Corliss sits back in the nav seat, swiveling restlessly as he awaits Efaen's arrival.
"Dunno if she'll be as prompt as she sounds," he says with a mild shrug.
In the interminable silence Efaen finally appears, and Corliss sits up.
"You're really ready to leave, then?" he says, scarcely believing the Andalite girl's words. "Alright then. Yeah. Yeah, um. Everyone, find your seats, then. Make sure you're strapped in proper. Erh."
He taps at the holoscreens in front of him, idly pulling the living metal restraints over his shoulders. "Computer, close exterior hatch." As the Skimmer's engines whir beneath them, he finally allows himself to grin.
"Bloody hell, mates," he says to all within the cabin. "We're finally going home."
Slowly, with the care and hesitancy of a living creature, the leg-like landing gears of the Skimmer pick up from the soft earth, and the lobster larva ship hovers, black and glaring with four red eyelike windows, several feet above the ground. Blue gases hiss from beneath the ship as the leg gears retract, but the baleful crimson stare remains, casting a deep glow over the windows of the Bar.