The Venetou

by Philip R Benge

  The couple were missed the next morning by their colleagues at work, with all the talk of the alien creatures the manager of the office where the woman worked went to call at their house, just to ensure that all was well. A neighbour had a spare key and she ran screaming from the house just one minute after entering it, for it was she who found the two bodies laying there in their bed, with their eyes mutilated and staring soullessly up at her. Which is what she said to the local newspaper reporter later. ‘It was almost as if something had stolen their souls.’

  Constable Poulson had almost thrown the book at Deputy Vance for leaving the monitor unmanned, two more citizens had died, and maybe if Vance had not acted the Good Samaritan he could have been on hand to save them. Vance went home that morning feeling as if the weight of the world had landed upon his shoulders, how was he to know that he had saved the lives of two other of the town`s citizens.

  Poulson knew that he would have to endure visits from Councilman Balsam and Bishop Tamaki, he would have to explain his deputy`s actions and promise to do better, for if he could not, then the locals would really begin to panic. Five of their neighbours and friends were now dead, how many more would it be before they found and destroyed who, or if some of the others were correct, whatever, was preying upon them.

  The town hall clock had just struck four o`clock on a bright sunny day when Michael Craig arrived to take over the middle shift from Revere, and naturally they spoke about the latest three murders committed by the alien creatures. On hearing Craig and Revere speaking, Captain Kramer annoyance level crashed through the roof.

  “Hey you two out there, did you just say that there were three more deaths caused by the alien creatures?” Kramer shouted out angrily from the cell block.

  Hearing his angry call Craig went through to the cell block. “Yes you heard correct Captain Kramer, a drunkard in the centre of town and a middle aged couple living nearby the church.” He answered grimly. “I hope your conscience is tearing into your guts you bastard, for landing here knowing that you were bringing those monsters with you.” Craig snarled through the narrow slot in the door.

  Kramer was too stunned to respond to this verbal attack, but Maria Alejandra was not. “Look you moron, Captain Kramer told your security chief all about it before we left the Galileo, if you want to blame anyone for the murders then why not go and ask him why he did not quarantine our ship properly, because he sure as hell told us that he had seen to it.” Maria was fuming. “And while we are on the subject, as the authorities now know that we had nothing to do with the first four killings, how come we are still locked up listening to morons like you.” Maria demanded to know.

  It was now Craig who was a little stunned, this time by Maria`s verbal attack, and not having an answer he muttered something unintelligible and left the cell block, closing the door firmly as he went. Revere smiled and left for home and was looking forward to a quiet evening in, watching television.

  Within the cell block Kramer and Alejandra talked about the case, asking assurances from each other that they had done enough to warn the authorities. Sure they had been totally exhausted and way out of it, but Strom had been told, they had stressed the dangers posed by the alien creatures, hadn`t they?

  Chapter Four

  Professor Collinson Arrives

  Professor James Collinson, a research scientist working for the Church of the Universe, arrived on New Caledonia via a cargo barge from the freighter Endeavour. Here he was met by the tight security that was thrown around the barge that had landed with a mixed cargo of goods for the colony. Professor Collinson was its sole passenger, the other passengers had decided to forego the pleasure of landing at New Caledonia and had decided to disembark at the previous port of call, there to wait until the current emergency was over. On exiting the craft he had to walk along the security tunnel affixed around the main airlock of the barge. From there he walked through the room that housed a second and newly installed body scanner, one that was manned twenty four hours a day. This new security protocol that travellers had to go through was to ensure that the alien creatures could not slip on to any visiting craft unnoticed. The authorities did not want the creatures spreading to the planet Earth or one of the many colonised planets. This new procedure was obviously intended to stop invisible travellers, yet the authorities were still hunting for a human murderer, such was the confused state of mind prevalent amongst the authorities of New Caledonia.

  Professor Collinson was working on a special project for the Church of the Universe, one that took up all of his time. For the last five years he had been charged with the impossible task of providing scientific proof to the many sceptics that abounded throughout the galaxy, proof that Man was not simply an animal but in fact also possessed an immortal soul, or life-force, which was given to him by god. He had always liked the idea of going up against the impossible, and had said as much so many times before, so he was not daunted by such a massive undertaking. He knew though that this task might take a life time or more to complete, if it could even be completed. Therefore, he had come to New Caledonia to be near to his grandson and his family, for he has no other living relatives, and his lack of success was beginning to make him feel rather mortal. His decision was a little weird, for he had never really got on with his grandson, for Daniel was lacking in imagination, Daniel was someone who found it hard to take new ideas on board without a lot of proof rammed down his throat.

  Professor Collinson emerged from the body scanner room and walked into the arrivals hall of the spaceport. Here he was met by a rather tired and pale looking Constable Daniel Poulson, he had pleaded with his grandfather to stay on the freighter, that it would be too dangerous to land on New Caledonia at this moment in time, but Professor Collinson had ignored this advice and landed anyway. It was late in the third day of the murder inquiry, or monster hunt as the people of New Caledonia now called it.

  He was soon installed in the spare bedroom of his grandson`s house and five minutes later was sitting in the front room of the Poulson house where Patricia Poulson was forcing a cup of tea and a large piece of apple pie on him. With his tea in one hand and the apple pie on the coffee table in front of him, Patricia Poulson told him all about the murders. She told him how some of the town`s people thought that it was two alien creatures who were menacing the planet, however, she quickly changed the conversation when her two children came down to say goodnight. The subject was forbidden whenever the children were around in case it gave them nightmares.

  On hearing all about the murders and of the creatures, Professor Collinson was most interested, and he broached the subject later that night when his grandson had returned home after visiting the police station for an update on the night’s activities.

  “Daniel, Pat was telling me about your aliens, but what I do not understand, and neither did Pat, was why the creatures are killing people, can you enlighten the two of us, just why do the creatures kill?” Professor Collinson asked and Patricia Poulson also looked at her husband as she awaited to hear his answer.

  “I am sorry Grandfather, but I personally do not agree with that particular theory, that two alien monsters are prowling the streets of our small city. However, not even those who hold with the theory know what their creatures could possibly get out of it. If they are indeed correct in their belief then obviously the minute pinholes that are bored into their victim`s brain must have something to do with it, but just what it is remains a puzzle.” Constable Poulson replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “In fact they are a puzzle even to me, for as yet no one can speculate as to what weapon is used to make such minute holes that go some two inches into the brain of all of the victims.”

  Professor Collinson sat bolt upright when told about the minute pinholes, for Patricia Poulson had forgotten to tell him about these, now the professor`s own project leapt into his mind.

  “Daniel might I look at the CCTV recording taken in the cell block of your spaceport, the one taken on the night that the two
crewmen died? With my specialist equipment there is just a chance that I might be able to find something that your experts have missed, and you wrote in one of your letters that Patricia was something of a computer whiz woman, maybe she could also help me look into your problem.” Professor Collinson asked quietly and looking very innocent.

  His grandson thought there was more behind this request than mere idle curiosity, for he had seen how his grandfather had reacted when he heard about the pinholes. However, he decided not to ask just what it might be, better to let his grandfather speak of it when he was ready. His first thought was to poo hoo the idea, for he hardly needed an amateur investigator meddling in his case, however, as he looked for the correct words to use, he glanced across at his wife, and he saw the interest that she was showing in his grandfather`s offer. He realised that it might make it easier for Patricia to live with the worry of the supposed alien creatures, if she was busy working on the case with his grandfather. However, Poulson did not see how either of them could come up with a lead when he was stumped.

  “Ok, Grandfather, but everything you see, everything you say or think, must stay within this house, I can ill afford to have any more unsubstantiated rumours flying about the planet, especially ones that I know nothing about.” Constable Poulson waited for his wife and grandfather to agree to his terms before continuing, they both nodded their heads and made the usual sounds so he now continued.

  “I will have Deputy Vance send copies of the little that we have over to your computer Pat, I hardly need to ask you to please ensure that the children do not see any of it, the photographs are extremely horrific and the log entries of the Galileo survey ship and the statements from the crew make for grisly reading.”

  For the remainder of the evening Professor Collinson told them of his work for the Church, of how he hoped to find an answer before he grew too old to work. Finally, exhausted they retired for the night, their sleep filled with nightmares of strange creatures attacking their innocent victims.

  Constable Poulson was laying in his bed going over the case in his mind when his grandfather`s offer of help popped back into his mind, and he realised that he was in need of some fresh incite on the problem, maybe his grandfather could provide it, as he had rather oddball ideas about so many things. One thing was certain, the people working on the citizens patrols were becoming disheartened, for they had found no sign of the alien creatures during their patrols and tempers were getting frayed. He desperately needed a little success to give everyone a boost.

  **********

  A small hovercraft was moving fast along the road that led to the capital city of New Caledonia. The four miners inside it had decided at the last moment to take a well earned break from the Morang Titanium mine, they wanted to spend some of their hard earned credits enjoying the limited delights offered by the city. They would have already arrived at their destination if they had not been delayed by a fault in their vehicle, and now they were trying hard to make up the lost time. They came around a sharp bend at speed when Shivers, a man who considered himself something akin to a racing driver, saw a figure illuminated by the headlights of the vehicle, and it was standing in the middle of the road.

  “My god.” Shivers cried out and wrenched the wheel hard over. Unfortunately they were now racing towards a large bush, and before he could bring the vehicle to a halt they crashed through it. They did not come to a stop until their vehicle hit the bottom of a narrow gulley that ran alongside the road, the resulting crash left the rear of the vehicle resting against the top of the gully while the front had slammed into the hard clay at the bottom of the shallow gully.

  The two men sitting in the front of the vehicle, Shivers and Garibaldi, were completely out cold, however, the two men at the rear, Powys and Desalt, although badly shaken had suffered nothing more than bloody noses and a pounding headache. These two men struggled out of their seatbelts, worn because of the speed at which they were travelling in the late evening, and opened the doors at the rear of the vehicle. They fought their way through the inflated airbags and finally clambered down to the bottom of the gully, here they stood for a moment on either side of the vehicle while trying to recover their senses. Powys was on the drivers side and he immediately thought about their other two friends, he was fumbling for the drivers door handle when his head was slammed hard against the door, and he literally saw stars as his headache exploded to new heights. Almost unconscious he felt two hands turn him around and then he screamed as two fangs bit into his neck

  Desalt heard his friend`s head hit the door but he was still not fully awake, so said nothing, however, the blood curdling scream brought him fully awake. He made to rush around the front of the vehicle when he too felt two hands grab him, this time by the scruff of his neck, and then his legs were kicked out from under him. One second later and his head was slammed into the front of the vehicle, groggily he looked round for his assailant only to be pulled to his feet and then have two fangs drive through the soft flesh of his neck. He too screamed in pain and attempted to fight back against his assailant, only to see that his assailant was invisible, which made him scream all the louder.

  Inside the vehicle the two men sitting in the front may have heard the screams coming from their friends, but unfortunately they could not fight through the multiple foggy images that flooded their minds to be of any help, two minutes later and they were dead too.

  While feeding the Venetou noticed that the men had knives hanging from their belts and within the vehicle they found a multitude of tools including two axes. The Venetou knew all about such items as they had fashioned knives and hand axes out of obsidian for various purposes when they had been on Retem. However, they had left their own tools behind due to the necessity to get aboard the Galileo before it left the planet in a panic induced rush. They took these metal weapons and tools back to their den for their own use, stashing half of them in the nearby local forest, just in case it became necessary to leave their den in a hurry.

  The hovercraft, which was more in than out of the gully, was well hidden, especially as a large mass of bushes were between it and the road. Anyone driving along the road would not see it, only someone actually searching for them stood a chance of finding them, and no one would miss these men for four or five days, when then they would then be officially missing.

  Sarai and Talia smiled, for the hunt had gone well, they decided to stay in their new den which was within walking distance to the road, and with the city even nearer. They hoped to enjoy many more successful hunts here, for they had seen many Bora travelling this road, both into and away from the many dens of the Bora. Only one thing bothered them, with so many Bora here, why were there no other Venetou, could they have travelled so far from their people in the magical den of this tribe of Bora?

  **********

  Professor Collinson and Patricia Poulson were both excited when the promised data was delivered on to Patricia`s computer electronically. They spent the first half of the day going through all the statements and log entries and then looked at the CCTV recording taken on the Galileo, the recordings though told them nothing except that the murderers, be they creatures or human, had somehow stopped the recorder from working. It was now time for them to look at the CCTV recordings of both the scanning room and the cell block, but Patricia Poulson declared that she was famished, it was time for lunch, the case could wait until after they were both fed and watered.

  **********

  Constable Poulson`s day was an improvement on his last two days, although the town`s volunteers had not come up with anything, nor was there any sign of any members of the crew of the Galileo, but on the plus side thankfully no more of the town`s people had been attacked. This would be strange if the murders were committed by an alien creature, but this very fact lent credence to his theory that the other attacks had been nothing more than a vicious smokescreen.

  Even the call from Roge Revere did not phase him, it came just after midday, Revere needed him to come to
the security wing at the spaceport, as their two guests were demanding to be released, Poulson was whistling as he entered the security wing. Poulson knew that his two main suspects would not like what he had to say to them, with this in mind he had Revere plus two of the security guards on hand to ensure that he could handle them without having to resort to using his hand Phaser.

  Captain Kramer and Maria Alejandra knew that they was about to receive more bad news as Poulson had resorted to using two of the planetary security guards to escort them to the table where yesterday they, along with Revere and the others, had been of some help to Constable Poulson.

  “Please sit down Captain Kramer, Professor Alejandra.” Poulson said very formally which in itself told them that this meeting was probably not going to result in their release from their uncomfortable cells.

  “I am afraid that I am unable to let you go just yet, it is still my opinion that one, but more likely both of you, are guilty of all the murders, both of your crew members and of the five citizens of New Caledonia.” Poulson said in a flat monotone voice.

  Both Maria Alejandra and Captain Kramer exploded at his opening statement. “How on Earth can we be guilty of murdering the five citizens of this planet, we have been locked up here since we arrived back on the planet from our trip into hell?” Kramer demanded to know as did Maria Alejandra, who was now reduced to tears by the unfairness of it all.