The Beast of Tsunam (Rev Smalley: Galactic P.I. Book 1)

by Combs, Scott A.

  “That’s a shame. We could’ve used more of you on our last encounter with Tuloff and his boys. That day we lost over fifty individuals.”

  “How long has he been hunting you down like animals?”

  “We have been actively rallying against the government for some five thousand years. Many have given up hope that we will ever be a part of normal society. So our numbers have dropped. I know there are millions of us within the populace who are secretly hiding their differences. That’s why it is so important my plans to reform the government be addressed. Once the fear that people like Tuloff won’t exterminate offenders who just want to love, or are overweight or suffering any other abnormality, then those millions will come forward and unite.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” said Rev. “But just how do you expect to get them to listen?”

  “We need to get our story out to the Alliance, build sympathy around our struggle to survive. When other systems realize we’re not a dangerous faction then we can reform the government to allow our kind among the normal.’”

  “What’s different now compared to the five thousand years you’ve tried to gain equality?” asked Rev.

  “Interesting you asked. I’ve been keeping statistics on the ratio of Deviants and have found that our species is reverting back to its original genetic markers. In less than a few hundred generations, the Deviants will outweigh the regular populace, upsetting the balance. When this occurs, either our kind finds a way to accept the changes or there’ll be a civil war so large that the species could be in danger of extinction.”

  “I thought there were parts-a-plenty to repopulate the losses?” said Rev.

  “There are, but they too seem subject to the same genetic reversal. Don’t you see? We are becoming diverse cell by cell. It is nature’s way of balancing itself.”

  “Amazing how science can’t solve the big problems,” said Rev.

  “How true. Scientists can only manipulate nature, not create. Those of us who’re different realized long ago how special each person is. How precious life can be. When a government steps in and demands control, it’s doomed to fail in the long run.”

  Taki went about packing some more parts. “I wish I had more like you to protect my people. They’re so scared I’m afraid that their voices will be silenced before anyone hears their cries for help.”

  “You got me now, so let’s get this ball to its home,” said Rev starting off to the beach where he knew the transmat elevators were. Rev picked up another box of parts on the edge of the garden and Flint even hooked a box as they lugged the cargo along the trail.

  “You coming Taki? I don’t know who to give this stuff to.”

  “On my way,” said Taki picking up the largest box he could lift and falling in behind the tall human.

  The wind kicked up and the fronds of the palm trees whipped back and forth violently. To Rev it looked like a black curtain suddenly materialized on the crest of the hill they just left. When Taki turned to look he dropped the box he was carrying and rushed towards the beach.

  “Run!” he shouted. “They’ve found us. Run for your lives!”

  * * *

  CHAOS ERUPTED AS INDIVIDUALS fled from the house and into the foliage with heavily armed assault troops in pursuit. Rev scowled and ran down the path after Taki carrying the graviton sphere still tucked under his arm. Weapon fire was lasing the air like angry hornets after their nest was torn open. Palm fronds burst into flames from the stray shots and the air was filled with blazing cinders.

  Rev raced down the pathway with Flint close behind when a blast from an assault vehicle tore into a dead tree trunk. Clumps of earth and rotten wood went up in a plume of fire with enough force from the concussion to lift Rev from his feet and toss him down the trail. He tucked and rolled, then realized he was tumbling and came back up on his feet still running.

  “Damn,” he shouted with a horrendous ringing in his ears as he checked his back for a wound. He was lucky this time with only a few rips in his leather jacket. “Someone owes me,” he said sticking his index finger through one of the holes. “This is my best jacket.”

  “Are you all right?” said Flint whizzing around him and surveying the damage.

  “Yeah, but my jacket is trashed.”

  Another eruption off to his left got his attention as he viewed the armored ground vehicle barreling onto the path.

  “Time to go,” he said and took off at full speed over the remains of the rotten tree trunk.

  A ground trooper jumped into the path in front of Rev and brought his weapon up to fire. Rev shifted the graviton sphere to his left arm, and like a football player, he raised his right arm straight in front and caught the trooper just under his chin. Rev felt the body stiffen; the head jolted back with the sound of the man’s neck snapping like a dry twig.

  “One down,” said Rev.

  Flint dodged a laser blast. “I estimate that leaves two hundred and forty-nine to go.”

  “You got to start somewhere,” huffed Rev racing down the path and jumping over a rivulet.

  The troopers were amassing together in rows for the big assault, forcing the fugitives towards the shore. The steady fighting pushed the Deviants down to the open beach. Rev slid to a stop in the sand, noticing the lounge chairs were still there just as he’d left them a short time ago. Taki was directing his people into the elevators as fast as he could but they were panicked, pushing and shoving to gain access.

  “Stay calm,” Taki ordered. “Get as many in as possible. We’ll meet later.”

  Rev ran up to Taki still holding the graviton sphere. “Time for you to go,” said Rev as he grabbed Taki by the scruff of his collar and dragged him to an open transmat elevator.

  “No,” screamed Taki. “Not until I get everyone out of here safe.”

  “That’s just not going to happen,” said Rev undeterred from his efforts.

  “Willa’s still up at the house,” shouted Taki.

  “I’ll take care of her,” said Rev. “I just need to know where to send her when I do.”

  Taki gave Rev and Flint the coordinates hastily.

  “You got that Flint?” asked Rev.

  “Yes,” said the little automaton. “They’re coming through to the beach.”

  And sure enough, Rev saw troopers marching onto the beach with more fugitives running in panic before them. They shoved the individuals to their knees brutally with many trying to surrender but receiving a single shot to the head for their pleas of mercy.

  “Stop,” screamed Taki trying to tear free from Rev.

  “Time’s up,” said Rev and he tossed Taki into the elevator and turned to defend the helpless Deviants.

  “The graviton sphere,” yelled Taki back at Rev.

  Rev turned and bowled the sphere into the elevator. A perfect strike as Taki took the impact of the heavy ball between his splayed legs. The door closed and Taki was safe.

  Rev pulled his P2200 Maximizer and flipped the safety off. He took one deep breath and exhaled. Now he was ready.

  “I never asked you Flint, if you have a defense system?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you have any strong feelings about using it right now?”

  “I’m having a little trouble with responsibility,” said Flint.

  “Open your command circuits and I’ll override the protocols.”

  “I’m ready,” said Flint.

  “Then record that I take full responsibility for your actions and that you are under orders to protect all civilians whom you believe to be in danger of bodily injury and I authorize you to use deadly force in your duties to protect those civilians. End recording.”

  A beep of acknowledgment and Flint protruded a small barrel which Rev took to be his defensive weapon system.

  “Now let’s stop these pricks,” growled Rev.

  He aimed at the first trooper he saw holding his weapon to the temple of a defenseless woman and pulled the trigger. The trooper’s head disappeared in a flash o
f blood and light. Rev didn’t stop with the first or even the thirtieth. He was fast and accurate with the P2200 Maximizer. The big weapon produced an astounding amount of damage and the remaining troopers soon feared the large human as he dealt death with each shot.

  One trooper crouched behind a large palm tree trunk and made a feeble attempt to fire at Flint as he floated over to protect a wounded Nordic male. Rev saw it, and sighted the base of the trunk, pushed a small button next to the trigger and then fired. The pulse hit the trunk and exploded the whole base of the tree taking the trooper apart like a balloon bursting.

  The ground troopers retreated and ran up the hills through the jungle.

  “All right, everyone who’s still alive move to the elevators,” shouted Rev. Everyone stood frozen in shock. “Hurry!” he roared grabbing the closest Deviant and bringing him to his feet. Everyone scrambled towards the transmat elevators. Within moments not a living soul remained on the beach except Rev, not counting Flint.

  “We have to rescue Willa,” said Flint.

  “If she’s alive little buddy. I swear it.”

  Chapter 18

  REV MOVED through the foliage silently⁠—⁠which was quite a feat for a man of his size. Flint actually made more noise as the hum of gyros kept him level. Rev pulled the little automaton down behind a boulder.

  “Stay lower and behind me,” whispered Rev. Flint bobble-nodded and ducked lower when a sentry strolled by on his rounds along the perimeter of the house. After the guard left, both of them peeked over the stone and viewed the section of veranda leading to the kitchen. They had made it back to the exact little garden where Rev conducted the surgery to remove Flint’s responder chip.

  “I’m hoping Willa is hiding inside somewhere,” said Rev. “If not, we’ll have to search through the bodies to make sure she didn’t make it.”

  “We can’t effectively search the dead with Tuloff’s men everywhere,” hissed Flint. “She better be alive.”

  “I hope so,” nodded Rev.

  They waited for the sentry to pass through the garden. As he was leaving, Rev moved behind him, clamping a hand over the soldier’s mouth then wrapping the other hand around the base of the skull. With one fluid motion the sentry’s neck snapped and the body went limp. Rev seized the corpse by the scruff of the neck, lifting the body completely off the ground, then tucking it neatly behind their boulder.

  With one finger to his lips indicating to Flint to be quiet, Rev made his way to an open door on the veranda. They both slid in and found they were alone in the midst of a very messy kitchen. Apparently, when the alarm was sounded the cooks dropped everything and ran. So there was a big soup pot boiling over on the stove and cupboards open with their contents thrown about on the counters and the floor. Someone had dropped a bottle of milk on the floor and big shards of glass and milk were splattered all over the walkway between the chopping island and the refrigerator. Rev was careful not to step on the glass as he made his way to the living quarters.

  A guard opened the bathroom door zipping his fly and met Rev in the hallway. Rev pushed the flat of his right palm into the soft tissue of the man’s nose so hard that the nose broke and set the bone shooting straight into his brain. He died making a soft moan and slid to the floor gushing blood from torn and broken nostrils. With one bulging arm, Rev slid the soldier back into the bathroom and softly closed the door. Rev nodded to Flint to move down the hall. Rev hoped no one would notice the blood trail in all the confusion.

  When they got to Willa’s bedroom they found it empty. The P.I. felt the sheets. They were still warm.

  A sentry passed in front of her window causing the pair to duck into the shadows of the adjacent hallway, ending crouched in her bathroom. Rev looked closely at the carpet, then to the large doubled-door closet. Rev pointed to the handle of the closet and motioned Flint to move back.

  Rev turned the handle slowly and opened the door with a jerk. An arm lunged out chopping with a kitchen cleaver. Rev moved faster than a cat and yanked the cleaver from her hand. With his other hand he pulled her free from the closet. She yelped and Rev clamped his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

  “It’s us Willa,” whispered Rev.

  The fear in her eyes melted and her body relaxed. Rev released his grip and Willa took a deep breath. “I thought . . . ” she stammered.

  “You’re safe,” said Rev quietly. “I don’t know for how long, but we have to get you off this island.”

  “The others?” she questioned.

  “Most made it,” said Rev.

  “And Taki?”

  Flint whizzed about her and stopped about her eye level. “You can be sure he’s fine. Rev made him leave.”

  “Thank goodness,” she said.

  “We have to leave now,” said Rev hearing footsteps in the hallway.

  “We can leave by my patio if we slip over the railing,” she said moving past her bed.

  Rev looked out the window and opened the small glass door to a patio just big enough to hold a couple of chairs. He slipped over the railing and motioned Willa to jump into his arms.

  They dodged sentries by hiding in the dense underbrush, moving as quietly as they could. Finally, they made it to the edge of the beach. Rev crouched behind one of the large palm trunks that somehow survived the frenzied shooting. Bodies of Deviants and ground troopers riddled the sandy beach.

  Willa saw the gore and violence and gasped in terror. “Did you do this?”

  “Mostly,” he said. “I couldn’t save all of Taki’s people but the troopers paid dearly for killing the defenseless.”

  “He was not the only one who took the lives of the troopers,” said Flint defiantly.

  “But how can two against a hundred do so much damage?” she asked.

  “I’ve had plenty of practice,” said Rev. “I’m not proud of it but there were only two choices. Save them or let them die. I, for one, won’t lose sleep over those who murder the defenseless.”

  Rev watched a patrol of troopers march up the beach and around a bend. When he couldn’t hear any of their equipment jingling he stood up and looked around. “Let’s go,” he said and ran for the transmat elevator.

  Flint made it to the control panel first and opened the door. He was inside and setting the coordinates when he heard a war break out. Sand and stone were billowing into the air from cannon fire from one of the assault vehicles. Rev had pulled the P2200 Maximizer and was in the act of blowing holes in its armor when the squad of troopers came running back from the bend in the beach. He was horribly outnumbered and more vehicles plowed through the jungle and out onto the beach straight at them.

  Rev saw it was hopeless and flung Willa into the elevator. He pulled a zinger grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin and tossed it perfectly into the open turret of the closest vehicle. The explosion ripped the metal to shreds and shrapnel tore into the ground troopers killing the majority.

  “Go,” screamed Rev above the noise of the explosion.

  Flint pushed the button. Before the doors could close, he zipped out and hovered beside Rev.

  “Willa’s safe,” said Flint extending his weapon and firing at a trooper who fell dead. Rev put his hand up to stop Flint from firing again, gesturing to the troopers not to shoot and dropping the P2200 Maximizer.

  “We can’t win this one little buddy,” said Rev. “Put your weapon away.”

  Defeated, Flint retracted his weapon and raised his malleable arms like Rev.

  * * *

  “WOULD YOU PLEASE relax,” said Rev to Flint who was zipping back and forth in front of the security screen. They had been apprehended roughly, Rev was disarmed and Flint’s weapon system deactivated. They were then transported to a detention facility and tossed into a small square room. There wasn’t a bed, sink, toilet, chair or any other convenience, just three solid walls, a ceiling and a floor. The only open wall was the security screen which sizzled from the forcefield if you approached too closely. Rev sat with his back to the fa
r wall and watched the little automaton pace just out of crackling range of the forcefield.

  “Please,” said Rev. “You’re driving me crazy.”

  “I can’t help it. You’re not the one who’s going to be reformatted.”

  “No,” said Rev. “Just interrogated, beaten, maybe a little maimed, tortured and eventually put down like a dog.”

  “Sorry,” said Flint. “I guess your situation is graver than mine but I still can’t help it.” And he whizzed nervously across the length of the cell.

  “I wonder why they’re waiting so long to come get us?” asked Rev.

  “My guess,” said Flint, “is they are finding out if they have the jurisdiction to punish you. They don’t want an intergalactic lawsuit. Once they issue the paperwork, your planet’s government will release your citizenship rights to Tsunam. If that happens, then it’s only a matter of time before we are convicted.”

  “So they still have to play by the rules?”

  “Absolutely, the Alliance takes great interest in intergalactic incidences.”

  “Like killing a hundred or so ground troopers?” said Rev.

  “Just like that.” Flint bobbed in the affirmative. “Remember there was a reason you killed those men. The Alliance will take your humanitarianism into account before they allow you to be prosecuted.”

  “You mean executed,” said Rev. Flint nodded. “How long do you think we have?”

  “The Alliance can be very quick when a planetary system requests an immediate ruling. Say . . . four hours minimum, maybe five tops.”

  “Then we don’t have much time left before they come to get us.”

  “I’m afraid not,” said Flint. “Would you like me to count down to the most probable time of our conviction?”

  Rev shook his head and wished Flint was wrong but knew down deep that his time was winding down fast. Rev changed the subject to not dwell on his own demise. “What happens when they reformat you?”

  “My mind will be wiped clean, my circuits repaired and a new personality will be uploaded,” answered Flint.