So I had two puzzles on my hands.
One, the deaths of eight Strangetown citizens and, two, the same dream that repeated itself each night for over a week.
The first puzzle, eight deaths in a span of three days, seem to be, on the surface related to some virus, air-borne from the looks of it. But if so, why wasn't more Strangetown folk dying as suddenly as the eight before them? Did the virus die with its last victim?
Or was it as my partner, Mingha Khan and I thought? Some sort of serial killer and the person or persons hadn't made themselves known yet.
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My partner, Mingha Khan.
Ming and I had met while I was attending Grad school on her former home planet, Tello II. One of a rare breed, Ming was a twin daughter to the Queen of her planet. But being the younger by a few minutes, gave Ming a freedom her older sister would never know. Unlike Lingha, who would become Queen upon her mother's death, Ming was free to chose her own path in life. She married fellow student Singh Khan and when we all finished school Ming and her family moved to earth. Sadly, when Tello II's sun went super nova, Ming lost contact with her family. It was believed that the Royal family made it safely to another planet, but as of yet, Ming hadn't heard a word.
Having just had her first child, Ming was still on leave, but she very much still wanted to be in the know of what was going on. And the eight Strangetown deaths was no different.
We met for lunch one day. Her husband, Singh made us a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, the cheese, extra sharp, of course.
There is nothing in the world that an Alien, even an half Alien-half Human enjoys more than a good grill cheese sandwich. And of course, with a tall glass of coke.
We sat and talked during our meal, while Singh attended to the baby.
I told her about the very leads the department had gathered so far.
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"Hmm," Ming said, "this reminds me of a story I heard as a child on my home world. It seems that my Great-Grandmother wanted to repopulate a planet several Light Years away. Also humanoid. She wanted a pure race of Telomeres. So she had her Scientists create a type of Flu, that killed only the men. In this way, her sons were free to marry the widows and bred, and within two generations, the planet was hers to rule."
"Do you think this could be happening here?"
Ming laughed. "It was just a wild tale told by my Grand-mother, Lola. Grandmother Quingha was full of them. I frankly don't believe its true. It isn't the nature of a Birth Queen to kill anyone, including another race. Pollenate, yes. But the only aid is to mingle with other races, not world dominance. The only time that has been known to happen is when a Pollination has run afoul a Queen. Then, her judgment is swift and sure. But her anger is directed at Pollination alone. Even then, it has only been a few times."
Ming signed and took another bite of her sandwich. "But then again, this is Strangetown, one never knows...."
"But in the case your speaking of, Ming, if true, it was just the men who were murdered. In this case, it was both men and women, though Loki Beaker and Nervous Subject are the only two males."
"Hmmm, that is queer. And why these eight?"
Good question, I pondered.
"Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless they were more victims and we just don't know about them yet."