would look and sound like she was speaking English, but I think if we'd recorded her it would've
sounded like she was speaking gibberish."
O'Flannery nodded. He gave Ulysses a reassuring, avuncular look.
"How long were you acquainted with her?"
"In total... only a few weeks. It feels like longer, but I know that it was less than a
month."
"In that time, she explained to you her reason for coming to our planet?"
"Yes. Nera had fled for her life. The first hyssopshebolith that tried to take her over
dropped dead the moment it touched her, so she ran. Eventually, she ended up here. I don't know
how long it took Nera to travel here. It might have taken her years. From what I could gather, her
people and those parasites live in a different universe from ours. Like, a different dimension. Her
ship made the trip possible, but I have no idea what that means for our concept of time and
space."
"And you had the opportunity to travel inside her craft? Her ship, as you refer to it. Could
you briefly describe that experience?"
"Sure. It was really weird and disorienting. Once I got inside the ship it was like it
became my body. I could see in every direction but it made me so dizzy. It was like there was
just too much happening for me to process when we flew in that thing. I vomited immediately
upon exiting the ship after my first flight. I never felt at ease traveling in that thing."
"And that first trip was to Siem Reap, Cambodia?" Said O'Flannery.
"Yes. She said she had picked up on my memories of a backpacking trip I took there."
"You were there for roughly twenty-four hours?" The agent jotted down a note.
"I think so. With the time difference and the disorienting nature of the flight, it could've
been more or less. It certainly didn't take us long to get there."
"How long would you say your travel time was to Cambodia?"
"I don't really know. Probably only like a couple of minutes," Ulysses cleared his throat.
"I know we went to Australia in about ten minutes. I checked my phone when we got there."
O'Flannery whistled. He looked genuinely impressed.
"That's one for the record books, eh?
"Yeah, too bad all of this is like, beyond classified." Ulysses said, with a slight smile.
"Indeed," said the agent. "So you, Nera, and Mr. Taylor went to Australia after our
encounter at your apartment, correct?"
"Yes, that's right," he shifted in his seat again. "How did those cops end up? Were they
okay?"
"They were a little banged up, but I was able to smooth things over with their precinct.
You shouldn't have anything to worry about, unless you run into those particular officers again."
"Still might not be a bad idea to move."
"Couldn't hurt, if you're staying in Denver. But I digress," O'Flannery flipped down a
page in his legal pad, where he had previously written some notes. "So you were in Australia for
a few days, waiting for Mr. Taylor to return via a commercial flight, and then you contacted me.