The Venetou

by Philip R Benge

  “An idea occurred to me Daniel, your two men, or creatures, have obviously made a den for themselves somewhere within the town, it should be fairly easy to track it down. Surely some department on the planet has a list of all the empty buildings, if you have no luck this evening in trapping the creatures then we could visit each empty building tomorrow. They do seem to prefer the night to do their hunting so we just might catch them napping, there can not be too many such buildings, and we can take along a portable infrared detector in case they disappear before our eyes, what do you say Daniel?” Professor Collinson asked eagerly.

  “Yes, Grandfather, you might well be right, as you say, if we have no luck tonight then tomorrow we will certainly finish them off.” Constable Poulson agreed and yawned as exhaustion was rapidly overcoming his shattered body. He needed sleep to clear his mind, only then would he be able to sort out the new evidence that his grandfather and his wife had presented him with. For he now had no idea as to who were his prime suspects now?

  “Come on Grandfather, I need my sleep, I was going to work late but I think I will leave it to my deputies on the night shift, let`s go home.”

  **********

  That night the Venetou decided to hunt alongside the main highway that snaked out of the small city of New Caledonia, first though they needed something from out of the nearby forest. Therefore, they first walked to the outskirts of the local forest, and here they cut down some of the long creepers that hung down from the trees. With these coiled up to make for easy handling they returned to the crash site of yesterday and collected the dead body of the driver.

  The Venetou were now ready to set their trap for any travellers moving along the road. They tied the arms of the dead man to two of the creepers, the creepers were now pulled tight and then secured to two large rocks on either side of the road. This had the effect of standing the dead body upright and right in the middle of the road, it was at a point where it was quite narrow, as this section of the road had been cut through a hard granite up thrust of rock. It was also right in the middle section of an s-bend, which would ensure that any travellers coming along the road would not see the body, arms stretched out, until it was too late.

  The hour was very late and they were lucky, for only one vehicle was coming along the road, more than one could have caused them problems, the vehicle that came fast around the bend was driven by a young man of twenty, with him were his girlfriend and his best friend together with his girlfriend. They were on the way home after a night out dancing, and looking forward to the rest of the weekend, for it was Friday.

  “Christ, Billy Meldrew screamed as he saw the body as he sped around the bend, he immediately hit the brakes, unfortunately they were going much to fast to be able to stop in time, their lightweight vehicle crashed through the flimsy barrier, the dead body destroyed the windscreen and crashed through the car knocking out Meldrew and his girlfriend.

  Sarai and Talia knew nothing of motor cars of any sort, however, even they could see that this one was finished when it careered off the road and smashed into the hard granite rocks that bordered the road. The two Venetou ran to the now smoking vehicle and attacked the two passengers in the rear seats, these two were decidedly groggy following the crash and put up no resistance at all, not even noticing when the sharp fangs entered their necks. However, they tried to scream when the hard tongue penetrated their eyes. Sarai and Talia then turned to the people in the front seats, the two Venetou fed well that night, their luck was holding for they had enough time to push the vehicle, with its dead people still inside, behind a road sign urging motorists to drive slowly, and well before another vehicle came along the quiet road.

  **********

  Constable Poulson did manage to get a few hours of sleep that night, but it was still quite early the following morning that he awoke and left his wife, children and grandfather asleep in their beds. At the police station all was quiet, no further attacks had been reported against the citizens of New Caledonia. Deputy Landers was now kept busy with the new task assigned to him by Constable Poulson, this task was one of accumulating the addresses of all of the empty office buildings, factories, and shops which were within or near to the town. After that he checked to see which houses were temporarily empty as their owner was away for whatever reason. He then made up a schedule that would minimise the time used to check on all of these buildings. After lunch, the police department and the volunteer citizens` brigade began to check on the buildings, always with an infrared detector and a Phaser weapon at the ready, just in case they were lucky enough to find their prey.

  Professor Collinson accompanied his grandson and two of the town`s volunteer citizens` brigade while they checked on three industrial units that were on the edge of town. The first two were just empty shells waiting for someone to show an interest in them before they were completed, and they found nothing there except stress, the stress of coming across two homicidal alien creatures who might just be invisible. The third unit had a buyer who was bringing twenty workers with him, he had decided to move away from Earth and its many problems and start afresh here, amid his customers and with reduced delivery costs, for most of his customers lived on one of the colonised planets.

  Constable Poulson had already acquired the key to the premises, but on arriving and parking their vehicle at the back he found that the key was not required, for the door had been forced open, something unheard of on New Caledonia. The alarm system had not operated simply because it had not as yet been activated, for crime on the planet was almost non existent, well it was before the Venetou arrived. Constable Poulson was about to push the door wide open when he stopped and turned to the other three men.

  “Set your weapons on their medium setting, that will stop anyone from escaping, even alien creatures, should they be inside, but it will ensure that a stray shot does not kill any of us. Now let`s keep quiet as we proceed, only speak if you see whoever broke into this building, ok?” he said.

  On receiving their agreements by way of three nods he took out his weapon and adjusted the setting, his action being duplicated by the two volunteers, however, Professor Collinson did not have a Phaser weapon for he did not like them. In his belt he carried a wicked looking Bowie knife which he had been presented with while on his travels when much younger, and in his hands was the infrared detector which he had insisted to Daniel that all the teams take with them.

  Constable Poulson pushed the exterior door wide open and the four men quietly slipped through the open doorway into a short corridor off of which there were two doors on the right hand side and a further door at its end. He stopped when he came to the first door.

  “Tom, you and Mel stand ready as I open this first door, Grandfather you get ready with the infrared detector, just in case everyone else is right about these creatures.” Constable Poulson whispered. He still had not fully reconciled the recording evidence with his sense of what was possible.

  Constable Poulson quietly opened the door so as not to alert anyone should they be elsewhere in the building, then he pushed it wide open while Professor Collinson swept the empty room with the detector, it showed only that the room was empty. Tom and Mel, who had been holding their breath in anticipation of being attacked by two dangerous animals both began to breathe again.

  Constable Poulson now led the way to the next door and this too only opened up onto an empty room. This left only the door at the end of the corridor, the one that would allow them to enter the main part of the building. He looked at the two volunteers, they were now showing signs of the stress they had been under since they had begun searching buildings just two hours earlier. He smiled at them to try to reassure them that everything would be all right. He then looked at his grandfather, and to his surprise saw that he seemed to be holding up better than the two much younger men.

  “I am fine Daniel, let`s proceed through the next door.” Professor Collinson urged by way of assuring his grandson that he was ready and willing to proceed, his voice a
lmost as quiet as a church mouse.

  Daniel smiled at his grandfather`s words. “Ok everyone, same procedure as before.” He whispered. With that he opened the door, in front of them was a large open room which would be the factory, Professor Collinson scanned the empty room before them but nothing registered on his machine. Constable Poulson led them into the room, he saw that off of this large room, on the right hand side, were three rooms in a line, he led his team forward along the left hand wall before them. Tom followed him, then Professor Collinson and last of all Mel. With Professor Collinson scanning the empty space ahead of them they were all finally able to see into the middle of the three smaller rooms on the other side of the factory. They stopped as one and gasped out their surprise for they saw through its open door two large grey humanoid creatures dressed in the uniforms of the crew of the Galileo, creatures who resembled the creatures on the recording that the professor had been working on. In that instance Constable Poulson smiled smugly. “Invisible creatures, I do not think so.” He whispered to himself forgetting the evidence of the recording for a moment, or that he was looking at what appeared to be two alien creatures.

  The creatures looked up in surprise at the entrance of the four men, they had been about to settle down and go to sleep, five minutes later and the men of New Caledonia would have caught them asleep, now though they leapt to their feet as Mel fired his weapon at them. The powerful bolt of energy whistled through the air and exploded against the wall of the room. A moment ago it would have struck Sarai, instead he and his female crashed through the windows on either side of the small room as a Phaser bolt from Tom`s weapon screamed through the open door to explode once again against the rear wall of the room.

  The two Venetou exited through the doors of the other two smaller rooms and once within the main room the solid bodies of the two Venetou seemingly blended with the pale cream paintwork behind them. Constable Poulson froze as he saw the two creatures disappear in front of his eyes, he now knew that there was no personal cloaking device involved, they actually had the ability to turn invisible!

  From either side of the room the two Venetou both moved silently but speedily towards the four men, Professor Collinson was not as surprised as the other three men and he swept the detector across the room and he immediately saw the large form of Sarai bearing down on them from the right. Tom had moved forward, with Mel moving hesitantly after his friend, both drawn by the hypnotic mind of the invisible Sarai, this was so he could take the Bora on one at a time.

  “Daniel, one of them is bearing down on Mel and Tom.” He shouted loudly. Mel and Tom, fear once again on their faces, fired their weapons at the open space in front of them but hit nothing.

  Sarai ran right across the front of Mel and launched himself at Tom in an effort to aid Talia. Tom screamed in pain as Sarai bit deeply into his neck, Mel moved quickly towards his friend, fear emblazoned across his face, his weapon pointing towards the floor. However, seeing his friend collapse to the floor he brought his weapon up and setting it to its widest setting he fired again. The energy bolt caught Sarai a glancing blow as he stood there feeling with his mind for Talia, he stumbled and screamed in pain, the right side of his body paralysed by the Phaser bolt, but he did not fall. Two Phasers were swinging towards the part of the room which had lit up when the energy bolt had hit him and he moved to the wall in the hope of evading yet another attack, fear for the first time in his life eating away at his insides.

  Professor Collinson quickly swung the detector right across the room in search of the second creature and quickly found it. He screamed out a warning as Talia crashed into the constable sending him crashing into the wall, then she was upon Mel. He had moved nearer to the wall, and away from where he knew an invisible monster lay in wait for him, and his course took him inadvertently towards Talia. Talia was now holding him rigid in the grip of her two powerful hands, she drove her two large fangs into his soft neck, it was just as Professor Collinson dropped the detector and pulled out his knife. He now moved quickly towards the invisible Talia and the volunteer and stabbed the empty space before him.

  Talia had seen him approach and as Professor Collinson had stabbed towards her she let her victim fall to the floor and leapt upon the professor biting him. Professor Collinson felt the pain as the fangs entered his neck, he swung his sharp knife and smiled as he felt it enter the creature. The Venetou screamed in pain as the knife entered her side, she feared for her unborn and pulled herself free of the knife, she wanted to attack this Bora but fear for the unborn made her turn and run towards her mate. The two Venetou limped towards the large glass doors at the front from the building, which Sarai had already forced open that morning, wanting two escape routes should it become necessary. Leaving the battle scene they disappeared into the countryside, once safe they could consider what this turn of events meant for them. She felt the blood running down her side and put her hand to her wound to help stop the flow of her precious blood. She knew that if the wound in her side was not too severe, she would be ok, for her kind recovered quickly from such wounds, however, she was worried for her unborn, for the weapon of the Bora had indeed been long and sharp, and it had gone in deep.

  Constable Poulson was unconscious for all of ten seconds, when he came too he found that the fighting was all over. Tom was dead, and Mel and his grandfather were both unconscious, that they had both been bitten was plain from the marks on their necks and the blood on their necks, but both were still alive. He quickly pulled out his personal communicator and called for an ambulance. Only then did he put a call in to the other search parties for urgent assistance. Looking about the room he saw the blood trail leaving the building and on seeing it he smiled, albeit grimly, one of the creatures had been injured by his grandfather, for he saw the bloody knife still gripped firmly in his hand. He would have to get it analysed, for there was no telling just what it would tell them, maybe something about their ability to disappear from his sight. His eyes turned back to his grandfather and he felt a stab of worry, it took away the aches caused by the creature when it crashed into him, it was only now that he realised that his own head was bleeding. Invisible creatures, he raged at himself, all the evidence pointed to it but he had refused to believe it, it had taken the death of one of his people and the near death of two others before he saw sense, and his grandfather could be dying before his eyes. Tears flowed down his face as he heard the sound of the emergency services pulling up outside of the building.

  **********

  Professor Collinson awoke to find a very worried Patricia Poulson sitting by his bedside in the planet`s main hospital.

  “Grandfather, you are awake, thank god, we were so worried, Daniel is here too, he has just left to visit the washroom. He is in such a state, he blames himself both for his intransigence and for taking you along on the search.” She said in a rush, a look of relief upon her pretty face.

  Professor Collinson smiled weakly as he looked up at her. “Tell Daniel not to be so silly, it was my idea, and so I was never going to allow him to go without me. But tell me, how are Mel and Tom, are they all right?” He asked weakly.

  “Poor Tom died from the bite of one of those creatures, poor Julia, that is his wife, she is desolate, I do feel for her, I can imagine how I would have felt if it had been Daniel who had been bitten by one of those terrible creatures.” Patricia sniffed and wiped away a solitary tear before continuing. “However because of your actions Mel is alive, he is slowly recovering next door, Daniel told me that your actions in attacking the female creature saved not only his own life but that of Mel as well.” Patricia said proudly and she leant over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you Grandfather for saving Daniels life, I will always be in your debt.” Tears began to slip down her face and seconds later she burst into tears. Professor Collinson pulled her head down onto his chest and held her there until her sobs had subsided.

  This was how Constable Poulson found them, and he was over joyed to see his grandfather awake and
looking a little better, although he was still a little pale. He took a moment to compose himself before greeting his grandfather.

  “Well you are looking better Grandfather, how do you feel after your battle?” He asked as he looked down upon the now smiling face of his wife who had turned to smile at him on hearing him speak, her hand wiping away her tears.

  “I am fine Daniel, but tell me how goes the hunt for the creatures?” Professor Collinson demanded to know.

  “Well Grandfather, that creature that you wrestled with turned out to be the female of the species, your sharp knife caused her to bleed quite a bit and we found signs of the pregnancy hormone chorionic gonadotropin in her blood, and for a human woman that would be proof that she was pregnant. It was probably worry for her unborn child that made her break off the attack.” Constable Poulson said.

  “The creatures will probably have fled to the country where they will hide until they have both recovered, unless we find them they will then return to feed once more upon us” Constable Poulson said in a whisper so that the other patients of the hospital did not hear him.

  “They will be harder to catch now that they have felt our weapons, and as you say Daniel, we need to act before they fully recover.” Professor Collinson advised.

  “I will have to act Grandfather, all you have to do is to recover.” Constable Poulson stated firmly.

  “It was my idea that found them before Daniel and I now claim the right to be with you on the new hunt.” Professor Collinson whispered back. “And a love bite is not going to put me on the side line.” He said reprovingly.

  Patricia Poulson did not know whether to back up her husband or his grandfather in this argument, for she liked the idea of Professor Collinson Poulson shotgun alongside her husband, he had saved his life once, maybe he would be ideally placed to do it again.

  “I will abide by the medical prognosis Grandfather.” Constable Poulson replied with a grin.