He noticed the woman he had seen at the hotel sitting a few tables away. She noticed him looking at her and said.
“ Logan, so you’re here.” The same as she had the night before in that deep throaty voice.
La Trenne ignored her.
The Sheriff heard it though. “ I knew you were Logan, why do you keep denying it? Even Miss Iffy knows who you are.”
La Trenne rolled his eyes. “ She saw my bag the same as you did. That’s why she thinks I am Logan.”
“ So you admit it is your bag?”
“ No, that was a slip of the tongue. It’s not my bag and I’m not Logan. How many times have I told you this?”
“ With each time you say it, I’m more convinced you are Logan. You said you had lost you’re memory, perhaps we are helping you to remember who you really are.”
La Trenne felt confused. Nobody he had met in this town made any sense to his way of thinking. He finished his breakfast in a few minutes and he even drank the gulag that came with his meal. It still smelled like old socks but it was at least refreshing. At the same time the sheriff finished his meal.
“ I had better go and tell the undertaker about the old man,” the Sheriff said “ I don’t like the idea of a dead body being in my jail cell.”
The Sheriff and La Trenne both walked out of the café.
“ See you later Logan.”
“ My name is not Logan.”
“ Sure, sure.”
La Trenne stood in the doorway of the café. It was another hot day and the sun had a bite to it. The woman who had seen him earlier walked up to him. “ I heard you tell the sheriff that you are not Logan. Why are you lying to him?” She tipped back her head to look up at him under her lashes and smiled invitingly.
“ I’m not lying, because I’m not Logan.”
The woman laughed. “ Off course you are Logan. I have seen you before and you are him.”
“ You saw a bag in my hand with Logan’s name on it. That’s the end of the story.”
“ No, you are wrong, that is not the end of the story, it is only the beginning. You have a job to do in this town and I hope you intend to fulfill your part of the agreement.” She trailed her finger over his chest. He caught her hand and removed it, frowning down at her.
“ What agreement would that be?”
“ Mr. Logan, you have been paid well. I suggest you earn your money.”
The woman turned and walked back towards the hotel leaving La Trenne even more confused. What was going on now?
“ What agreement, what money?” He called after her, but she did not reply.
As he was standing watching the woman walk away La Trenne spotted a newspaper office on the other side of the road. He strode towards it, perhaps now he would find some answers.
As he opened the door to the office a bell tinkled above the doorway.
“ What can I do to help you?” asked the man behind the news counter.
“ Do you know me?” La Trenne asked.
“ We have not been introduced, if that is what you mean,” was the reply.
“ So you haven’t seen me before?”
“ I have seen you before Mr. Logan. I saw you walk into town with the old man they call Ganmor yesterday evening. I recognised you right away.”
“ How did you know me?”
“ By the bag you were carrying. It has your name on it and the hat on your head is known as Logan’s hat.”
“ What if I was to tell you that the bag and the hat are not mine?”
The newspaperman scratched his head. “ I’m very busy here if you don’t mind. Why don’t you go and waste time somewhere else.”
“ I didn’t come in here to waste your time. I wanted to ask you what job it is that I am supposed to do?”
“ You mean you don’t know?”
“ No, I hit my head and now I have lost my memory.”
“ Maybe you need your head examined. That would be a job for a doctor.”
La Trenne felt frustrated to the point of madness. “ Please you are a man who knows what goes on in a town like this. Everybody keeps alluding to a job that I am supposed to do. Surely you know what that job is.”
“ You are right, I do know what the job is.”
“ Please tell me what it is.”
“ I thought you said you are not Logan. Are you Logan or not?”
“ Just for the moment, let’s say that I am Logan. Now will you tell me.”
“ If you are Logan, I will tell you.”
“ Alright. I am Logan.”
“ Sir, you are some kind of liar. First the bag is yours and then you say it is not. What am I to believe?”
La Trenne turned to walk out. “ I take it that you will not tell me?”
“ Alright I will tell you, as long as you stop playing these silly games…” He paused for a moment. “ For a long time we have had unsavory characters coming into our town and causing trouble. Trouble at the bar, trouble at the bank and trouble in the streets. It is more than the sheriff can handle so we decided we would hire ourselves a man who would set matters right. A man who can handle himself in a fight and hopefully we can go back to being the type of town we can be proud of.”
“ So you sent for Logan to clean up the town?”
“ Logan has done this kind of job before in towns around this territory so we sent a large amount of money to hire his, or should I say, your services.”
La Trenne nodded his head, it was all making sense now. The townsfolk had mistaken him for a hired gun, a mercenary.
“ Thankyou,” La Trenne said, “ you have answered my question now.”
“ I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a question? Do you always refer to yourself in the third person?”
“ I am not Logan. I really am not.”
“ I think I would like you to leave, Mister. I have work to do.”
Frustrated, La Trenne left.
* * *
Kazzie-Spockers had enlisted Ensign Lid-Lidia and Ensign Follicle to help search the area around the cliffs. They beamed themselves down to the base of it and took out their tricorders to try and plot Mr. La Trenne’s route.
They spread out so they didn’t miss anything and they were all feeling very hot by this time as the sun was well over head.
“ I can hear some water from up ahead,” said Oh-No.
“ Good. After that climb we could all use a drink of fresh water,” said Kazzie-Spockers.
They walked up into the clearing and then they saw the waterfall and the little lake that was below it. It was stunningly beautiful and cooler than in the hot sun.
“ Ensign Follicle, please check that the water is safe to drink, otherwise we have to have some beamed down again.”
“ It is safe. Its very pure mountain water, “ he said after a moment.
They all took a good long drink and then Kazzie-Spockers took out her tricorder and scanned the area.
“ Commander La Trenne was here,” she said, “ his DNA is on this log and around this area.”
Then Kazzie-Spockers saw the body lying on the ground by the waterfall. It had been partially eaten by animals and birds and was now starting to smell in the heat of the day. Lid-Lidia saw the body and walked over towards it. They saw that he was a stranger.
“ What do you think happened to him?”
Kazzie-Spockers looked at her tricorder. “ I would say that he fell down from the cliff near the waterfall. He has many broken bones and a broken neck. He would not have survived very long after the fall, perhaps he even died instantly.”
Ensign Follicle stepped forward. “ Should we bury the body? It is really smelling very bad.”
“ Yes Ensign we should bury it before we continue our search. Please check for any identification first.”
The body was searched but they found nothing to solve the mystery of the identity of the stranger.
Ensign Follicle fired his phaser at the ground and within seconds had a grave ready. It wasn’t
long before he had finished burying the body.
After this they all spread out and walked for about an hour. By this time it was already getting towards late afternoon and when it started to cool down they all reluctantly decided to abandon the search until the next day.
* * *
La Trenne walked to the edge of the town and knocked at the door of the Doctor’s house, a few moments later the Doctor opened the door.
“ Logan, so you’re here,” exclaimed the Doctor when he saw La Trenne standing there.
La Trenne rolled his eyes, he was so sick of telling the townsfolk he was not Logan. “ Doctor I hit my head yesterday and I seem to have lost my memory, will you take a look at my head please.”
The Doctor stood back and opened his door and La Trenne walked in. The Doctor checked his breathing and lungs and his blood pressure. Then he looked in his eyes and checked reflexes. “ So what seems to be my trouble Doctor?” he asked.
“ Well, you have a very large bump on your head, but apart from that you seem very healthy. How old are you?”
La Trenne thought. “ I don’t know, I have a feeling I’m more than thirty years old.”
“ That would have been my guess also. Do you feel unwell in any way?”
“ No I feel fine. I just have no memory of anything before I met the old man at the waterfall yesterday.”
“ In my experience you will regain your memory before long, it is hard to pinpoint when it will happen. It could happen in an hour or a day, it might even take a week. Seeing something or somebody familiar could trigger your memory. It could even happen slowly, a little bit at a time. You could have flashes of memory just for a moment and then nothing for quite a while. The mind is a vast unexplored place and it is hard to predict how you memory will return or indeed, if it will return at all. We just don’t know enough about these things.”
La Trenne sighed. “ I have been told I am supposed to help clean up this town of a bad element?”
“ In your state I would not consider doing anything along those lines just for now. It could prove fatal for you and this town has paid good money for you to be successful.”
“ Have I mentioned that I am sure I am not Logan? I took a bag from a dead man yesterday and everybody has mistaken me for him ever since.”
“ You are not Logan?”
“ No, I am not. I really am not.”
“ But you don’t know who you are?”
“ No.”
“ Have you anything on you that may give you a clue?”
“ No, nothing. My pockets are empty but for a bit of money.”
“ Hmmm… well, regardless of who you are or are not… I think you need rest and lots of it. Your mind is not what it should be. Take my advice and go to your hotel and go to bed.”
The Doctor escorted La Trenne outside then he stepped inside and closed the door leaving La Trenne standing on his porch.
“ He forgot to tell me where I should sleep if I don’t have a hotel room.” He said it out loud.
As he stood on the street a woman with a small boy came walking towards him.
“ Are you Mister Logan?” asked the young boy.
“ Do not bother the man!” said the woman sternly.
“ I want to see Mister Logan fight those bad men.” The woman pulled the young boy away down the street.
La Trenne headed back towards the sheriff’s office, as he walked past the houses and shops he thought about what the Doctor had said. As he approached what looked like a stable he could hear an engine running and just for a moment he saw a different engine in his mind. A much more sophisticated engine, one that he knew and understood, but just as quickly the image passed from his mind and he was left wondering once more.
He was walking past the hotel when he saw the attractive woman sitting in a chair outside once again. When she saw him she said the familiar line. “ Logan, so you’re here.”
He walked over to the hotel. “ Every time you see me you always say that. Are you one of Logan’s fans or are you just trying to annoy me?”
The girl gave him a very sweet smile. “ That is for me to know and for you to find out.” With that she got up from the chair and walked into the hotel.
La Trenne walked in after her. “ What do you mean by that?” he called.
She was halfway up the stairs when she turned back towards him. “ I hope you’re coming to the saloon tonight to hear me sing.” Then she ran up the stairs.
La Trenne felt bewildered as he stood there. He turned to see the hotel owner standing behind the counter. “ Are you full up today or can I get a room for tonight?”
“ We are still full up,” his face looked as sour as ever. “ My advice to you is to continue sleeping at the jail or better still at the undertakers. Your kind always ends up either in one place or the other.”
La Trenne just stood there staring at the little man behind the counter. “ Why are you treating me this way? I have money to pay for a room.”
“ I don’t doubt you have money, your kind always does.”
“ What is it with you, why are you always referring to my kind? What is my kind?”
“ You know what you are and you’ll have no room at my hotel. When the town voted to send for you to clean up the bad element I was against the decision to have you come here, and I’m still against you being here.”
“ I tried to tell you last night that you have made a mistake. I am not Logan for once and for all.”
“ Listen sonny, do you know who I am?”
“ Yes you’re the hotel owner.”
“ Not only that, I am also the Mayor of this town. As hotel owner though, I get to choose who will stay and who will not stay. Do you agree?”
“ Yes of course I agree.”
“ So I choose that you will never stay in my hotel, are we clear?”
“ Yes I get it.” La Trenne walked out of the hotel. He now felt angry that this man would not believe who he was. Then it occurred to him that nobody in the whole town had believed him, they all thought he was Logan.
He walked back over to the sheriff’s office. As he walked in the sheriff was sitting at his desk reading a magazine just as he was the night before.
“ So you’re back, and I suppose you will be wanting to spend the night here again,” said the Sheriff.
La Trenne walked over to the desk and sat down in a chair.
“ Would you mind answering a question for me?”
“ Sure, why not.”
“ I have learned that the people of Bitter Creek sent for Logan to fight a bad element that is here. Is this true?”
“ I thought you said that you are not Logan?”
“ That’s not my question, you’re trying to evade my questions again.”
The Sheriff sat staring at him for a few moments. “ Alright then, I’ll tell you what you want to know. There is a bad element who come here every week and they are due here tomorrow. They make our lives a living hell. They go into the saloon and they get drunk and then they walk around the town smashing windows and firing their weapons. If anyone is on the street they are either beaten up or killed. This town has lived in fear for too long and it is beyond what I as the sheriff can cope with. I am the only lawman in this town and I did not sign on to be killed and that is what will happen if I go up against them. They killed the town’s last sheriff. There is just too many of them for one man to handle.”
“ So the town’s people got together and hired someone to fight these men?”
“ Yes everybody in town except for myself and the Mayor, who is the hotel owner raised an amount of money and sent it to Logan to come and fix this problem. He was to fix the problem and nobody cared what he had to do to make these people go away and stay away. Do you understand now?”
“ Yes I understand everything now. The only problem is that I am not Logan. He was killed in the earthquake yesterday.”
“ I didn’t believe you when you told me thi
s before.”
“ I knew that you didn’t, but it was the truth. I am not a person who is trained to fire weapons.”
“ But you shot my weapon out of my hand last night.”
“ That’s true, for some reason I knew I could do it. Don’t ask me to explain how I knew. I have a notion that I work with some types of engines, but I’m still not sure about anymore than that.”
“ If you are not Logan this town is in a lot of trouble and I mean trouble.”
“ Surely they will just do what they do every week, won’t they?”
“ Not this week they will not. The people of Bitter Creek were so confident that the trouble would be over that they sent word to these men that Logan would be here this week to put an end to all their trouble.”
“ And the men will be here tomorrow?”
“ Well, that is the day when they usually come. They could be here today for all we know. They might be anxious to challenge Logan and catch him off guard.”
La Trenne looked at the clock on the wall. He saw that there was two hours of daylight left. “ What we need to do is go around the town and tell all the men to be on alert in case these men come today. They will certainly have to be on alert tomorrow as well.”
“ You will be wasting your time, they will not help. This town is full of cowards, I ought to know, I’m one of them.”
La Trenne shook his head. “ I can’t believe that. I won’t believe it.”
* * * *
The Captain and Beani-Poohs were sitting in the Launching Pad waiting for their evening meal when Kazzie-Spockers walked in. When she saw the Captain she walked over to his table. “ Would you like to sit down and join us Sub-Commander? Mesetta tells me Accqua has cooked a delicious meal with mushrooms tonight.”
“ No thank you, Sir. I just came in to let you know that our efforts to find Commander La Trenne are going well.”
“ That is good to know, so you are well on his trail then?”
“ Yes sir! Since this planet is very cold at night, logic tells me that he must have made his way to a town for the night. Our scans have told us that there is a town about fifteen kilometers from the waterfall where we found traces of his DNA. So tomorrow we will beam into the town and see if we can find him there.”
“ I would not advise beaming into the town itself, we must remember the prime directive and not have these people aware of our technology.”