He listened for any sounds, either from the strange flying creatures of the Bora which had attacked them that day, or from the Bora themselves, maybe laying in wait for him to break cover. Time was in short supply this evening, he needed to return to Talia before her injury and her lack of energy made her condition deteriorate to danger levels. Even so he made numerous stops to smell the light wind blowing towards him from the city, and to listen out for any sound that might signal danger. One time only was he forced to hide behind a large tree as a drone flew across the animal track that he was following, to hide until the soft whine of its motor disappeared and only the normal sounds of the night came to his sensitive ears. He was soon walking through the streets in the outskirts of New Caledonia, streets that now seemed so dangerous. He did not know it but he was perilously close to the police station, however, it was now that he chanced upon a young man standing in his garden and looking up at the stars. Johnny Wardle had long been interested in astronomy, now his hobby was about to have serious consequences. Sarai moved silently up on Wardle. and before his prey even had time to notice his presence, Sarai rose up in front of him and with one hand covering Wardle`s mouth, Sarai drove his fangs deep into the young man`s neck. After just a brief struggle Wardle collapsed to the ground, and Sarai followed him down and now took a precious few moments to feed upon his prey. He stood up, looked down upon the drained corpse, and felt the stolen energy flowing through his body, Sarai smiled, but there was not even a vestige of beauty on his usually handsome face, only pure evil.
Sarai now entered the house and here he found Wardle`s mother making a coffee for her son and herself, Sarai struck again, now filled with much needed energy he went in search of another elder to take back to his new den, one that his senses told him would be capable of helping his mate.
Professor Collinson was waiting outside of the police station, his grandson was going to drive them both home for some well earned rest, however, Poulson had forgotten something and had popped back inside for a moment to collect it. They were both a little disappointed that their hunt had been relatively unsuccessful, however, they would start afresh first thing in the morning at the river.
Sarai was moving quietly along the dark quiet street when he saw the light pouring out of the open door of the police station, standing within the glow was Professor Collinson. Sarai moved swiftly, he had no idea how long his present run of luck would hold out for. The professor only realised that someone was near to him when Sarai`s fist crashed against his jaw, knocking him out. Sarai caught his falling body and quickly returned towards the waiting forest, with the body of the professor draped across his shoulders. Having fed well Sarai did not notice the extra weight that he was carrying, he was soon deep inside the industrial area of the city, and with the forest in sight his pace quickened.
While it only took Constable Poulson a moment to collect the forgotten file, it took him vital minutes to realise that something was wrong. First he assumed that his grandfather had decided to use the station`s toilets, but after walking back inside the station, he found that his grandfather was not there. Therefore, Poulson returned to the street and looked for him there, but again without any luck. Now worry began to eat at Poulson, he knew that his grandfather was waiting for him, to walk home would not only be dangerous but tiring after their long day in the forest. He returned to the police station and spoke urgently to the two deputies sitting at two monitor.
“My Grandfather is missing, Deputy Vance, Deputy Berlin, bring the two drones along the outskirts of the city, although why the creature would want to take him away, I do not know.” Poulson said, fear beginning to engulf him. He knew that he was beginning to panic, but could not help himself. How would he tell his wife that he had allowed the creatures to get his grandfather, and from the very steps of the police station?
The drone heard earlier by Sarai was again heard by him, however this time he could not hide behind a tree, he had been caught in the open, his only option was to run even faster. A moment later and he was passing through the outer edges of the forest with the drone following him. There was a full moon this night, this allowed Sarai to make his way through the forest with ease, and he rushed on as fast as the weight upon his shoulders would allow him. He knew he did not have time to stop and rest, although he was finally beginning to feel the weight of the professor, however, Talia needed the knowledge possessed by the elder urgently, and the life-force of the Bora almost as urgently.
Poulson, along with Deputy Vance, raced from the police station and literally jumped into the hovercraft parked outside. One moment later and it was racing along the empty streets of New Caledonia, less than a minute later and they were already driving through the industrial area of the city. Poulson could see the forest ahead, what he could not see was the creature or his grandfather.
Deputy Berlin had called out the few citizen volunteers who made up the rapid reaction night watch during the emergency, they too were driving fast towards the industrial area, they careered around the corner and pulled up sharply behind the small hovercraft. Poulson and Vance were already sprinting for the forest, the ten volunteers were in hot pursuit of them, being night time, the rapid reaction team had with them an assortment of night vision goggles and infrared detection devices which allowed them to move swiftly through the forest.
The noise of their running through the outskirts of the forest soon reached Sarai who now feared that he would let his mate down, but tired as he was he plunged on through the ever thicker forest, with the drone flying above the tree tops keeping his heat signature in sight. Finally the sound of the fast flowing river came to his ears, and he knew that he would soon be safe, he stopped for a moment and turned to look behind him. There he could see the glowing beams of light cast by torches of two of his followers, they were getting ever nearer to him, and so he turned and struggled on beneath the every growing weight across his shoulders. Then he was upon its banks, and just as Professor Collinson began to wake up, the professor began to struggle but he stopped when Sarai leapt into the river, still carrying the professor. Sarai was strong, too strong for Professor Collinson, who was pulled down through the water, he was on the point of passing out when Sarai broke water, they were in the cave. Sarai dragged Professor Collinson from the water and across to Talia, she was sleeping peacefully.
“Wake my mate, see, I have brought one of their elders, he will cure you of the injury caused by the weapon of the gods.”
Talia opened her eyes wearily, smiled at her mate, and then pulled away the poultice so that the elder could tend her injury. The moon was directly above them, lighting up the grotto, Sarai pointed at the bullet wound and it was obvious to Professor Collinson that the creature wanted him to tend to the wound, but how? Not only had he never attempted to pull out a bullet, he had only seen it done in the movies, and anyway he did not have any instruments. However the snarl from the male Venetou convinced him to try, but although there was full moon, Professor Collinson wondered if there would be enough light to begin practicing medicine, especially after having been struck so hard.
The professor pointed to the small patch of rock floor that was directly under the moonlight, Sarai understood and gently picked up his mate, she groaned in pain as Sarai put her down in the moonlight and he kissed her tears away.
“See my darling, Selene has lit up this part of our den to allow the elder to tend to you.” Talia smiled up at her mate who now looked at the professor and quietly snarled.
Professor Collinson assumed this was a sign that he was to start the operation. He now found that he needed to clean the wound, and so he now pointed to the water and then the wound. Sarai once again understood his sign language and roughly pulled off one of Professor Collinson`s shoes and used this to collect water from pool inside of the cave. Professor Collinson now cleaned the wound, and then he realised that he now needed some sort of a knife. Looking about frantically he finally saw one laying near to the wounded female. Pointing to it and then t
o the wound, he moved his hand slowly towards the knife. Sarai snarled again, but much quieter, as if to warn the professor not to try anything foolish. The professor picked up the knife and slowly moved it across to the wound. He knew that it was not too hygienic, but he was not interested in the creature living a long life after the operation, only on his living beyond tonight.
“This will hurt my dear.” Professor Collinson said in English to the female Venetou who turned her him and like her mate snarled quietly at him,
Professor Collinson blanched, this was certainly not in his job description, however, it did mean that he could see the creatures tongue, see the ten minute holes that concealed the feeders, yes he was definitely correct in his thoughts regarding these creatures. However, what good would it be if he died before telling anyone?
The knife that Talia had taken from the dead miner was long and thin, a nasty weapon but ideally suited to probing for the bullet. Collinson pushed the point of the blade into the wound, Talia bit back a scream as the pain shot right through her, was the elder trying to help her or trying to torture her, maybe he knew that when he had saved her life that she would feed upon his life-force.
Professor Collinson was feeling for the bullet and soon found it, it had not gone far into the body, the distance that it had travelled before striking its target had diminished the force at which it entered the creature`s body. Professor Collinson carefully pushed the blade to one side of the bullet and then pushed the blade deeper, he could only hope that he enjoyed beginners luck, and that the bullet would oblige him by coming out. He now pushed the thin blade under the bullet and began to lever it out. Talia screamed as the pain increased and Sarai did not know whether to stop the elder or to assist him. His breathing stopped as his own knife reminded the professor that should his patient die, then so would he. Finally the rear of the bullet began to show and Sarai began to breathe again, moments later and it was out, unfortunately the wound now began to bleed. Sarai pulled the professor from the body and struck him hard, knocking him out, now Sarai could tend to the wound. Once again he made a poultice and applied it to the wound, now her life was in the hands of their god, Selene, whose light shone down and lit up Talia.
Talia`s young body was strong and healthy, because she soon woke, and when Sarai heard her weak calls to him he dragged the unconscious body of the professor over to her, he would drive his fangs deep into the neck of this elder and she would then feed off him.
Sarai smiled at his mate, and when she signalled that she was ready he brought his fangs down towards the soft neck of the elderly professor.
A bolt of pure energy screamed across the enclosed cave, sounding all the more evil because of where they were. It struck the back of Sarai and its light enveloped him as he sank down upon the rock floor of the cave. A moment later and another energy bolt struck Talia and in her wounded state killed her instantly. Constable Poulson and Francis Strom pulled themselves from the pool and hurried across to the three bodies tangled together in a mixture of limbs, torsos and heads. Poulson roughly pulled the two Venetou from the body of his grandfather and then sent a killing bolt of energy first in the limp body of Sarai, and then another into the dead body of Talia.
“There was no way that I was taking these creatures out through the tunnel and into river, they were far too dangerous.” Poulson said to Strom who nodded in agreement.
Then while Poulson went to his grandfather, Strom used the wet shoe of Professor Collinson to collect some more water with which to bathe the head of the professor, moments later Professor Collinson awoke with the most appalling headache.
“Daniel, Mr Strom, the creatures?” Professor Collinson cried out in alarm and sitting up a mite too quickly swore very loudly as a bolt of pain ran through his head.
“Do not worry about them Grandfather, they are both dead. I am sorry that we took such a time to find you. Francis and I saw the creature take you down into the river, however, it took us an age to actually find the under water tunnel. In fact we found it just in time, the creatures were about to feed off you as we surfaced, another few seconds and you would have been dead Grandfather.” Poulson explained. His grandson`s words made Professor Collinson feel rather ill, to think that he was alive thanks to his saviours arriving just a few seconds early, it was very scary.
**********
Finally, Professor Collinson was sitting safely in his grandson`s house, in his hand he had a cup of coffee laced with a good slug of brandy, on the table before him was a large slice of cake, with an equally large bite taken out of it.
“Oh I feel a little better now, you do make such delicious cakes Pat.” Professor Collinson said smiling at his grandson`s wife.
“Well Grandfather, now that the troubles are over, I promise that I will make you many more.” Patricia Poulson happily promised him.
“You know you two, now that the people of New Caledonia are safe, I must send a message to the Arch Bishop of our Church. I will enclose a full report on these creatures and tell him that in my opinion they do feed upon the souls of Man. To find the proof that he has asked me to provide him with, I will tell him that we will need to capture one of these creatures. It is inconceivable to me that they can feed off anything other than the soul, the only other things would either be knowledge, and no one lives very long on a diet consisting only of that, or the electrical stimuli in the brain, and a finger in an electrical socket will quickly provide more than enough of that. No Daniel, we must capture one of these creatures and examine it in a secure facility, one that I am sure the Church can easily provide us with.” Professor Collinson said, his voice filled with the excitement of a young child opening a Christmas present.
“Grandfather, I would have thought that you had had enough of those terrible creatures.” Patricia Poulson exclaimed rather too loudly, for it woke at least one of the children who asked for a glass of water.
“They may have been quite terrible, to us, but they were very fond of each other, I am sure that many a human would not have gone through such dangers as the male creature did, simply to save the life of another.” Professor Collinson declared in defence of the Vampires of Retem.
“Well maybe the post mortem of the creatures will tell you something Grandfather, and then you will not need a live specimen.” Constable Poulson said more in hope than belief.
“Maybe Daniel, but I repeat, these creatures may help Mankind much more than it endangered it, by proving the existence of not only the soul, but of god too.”
“What I do not understand Grandfather, is how the builders of the deserted cities were able to flourish to such point that allowed them to build the cities, for surely these horrific creatures must have been feeding off them all along?” Patricia Poulson asked.
“I agree Pat, it just does not make any sense, it will take a lot of work before that particular question is answered.” Professor Collinson replied.
Chapter Six
The Morang Corporation
The next day, the Moran Corporation having received a preliminary report of the Galileo`s trip from their offices on New Caledonia, were having an urgent meeting, first to discuss the report and then to decide on what action should be taken.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell you how I think we should proceed as regards the fantastic find on the planet of Retem. I propose the following actions. First that we immediately cleanse the planet of Retem of the alien monsters that caused the citizens of New Caledonia so much trouble. While we are busy doing this we must also capture some of the alien monsters, it must be living animals, dead ones will most probably be of no use to us, our armaments division wants to have a close look at them. It seems that the hypnotic ability they are said to possess could prove useful on some of the planets not fully under our control. They will need to be examined in a most secure facility, maybe the one in the Draco planetary system, there are no habitable planets there to bother our scientists.” He stopped for a moment to take a drink from his glass of water and waited
for them to respond to his opening speech.
His board of directors as always took only moments to nod their heads and make the usual sounds to show that they were in full agreement with his proposals so far, so the Chairman took the floor again.
“Thank you, well following your agreement, you will all be pleased to know that I have already despatched the mining ship Excelsior in anticipation of your decision. It should be in orbit around Retem right now, it will immediately begin the cleansing of all forms of animal life, both the monsters and any creature large enough for the monsters to feed off, it will begin operations at the original landing site.”
It is not legal for the Morang Corporation to own such a vessel as the Excelsior, but due to large bribes paid to the authorities it did. It is equipped with a variety of weapons including a powerful Phaser and an equally powerful ultra sonic weapon. It also carries a number of small craft equipped with smaller but similar weapons, all of which would be highly effective in destroying the Venetou and the animals that it preys upon.
“Remember all of you, this is to be a top secret operation, nothing must leak to the liberals on Earth or they will ring fence Retem as a planet of biological interest. This would delay the mining of the crystals that promises to be the most important geological find of the millennium. We should be able to commence the mining operation within just a few days at the original landing site, within a couple of weeks the whole planet will be fully cleansed.”
The End
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Colonies of Earth Series in order
Galaxy Spies
Time Storm
Rebirth
Trial by Ordeal
Other Books
Horror Stories
Strange tales; three short mild horror stories
Kidnapped and Bound for Hell; A full-length story
The Venetou Page 17