He had groaned again in pain as the floor now hit him, and he wondered why he could not hear his groan of pain, although he did hear the solid thump when he hit the deck of the starship. He just lay there on his front wondering what was happening to him, was he dying, was this how it felt. He then felt his body being turned over by invisible hands, and it was only moments later that he saw them, shimmering into view before him, two of the most beautiful creatures that he had ever seen, and they were now kneeling over him. He watched immobile as they leant further over him and opened their mouths, fear bit into his insides when he saw the large fangs coming nearer to his face. Then the creatures stuck out their long thin strange looking tongues, he finally understood what had made the holes in Gonzales` eyes, what had made the very small holes in the brain of Gonzales, now he screamed out in fear, a scream that no one heard, not even the Venetou. The beauty that he had seen only moments ago disappeared, now he saw only pure evil. He tried to close his eyes to stop the tongues from touching them, but even this was impossible, but then the two tongues were boring into his eyes and finally the ten ultra thin needles were entering into his brain. He could hear his screams as they reverberated within his mind, but no one else could for his larynx, as with his other muscular functions, was completely paralysed, only his nerves were still working, still sending the pain impulses to his brain. He knew he was dying for his muscles that made breathing possible could no longer move, then before he was ready for it, everything went black and he was dead, for his life force had been sucked out of him by the two Venetou.
Sarai then looked at the tap on the kitchen sink, it took him only a moment to make it work, then he and Talia quenched their thirst. Sarai wondered at the marvels of this strange den before he and Talia returned to the ship`s hold.
**********
The four survey teams had quite a successful day, unfortunately when the first three teams returned to the Galileo, they found that they were unable to attract the attention of Carter to let them re-board the starship. Luckily for everyone, when Kramer arrived back at the ship from the deserted walled city, they were able to use the small computer aboard the tracked vehicle to connect up with the central computer of the Galileo and gain access into the security program. The two doors opened allowing the two vehicles to drive up the cargo ramp while those on foot entered via the main airlock, their Phasers at the ready.
It was Kramer who found the body, but he already knew that Carter would be dead, why else had he not answered the calls of the survey teams. Once again Kramer locked the ship up tight, once again the ship was searched, but without finding an intruder, the same signs were found, but at the cargo ramp this time. Once more Garner and Palin performed an autopsy which gave the same method of murder. One thing was clear, the murderer must have been an intruder who had somehow gained entry to the starship and eluded their searches, either that or one of the three person survey teams were in it together, and that was absurd.
While the autopsy was performed in the small medical centre, Kramer sat on the bridge of the ship, and together with the others, who were either sitting or standing, now went through the CCTV recordings, something they could not do after the first murder. This did not take long as the cameras only activated when they recorded movement. The bridge camera was almost constantly on and they fast forwarded this section, however, the only other camera to activate was the one in the mess room. It showed Carter walking over to the coffee pot, and then the picture went fuzzy and then stopped.
“What the hell! Aaila, what is wrong with your equipment? Electrician first class Aaila Madani, was originally from Turkey and now of deep space, and thankfully, she thought, far from her family. She was in charge of everything electrical on the starship including the computers.
“I am sorry Captain,” Aaila said moving over to the central computer. “But do not worry Sir, I will fix the problem, what ever part of our archaic equipment it is.” Aaila said the last part under her breath. She had always thought that the equipment on the survey vessels was out of date, and in need of urgent replacement. She was forced to keep the electrics on this space tub working with well chewed sticks of chewing gum and miles of insulating tape. These feelings she kept very much to herself, for she knew that the company liked its employees to be team players, any dissenters were soon fired.
No matter what she did she could not find any sign of the CCTV recording within the computer, so she checked the computer log and found a series of reports regarding localised minor power failures, and one occurred two hours after the survey teams had left the ship. Aaila now asked the computer for a print out of the computer log dating from the time that the ship landed on Retem, and when she had that she had the computer do a full systems check. Next she checked the CCTV camera itself, and she found that the electrics had shorted out, although why Aaila did not know.
Aaila now looked at the print out of the computer log, and what it showed was very strange, a series of localised events all to do with the electrical system, and something else that she immediately took to Kramer.
“Captain, I have managed to find out why the CCTV recording stopped, the camera has mysteriously shorted out, it is useless now, everything electrical within it is burnt out. Do you want me to move one of the other camera into the mess hall?” Aaila asked.
“Yes Aaila, take one out of the hold, there is really no point in having one in there.” Kramer replied quietly. He was feeling very down, what chance was there in finding out just what was murdering his crew when he had such rubbish equipment at his disposal.
“Captain, I did find something that might interest you.” Aaila said smiling at Kramer, he looked up at her, hope appearing in his eyes, maybe their luck had changed.
“I printed out a record of the computer log from the time that we landed on this god awful planet, and it has come up with some interesting data.” Aaila said quietly so that only Kramer could hear her report. “The ship has had a series of localised minor electrical failures that started on the very first day that we landed, commencing about an hour before we closed up the ship for the night, and they have continued on and off since then. We have also had two relatively large electrical failures, one occurred at about the time Gonzales died and the second one occurred at exactly the time of Joe`s death.” Aaila stopped here to allow Kramer to butt in but he just nodded for her to continue on with her report.
“Sir, they can not be coincidences, and as Joe died when not one of the crew or the scientists were aboard the ship, it must mean that we have a stowaway aboard, one who is somehow eluding us.” Aaila said and looked at Kramer as if expecting a brilliant answer to the puzzle that she had presented him with, instead he rebuked her.
“Aaila, why was I not told about the power failures before now?” Kramer complained loudly.
“Because Captain, I have been too busy either searching the ship for an intruder or escorting Professor Taylor to the ruined city, as you must know, anything rather than doing my normal job. Our engineering department is having exactly the same problem, the chief can not find the time to run a systems check on our engines. I personally did not have the time to check the computer alerts until ten minutes ago, when you asked me to actually do the task that I signed on to do.” Aaila replied angrily.
“Why didn`t the computer send out an audible alarm then?” Kramer now asked equally angrily.
“For the same reason some of the other parts of the ship do not work, the system is falling apart, you should be grateful that anything works, and that I brought enough chewing gum aboard the ship to stick the parts of the electrical system together that do work.” Aaila protested.
It was now that Garner and Palin walked in to give Kramer their autopsy report, but apart from the grizzly details it was essentially the same as the report on Gonzales death. Kramer had calmed down, accepting the reasons that Aaila had given, so he asked her to tell the two men of her findings.
After she had finished Kramer now spoke. “I wonder if ou
r uninvited guest could be using some sort of a jamming device that is affecting our systems.” Kramer said to those around him. “Aaila, do we still have a localised power failure anywhere on the ship?” Kramer asked her.
Excitement flashed on to Aaila`s face and she quickly turned to the computer, but the excitement soon vanished. “No, Captain.” Aaila said in deflated voice. “The last power failure was at the cargo ramp, it ended twenty seconds after we last came aboard the Galileo.” Silence filled the mess room for thirty seconds, then Kramer broke it.
“Aaila, can you have the computer alert us should another power failure occur, whoever or whatever is murdering our people is almost certainly behind the power failures, the next time our murderer returns we will be ready for them.”
“Of course Captain, although it will take me some time, I will have to take our interstellar communications array off line so that it can send us a message on our localised communications system.” Aaila replied.
“Do it, we need to know what is happening on this planet, not elsewhere in the galaxy, you can reconnect it when we have this problem licked.” Kramer ordered. With their communications system down it meant that he would have to be the one who broke the news to Rachel Carter about her husband’s death, but he would rather do that than have any other deaths on his hands.
**********
The Venetou are an intelligent creature, they were on a par with the Palaeolithic hunter gatherers of Earth, although they had long ago mastered speech and they had a fairly extensive vocabulary. They had watched with interest as the Bora had searched for them after the first death aboard the survey vessel, being forced to hide in plain sight within the small hold of the starship, using their hypnotic powers they easily blended into its grey walls. It was not fear that had made them hide, they just did not want to kill the Bora when they had no need to feed upon them. This time they decided not to stick around for the second search, for they now realised that this tribe of Bora was more intelligent than they had anticipated. Sarai had decided to take his mate to the deserted city, he was sure that they would be able to make a new secure den there, hidden amongst the strange dwellings of their former prey. From here they would be able to track their new prey, and feed upon them when hungry. When he reached the city he thanked Selene his god for their last meal, he opened his mouth and howled into the darkening sky, his female joining him in their thanks to their god, Selene. They then donned two uniforms, ones that they had stolen them from the Galileo.
“They itch Sarai, why must we wear them?” Talia asked grumpily.
“They will help us to become invisible Talia, my brain hurts when we use our powers on the Bora for long periods of time, these clothes will help us to blend in, you will see that I am right. It will make our life a lot simpler.” Sarai explained and Talia smiled across at her mate. “If our power wains for a moment they will only see our uniform, they will not notice who is inside of it.” Sarai said patiently.
“If you say so Sarai.”
**********
The next day no one was left aboard the starship, everyone was with one of the surveying parties. They were out upon the planet searching for signs of useful minerals, or the flora and fauna, anything that could be used in the medical and weapons divisions of the Morang Corporation. Items that the Corporation desired so desperately to use or sell, and in doing so increase their already full coffers. The crew were all blinded to the simple but unescapable fact, which was that this world held a dangerous predator, one that would pose a mega danger to any miners or colonists that came to this planet looking for its wealth. However, they did keep an eye out for any signs of the builders of the deserted city.
Mary Taylor had Aaila Madani and David Jubal along with her on this trip to the ruined city. Kramer had decided to accompany the geologists Maria Alejandra and Haru Sato, who on their last trip had found a new mineral half way along the nearby ravine, it could turn out to be very important as it gave off an enormous amount of energy whenever the Geiger counter was brought anywhere near to it. Today he hoped to find enough of the mineral to warrant the outlay required to bring miners to Retem.
**********
David Jubal, Mary Taylor and Aaila Madani left the small hovercraft parked outside of the walled city and walked through the partly opened gates in to the city. They now entered into the gloom of its rough roads, a gloom that matched their own thoughts following yet another death by some sick caveman. Once inside Jubal took a moment to look up at the overcast sky and scowled, for the cloud cover made the city seem all the more forbidding, especially after the two murders aboard the survey vessel. In response to his feeling of dread, Jubal walked back to the two heavy wooden doors and pushed them wide open, and then he wedged them to stop them from closing over, he preferred a wide open exit, should it become necessary to leave the city in a hurry.
For some reason Mary Taylor shunned the wide avenue that would lead them to the building that she had called a church, instead she chose a different direction, she chose to investigate the narrow streets, however, these were gloomier and filled with early morning shadows that added to Jubal`s sense of disquiet about today`s venture. The dark rooms glared out through the open windows of the buildings, almost threateningly, as they walked by them, the doors of these buildings, although mostly open, did not invite entry, they seemed to Jubal to be an obvious trap waiting there for the unwary.
The three searchers were led along through the twists and turns of the city, sometimes finding they had entered a dead end and at other times they led back to a street they had already walked along, it seemed to Aaila that they were partaking in an enormous game of snakes and ladders. She was bringing up the rear and she felt very exposed there, constantly glancing nervously back at the empty houses, half expecting some one to burst out and attack her. From behind her a door slammed and she spun around, her Phaser already in her hand, her finger pressing on the trigger. A bolt of energy whistled through the air to explode against the door and throwing it off its hinges. She stood there breathing hard as she realised what she had done, the other two had spun around when they heard her Phaser bolt whistle through the air to explode against the solid wooden door.
Jubal laughed when he realised that it had been a mistake. “Well Aaila, that is one dead door, are you going to stuff it and mount it on one of your walls back home?” He asked.
Aaila smiled ruefully. “Sorry about that David, Mary, but this place seems to be getting to me.” Aaila silently swore to herself that she would keep a tighter hold on her nerves.
“It`s no problem Aaila, I would much rather you killed a few doors rather than have one of the cavemen of this planet kill you.” He said smiling and Mary Taylor nodded her agreement to his words.
They moved further into the small walled city and Aaila found herself flinching whenever the wind caught hold of a door and slammed it shut. However, she managed to control her nerves, although she had almost fired her weapon twice more during the investigation of the lanes of the city, and the stress building up inside of her had now given her a headache.
All three had their Phaser pistol grasped firmly in their hand now and with every sound, however faint, their fear grew stronger. However, Mary Taylor was not going to allow her fears stop her from investigating the most important find of her career, although even she now questioned the wisdom of walking along these dark narrow lanes with a murderer on the loose.
Jubal alone put on a brave front, however, he was also feeling the stress caused by exploring such a place when two of their party had already been killed by some psychotic cave man.
At last they found their way back to a section of the city that was not filled with shadows, their winding journey had brought them back to the wide avenue, and just before it entered a large square which in itself was another dead end. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they too entered the square, for the light, such as it was, streamed in from above. They immediately saw that the square was filled with statues of peo
ple, people who resembled the people of Earth, and not the picture that Mary had found on her first day within the city. They stood upon marble plinths and the figures were all portrayed in, according to Mary, Roman togas.
“So now we know just where the lost legion ended up.” Jubal said with a grin coming to his and Aaila’s faces. With a little more light within the square he scolded himself for being so scared back there.
“David, Aaila keep a watch out while I photograph these statues, they are simply fantastic.” Mary said in her serious mode, but she could not stop a smile coming to her face as she saw the faces of her friends. After the deaths they all needed a little light relief, wherever they could find it.
They both nodded and took up positions on either side of the square, Jubal watched the street that entered into the square, while nervously keeping an eye upon the empty doorways, and windows of the mud brick buildings around them.
“You both know that there can only be one name for this square.” Mary announced to her two protectors. “The square of the statues.” Jubal could think of another name for it, the perfect place to trap your victims. His gaze was moving from window to window in search of an archer or a spearman, thankfully the windows were all empty of such warriors, although he did get the impression that someone was watching them.
Aaila too felt it, along with her mounting fear, for she was a technician by trade not a soldier, she had only got into this for the money. Right this minute she would happily settle for a job, any job that would allow her to stay on one of the populated and very safe planets that Earth had come across during its voyages of discovery and subsequent colonisation. Aaila too watched the doors and windows, constantly turning to look at those hidden behind her. She turned again, this time to look at the buildings behind Jubal, and this time, from the corner of her eye she saw something move, it was behind one of the windows of a rather imposing looking building. She stared hard at the window looking for whatever had caught her eye, but no, it was empty, a mistake she told herself, just the wind blowing some remnant left behind by the builders, that or her nerves inventing problems.