Deathbeast
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Loevil couldn’t catch his breath—the excitement was a drug! This was orgasmic triumph! He had tasted it again! And this time even deeper than before! My God! It was a joyous thing! Loevil screamed in happiness again—he and Nusa hugged each other, her holo was forgotten, pressed tightly in the space between them—they could hardly find the strength! They jumped up and down in unison; they turned gasping, choking, laughing on a common pivot, yelling, whirling, shouting gleefully—God! I could
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possess this woman! Couldn’t I?/!—We’re both complete, at last! Tril grabbed onto them and whirled with—and then they broke apart and looked back at the beast again, Nusa reaching for her holo while the warning siren shrieked—and all of them were panting hard in heaving, racking gasps—
The deathbeast couldn’t find them—it was listening and sniffing—and pawing at its blinded eyes—still turning, lurching, jerking, caught in convulsions of confusing purposes—it stumbled even closer—
“Ohhh—” Tril fidgeted and trembled, the sound came * from her throat and stretched into a moan of panic and impatience—
“Just a few more seconds,” Loevil reassured her, and we’ll be flashing back uptime—”
“Oh, hurry, hurry—” she was bouncing birdlike in tiny jumps, fearfully, and looking to the beast—it was fumbling blindly toward them—
The alarm was getting louder—Loevil looked down at the timer on his watch. “Come on, guys—pick us up—!” He said it to the unseen future. “Come on!! Come on already, guys!” And then he looked back at the beast— it was almost at the Nexus edge!!
“Oh, my God!” breathed Nusa. “Oh, my God!” There weren’t any other words to say.
“Hold your places—hold your places—” Loevil commanded. “Any second now—”
The monster turned, his tail swept across die flat edge of the disc—it stepped backward, lurched uncertain, and one foot was on the Nexus—the three humans backed up to the other edge—
On second thought—“Better get ready to scatter,” Loevil gasped. “Keep behind him—”
—the deathbeast fumbled for its footing, it stepped back again, and it was firmly on the Nexus now!
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“Damn you!” shouted Loevil, jumping back to avoid the spastic, lashing tail. Tril and Nusa jumped back with him.
The tone of the alarm changed then—it was the pickup note! There was no time left! The deathbeast stopped and wobbled, cocked its head and listened—it took another clumsy staggering step to catch itself, and crunched the beacon underfoot—the alarm was strangled into silence, but the air still rang with echoes—it was in the center of the Nexus now.
Loevil had his rifle pointed angrily. “Dammit! Get off.1” he screamed, he croaked; the words came ripping from his aching lungs—he didn’t have the breath! His voice was just a racking scrape. “Get off of there—you rotten piece of carrion-eating meat!” His mouth made hollow sounds. “You lizard-sucking, feeble-minded, foul-smelling, crud-infested, stinking imitation of a dragon! You maggot- thieving worm!” He choked with rage. He fired at the beast, he lashed it with his blazer. He hurled his anger at it, burning it again—searing it and slashing! Nusa fired too—she stabbed the beast with glittering flame, sparkling incandescent beams of wrath and energy! She was screaming just like Loevil, incoherently and raging.
The deathbeast flinched with every screeching bolt— but hardly moved, just twitched—was it dying now? Now?!! Of all injustices! “Goddammit!!! Move!!”
The beast turned suddenly around and looked at them with blinded eyes—was it Loevil’s feverish imagination or was the deathbeast grinning at him like a skull?
All that he could think of as the whitened world began to shriek around him was the sight of the technicians at their consoles when the beast appeared abruptly in their midst. “I don’t think they’re going to like it—”
—Nusa raged in fiery tearstruck frenzy—and kept on firing. Tril was screaming too—
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Loevil let off one last burst in anguish—! Oh, God, the agony!
—and then the monster’s feet slipped out from under it—it was the threshold shot!—one foot was splaying to the left, the other to the right! The body wavered, toppling, and—it was too good to be true!—like a tower crumbling, it collapsed!—it came down oh, so slowly, crashing forward with finality, and sagging under its own massive weight, the head came smacking lifeless down, skidding on the shining metal floor of the Nexus just in front of them, and Loevil grabbed at Nusa’s arm and pushed her forward; Tril too—he jumped up with them, leaping on the deathbeast’s arching back—and shouting as he did so, “Come on, let’s go! It’s pickup!”—and as they stood atop the dying Tyrant’s heaving flanks, he screamed in triumph absolute and glorious, “My God! What a trophy to bring back!!” He pulled his goggles down across his eyes—
Nusa was silly-grinning too—-she was bouncing next to him. Her words came tumbling out. “You killed it—you clean it!”
He just had time enough to look at her, astonished—