The Venetou

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  It was on this very first trip that Mary Taylor found her first painting, one painted by a native of this world before the artist and her people disappeared so mysteriously. It was of a large ferocious looking figure standing in an otherwise empty landscape, it was painted upon the wall of a large building, and from the remnants of furniture within it she decided that the building was used as a temple. The figure was of a large semi-humanoid creature, pale grey in colour and looking to be quite ferocious. Painted beneath the figure she saw what she thought was a word, from amongst the strange letters she saw five letters that were similar to the letters of the Latin alphabet, and they spelt out the word RETEM. Mary Taylor took a photograph of everything within the room, and when darkness threatened to fall she returned to talk over her find with the other members of the scientific team. Mary Taylor could not keep the excitement from out of her voice as she spoke to the others of her first finds within the small walled city, the furniture, the picture, the writing, the buildings that were built for humanoids to use, ones of the same shape as themselves, although probably a little shorter.

  “So much furniture and so many artefacts have survived the fall of the builder`s civilisation, it must mean that we will come across the builders somewhere upon this planet, and probably not too far away.” She declared excitedly, her voice full of the animation that was simply bursting out of her. She could not wait to explore, and with luck find her first intelligent alien being.

  “You may well be correct Mary, which means that we can not afford to take any chances, for who knows how they will react if they see us making ourselves at home in their former lands.” Kramer declared.

  “Here it comes, you want us to wait while you and your crew members go out and play.” Palin groaned.

  “Not at all Professor, I merely want everyone to be aware of the dangers posed by a first contact meeting with a potentially barbaric people.” Kramer replied in response to Palin`s complaint.

  Palin must have accepted this as he nodded acceptance of Kramer`s remark, and with a peace treaty signed aboard the Galileo, the scientists talked more about the abandoned city After much discussion it was unanimously decided to name the planet Retem, which unknown to them was the local word for demon.

  For the remainder of the evening and into the early morning they spoke about their finds, and which of them they hoped would be of use to the Morang Corporation, and which might be of use to any colonists who might come to this veritable Garden of Eden. It was early in the morning, 2am, before they all turned in for the night.

  The last to retire to his bed was Kramer, on the way to his cabin he noticed that both the inner and the outer doors to the airlock had been left open, frowning he shut them. However he did not bother to lock them, yes they could be opened if one knew how to, but then there was no intelligent living being anywhere near the ship, if indeed on the entire planet, Carter had scanned the area and found a singular lack of the builders of the small deserted town.

  **********

  The quiet of the early morning was shattered by blood curdling screams that brought the men and women of the Galileo running from their cabins. They found Mary Taylor standing over the body of Geraldo Gonzales, the senior botanist, who lay their dead upon the floor in the mess room, the cause of death was seemingly obvious. It was the first thing that they all noticed, his eyes, for they were staring up from the floor at them, telling of the terrible way that he had died, and each of his eyes had a dark hole in them.

  Captain Kramer had been amongst the first of them to arrive, and on seeing the mutilation to the botanist`s eyes he hurriedly covered them with a napkin that someone had left laying on a nearby mess table. When electrician first class Aaila Madani arrived he had her take the trembling archaeologist back to her cabin to look after her.

  Kramer was fully engrossed in a search of the mess room for any sign that would tell him what had happened on board his ship when Doctor Mason Garner arrived, it always took an earthquake at least to awaken him. Kramer had asked Carter to waken him, and and on seeing the doctor, Kramer nodded grimly and moved back across the small mess room to the body. Once here, he moved the napkin just sufficiently to allow Garner to see the two wounds, and then he put it back in place. He certainly did not want his crew, or the scientists, to freak out at the constant sight of those pain filled and very mutilated eyes, it had taken all of his self control to keep calm when he had seen them. A ridiculous thought ran through his head, had someone extracted the man`s soul, through those two holes, but no, this was just the work of a very sick mind.

  “We need to know the exact cause of death, Mason, and as soon as you can.” Kramer requested of the medic. Whether finding out the exact cause of death would help him find the murderer Kramer did not know, but it was the normal start to any normal investigation and he desperately wanted normality to reign once again.

  “My god Chris, who on earth amongst us could have done this, and why?” Doctor Garner asked in disgust as he turned to look at the people clustered around him. For the first time in quite a while he felt the first signs of fear grip his stomach as he wondered which one of these very normal looking people had done this terrible deed, and why for god`s sake, Gonzales was a nice guy who got along with everyone? Now John Palin, he could understand someone killing him, he was a rude arrogant individual who got along with no one, here or anywhere else.

  “Jubal, please collect a trolley from the medical centre and bring it back here, also bring a sheet to cover Geraldo`s body.” Kramer said quietly. Jubal nodded and quickly walked along to the small medical centre and collected the trolley and the bed sheet.

  After the body of the dead botanist had been lifted on to the trolley, Garner pushed the trolley down to the medical centre, following behind him was John Palin. It was not until they arrived at the medical centre that Doctor Garner noticed Palin, and on seeing him he smiled enquiringly at the biologist.

  “I though that you might need some help with your gruesome job.” Palin said by way of explanation.

  “Yes, thank you, I could do with a hand John.” Garner replied surprised by the biologist`s action, for he was the last person he would have thought would have bothered offering to help at such a time as this. Five minutes later and they had started on the autopsy of someone who although they had only known for a short time, Doctor Garner had liked, and Professor Palin had tolerated a little more than the others.

  On the bridge of the Galileo, Carter approached Captain Kramer and voiced a thought that had entered his mind on first seeing the dead body of their friend.

  “Captain, could someone from outside the ship have done this, maybe one of the builders of that dead city.” Kramer`s head snapped round to look at his first mate.

  “Have the ship searched Joe, one armed crewman plus one of the scientists in each team, get them started immediately, if it was a stranger then we need to know, and as soon as is possible.” Kramer ordered.

  Carter returned to the mess room where a grim bunch of men and women were still talking about the gruesome murder of their friend. On told of the search, they all cheered up, for if Carter`s idea was correct, then it meant that one of them had not committed such a terrible crime, a possibility that made some of them sick to the stomach to even contemplate.

  Kramer sat at the computer on the bridge and turned on the security program, with it up and running he immediately locked all of the exits from the ship, whoever the murderer was, he or she was not leaving the ship, assuming that the murderer was still aboard. He then got up and walked to the large cargo ramp to look for any signs of entry by someone other than one of them. However, if someone had used this way to enter and exit the ship, Kramer could see no signs on the cargo ramp, or the gangway leading away from it, to indicate that there had been an intruder aboard the starship. In any case the noise of the cargo ramp opening and closing would have awakened everyone aboard the Galileo. He then walked to the main airlock for pedestrian traffic,
and here he did find something which was a definite sign of entry and it was just inside the airlock, however, there was nothing sufficiently alien to prove his first mate`s theory of an external murderer. What he had found was just one partial print, but enough to give the impression that it had been made by someone with a large foot, and they were walking barefooted. Kramer surreptitiously checked all of the crew`s feet but with no luck, the only person it might have been made by was Gonzales, and he was the victim. In any case, the opening and closing of the airlock would have made sufficient noise to have awakened someone, but then maybe it did, maybe it had awakened Geraldo whose cabin is nearest to the airlock.

  The starship was only small so the search initiated by Kramer did not take all that long, especially as there were five search parties, unfortunately no trace of an alien was found. This partially dampened the spirits of everyone, but as Carter said, at least we now know that we are safe, our murderer has left the ship and all we need do is to keep all the entry points locked when not in use. He did not add, if indeed our murder did come from outside, although more than one person did pause to consider this terrible possibility, for it was the most logical answer.

  **********

  Kramer was just finishing his breakfast, and at a time much earlier than he normally enjoyed it, but then murders are apt to change things. At the moment he was thinking about the grim task he would have to perform when they returned to their home base, New Caledonia. He would have to visit the Gonzales family to speak to them about poor Geraldo, and about the way that he had died. Thankfully he would not have to break the news of his death to them, he would report back to the Morang Corporation later today and they would have someone do it, even so, it was a task that he was not looking forward to performing. His thoughts were brought to a halt when Doctor Garner and John Palin entered the now very clean smelling mess room. The room having been scrubbed with disinfectant to take away any smell that would remind them of the death of one of their friends. Unfortunately the very smell of the disinfectant only served to remind them all the more.

  “Well Mason, Professor Palin, what have you got to tell me?” Kramer said looking at the two tired men who had just slumped down on to two of the empty chairs at his table.

  Doctor Garner spoke softly as he told Kramer of their findings, not so as to stop anyone else from hearing him, as the mess room was empty at this early hour, it was more out of respect for their dead friend, one who had died in this very room.

  “We first checked both of Gonzales` eyes and found that the two holes went straight through each of his eyes and then through his Foramen Ovale to stop at his brain, however, these holes are not the cause of death. We then noticed that there are some fine spots on the brain and they are directly behind each Foramen Ovale, and on closer inspection we found that they were in fact twenty minute holes, and that the holes entered the brain behind each hole in the eye, that is ten behind each eye.” Garner said and stopped here for the moment to collect his thoughts.

  “Mason, what is the Foramen Ovale?” Kramer asked. For he was not up on all the minor parts of the body.

  “They are two of the holes in the skull through which some of the nerves travel through to the brain, there is one behind each eye.” Doctor Garner replied thoughtfully. He had decided to pause here so as to allow Palin to add anything he thought relevant to the report.

  Palin now took this opportunity to add something. “The holes were not caused by a micro laser, for there is no sign of burning as you would expect to find if that was the case, no they were caused by a very fine instrument, mind you I have no idea what the instrument might be. The distances between the holes were identical, the precision needed to accomplish this could only have been done using a technologically advanced tool.” He stopped here to rack his brain again as to what instrument could have been used to commit this terrible act.

  Doctor Garner now continued on with the report. “However, we both feel that this was not the cause of Gonzales death, although we can not be sure of even that. However, when we checked his blood we found an unknown toxin. When we took some of the toxin and injected it into a mouse, it fell down and did not even twitch, it died seconds after. We believe that the toxin acts on the muscles of the body, including those of his heart and lungs, and shuts them down, he would have died shortly after he received the toxin. Of course we had already seen the two marks at the front of his neck, they were probably caused by a sharp triangular shaped object of some kind, but they could have been made by two fangs of a large animal. If it was not for the holes in the eyes and the minute holes in the brain, I would say that our killer was a large snake.” Garner said and having finished his report looked across at Palin who nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, I saw those marks Mason, I immediately thought of the old horror stories, about vampires and the like.” Kramer replied. “However, these other minute holes means that we have a murderer with time on his hands to dress his deed up as a macabre fantasy, do you agree Mason?” Kramer asked.

  “Yes Chris, you are correct, we do have a murderer amongst us, and one who is psychotic. Chris, he will strike again.” Doctor Garner had dismissed the theory of an alien attack moments after hearing it. He now wished that it had been an alien, the truth he thought, was much more terrifying.

  “Who is likely to be in possession of such a toxin, a biologist, Ricardo Anceris, or you Professor Palin?” Kramer asked. “Or would a botanist also know about them?

  Palin looked fit to burst, for Kramer had included him in his preliminary list of suspects, but somehow he kept control of his exhausted mind. “You will also need to add some sort of motive before you can accuse anyone, and anyway Mary Taylor, an Archaeologist might have come across some ancient toxin while digging into the murky past of the human race, or even our good doctor.” Palin said smiling at Garner and feeling some of the stress leave his body after such a god awful morning.

  “Chris, you can also add anyone on the ship who can surf the internet, someone with murder on their mind would also have the time to find whatever they had a mind to find.” Doctor Garner said grimly.

  The matter was left there, but Kramer did activate all of the CCTV cameras which were normally turned off, a concession to personal privacy that had now become the norm on Earth. Should the murderer strike again, he or she would be caught on film and to hell with personal privacy.

  He spoke to everyone individually as they came down to breakfast that morning, but no one could tell him anything, they had all been asleep until Mary Taylor`s screams had awakened them. That day saw changes to the security, both aboard the Galileo and also amongst the survey teams when they were away from the safety of the ship. During the day Carter was to be in charge of security on board the Galileo, he was to be based on the bridge and was to ensure that no strangers entered the starship, if indeed a stranger had been their nocturnal murderer. The four survey teams were always to travel in groups of three people, and all of them were to be armed with Phasers, however, he ensured that they were set on their lowest setting. Kramer did not want one of the team to be killed by a friend freaking out.

  **********

  Carter said goodbye to all four teams as they left the Galileo by one of the two exits and prepared for an ultra quiet day. The others though would be very busy, and those going furthest were given the use of one of the two vehicles. The biologists were once again visiting the lake and so they walked the short distance, their equipment had been taken to today`s research site by the hovercraft before it returned for the geological team. The archaeologist, Mary Taylor, was dropped off at the ruins of the ancient city by the tracked vehicle along with electrician first class Aaila Madani and Captain Kramer, before it carried on with the sole remaining botanist and her two security guards. Kristiana Georgiou wanted to check out the plants a short distance from the ruined city to see if they might have been part of a cultivated area, a farm perhaps, laid down by the builders of the city.

  The two Venetou had st
ill been aboard the Galileo when the crew had left it to resume their survey of the planet. They were still a little afraid of this strange den of their prey, the flashing lights and of the vehicles that took the crew away, even so they had dined well the previous night on the life-force of the Bora, and hoped to do so again. Never before had they felt so alive, so full of energy.

  Carter watched the two vehicles as they disappeared from view, the biologists took longer to disappear, but as the morning progressed their task moved them further away from the Galileo until he could only just make out their figures on the horizon. With the ship locked up tight he took a moment to think about his wife and their young son. It should be morning on New Caledonia, they should have got out of bed by now and be thinking about breakfast, and Rachel would be making up a fresh pot of coffee. With this thought he decided that he too needed a coffee, and so he walked down to the mess room and the every ready hot pot of coffee.

  The first he did was to wash up a cup, for no one had bothered to do the washing up that morning, their minds were upon other things. Behind Carter, Sarai saw the water gushing from the tap and immediately realised just how thirsty he was, for neither of them had had a drink since coming aboard the Galileo. Carter was just pouring himself a cup when he felt someone grab him from behind, he turned his head, but for some reason he could not see anyone there, his attacker was either invisible or a ghost! One thing that he did know, that it must be their murderer, for he knew that everyone else had left the ship, and anyway they could not turn invisible. For a just a moment he managed to struggle in an attempt to break free from the strong grip of Sarai, but he was unable to in so time short a time that the Venetou allowed him. A moment later, during the single beat of his heart, Talia moved towards him and grabbing him from the front she drove her fangs into his soft exposed neck. Carter felt the fangs of the creature as they entered his neck and cried out, but a few moments later he was falling forwards on to the floor, unable to move an arm to safe himself. The glass coffee pot crashed close to him smashing into small pieces and splashing him with hot coffee, he could feel it burn him but could do nothing to alleviate the pain.