Corliss watches the Andalites leave, his gaze a trifle cold.
"Ah, yes, well that would explain why Mar is leering at me with his lovely old face," Myitt replies to Thordon, "and why Ozzy's a bit, hrm, bluer than usual."
Corliss turns to Thordon when Thordon mentions his name. "What, this? Yeah, it's not much really." He inspects his itchy, bandaged hand and his bandaged arm. "Got some painkillers in. Worst of it's the arm, and one splitter of an 'eadache."
As Elayne and Thordon exchange banter, Corliss steps over to his sibling.
"Terenia's connected to the Skimmer's ship comm system," he tells her quietly in Yeerkish. "I set a scan running for Imperial tracers. You know, we should be careful. Terenia has been missing for some time, and the Visser may send reinforcements."
"Hmm," says Myitt, in English. "Yes, he's not one to put up missing pet posters, is he?"
---
On board the Skimmer, the computer picks up the faintest echo of change in the long-range scans. The smallest piece of raw data that indicates the emission of heat and energy from a cloaked, signal encrypted Imperial ship.
The visual scans keep on running as if nothing had happened. It could've been a pocket of space-time, or a comet, or a fluctuation in the planetoid's white suns.