The Venetou

by Philip R Benge

  Constable Poulson now felt able to return to the police station, leaving Patricia Poulson at his grandfather`s bedside to keep him company.

  **********

  Sarai, was recovering from the effects of the Phaser bolt, he and Talia were in the rear of a small dry cave hidden within the large northern forest of New Caledonia, but they were still within striking distance of their prey. Sarai was attempting to describe to Talia what the weapon of the Bora had done to him.

  “It was as if a Venetou had bitten me, my whole side was paralysed Talia, if I had been in the centre of the strange light I do not believe that I would be here to talk of this.” Sarai declared to his mate. “Talia, this is the first time that a Venetou has ever run away from a Bora, our ancestors will look upon us with scorn for such an act as this.” Sarai said fearfully.

  “No Sarai, they will have seen the terrible weapons of these Bora, and they will understand our need to depart the scene of the battle, injured as you were and I worried for the unborn, we had no other option but to flee from the Bora.” Talia said in their defence. “However, we will return soon and wash away this act, they will pay for their attack on the chosen ones.” Talia vowed grimly. However, she still felt ashamed at such an act, for as Sarai had said, to flee from the Bora was unheard of amongst the Venetou.

  “We will have to be more careful in future, for these Bora acted as if they were Venetou, they were actually hunting us Talia!” Sarai declared in awe of such a thing happening. “And one thing is now certain, you will have to be careful, now that you are carrying our unborn.” Sarai warned his mate.

  “It will be another nine moons before I give birth to our first born Sarai, for now I will fight by your side against this fierce Bora.” Talia declared boldly, and her mate knew better then to argue against her decision, for as always she was so brave, but incredibly stubborn.

  “As soon as the moon rises we will have to move deeper into the forest, until we have recovered enough to return here, from their actions I believe they will be out searching for us, unbelievable as it sounds Talia. When we are both recovered they will find us, and then we will feed upon them” Sarai said boldly and his mate smiled her agreement to his wise words.

  Chapter Five

  The Hunt is on

  Professor Collinson was allowed to leave the hospital the next morning, and Constable Poulson, who had been assured by the doctors that his grandfather was well, took him, not to his home, but to a meeting being held at the planetary council offices. Already at the meeting were Bishop Tamaki, Council man Valik Balsam, Council woman Carole Masters, Council man Eric Swenson and the head of the Morang Corporation`s security on the planet, Francis Strom.

  Once the professor and Poulson had arrived at the meeting, Poulson introduced his grandfather to the others, and after the usual how do you do`s he then told them why he had brought his grandfather to the meeting.

  “I have only recently discovered what a clever man my grandfather is, I believe that he will bring along to the meeting a much needed insight into the behaviour of these creatures, and this might even provide us with an idea as to how to capture them.”

  “Professor Collinson blushed after such an introduction, but on being urged to speak on the matter in hand he did so.

  “Ms Masters, gentlemen, Daniel is correct, for I do believe that I can provide you with an insight regarding these alien creatures. Now, I have read all the evidence that we have to hand, as I am sure that you have also, and I firmly believe that the creatures are not just attacking our people for no reason, no they must get something out of it, and I expect that you too must have come to this obvious conclusion.” The professor stopped here for a moment to allow his audience to nod their agreement, then he continued.

  “I have thought long on the matter while confined to my hospital bed and I have come to believe that these creatures might have evolved to live off the life-force of an intelligent species such as mankind. Now the life-force as I like to call it has long been known of; unfortunately, as mankind developed he put aside such beliefs. However, many of the religions on Earth still talk of it, just by another name, they now refer to it as esoteric energies. In Taoist philosophy they speak of Qi, the Hindus believe in Prana, and of course, God is said to have given the breath of life to Adam in Genesis. Parapsychologists believe in people having a visible aura, or psychic energy. Of course the scientists of today do not hold with such out-dated and foolish ideas.” His audience were beginning to fidget, they were beginning to get uncomfortable which the course that their meeting had taken, and Balsam looked to be about to butt in, however the professor spoke over his polite cough.

  “You do not agree, and I do not blame you at all, if it were not for the ten minute minute holes behind each victim`s eye. These holes, which as yet have not been explained, and are indeed impossible to reproduce, travel some distance into the brain of the victim. Now, we can not simply disregard these minute holes simply because we do not understand them, no, in fact they are of the utmost importance to Mankind.” His audience had now settled down and all of them now awaited his next words with renewed interest.

  “You all believe in the one God, as I do, what you may not know is that your church, the Church of the Universe, asked me many years ago to find the proof for the unbelievers that God did in fact breathe life into man, as Genesis states. I believe that here on New Caledonia, I am actually close to providing that proof, and that these creatures will help me to find it.” The professor said to a now hushed audience. It was now that Bishop Tamaki interrupted the professor`s talk.

  “I had heard about the project but thought that after so long it must have been abandoned, I am glad to be in error.” He said and gave the floor back to the professor.

  “I will never abandon such a task Bishop, and here on New Caledonia, and as I have just said, your alien creatures might just show me the way. As soon as I heard about the ten minute holes I asked myself one question, what can the creatures possibly get out of the brain of their victim. These creatures are certainly nowhere near as intelligent as we are, so I ask you, is it not foolish to say that they made a tool, one that actually made the minute holes found within the brains of their victims, but of course it is. However, all the victims had them, so now we must assume that their killers not only caused them but got something out of the deal, they surely did not do it for fun. Now the medical opinion is that these minute holes were not the cause of death, the toxin found within all of the victims` blood is thought to be what killed them, a toxin that paralyses the victim`s muscular system. However, I believe that this is just a prelude to the main event, let me explain. The creatures first penetrate the eye, and then, via the Foramen Ovale, enter the brain leaving those ten minute holes behind to provide us with a clue as to why this happened. In fact this is the only real evidence we have to show us that this was done not to disfigure their victim, or for some warped reason unknown to us, the reason why it was done was to feed upon the soul of their victims. This is the actual cause of death, the toxin is simply meant to paralyse their prey, so that their prey can not now fight back and stop this terrible act from happening.”

  His audience were stunned at the professor’s words, and not a little scared as they took a moment to dwell on the professor`s words. While his audience sat in deep thought, Professor Collinson took a moment to pour himself a glass of water and look upon the people with him. All were thinking if what the professor had said could in fact be true, it obviously was an explanation for the minute holes, correctly or otherwise, even if it was almost too terrible to think about.

  Councilman Balsam thought the very idea absurd, however, everyone here was a believer in the one god, all were members of the Church of the Universe, to argue against the professor would be extremely embarrassing if no one else should rise to back him up, and with their bishop sitting with them did they even dare to do so. One other point struck him, if the professor was correct in his thoughts, and he was able to prove the existe
nce of the immortal soul, then his name would go down in history as being a part of this awesome discovery. How his name would be linked with the idea would depend upon just how he responded to it, whether to be for or against, whether to ridicule it or applaud it.

  Constable Poulson was also struggling to take in all that his grandfather had said, he had never considered that his grandfather would make such a speech as this, could any of what he had said be true, how should he respond to it?

  For his part Bishop Tasaki was equally stunned by what the professor had said, he also needed time to think about what he had heard before he dare agree or refute it.

  Professor Collinson looked at the people seated around the table and smiled. “Well that is about it, oh except that in the short time that I saw the creatures they did not act as a wild animal, no they seemed to me to possess intelligence, we should treat them accordingly. I believe that the creature will probably think very much like the prehistoric Neanderthal cavemen of Earth, and assuming this is so we should use this knowledge to help us to track them down.

  Constable Poulson finally woke from the state he had been in and addressed the meeting. “Thank you Grandfather for your talk, and I agree with you, the creatures did not act like a wild animal, some sort of savage gorilla. Whether they are Neanderthals or further along the evolutionary line I am not sure, but for the moment I agree that we should treat them as a very dangerous caveman. I do not need to stress to the meeting just what a danger these creatures pose to the citizens of New Caledonia, their actions have already done this. Firstly I propose that we use the two drones that we are currently using, but now assist us in an all out search for these creatures. Secondly we should send out hunting groups to search for them and catch them if possible, if not then to kill them.” Constable Poulson declared to the meeting and politely stopped here for a moment to see if anyone had a question, or a remark to make, however, all were still too stunned by his and his grandfather`s words to say anything, so he continued to tell them what he proposed to do over the coming days.

  “If they are similar to the Neanderthal then they will likely look for a cave to lay up in while their wounds heal, because we hurt both of them. They`re unlikely to build a dwelling of any other sort, as that would lead us straight to them, and nobody ever said the Neanderthal was stupid. I propose to use the Galileo to help in the search, this is essential to prevent the creatures recovering before we kill or capture them. I am therefore going to order the release of Captain Kramer and Professor Alejandra, for we will need Captain Kramer to take command of the Galileo. We can declare a state of emergency and borrow the rest of the crew from those laying idle on the planet, the Copernicus is still being repaired after her last voyage, so we can use her crew. As you no doubt know, her captain is still recovering from the wounds he received on this voyage, and so is unavailable to command the Galileo.”

  The Copernicus had been hit by a large meteor shower after encountering engine trouble, luckily at the time the freighter had been sitting on the larger of the moons that orbited one of the gas giants of the New Caledonia planetary system, and so help had been sent via one of the planets two interplanetary shuttle crafts.

  “Constable, I not sure that I am in agreement regarding the release of Captain Kramer, in my opinion he is guilty of bringing a dangerous alien creature to our peaceful planet.” Councilman Balsam stated firmly.

  “I understand your reticence Councilman, however the good of the citizens of New Caledonia must take precedence over this. So my decision stands, although I will not object if you want to put a couple of your security men aboard the Galileo” Poulson replied and Balsam decided to abide by Poulson`s decision. He smiled across at him and nodded his acceptance.

  “Yes thank you Constable, I will assign Farmer and Robart as security, just in case anything happens to the Galileo and it has to land away from the spaceport, their job will be to ensure that nothing untoward happens to any of the crew.” Balsam said smiling. “As long as you do not object to my using them Mr Strom.” He said looking over at the head of security who simply nodded his agreement. Strom was still worried about any future investigation into all that had happened on New Caledonia, and to his team`s abysmal part in it.

  **********

  The sun rose the next day along with a report about four missing miners and four missing students, both parties were known to have been travelling on the only highway in or out of the city and their mutilated bodies were soon found by the drones. It was Councilwoman Carole Masters and her colleague Eric Swenson who had to go round to the worried families of the students to tell them the bad news, up at the mining site the job was left to the chief mining engineer. Constable Poulson was grateful that he had been spared the job, which was normally his, as he had far more pressing duties to attend to.

  His first duty was to release Captain Kramer and Professor Alejandra from custody and then to press gang a relieved Kramer into resuming his post as captain of the Galileo.

  “I am sorry to have put you through so much Professor Alejandra, unfortunately for you this is the first time that anyone has come across an invisible creature.” Poulson said smiling most apologetically before turning to Kramer.

  “Captain Kramer, I am afraid that I can not allow you to relax just yet, you must take command of the Galileo and help us to track down these creatures. You will find your crew waiting for you when you board your ship, unfortunately no repairs have as yet been carried out, but as you will not be flying more than five hundred metres above the surface of our planet it should not matter. The company have assigned a team of engineers to the task and they will be travelling with you while they carry out the repairs. Please prepare your ship for immediate take off, I will contact you on this personal communicator.” Poulson said handing it over to Kramer. “Keep it with you and switched on at all times, the hunt commences in just a few minutes time.” With that Poulson hurried away to the police station and his six teams of ten people who made up those who were about to depart on what could be a most dangerous hunt.

  Kramer could hardly complain about his new assignment, for he realised that many people would still blame him for bringing the creatures to New Caledonia. He just hoped that an investigation into the troubles was carried out and that while he was cleared of all blame, Francis Strom would be asked to explain his team`s lack of action at a critical point in time. Therefore, Kramer went back aboard the Galileo, and joining him were the ghosts of those who had not survived to crew with him this time.

  He had a mixed reception from his new crew, some, from their hostile manner, obviously blamed him for bringing the creatures to New Caledonia, and while the others were not openly hostile, they still gave him a somewhat cool reception.

  **********

  Patricia Poulson drove Professor Collinson to the police station where he was to meet up with her husband. She had been thinking about the creatures and the way in which they turned invisible, she now spoke to Professor Collinson about an idea that had been slowly germinating within her mind.

  Grandfather, I have been thinking about your chameleonic theory to do with the way the creatures hide from us, and I have come up with another theory, one that might work better than your one, which you might remember I had trouble getting my head around. Would it be possible for our creature to have some sort of super hypnotic ability instead, one that stops your mind from telling you what your eyes are looking at? Maybe that is why Doctor Garner and Professor Georgiou left the bridge of the Galileo, maybe they were under the hypnotic influence of the creatures?”

  Professor Collinson looked at Patricia Poulson for a moment before replying, for he wanted to see if there was a flaw in her theory, seeing as how she had found a giant one in his own, however, he could not. Smiling at her he replied to her question “Pat, I think that you may well be correct, and yes my theory did have a few holes in it.”

  They arrived at the police station to find Constable Poulson inspecting his six teams of hunters. �
��Now everyone, up until now our quarry has found it remarkably simple to kill many of our friends and neighbours, so I want you to be extra vigilant out there, for I can verify one rumour, our enemy does have the ability to become invisible. You will have to depend on the infrared detectors that each team has been supplied with. The operators of this device must ensure that the space before them, and all around their team, is constantly being scanned. The rest of you must act on what the operators tell you, do not rely upon what your eyes are telling you.”

  Constable Poulson looked over his people to ensure that they all understood what he was telling them, he immediately saw the few who imagined themselves too good for these aliens, and he made a note to speak to all of them individually. However, before he could do this Professor Collinson asked his permission to say a few words, to which Poulson readily agreed.

  “I will not keep you any longer than necessary ladies and gentlemen, however, I do need to give you all the latest theory regarding these creatures, something that I have not even had the time to tell our leader, it is, so as to speak, hot off the press.” His opening words ensured that everyone was now listening to him, as was his grandson.

  “These alien creatures might not actually have the ability to actually turn invisible as such, in this Daniel was originally correct.”

  These opening words were something that none of them expected and Constable Poulson was about to question this statement, as he and his grandfather had both seen the creatures disappear from view, however, his grandfather continued speaking before he could interrupt him.

  “Patricia Poulson, the lovely wife of our leader has come up with an interesting theory, and one that I also believe to be true, it is that the creatures might in fact use some form of mass hypnotism to conceal themselves, and in doing so they make themselves invisible to us. If we are correct in this, we should all be extra vigilant while searching for them, as my grandson has already said, we must respond to what ever our infrared detectors tell us, and not what our minds, or our eyes, tell us. I would imagine though that they are only able to influence the minds of those close to them, the further away they are the easier it will be for us to see them.”