Interrogation

The room was lit by two fluorescent lights, which flickered. It wasn't a very big place, maybe five meters per side, but the faulty lighting made it look dark. Don was seated at a square table, handcuffed to a chair. Across from him was another chair. 

Plus, there was a large gentleman by the door with an equally large weapon. 

Don had been stripped down to the lower underwear layer of his spacesuit. They didn't have to leave him in these, he had a suitcase with a shirt and trousers in the Dart. Instead, here he was, in his black underwear layer, handcuffed to a metal chair, with an armed guard, sitting in a dim, dark room. 

The door opened, and for just a second he saw a brightly lit hallway. A man walked in, wearing a black suit. He walked up to the chair across from Don, pulled it out, and sat down. 

"My name is Special Agent Spann. There are a few questions I'd like to ask you, but let's get to know each other first. What's your name and rank?"

"My name is Donald Willem Visser, I don't have a... rank."

"No rank? That was a hot little number you arrived in, I'm not sure I believe you about no 'rank'."

Don sighed and shook his head. "Look, I'm not a member of the Defense Forces, okay? I guess my rank is what I am, astronaut pilot."

"Astronaut pilot, huh? No military background?"

"Engineering. If you had access to my record at the space agency, it's all right there. No secrets, none of this is secret."

"Don, you mentioned defense forces. You mean like the Air Force? The Navy?"

Don laughed, "you're joking, right?"

Spann chuckled, "no."

"You know damn well the branches were merged in 1988," Don laughed. 

Spann sat for a moment, a blank look on his face. 

"Merged?"

Don felt his blood go cold. It was the same feeling he had since he was allowed to touch down at Craig Airfield, which looked decided different from the way he had seen it last.

Something was seriously off. 

"Mr. Spann, before I answer any more questions, I want to contact the Dutch consulate."

"The Dutch Consulate? Why?"

"I have dual citizenship. Where the hell's my passport?"

Spann reached into his jacket pocket and removed Don's passport, "you mean this?"

"That would be it..."

Agent Spann opened it up and flipped through it, and started shaking his head.

"Don, there is nothing regular about this. This doesn't look like any passport I've ever seen. The seal on the front, the... stamps... none of it. This looks fake," he said, as he threw it onto the table. 

It was at this point that Don decided he needed to stop talking, at least for a minute or two. 

"I tell you what, Mr. Visser, I've got a few people heading down from Washington who are going to want to speak with you as well. We've impounded your little ship, we've got a few experts who want to look it over. Something tells me that you are from way, way out of town. Now, I can let those guys come down here and extract that info from you... or you can start explaining. Well?"

When Don was a child, he watched old movies about the bad days, when war was rampant. He had an idea of what torture was. Besides, there were no secrets, not anymore. 

"Okay. I was on my way home from Node Station 3 in LEO. I was up there for two weeks, brought up some new relays for the crew. I departed there... last night? Hell, I don't even know what day it is. Began my reentry over the Pacific, came across Mexico, passed over a sudden storm over the Gulf that shook the Dart even that far up... think I hit a SPRITE or two... and ended up here. Wanna know what my cargo is?"

"Tell me," Spann said.

"Burnt out relays and a couple of high school science experiments for a school in Manitoba. Oh, and my suitcase."

Spann chuckled.

"Yeah, we already know. Took them out already."

"So clearly I'm not a threat," Don snarled, "can you get these damned handcuffs off me? I can't go anywhere, and your goon over there with the gun? Yeah, like I'm going to take him on. I bet you got them down the hall as well."

Leaning back, Spann laughed, "yeah, you're right. You ain't going anywhere. Luke, undo Mr. Visser's handcuffs, will ya?"

The guard lowered his weapon and walked around behind Don. In the meantime, Spann stood and slid his jacket back to reveal his own firearm. Whatever was going on, Don thought, these people were the height of paranoid. As the handcuffs came off, he brought his arms around and rubbed his wrists. 

"Thanks, Luke," he said. 

As the guard returned to his station by the door, Spann sat back down. 

"Tell ya what. I'm going to bring your clothes in here, let you get dressed. We'll get you moved to another room after that, one with a bed. You can expect visitors tomorrow, that's still gotta happen. You're a puzzle, Mr. Visser, and we don't like puzzles like this."

"I just bet", Don replied.