Al barked out a laugh, but stopped when he realized Sapptus was serious. "Secret Yeerk Pool entrances? What, you mean they hide the pool itself? That's insanity."
He nodded at Jasper's explanation of their plans- or lack thereof. "The Yeerks have Earth pretty well covered, from the sound of things," he said. "Could you even go back there? Cause if not, it's rough being alone and one-of-a-kind in the universe. Well, two," he said with a smirk and a pointed look at Jasper's forehead. "Where to go from here's kinda the trick for you guys, right? You probably shouldn't think about leaving until you've got a plan. Not leaving long-term, anyway." He looked around the bar with melodramatic suspicion. "I'd definitely condone the occasional breather."
With a shrug, he took the nearly-empty ice cream container from Jasper, dug in his spoon, pulled out the last bite, tossed the spoon into the air, twirling, caught it behind his back, flicked the spoon so that the ice cream flew upwards, tilted his head back, and caught it in his mouth. He grinned at Jasper, "You know you're sharing with a robot, right? Sense of taste doesn't tend to be our strong point."
When Zorish approached, Al turned and smiled, "No interruption, we're just kind of talking. You're welcome to join us, of course. Sadly, I just finished off our ice cream... If you want some I can make Mr. Cheerful over there," he nodded towards the bartender, "give us some more. My name's Al," he said, sticking out his hand.
The remaining Malleon made their way up the wire and into the 'jar.' Only a small portion of them were left behind, and those elected to go into a dormant state, so as to use less of the Skimmer's energy. They would awaken later if they felt the need for whatever reason- as long as they remained connected to the collective of Malleon aboard Salem's ship, their awakening would be determined by the collective at large, at which point they could begin creating an entirely new colony aboard the Skimmer.
Now that the majority of them had withdrawn, the collective aboard Salem's ship sent a communication to Salem's communicator. The container itself was nearly full of what looked like a green-gray slime.
Salem grinned at Efaen, "That's just some friends of mine. Nothing to worry about. That was really just for Corliss." He nodded at her, "I'm technically a Prince. It's an honorary position, of course, so nobody ever really takes it seriously, myself included. But what it does do is give me a little more sway with the Electorate, especially with as closely as I often have to work with them. Had to work with them," he amended with a slight frown. "I did manage to get another couple of female arisths recruited, so at least I feel like I'm accomplishing something. With the way this war's going, though, it's probably all too little, too late."
His communicator trilled. He pulled it from his pocket and, switching to the Atazin galactic language, said "Thanks, guys." He then turned and called up the ramp with a smirk, "Hey, Illim, tell Corliss that he can bring my friends back to me now. Gently."
