"Not exactly. I'm pretty sure it took her awhile to figure out how to use her...abilities to
communicate with me. She didn't really talk in complete sentences at first. It took her a little
while to do that."
"So it seemed like there was a learning curve for her to mimic human speech?"
"Yes," said Ulysses. "You make it sound a lot creepier than it really was by putting it that
way."
"I apologize," said O'Flannery. "Moving on: how many days did you associate with Nera
before you became aware of her vehicle?"
"I think, like, two days almost. She didn't tell me why she need me to drive her to where
she was going, but I took her."
O'Flannery nodded and scribbled more notes onto his pad.
*
*
*
The agent leafed through his pad of notes. He was fairly certain that Ulysses had told him
almost everything he knew about Nera. He didn't really want to dig too deep on any of the sex
stuff. There was something about asking a hippie specific questions about his sexual experiences
with an extraterrestrial that had turned his stomach earlier. O'Flannery wasn't a prude. He'd
worked on trafficking cases; he'd interviewed rape victims before. There were always so many
gratuitous details, but they had never bothered him. The evil of men was known to him. At times
that evil could take surprising and inventive forms, but at the end of the day, no matter how
despicable the act committed, they were still done by humans. He could deal with humans. Nera
wasn't, and this kid's love for her struck him as almost too pure to be believable. Maybe he was
just a sap, or maybe he had other issues. Whatever this guy's deal was, it lay beyond the scope of
his investigation. He looked up from his notes.
"I think I've got enough here to file my initial report, O'Flannery said. His phone buzzed
again. This time he went to trouble of just turning it off. "I'll go type up my report and send it off
just as soon as I leave this room. If the higher-ups are satisfied, I'll start filling out the paperwork
to get you out of here."
Ulysses nodded to him, then said, "How long before I know?"
"I'd say a day or two, tops. There's a good chance I'll hear something back within hours.
This situation has drawn the attention of some of the most important people in our government.
They'll want to respond quickly. They may want other people to interview you before we release
you, but we will release you. The big players are aware that we can't detain you indefinitely.
They may not like it, but they've already got one hell of consolation prize." He said, referring to
Nera and her saucer.
Ulysses nodded again, his expression turned concerned. The agent figured he was
probably worried about Nera. Love screws up everybody's priorities, he mused. Still, O'Flannery
couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Ulysses.
"Look," he said, "I know you're worried about her, about Nera. I don't know if this will
reassure you or not, but, I mean..." He trailed off, then started over again. "From what I know of