The main street was dusty red earth, and it was wide and straight. The buildings on each side of the street were in poor condition, with paint peeling off the timber walls and some had broken windows but they looked solid enough. There was a general store and some banks, some run down shops with indifferent window displays, a saloon and what looked like a hotel at the end of the street.
The old man walked towards the saloon next to the hotel. They stopped outside the saloon door. La Trenne dropped the bag to the ground.
“ After that long walk I need a drink, kid. You should get yourself a room.”
“ How can I do that with no money?”
The old man put his hand in his pocket and took out the money.
“ Here is some money for a room and some food. The rest is for me. Nice of Logan to be so generous. Nice to meet you, kid.”
The old man walked into the saloon without a backward look.
For a few seconds La Trenne just stood there and then he lifted up the bag and looked at the Hotel. Well, there was nothing else he felt like doing and a bed sounded really good. He was tired.
As La Trenne walked into the hotel an attractive woman was passing, heading the other way and she noticed the bag he was carrying.
“Oh Logan! So you’re here,” she said in a throaty voice and kept walking.
La Trenne looked at her in surprise. “ Do you know me?” he called after her.
She looked at him over her shoulder, shrugged and smiled but didn’t stop walking away.
He turned and walked up to reception. A man was doing some paperwork behind the counter and he looked up from his work when he saw La Trenne and stared at the bag in his hand. He was a smallish looking man with a sour expression on his face. He had the look of being weaned on a pickle.
“ We’re all full up,” he snapped.
La Trenne looked at the keys hanging on the wall. “ It looks like you have plenty of room.”
“ Don’t let those keys fool you. They belong to paying guests.”
“ I have money, if you’re worried I can’t pay.” La Trenne put his hand in his pocket.
The hotel owner started to look nervous. “ Don’t take your money out. Just go and stay somewhere else. I don’t want any trouble.”
This statement floored La Trenne. “ Trouble? Why should there be any trouble?”
“ I’ve had your kind stay here before and there’s always trouble. So do me a favour and stay somewhere else.”
“ Where do you suggest I stay?”
“ Why don’t you save everybody a lot of trouble and ask the Sheriff for a room. I’m sure he will be only to happy to oblige.”
La Trenne stood there for a few seconds. The clerk went back to his work. What now? La Trenne walked out of the hotel and started to walk over to the Sheriff’s office.
As he walked past the saloon window he could see the old man through the doorway to the bar drinking and talking loudly to the others lined up at the bar.
The night was extremely cold just like the old man had said. He knocked on the door of the sheriff’s office and then walked in. The Sheriff was sitting at his desk reading a magazine. When La Trenne walked in he also stared at the bag in La Trenne’s hand.
“ Would you be able to put me up for the night, Sheriff?” La Trenne asked.
The Sheriff looked puzzled. “ You want to stay here?”
“ I can’t get a room at the hotel and he suggested I ask you for a room.”
“ Well that was right neighbourly of him wasn’t it?” the Sheriff mocked.
He looked La Trenne up and down and then shrugged.
“ You can stay here if you don’t mind being in a cell. I often sleep here myself. Be aware though, that you might end up sharing the cell with a drunk if we have any trouble in the town.”
“ That’s all right Sheriff, all I want is a good nights sleep.”
The Sheriff handed La Trenne the key. “ Here you are Mr. Logan, sleep well.”
La Trenne looked surprised. “ Why did you call me Logan? That’s not my name.”
“ We are expecting a man named Logan and you have the name on your bag so I naturally thought it was your name. I have this job because I am observant you know.”
“ I am not Logan. I have his bag but I am not him.”
“ Well, you can see how I would make the connection.”
“ Yes.” La Trenne thought for a moment. “ Perhaps the hotel owner thought I was Logan too. That explains why he kept looking at my bag.”
The Sheriff nodded. “ Now I think you should explain something to me. If you’re not Logan, who are you, and why do you have that name on your bag?”
“ Logan is dead, he was killed during the earthquake.”
“ During the what?”
“ The earthquake! There was one a few hours ago near the waterfall. I hit my head and I couldn’t remember my name. So the old man gave me Logan’s bag because he didn’t need it any more.”
The Sheriff scratched his head. “ You must have hit your head too hard. Your story makes no sense at all. What old man are you talking about?”
La Trenne tried to remember the old man’s name. “ He told me his name but I forget what it is. Last time I saw him he was in the saloon having a drink. He may still be there.”
“ All right, I’ll go and check. You stay here and I’ll be back shortly.” The Sheriff walked over to the bar and when he came back he was half carrying a man with him. As he came through the door the Sheriff asked. “ Is this the old man you were talking about?”
“ Yes’ that’s him.”
“ He was only in there a short time but he is drunk already.”
The old man was so drunk he was almost unconscious. The Sheriff pushed him into a cell and locked the door behind him. “ There is nothing abnormal about him being drunk. I just wonder where he got the money to pay for that amount of drink. Nobody over there has ever seen him get drunk that quickly before.”
La Trenne thought it would be a smart thing not to mention the money. The old man had stolen it but he had been helpful to him and he didn’t want to cause him any trouble.
A moment later La Trenne could hear the old man snoring and he knew he would never get a good nights sleep in that jail.
“ So you were saying there was an earthquake today? Is that what you called it?”
“ Yes. Didn’t you feel it here? It was strong enough to knock me out and kill Logan.”
“ You’re talking about the shaker? I have never heard them called earthquakes before,” he paused “ so how long have you known Logan?”
“ I don’t know him, I have only seen him dead.”
“ So you took his bag?”
“ As I said before, he didn’t need it anymore. He was dead.”
The Sheriff took a weapon out of his desk. “ Your story does not wash Mr. Logan. I’m going to give you a room for the night after all, only the door will be locked.”
“ There’s no need for that. I am no threat to you.”
“ I’ll be the judge of that.”
La Trenne opened the bag he was carrying and found the weapon inside and quickly brought it out. This took the Sheriff by surprise.
“ Sheriff, I don’t want to be locked up. I have not told you any lies.”
“ Then why are you resisting arrest? Do us both a favour and put the weapon down, now!”
La Trenne noticed the Sheriff was about to fire at him and he instinctively fired first and shot the weapon out of the Sheriff’s hand. Then he grabbed the keys to the jail.
“ I’m sorry but you’re the one who is going to be locked up for the night.”
“ Don’t make things worse for yourself Logan. Come morning I will be obliged to hunt you down.”
“ Just get in the cell, Sheriff. I’m not going anywhere, I intend to sleep over here between your two chairs. So we’ll both have to put up with the old man’s snoring.”
The Sheriff turned around to face him. “ Thi
s is not a good idea, son. If what you say is true, then the truth will come out. But don’t make things worse for yourself. You are a stranger here and the last thing you want to do is make your situation worse. My job is to make sure that you never do any wrong in this town.”
“ I told you before, I’m not Logan!”
“ What do we call you then?”
“ I don’t know. Please believe me, I won’t be causing any trouble. I just need some time to think.”
The Sheriff sighed and turned to the bed.
La Trenne locked the door of the cell and threw the keys on the desk. He found a blanket in the cupboard, now all he had to do was get some sleep.
* * *
Kazzie-Spockers had climbed to where the cave was located and according to her tricorder she could tell that Mr. Base was inside. She pushed her COM badge.
“ Mr. Base can you hear me?” She waited.
“ Commander Base can you contact me?”
There was no answer, so she contacted the DVD.
“ Transporter Chief can you beam up Commander Base, he is in a cave just near where I am standing?”
“ Negative Sub-Commander, I can not get a lock on him at all.”
She pushed her COM badge again to call the Captain.
“ Hemorrhoid here,” he responded.
“ Captain I believe I have found Commander Base. He is trapped inside a cave that has collapsed. His COM badge must not be functioning because he is not answering my hails. We will have to dig him out by hand, so please come up here and assist me.”
“ What about Mr. La Trenne, have you found him as well?”
“ Nothing is conclusive so far Captain, there are no other life signs in the cave. We can not be certain that he is in there. It was a massive cave-in, so it will be an immense task to clear this cave.”
“ Affirmative Sub-Commander, we will be there in a few minutes.”
He signed off.
It was dark by the time the Captain and the others arrived at the cave and the temperature was now starting to drop rapidly. They had only been working a few minutes when the Captain decided it was too cold to continue. He tapped his COM badge.
“ Mr. Sook would you be able to tell me what the temperature will drop to tonight?”
“ According to my instruments the temperature will be twenty degrees below zero Celsius within the next hour and will drop even further before dawn.”
He signed off. “ I’m sorry but we are going to have to continue this tomorrow. It is already too cold to clear this debris tonight.”
Kazzie-Spockers was concerned. “ What about Mr. Base who is trapped inside this cave?”
“ The cave will remain a steady temperature inside, but I’m sorry we will have to come back this in the morning. We will start early before it gets too hot. The temperature will not worry Commander Base. I am more concerned about La Trenne but there is nothing else we can do at this stage.”
Kazzie-Spockers was also worried about Mr. La Trenne and what might have happened to him. “ Aye, aye sir.” She reluctantly replied.
A few minutes later they all beamed back up to the ship.
* * *
La Trenne’s back was feeling very painful the next morning and his neck was stiff as well. He almost wished he hadn’t made the Sheriff sleep in the cell. At least the Sheriff had a bed to sleep on. As he moved around the office, he could feel it getting a bit better. The Sheriff heard him moving around. “ Are you going to put on some gulag? There is some in the cupboard”
La Trenne remembered gulag was the drink the old man had given him at the waterfall and he wasn’t sure he wanted to drink it again.
“ Is that all you have, you don’t have any coffee do you?”
“ Coffee? I never heard of it. Everybody in these parts drinks gulag in the morning, I can not even function until I have had at least two cups.”
La Trenne threw some wood into the stove and then put on a kettle to boil. He found the gulag just where the Sheriff said it was and made a pot.
While he was waiting for it to warm up he turned to the Sheriff. “ If I let you out of the cell can we start over? I don’t want a repeat of last night.”
“ I will not reach for a weapon, if that is what you mean, son. After a good night’s sleep I have decided that you do not look very menacing. Even if you did lock me in my own jail cell.”
La Trenne was relieved. He unlocked the cell and the Sheriff came out and checked on the gulag.
“ Sheriff I was thinking along the same lines. We do not have to be enemies. I only came in here to ask if I could sleep here.”
“ But the question remains…. If you are not Logan who are you?”
La Trenne felt exasperated. “ I am telling you for the last time, I don’t know who I am. I just know that I am not Logan.”
The Sheriff studied him. “ Is there any memory of anything at all?”
La Trenne frowned. He could almost see his name in his mind but for some reason he just couldn’t bring it to the part of his brain that could say it. “ I don’t know, I still can not remember.”
The Sheriff was not impressed. “ You know you are not Logan but apart from that you know nothing… this is not a very helpful situation and I can’t help thinking that something does not ring true with you.”
“ What do you mean?”
“ You just don’t seem to fit in…I can’t put my finger on it. Everything points to you being Logan. You are a stranger, you were expected and you turned up with his bag. What else are we to think?”
“ Wake up the old man, he will tell you that I’m not Logan.”
“ Alright I will.” The Sheriff walked over to the old man who was still lying on his bunk. He looked very still in the early morning light.
“ The old man has stopped snoring now,” the Sheriff observed.
He pushed the old man, but nothing happened. Then he pushed him again. “ I think the old man is dead, he must have died in his sleep.”
La Trenne opened the cell door and walked over to the old man and felt his pulse. He briefly closed his eyes. Nothing could be worse than this.“ You’re right, he is dead. He must have drunk more than his heart could stand.”
“ That seems mighty convenient for you then. The only person who could tell us who you really are and now he is dead.”
“ I never said he knew my name. I said that he knew that I am not Logan.” La Trenne was feeling very exasperated.
“ You can talk around this all day but soon you will have to stand up and be Logan, there is no two ways about it. That’s what everybody expects in this town. You may not know this yet, but you have enemies… people who are going to believe you are Logan, no matter what you say. The gulag is ready let’s have some.”
The Sheriff poured himself a cup.
La Trenne watched the Sheriff drink the brown liquid that smelled like old socks and felt repulsed but he also felt hungry. “ Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving, I never ate anything last night.”
The Sheriff walked over to the old man and went through his pockets. He took out all the money that was left from what the old man had taken from the corpse. “ There is lots of money here, let’s say I buy you some breakfast.”
“ That sounds good to me.” La Trenne thought for a moment. “ What did you mean when you said I would have to stand up and be Logan.”
The Sheriff laughed. “ You will find out.”
* * *
A team of crewmembers beamed onto the planet surface just after it was light enough to see. At this time of the day it was still quite cold but they knew it wouldn’t be long before the sun started to warm things up.
Sub Commander Kazzie-Spockers was in charge and she had brought along Oh-No the shape-shifter thinking that he would be useful in squeezing through small spaces.
It was almost an hour later when they had walked up to the cliff cave to start moving the rocks. They worked for four hours before they had c
leared the entrance of the cave. Kazzie-Spockers spotted a small space between the rocks so she called Oh-No over to the entrance.
“ Oh-No this is a good opening. See if you can slide into the cave and find Mr. Base. Also look and see if you can find Commander La Trenne. I will give you spare Com badges for them.”
“ Aye, aye Sub-Commander.” He changed himself into a thin snake and slid easily through the rocks. Once on the other side he changed back to his usual form. Then he walked around the cave until he found Mr. Base pinned under a pile of rocks. Oh-No cleared the rocks away from Mr. Base and then he pinned a spare COM badge on his shirt.
“ Sub-Commander I have found Mr. Base and he is ready to beam back to the ship. He is badly damaged and his arms are not functioning.”
“ Are you able to speak with him?”
“ Negative Sub-Commander, he is in need of repairs.”
“ Have you seen any sign of Commander La Trenne?”
“ Not so far. I have a fluorescent light that I will shine around the cave. If he is here I will be able to see him.”
“ That is a good idea, proceed Mr. Oh-No. Stand back so we can beam Mr. Base aboard ship.”
It was fifteen minutes later when Oh-No pushed his COM badge.
“ Sub-Commander I have combed this whole cave looking for Mr. La Trenne. I can definitely tell you that he is not in this cave.”
Kazzie-Spockers felt a wave of relief. “ Good work Mr. Oh-No, you can beam back to the ship if you wish, or you can accompany me and a few others to find what happened to Commander La Trenne.”
A few seconds later a familiar snake made it’s way through the rocks.
“ I have decided to help you find our crew member.”
“ Very good Mr. Oh-No, many hands make light work. So they say!”
They stood on the cliff looking at the valley below them.
“ Sub-Commander my guess is that he must have climbed down the cliff.”
“ Yes perhaps his tricorder indicated that there was some minerals in the valley somewhere.”
“ I do not know how he climbed down this cliff. It is very steep and without ropes it would be easy to slip.”
Kazzie-Spockers looked at what they had to do logically, but she had questions in her mind. “ One thing I am wondering about, Mr. Oh-No. Where did Commander La Trenne spend the night? I fear if he was outdoors he will not have survived such harsh temperatures.”
* * *
La Trenne was relieved when his breakfast finally arrived. Nothing on his plate looked familiar or appetizing but he didn’t care, he was ready to eat a horse.