The Bloodhounds of Zirth

On a remote penal world, an escaped inmate survives an opportunistic flight down rapids and prompts a hunt led by a warden and a visiting investigator. Alien Zirthan trackers use a mentape playback to imprint the fugitive's thought-pattern on telepathic bloodhounds called mertha, who can detect minds across great distances while their handlers communicate without facial expression. The narrative follows the pursuit amid worsening weather and examines themes of surveillance, cultural otherness, and how spontaneous human action challenges a tightly controlled system.