The Venetou

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  Later that day all of Poulson`s ideas on this case were put in disarray when Doctor Kamdar gave him a provisional report regarding the deaths of the two crew men, they had died in exactly the same way that Doctor Garner had reported in his medical logs. He returned to the security section of the spaceport, and with Michael Craig, who worked the middle shift at the spaceport, he searched the entire cell block yet again, for this was the only area of the building that should have been accessible to his two suspects during the power cut. He was as before still looking for the mysterious weapon used to damage the eyes of the victims, that and the toxin used to kill them, but again without success. Poulson now searched the entire security room where Lydia Mann had sat, but found nothing. He now increased his search area to the ground beneath the windows of the cell block, the only other place that they could have thrown the items used to murder the two men. However, no trace of either item was found here, or on either person or within the security area. If either of them had been involved in the murder of the two men surely this would have meant his finding something, that or the complicity of Lydia Mann in the murders, which really was a non starter, surely? He decided to sleep on the matter and see what ideas the morning brought forth. Before turning in for the night, Poulson made some notes about the main items concerning him about this case. He hoped that this would give his subconscious mind something to work on while he slept.

  1) I do not believe in Kramer`s invisible creatures, why does he insist that they are real?

  2) Either the murderer is one of the two survivors or, somehow someone had got by Lydia after the storm knocked out the cameras and maybe the doors to the facility too, unless Lydia opened them herself.

  3) If she did, then it means that Lydia Mann was somehow tied up in the matter. However, I believe this to be highly unlikely.

  4) If Kramer or Alejandra is guilty how did they get the weapon and toxin by the body scanner? Their personal effects were taken apart and examined by Strom, for he too was sure of their guilt, and he would have found the items, if they had been there.

  5) What am I missing that I have not put down here, could there really be an invisible murderer somewhere out there? If so, how did they survive the toxins pumped into the Galileo.

  6) Did the security team make a sloppy job of their task, I need to ask Francis Strom to look into this.

  7) What made the ten minute holes behind the eyes?

  **********

  The moon had slipped behind the clouds as the two Venetou approached a small single storey house in the leafy suburbs of the capital of New Caledonia, the only town on the planet, although there were some small villages and hamlets come trading posts spread across the planet.

  The window was open to allow the cool breeze of the night to flow into the bedroom of its owners, a young man who was a carpenter, and his wife who was a nurse at the hospital. No one ever locked their doors or windows on the planet of New Caledonia, crime was almost non existent.

  Sarai sniffed at the opening, then looked at his mate, and smiled, for there was enough food here for both of them. He entered first, followed by Talia, soundlessly crossing over to the bed and the sleeping couple, moments later they drove their fangs deep within the neck of their prey. A hand was over their mouths to prevent their screams awakening their neighbours, the other hand upon their chests to stop them struggling too much. As soon as the toxin had taken affect the two Venetou began to feed, the two humans, eyes wide open screamed soundlessly into the cool night air, fortunately the excruciating pain did not last long, and then they were both dead.

  Done feeding Sarai looked over at Talia. “It is a good life that we have here.” He said to her, but no sound came from his small mouth, the Venetou were one of the many telepathic races found throughout the galaxy.

  Talia simply nodded in agreement and then moved over towards the window, and once there she beckoned to her mate who was studying the strange den of the Bora.

  **********

  The following morning Constable Poulson looked again at his list, his subconscious mind had been idle during the night, no solutions sprang miraculously into his mind, no this case was going to be one of the difficult ones. One other thought did occur to him, was he up to it, his normal duties since coming to New Caledonia revolved around minor breaches of the council by-laws, not mass murder, he had not been on a murder case since leaving Earth five years ago and he was decidedly rusty. He had left Earth so that Rachel and the children could enjoy a better life, even if he was decidedly bored by this new life. Well he was no longer bored, he was up to his neck in trouble, and trouble spelt KRAMER.

  After breakfast he drove back to the isolation wing of the spaceport, where together with Doctor Kamdar, Roge Revere and Lydia Mann, who Poulson would not give leave to go to her bed, he had arranged to meet to go over the case. They were soon all there, sat around a small table that was set at one end of the security room. At one end of the table Lydia Mann yawned, and once again she yearned for her soft bed.

  “Roge, could the two main security doors have already been open when you arrived yesterday morning?” Poulson asked.

  “Yes they could have been, I never attempted to push them open as I knew that they should have been locked shut.” Revere replied.

  “What are you suggesting Dan, that I might have dosed off and allowed our murderer to both enter and escape this facility, no way.” Lydia Mann complained bitterly.

  “Lydia, I am just picking away at the facts as we know them, trying to find out how the murders occurred. If one or both of our two guests were involved then how did they get the weapons and toxin through the body scanner without it detecting them, and how did they finally dispose of the weapons they used without getting by you?” Poulson declared. “I for one do not seriously suspect that you fell asleep at your post, but there must be something we are missing, whatever it is I am going to find it by going over everything that happened during the last twenty four hours.” Poulson replied to her.

  “Maybe there really are invisible aliens, that answer would fit all the known facts Dan, if so by now they will have escaped this facility and be abroad, somewhere in New Caledonia.” Revere ventured and then shivered at the very idea.

  “I too am beginning to think along those lines Roge, when I return to my office I will check to see if there are any animals anywhere in the galaxy known to have such a defence mechanism.” Doctor Kamdar said and then added. “However for none of us to know of such a creature makes the odds against it quite high.” He added doubtfully.

  Poulson looked across at Revere and Kamdar and scowled, the more he thought about the case, the more this idea pushed its head forward, but no, invisible aliens, what next, he scoffed at the very idea. When they found out how Kramer had done away with his weapons, Poulson stopped here as an idea flashed into his mind.

  “Roge, could the items have been flushed away down the toilet, the packaging that the toxin came in could have been one of the environmental envelopes that simply disappear when immersed in water. As for the tools used to mutilate the eyes and the neck they too do not need to be large, they to could have been broken up and flushed away.” Poulson said triumphantly, yes, he thought, I have cracked it.

  “Well if so Dan we might never find them, they will be in the sewage reprocessing plant by now, that or anywhere in between.” Revere answered, he too saw this as being the most likely answer, for invisible aliens had been a mite ridiculous, and he smiled at the very thought. Lydia Mann now sat easier as she took to the easy answer, now she would not need to worry that Dan thought that she had fallen asleep and allowed the murderer to enter the security area and commit two such foul murders.

  “That could well be, however, it does not tell us just how the weapons were brought into the facility, or what made the ten minute holes behind the eyes.” Doctor Kamdar said bringing everyone back down to Earth.

  Even so, Poulson also felt a little happier having answered one of t
he items on his list, however, he knew that a defence attorney would rip his case to ribbons. This was especially so as regards to the method by which the weapons had been brought into the cell block without outside assistance, as Doctor Kamdar had just reminded them all. There it was again, the question regarding the guilt of one of the people who worked within the security wing of the spaceport. He sighed deeply and decided to change tack, he would be charitable and see how far this got him.

  “How about we invite Captain Kramer and Professor Alejandra to join us, not to tell them of our thoughts on the matter but to give them a chance to clear their names, before we charge them both with multiple murders.” Poulson offered although he knew that he really did not have enough evidence to convict either of them, not until he answered all of the outstanding problems. He knew that tomorrow he might have to begin to investigate his friends sitting around the table.

  “Well why not, maybe there is something that they might remember that would help them to clear their names.” Doctor Kamdar replied, for he, as Coroner of the planet, was sure that they did not have enough evidence to make the charge stick, especially against the two of them together.

  Captain Kramer and Professor Alejandra happily agreed, anything to get out of their cells, especially as they might be able to convince Poulson that they were in fact innocent of all charges levelled against them. It was Maria Alejandra who gave him his first positive lead.

  “There may well be a photograph of our elusive murderer, if it is indeed a creature from Retem. Mary Taylor took a photograph of a figure painted on one of the walls of the deserted city, she was never sure if it represented one of the builders or was just a figure of mythology. However, it could just be our enemy, there should be a copy of the photograph on her personal computer.” Maria Alejandra conjectured.

  She had nearly said invisible enemy, but had stopped herself. If the Constable of this planet was at least asking for their help, then she could hide her anger regarding his previous accusations levelled against Kramer and her.

  Poulson decide to play along, see if his two prime suspects had something up their sleeves. “You may well be correct Maria, unfortunately we will have to wait until we have caught one before we can know for sure, and unless the creature we seek does have the ability to turn invisible, which I still very much doubt, that should be quite soon, if indeed one exists on New Caledonia.” Poulson said grimly.

  Twenty minutes were wasted while the personal computers of the crew were located aboard the quarantined starship and that is after the necessary permissions were granted by Strom for them to enter the survey ship. Strom had one proviso, it was that he was there with them when the search was made. Maria Alejandra soon found the photograph and showed it to the newly enlarged investigative team. Unfortunately the picture taken by Mary Taylor was of a mythological demon of the former inhabitants of the small deserted city, it was not of the Venetou who very few people had ever seen and lived through it.

  “Surely alien creatures such as these would have already been noticed, if they are lurking anywhere within the city of New Caledonia?” Strom argued. “I just hope that we will not have to suffer another death while we waste valuable time looking for these demonic creatures, rather than for our human murderer.” He wanted everyone to get off the subject of alien creatures before Kramer and Alejandra spoke, for once again they would accuse him of mishandling the fumigation of the Galileo.

  Constable Poulson did not reply as he attempted to grab hold of an idea that was evading him, it was something to do with the photographs on the computer.

  Along side him Lydia Mann was secretly worried as she too stood looking at the picture, Poulson`s surprise decision to allow their two main suspects the chance to clear their names meant that he was not quite so sure of their guilt as he had previously intimated, that or he was playing games. Given his refusal to believe in invisible creatures meant that he was still ready to believe that she might have fallen asleep on duty, for how else could anyone have entered the cell block to kill the two men. No surely it must be Captain Kramer or Professor Alejandra who had committed the terrible murders. Then another dreadful thought occurred to her, did Dan suspect her involvement in the murders, or even of having carried them out! Yes she had dated Charlie Milano, but that was two years ago, and she no longer cared that he had cheated on her, in any case who here would know about her involvement with Milano?

  How could Lydia Mann know that the two Venetou had used the power of their minds to make her open all of the doors in the cell block? It had happened when she had entered the corridor of the cell block to investigate what she thought sounded like a muffled scream. Entering the cell block alone was something that was against the company`s rules, but as the storm had appeared to have disabled all of the cameras, she had thought that she had no other option available to her. Looking through the grill of the cell door occupied by Chief Mayers she had unwittingly allowed Sarai to take control of her mind and had obeyed his order to open the other doors in the cell block. The Venetou had then followed her back into the main security room, in fact they were about to feed on her when Revere called her on the intercom and asked to be allowed in. The Phaser pistol on his belt and the actual size of him, he dwarfed Sarai, was one of the reasons why they had not, the main reason was that they had both fed just a short while ago, and were quite full.

  It was now that Poulson interrupted her musings when his own thoughts finally came together. “Roge, I thought that all your guests had to walk by your body scanner when they first entered the isolation wing?” Poulson wondered thoughtfully.

  “Yes, that is quite right, the Captain and Maria, together with their two dead friends went through it, why? Oh my god!” Revere said and they hurriedly returned to the security wing of the spaceport. Once here Revere punched up a new programme on his computer. The body scanning programme hummed into life and moments later they were all looking at the body scans of Kramer, Alejandra, Mayers and Milano. Moments later a badly distorted picture showed two large humanoid creatures walking past the scanner, unfortunately it was impossible to tell if they were carrying anything.

  “There, the creatures followed us in and no one saw them, the scanner was left unmanned after the four of us walked past it.” Kramer exclaimed excitedly.

  “The unit operates automatically when someone passes through it.” Strom said. “No one needs to be on duty for it to operate. It is one of the features of this particular model.” Strom explained. “However, those two figures could be members of my security team.” Strom added in desperation.

  “But look, they are similar to the photograph of the creature that we were just looking at, the one taken by Mary Taylor at the deserted town on Retem.” Maria Alejandra declared triumphantly.

  “You are quite right Maria, but they also look exactly like you and me, with the distortions on the recording it is impossible to say.” Constable Poulson said dismissing her idea in such an off hand way that he once again infuriated her, although she could see that he was right.

  “What I want to know is how such creatures got on to the Galileo unless they were invisible.” Kramer asked looking directly at Constable Poulson.

  “As I just said to Professor Alejandra, whatever we saw on the body scanner could have been a person, the scanner is not set up to show enough to differentiate between alien humanoid creatures and two of the security team.” Poulson said in an attempt to silence Kramer`s ridiculous assertions.

  “Roge, turn over to the CCTV programme, look up the records for the body scanner room let`s take a look at our visitors.” Poulson asked Revere and then leaned closer to the monitor in readiness for the recording recording.

  They were soon looking at the body scanning room on the CCTV recordings, they watched as the group consisting of Kramer and the remaining members of his crew walked past the scanner. However, the latter part of the recording was badly distorted and badly out of focus, then only interference filled the screen, before screeching to
a stop. Poulson assumed that this camera too was now a burnt out piece of rubbish.

  “Constable Poulson, this proves that it was the creatures that followed us through, the members of the security team would not have caused such interference. Either the creatures are invisible or, the creatures affected the recording on your CCTV, which is what Maria and I said happened on the Galileo, either way it proves part of our story.” Kramer said.

  “No, Captain, I do agree that someone caused our CCTV system to malfunction, however, it could quite easily have been humans who were the cause and not some impossible creature.” Poulson declared as his mind tried to take in what he was seeing on the computer. “It is quite maddening that once again our technology failed us, but I refuse to believe in invisible creatures.” Poulson finally said, but his face showed the confusion that was muddling his brain. One thought now pounded through his brain, if those two humanoid creatures were not alien monsters, who were they?

  Kramer and Alejandra looked across at one another and looked not a little exasperated regarding Constable Poulson`s rigid thought processes.

  **********

  Constable Poulson decided to leave it there for the moment, and after thanking everyone for their help he now went for a walk to think about all they had found that morning, while Kramer and Alejandra were returned to their cells. However, even with all the exercise only one minor thought occurred to him, and so, deeply annoyed with himself, he walked across to the council building where he called upon the head of planetary security Francis Strom who had just returned there. He needed help that much was certain, and Strom was the one person who could assist him on this particular occasion, he asked him to activate the volunteer citizens` brigade and have them begin a street by street search of the city in search of any alien creatures, if indeed that is what passed through the body scanner.

  Strom was more than willing to assist Poulson in this matter, for should his volunteers find any suspicious characters he would ensure that he personally received the credit. Should his people find an alien creature he would ensure that it was destroyed, with his people being instructed to keep quiet about it, because of security he would tell them, that should do it. All of the citizens relied on the Morang Corporation, either directly or indirectly, for their livelihoods and would do anything asked of them to protect their livelihoods.