Charyd’s sloppy salute was an insult that reminded Ilise she could and would write him up. But she had a job to do now. Ilise gently closed the door, remembering she was playing the good cop in this situation. Alice had grabbed onto the lifeline Posey threw, at a very steep cost. One Posey could get granted if she captured the pirate captain Charyd. If she could nab both the Exec pirates and captain Charyd, she could land another promotion. Her precious source was sitting placidly at the interrogation table while Sisyphus was glaring at her from the corner of the room. 

“I’m certain you understand, being a co-captain, how idiotic some people can be,” Ilise said, trying to make a more personal connection with the prisoner. 

Alice’s skin was no longer translucent. She had sat up straight and was trying to flick the docupad away. “I can assure you. They can.” Something about the prisoner’s voice was different. Her eyes were dry and her back was straight. 

“So,” Ilise prompted. When she received no reply, she continued, “Two of your crew, maybe, and then yourself. As long as  I get information on the Exec’s base and how to capture your Captain Charyd.” Finding a morphing alien was not going to be an easy task.

Alice was playing with the chain of the cuffs which kept her hands bound to the table. 

“Charyd, eh? Wasn’t that him?” she asked offhandedly and pointed at the door. She looked distracted though, hands returning to play with the chain and counting the links. Her wide, dark eyes were opened fully and every vertical blink was slow as if she was falling asleep. 

Ilise could barely keep herself from rolling her eyes. Officer Charyd would definitely get cleaning duty. Latrine cleaning. Hopefully, whatever incident Saar had in that tiny cubicle was still a mess. 

“Do we have a deal?” Ilise asked, getting back on topic. Maybe it was because she was interviewing a pirate, the naturally greedy and corrupt people of society, and was interrupted during it, she was getting short-tempered. There was no way one more thing was going to go wrong. She worked too hard to get to this point, she was top of her class and the salutatorian of her class had already passed her in rank years ago. Alice would give up this information if she had to force it out of her. 

The prisoner did not move or reply. Her following blink was so slow that the thin membrane of light blue skin covering her eyes remained closed for half a minute before it parted. 

“I… I get to decide who,” Alice finally said.

Ilise raised an eyebrow at her. “You have to give me something.”

“I will. But I decide who goes.”

“That’s not up to you.”

“Then how do I know you even have the clearance to make this deal?”

Ilise felt her fangs poking at her lips, trying to emerge and tempt her into snapping at the Nereus. A snarl rumbled in her throat. This was unprofessional of her. She held back. Barely. 

“Listen here,” Sisyphus finally joined the conversation with a gruff tone. “You are not–”

“I have the authority,” Ilise interrupted him before he could take charge of everything and blunder through it like a beached whale. “I decide who gets out. And only if the information you have for me is useful.”

Alice continued her slow blinks without looking up. She reached the end of the chain and started counting again in the other direction. It was methodical. Almost–

Ilise realized what Alice was doing too late. She looked at the tag clipped to one of Alice’s ears. Its bright color was distracting enough to make it hard to see if it was active. It was the device that kept her from using her race’s natural telepathy to communicate with others. 

Barely a moment later, Ilise’s suspicions were proven true when the interrogation room went dark and then bright red. The alarm that started blaring out in the hall made its way into the room a moment after that. The loud sound made Ilise wince. The decibel setting was meant for human and Minotaur ears. To her, the siren felt like needles stabbing her brain through her ears. She stood to block the door path, but her adrenaline and the lower gravitation of the planet made her jump too high and she almost hit her head on the ceiling. She caught herself and slowly slid down the door frame.

In that single moment of darkness, Alice kicked her chair back. The sound of its metal legs scratching the floor was like nails on a chalkboard, only adding to Ilise’s pain, and then came the assault the Nereus were known for.

Fireworks went off behind her eyes, a great cacophony of voices and emotions and thoughts as if Ilise herself was a telepath. There was a snap, something breaking, and it felt too much like someone’s mental walls broke. Either that, or there was someone here who should be in an asylum instead. A gurgling choke sounded and Ilise tried to focus on it. It was not in her head. It was Sisyphus. Ilise opened her eyes just in time to see Alice kick Sisyphus in the gut. He gasped for air, but raised his hands to smash at her, she rolled off the table, twisting the chain which kept her hands bound. Sisyphus did not stop and bent down to pick up Ilise’s chair. He smashed it hard on the table and something broke.

It was not the prisoner.