Silas: Sorry for having been so careless... And welcome to what everyone now calls Strangerville!
Leo: What is happening? I arrived following the evidence from my case, but here everyone looks at me weirdly...
Orion: Don't worry, we can tell you everything we know. But in half an hour, now I'm starving...
Silas: Same. There is a diner just around the corner, we always go there.
Orion: I also suggest you to put on a disguise when you go out in here. Locals have weird ideas about aliens, especially these days. That was probably why they looked at you that way when you arrived, actually.
Leo: I guess I have the permission to use a disguise because of my Captain, but you two...
Orion: There is so much more to worry about in here, for sure no one would think about checking on that. I've been using the same face I had as a teenager for weeks, and nobody noticed yet.
Leo: But ...
Orion: Indeed, I would also advise you to use the face you used at that time, so I can recognize you on the fly.
Leo: (Perplexed) If you say so...
I knew from the beginning that I had to expect the unexpected, as it always happens when Orion is involved. And I also knew that I couldn't expect them to strictly follow every little law and rule, it just wasn't their style. So, even if I could have questioned them about so many things, I just decided to follow them, confident that they could really explain to me more about that weird town, and the reason why the atmosphere seemed so chaotic around that place.
Orion: Let's go then.
Orion: Long story short, a couple of weeks ago our laboratory blew up, some toxins of an unspecified nature were scattered around, and the military forbade the entrance to the site to everyone.
Silas: Even we who work there are forced to confuse the guards and erase their memory to enter, it's just absurd...
Leo: It sounds dangerous, why are you the ones working on it?
Orion: Because we were working on those experiments, so we're the ones most likely to understand what went wrong, aren't we?
Leo: Maybe, but the rules ...
Orion: (ignoring him) We just can't understand why there was that explosion, for once we had everything under control. It was a simple botany experiment, we were trying to extract some multi-action active ingredient from a Sixam seedling ...
Silas: At the moment, the priority is to assess the severity of the contamination that has occurred. There was a scattering of spores that could show neurotoxic action, it could be dangerous for the locals. Some already show a rather bizarre behaviour, actually...
Silas: However, from what you have told us, you also seem to have some information about some other weird activity going on in this town. Do you suspect any connection with the accident?
Leo: Well, I was following a gang of drug dealers, and during an interrogation I found out that they had recently intruded into your laboratory. The person we interviewed did not know the details, but at least the dates of their arrival seem to coincide with those of your accident.
Orion: So they might have stirred up those plants, huh? What a smart move…
Both Orion and Silas were pretending to be energetic and enthusiastic, but I could tell from a mile away that they were very tired and worried about this situation. They must have already worked hard to find a solution, without being able to achieve much.
So we started walking around the town, it's such an empty and desolate place. People also seem pretty weird, and I'm also starting to understand why Orion said they don't seem to have a good opinion of aliens… Our species reached the Earth so long ago, how can conspiracy theorists like that guy still talk about using tin foil hats to avoid alien abductions? Yet, there he was.
Leo: What about that place?
Silas: Just forget about him, he's just morons who sells junk and tries to scare people.
Orion: That guy, however, seems to have a considerable amount of information, who knows why...
Silas: (serious) Anyway, the real problem here is another.
It took us a while to find one of the weird plants that started growing around the town after the accident. They also look so unmistakably alien… It's so obvious that stuff is from Sixam.
Leo: So these are the plants you were studying?
And, most likely, also the target of that gang I was investigating about.
Silas: Yes, even if we don't understand how it could have happened, there must have been a dispersion of seeds... And even on the long-term effects on people are still unclear, because this plant as a defence mechanism produces neurotoxic spores causing…
Orion: Ouch….
Leo: (worried) Orion, are you all right?
Suddenly Orion doubled over in pain. It took him a few more moments, before being able to catch his breath and answer:
Orion: ... nothing that a sleep cannot solve.
Silas: ...
----------------------------------------------------------------
That evening I came home later than I ever did, although I used grandpa's black hole generator to teleport back and forth. Luckily Orion helped me to set the coordinates, otherwise this kind of commute would have been impossible.
However, given the very late hour, Claire was visibly worried about me by then.
Leo: Sorry, I just didn't make it in time to help you to put the children in bed...
Claire: I wasn't too upset about that, but rather the fact that you said you were spending the day at Orion's place... Yes, let's say I was mostly worried about Orion's involvement.
Leo: I solemnly swear not to follow him in case he starts doing too dangerous stuff.
Claire: I count on it, you know? But, basically, what are you doing over there?
Leo: I haven't quite understood the situation yet, either, but so far we have…
It may be top secret and so on, but I can't help but tell her everything as I usually do. She also seems a little perplexed by the situation, but work is work.
-------------------------------------------------------
The next day I went back to that trailer early in the morning, we were planning to investigate the surroundings of their lab, where the accident happened. When I knocked on the door, Silas was still having breakfast while Orion was trying to repair an old laptop, yawning.
Silas: (yawning) Oh, good morning Leo.
Leo: Good morning...
I looked around for a moment. They had explained to me that the other aliens in Sixam's group were busy with other duties, so I couldn't be very surprised to find them alone again.
I must admit, however, that I was convinced that those two were using that trailer only as a base for their investigation, but the more time passed the more I became convinced that, in reality, they were both living in there. I'm a bit surprised Orion never talked me about it, however...
???: ahsddkjhaskjgfhioh!
My reasoning was interrupted by an incomprehensible babble outside the door, what was going on?
??? : AKjsdfjasIJKSH!
Leo: Hey, ma'am, are you okay?
???: akjsdkahskd!
Silas: Ah, here's another one... She looks like one of those who got intoxicated by the spores released during the explosion.
Leo: What?
The lady wandered around with scorned movements, didn't seem to understand a word of what was telling her, and limited herself to stammer incomprehensibly and staring at her surroundings with a mad gaze. Was that really the effect of that plant?
Orion: For now, the only way we've found to wake them up is to slap them in the face. You can try with that.
Leo: Excuse me then, ma'am...
The effects of that plant seemed even more serious than I had anticipated... Were the secret services really hiding it?
Maybe I was moving away from the case that brought me into that town, but I didn't want to leave those people in such a situation either...
Orion: ... and we can't go any further than this, the military has modified the access key.
Silas: We told them that all our equipment is downstairs and that we can't help them in any way this way, but they don't seem to want to listen.
Orion: What a serious face, Leo. What's so interesting about that door?
Leo: You two may be the two "scientists", but until proven otherwise the detective is me.
Orion: (ironic) Orders, Mr. Detective!
Leo: I'm not kidding. Rather, do you think there is some document left or something else useful on this level?
Leo: (to himself) It is so weird, they left a lot of classified documentation in plain sight…
Maybe the owners of those documents were just in a rush to leave when the accident happened. Or, the military didn't expect us to be able to enter and didn't bother to hide anything. However, I couldn't find anything that Orion and Silas haven't told me about yet, unfortunately.
Orion: Anything interesting from the camera system?
Silas: I'm trying to enter the network, but the military has added a couple of layers to the firewall system compared to the one I had set up… It will take me a moment. And I just can't do anything about the door from here, I cannot access that network from any of these devices.
Leo: Orion, couldn't you try to give us a hand to find some information too?
Orion: Oh, but I already know exactly what to do.
That said, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of what looked to me like weird electronic chips.
Silas: Good, I didn't think you still had any.
Leo: What are you talking about?
Instead of explaining it to me, they preferred to show me their plan later in the afternoon, when they brought me to the local bar.
The other two seemed to know exactly what to do, while I just stared at them from a distance, confused.
Orion: (wishering) take notes, Leo, this could be helpful for your investigations too.
That said, Silas sat at the bar counter to observe the scene, with discretion. Orion instead sat at one of the tables, he seemed to want to talk to the soldiers around the place.
Leo: What is he doing?
Silas: Just look.
Leo: (whispering) Is he placing some… bugs? Do you really have permission to do this?
Silas: (whispering) I don't think so, but nobody is playing by following any rules anymore.
Leo: Now I get what this stuff was for...
Orion: Shut up, or I can't hear them...
^translation: "No one knows where it is from. Not even the scientists
have understood anything about it"
Orion: (upset) As if they knew something instead...
Orion had been working for a couple of hours, it was getting so late I was preparing to return back home, when...
Orion: What the h....
Leo: (worried) Orion, what's happening?
But Orion showed no signs of being able to hear us, he just stared straight ahead with an absurd grimace on his face.
