Elise let out a tired sigh upon hearing Jason's response.
"Well, I'll take comfort in the fact that you didn't mention the gaping hole in my head." The redhead turned to Ariin when he spoke to her.
"Well, cybernetics might interfere with my energy system, so-" She then blinked. "Wait, you seem different now. You sound like a normal person now. Oh, you stopped being crazy. Awesome."
She then gasped upon hearing Devor's name. She touched her eyepatch, and blushed.
"Crap...He can't see me like this..." She mumbled to herself.
"...I'm an ugly cripple now...Ugh..." It was at that moment when Serah regained consciousness. She made a little wave of her hand, and gave a weak smile.
"Hey, you're alive, too. Ain't we some lucky gals, huh?"
As Zim expected, Black Star stood motionless in the hangar, like a massive statue worked on by the workers as they made repairs to it's chassis and inner hydraulics. It had been a day or so since they began their return trip, and things seemed to have settled down. However, Zim couldn't help but feel a bit strange after thanking the Framewerk. And then, he saw it; A single finger on the massive Frame twitched once. Nobody else in the hangar noticed this, and continued working around the Frame as if nothing happened. And then, an announcement came on the loudspeakers:
"This is Captain Ritsu. Team Sigma, report to the containment sector on Delta-4 for a special briefing. This excludes Sergeant Steinhart and Pilot Gene."
The squad stood in a single row before Ritsu, who waited for them by the entrance to the containment cells. She saluted them.
"Squad Sigma, I have summoned you here to discuss a private matter. That is, the special circumstances surrounding the P.O.W you have extracted, as well as pilot Liu'un. Now, before we-" She was interrupted by the squeak of a rubber tire rounding the corner; it was Elise, sitting on a wheelchair. "Captain! Sergeant Steinhart, reporting for special briefing!" She saluted, and gave a wide grin.
Ritsu blinked. "Oh, I did not expect you to make a recovery this soon, Sergeant. I checked the medical records, and they claimed you were still bedridden."
"Not a problem, Captain!" She responded sternly. "Some broken bones don't stop a soldier's duty!"
Ritsu shook her head in disbelief. "Very well then. Pilot Devors, assist Steinhart in pushing her chair. Now, follow me."
She first wrote a keycode in the door, followed by hand-print and retina scan. Finally, after the multiple identification scans, the door opened. Inside, there was a room with a round metal sphere, with a work station in front of it. The screens on the terminal showed what looked like a
robed alien floating inside a green-lit spherical room. "As you can see, the P.O.W has been placed in solitary confinement. Executive Officer Lorenzo has described the device as a 'detainment field'. He has claimed that neurological dampening caused by the field is enough to nullify the...Well, 'abilities' the Cruxi may possess."
Ritsu looked unsure as she said those words. "Now, your squad has been exposed to this Cruxi, so you must exercise absolute caution once the P.O.W is relocated. Understood?"
Ritsu then showed the next sphere, and sighed once she checked her personal device. "Now, I am aware that some of you are personally acquainted with pilot Liu'un, so to silence any possible rumors, I will be showing you her current condition." She opened the screens of her terminal; they showed Elora sitting on a bed while wearing a hospital gown, looking down at her hands on her lap.
"For security reasons, she will be kept in containment for the rest of this trip, but I will allow visitors to greet her under surveillance." She glanced at Katya's direction. "I am sure that would be beneficial. We will soon arrive in Solaire, so prepare to depart once you have returned to your barracks."