Interrogation

"Oh my goodness, you spoke to my Mum?" I tried to exclaim in between bouts of coughing, "When?"

"Don't pretend you don't know," Charlotte said, "I'm not about to accept it's some coincidence. I remembered I had family here and foolishly outed myself to a True Believer. I suppose she expects you to knock some sense into me... preferably dick first."

"Ugh," I sighed, "Someone would say that now, wouldn't they."

"So, you see why I could have trouble trusting your intentions..."

"Well, no" I cut her off, "The fact that I'm even able to have this conversation with you is the strongest indication that I'm sane. Surely you've noticed there's a lot of cognitive dissonance at work here - when you ask someone how they would have felt about, um, doing stuff with you before the change, say a week ago?"

My cousin paused. Odyssa asked "How long has this been so exactly?"

"Since yesterday," I said, "And I didn't know you called my mum."

"Right..." Charlotte pinched the bridge of her nose, "I haven't had the opportunity to have an in-depth discussion with people on the precise nature of their insanity. But that doesn't reassure me. I just narrowly escaped being **** by space pirates right out of the kids' storybooks. If they were able to drop in here without instantly starting a Solar System-wide war then the whole Triplanetary Alliance command chain has got to be infected with others who know of this, and they're either doing nothing or actively participating. You could be a willing actor in this..."

"Okay look," I said, "Clearly I know stuff you don't, and you know stuff I don't. Let's just start from the beginning and I'll show you I'm neither infected nor a willing spy."

Charlotte folded her arms across her chest, the motion pushing her breasts upwards and out onto her elbows. The shimmering transparent fabric was almost as pretty as that which it failed to conceal. Meanwhile the alien moved closer also, her huge black eyes wreathed in a quizzical frown.

"Infected," she said, and looked to my cousin, "Curious choice of word. I'd like to know more, Charlotte."

Charlotte huffed, and that made her bosoms swell and and fall swiftly. She saw me look and said "First let's quit ogling your cousin, Frank, you're not helping your not-mad case by continuing to sneak glances after recognizing me."

"Oh I'm sorry for perving on my cousin, I'm sure," I said, and I took a deep breath, "But firstly, you're hot, and you're practically naked, and I assume you recognized me before I did you, so walking in like that is on you. Secondly, in my defense, I woke up the other day in a world that actively encourages me to be a massive horn-dog, which I could be fine with, honestly, if it specifically didn't involve blatant mind control. Third point, how is it that a transparent smock is the only thing a space alien, who came to hide underground where it's cold and dark, could give you after you fell in the freezing cold canal?"

"I'm a whore by trade," Odyssa said, "And a recently divorced one of late... which is another way of saying fugitive." She looked at my cousin again, "Listen, this is going to take a hot minute, let's untie him and go sit down together, okay?"

"Fine..." Charlotte said, "But I want him tied to a chair or something."

The alien released my limbs from the bed although immediately secured my wrists together. Charlotte appeared to have a light-bulb moment glancing at the table where my things were, and grabbed my coat, wrapping herself up in a show of mock modesty. They led me out through the round door, Odyssa walking ahead. It was dark at first, and upon leaving the tiny heated room I felt the cold moist air of the canal tunnels again. At the end of a narrow corridor we entered a much larger chamber and my eyes had to adjust to a new light, a deep orange now eerily familiar. It was warm, much warmer than the old radiator.

Briefly my vision was filled with a plunging V shape into chalk white cleavage as I was fixed to a chair in front of a small table, then the alien stepped back and I looked around. It was a large warehouse of sorts. The walls were metal with peeling paint and large rust patches. The upper wall and part of the ceiling were transparent on one side, and through that was the soft orange monochrome flooding in. At ground level I could make out remnants of light and heavy loading equipment like hand-pallet trucks and a small motorized forklift. There was a large steel cage-like structure built along one wall. You could see markings on the floor probably signing where machines were to be driven and where it should be safe to walk. In the corner opposite from where I sat a large upright object caught my eye, its silhouette bearing a vague but unmistakably humanoid imprint. I opened my mouth to remark on it when Odyssa's oversized frame obscured the sight. She sat down on the other side of the table, joined immediately by my cousin.

"Let's compare notes," Charlotte said, "And you go first."

I recounted my story up to the moment they found me as succinctly as possible. I wanted to leave out stuff about fucking, but Odyssa pressed me on the "infected" thing and that rather **** me to be a bit honest. Charlotte never looked much less suspicious of me, although the low lighting made it difficult to discern much nuanced expressions. As for the alien, her enormous eyes made it difficult for me to read anything at all on her face. One time I think we made eye contact, she opened her mouth baring those sharp teeth again, and yawned. It threw me off for a second, but I carried on.

When I started to explain what happened in the ramparts, I absently looked towards the orange light coming in through the windows above. Its warmth was comforting, and, this time unassisted by any strange humming sound, it exerted a similar pull over me. The effect ceased almost as soon as I noticed it.

Charlotte told me her side of events. I knew about the Magnetic Levitation train incident vaguely from seeing early news articles about it the day before or thereabouts. The tunnel piercing the mountains was collapsed for several kilometres, blocking completely the direct commuter route from Lacus Solis to the City. Charlotte and other passengers were airlifted to a slower, more traditional railroad that winds in between the valleys and peaks, stopping at each tiny settlement ballooning an already long trip into one of several hours. My cousin soon made the same choice as me to try and hide her surprise at the local change in customs, although not before being a little indiscreet on the phone to my mum about her true feelings. Later, while making an effort to blend in, actively, she was mistakenly identified as a worthy and representative specimen of the general sex-crazed populace by a band of thieves come to collect samples. Her insincerity on this point came out only after they were about to load her aboard their ship, hidden in yet another secret underground location somewhere upstream.

Odyssa's arrival here was a little more intentional, although she knew little less than us about the current situation.

"I'm a runaway wife," she explained, showing that unsettling sharp-toothed grin, "And a whore... The irony is not lost on me. I mainly married my pimp to get access to transport in the System. It's a little rough on the ice moon, you see... Actually it's probably very tough everywhere outside the Core for you two. He was nice at first, but it's gotten complicated recently. When he told me he was making a trip to the Core I convinced him to hire me out to the crews of the ships we traveled on. I guessed there would be a raid of some sort on one of the three inner planets and it paid off." She chuckled, "I left their ship while they were out hunting Charlotte."

"Whence you only have... whore clothes," I said.

"And why I'm not poised to be as better off as I hoped since my skills are probably redundant here," she shook her head, "I wish I was more curious. People talk to me about all sorts of things in bed and I never thought to ask my latest clients what this particular mission was all about."

"So it's still commonplace for the Core to receive these sorts of illicit visits?" I asked.

"Darling, it stopped being illicit before us three were born," Odyssa said, "It just isn't legal to be honest with the public yet. The Triplanetary Alliance has been trading peacefully with Outworlders for centuries. It's only tense because no one outside the Core actually wants to have a new Solaric Empire."

"Anyway," Charlotte said, "We're in the middle of a system-wide conspiracy where there's chemical and machine based mind control focused on sex. I'm seriously hoping that this scheme is limited specifically to the City because all I can think of to do next is get out." She sighed, and rubbed her temples.

"Your coat smells of sewage," she commented.

"That makes sense..." I said. It occurred to me we had been talking for a while, and the orange light gave no hints to the true passage of time. We were quiet for a minute or two, then Charlotte finally looked up at me and I saw her demeanour change.

"I'm sold on you being one of us, cousin," she said, "Now what?"