the door of the old house on Gramercy. The brazen guest identified herself as a professional thief and proposed a gamble to Makovsky. She knew the approximate coordinates of an abandoned transport carrying a cargo of uterine secretion on the planet AP-32. The researcher showed his companion Norbert, a mechanical monster he had created with the habits of a predator. The ruined scientist agreed to a deadly gamble for the chance to prolong his fading life with pure uterine secretion, capable of suppressing a deadly tumor and relieving the body of unbearable physical suffering. Stan made his choice.

Expedition preparation and recruitment

Julia needed money. She won a large sum of money at a card game at an underground club on Delancey, after which she robbed oil magnate Khalil at the Plaza Hotel. She single-handedly overpowered Stuff’s bodyguard and stole a bag of jewelry.

Meanwhile, Makovsky traveled to the Jersey City slums to find Captain Thomas Hoban. The disgraced pilot, languishing in poverty after the asteroid accident, agreed to lead the crew again. At the Goose Lake Correctional Facility, the officer selected a crew of twenty prisoners: "The Alpha list included prisoners with space experience, prepared for dangerous journeys." Among the selected volunteers was the ruthless fighter Red Badger, who had beaten his opponent to within an inch of his life in a prison shower.

The conspirators infiltrated geostationary orbit as part of a tour group. The ship’s first officer, the android Gill, remained loyal to his former commander and handed over control to the fugitives. The ship launched toward its target.

Orbital mutiny

During the two-week flight, the crew slept in the capsules. Julia trained Norbert in the hold, testing the speed of his electronic reactions. A brown dog named Mac was on board.

After emerging from hypersleep, Stan announced the expedition’s objective. Two sailors, armed with a knife and a crowbar, attacked the mechanical monster. The cyborg tore the attackers to pieces.

The Dolomite reached a class O star system. Radar detected the wreckage of the Valparaiso Queen in orbit. Red Badger and Walter Glint performed a spacewalk and opened the black box of the lost ship. An audio recording confirmed the destruction of the transport by Captain Potter of the patrol vessel Lancet: "The torpedo will repay the insults."

Having learned of the pirates, Badger provoked a shootout in the control room. Five rebels commandeered a rescue shuttle and headed for the planet.

Landing on a sandy planet

Stan, Julia, and Gill landed in the midst of a fierce sandstorm. A gigantic anthill, a thousand meters tall, towered before the explorers. Finding themselves on an inhospitable desert planet in the very epicenter of a raging sandstorm, the explorers decided to penetrate the colossal, multi-kilometer-long nest and steal the purified uterine elixir directly from the alien monsters’ reproductive chambers. Robot Norbert, accompanied by his dog, set out to investigate. The cyborg reached the procurement shuttle, destroyed the Bio-Pharma workers, and damaged the emitter: "The limiter is kaput, and the beetles have awakened."

Five volunteers were lost in the fog. Their guidance devices malfunctioned. Monsters crawling out of the crevices tore Stason, Eka Nu, and Larimer to pieces. Farmer Morrison shot himself with a rifle.

Meanwhile, Stan put a collar with a camouflage wave generator on Mac and ordered him to give the dog to the monsters to plot a route to the mother.

Descent into the lair of monsters

Stan, Julia, and the android abandoned the lifeboat with their handguns. The cloaking devices were losing power. Deep in the cave, the professor lost his balance and fell to the bottom of a cesspool of bones.

The heavily injured Norbert escaped the ambush and rescued his master. The iron warrior retrieved the most valuable loot from the hull: "Royal Jelly from the Fertile Chamber of the Uterus." The cyborg remained to hold off the creatures and perished under a pile of bodies.

On the surface, Badger’s squad encountered the local beaked creatures. The bandit’s companions perished in a brutal battle. Captain Potter picked up the sole surviving Badger aboard the Lancet.

Junction at the procurement shuttle

The scientists made their way to the procurement boat, which held hundreds of canisters of valuable raw materials. Acid splashes burned Julia’s face and neck. Gill lost his left arm in the doorway.

Makovsky altered the android’s command modules and sent it aboard the hovering Lancet. The captain’s assistant entered the enemy’s control room, tore off his own fingers, and blew up the reactor, declaring, "In a rich man’s house, there was nowhere to spit except the owner’s face." Potter’s ship lost power.

Stan and Julia took their last doses of the narcotic jelly. Before certain death at the claws of the monsters pouring through the shattered hull, the terminally ill explorer swallowed the last ampoule of the precious elixir and greeted the birth of the fetus in his own chest with a deafening cry of triumph. The monsters breached the bulkhead. A parasite developed in Makovsky’s chest.

The Dolomite arrived in time, destroyed the two remaining monsters, and evacuated the wounded Julia. The court on Earth fully acquitted the captain.