The other two had only gotten about halfway down the hallway outside the bridge when Elytra caught up to them, in time to see Pryseia unseal her shirt where it met her pants, and then something slithered out from around her waist.
"You've a tail!?" Elytra couldn't stop herself from saying.
"You hid it?" The tall alien added on, "Were the baithaizans as weird about tails as the thalatte were?"
Pryseia shot the pair of them a shrug. "No, they have tails themselves. Hiding it was a habit forged over too long a time."
"Yeah, we're probably gonna be undoing the damage they did for a while," the tall alien grumbled, and then turning so they could walk backwards to face Elytra, they said, "And hey, sorry for not introducing myself sooner. Doctor Rhea Marinos, human female, recently out of an abusive relationship with a totalitarian military regime and looking for a fresh start!"
Doctor though she may have been, this Rhea was clearly not one to take herself seriously.
"Elytra Cerci Setula Clypeus, fourth in clutch." Elytra responded with a touch to her forehead plate.
"I'm glad you're tagging along, I was hoping to give you a medical once over, if you consent to it? With the way the leadership on Iromay were treating their own people, I'm worried about how they treated the pair of you." Rhea said, continuing to walk backwards.
"Iromay?" Elytra repeated.
"The world we just escaped," Pryseia said before turning to Rhea, "They were forthcoming of nothing, in regards to their captives."
"They basically told their own people jack shit too," Rhea explained, "We were doing some digging while we waited for your signal, and it looks like the leadership of this colony was trying to make a break for independence from the rest of the Baithaiz Republic. They were planning on going to full scale war to do so, but they weren't telling the general public that. They spun up some lie about an unknown enemy coming to get them. And that's why they were abducting so many aliens to bolster their forces - they wouldn't ask why they were being sent to kill other baithaizans instead of some unknown. It was a stupid plan, but from what we saw of the people running that world, they were egotistical enough to think that it could work."
"They ran the facility we were being kept in like a cult, so that doesn't fill me with shock." Elytra added.
Rhea let out a humourless laugh at that. "Yeah, that poor excuse for fashion they dressed you in is certainly giving cult."
"You should have seen the architecture," Pryseia gave a humourless laugh of her own, "All featureless white nothing. It was maddening!"
Rhea grimaced. "Weird. Baithaiz architecture is usually pretty renowned for being aesthetically pleasing."
Further conversation was cut off when their little group reached a door that slid open at their approach. Inside, the lights were clinically bright, a handful of uncomfortable looking metallic slabs along one wall, while the one opposite it bore shelves full of equipment Elytra couldn't even guess at what they were used for. There was a haphazard pile of mechanical somethings towards the furthest wall, partially blocking access off to a room beyond it.
"We've been getting a start on some reno work while you were gone," Rhea offered when she noticed Pryseia eying up the state of the area, "Not a lot to do while hiding in stealth, y'know? But the benches still work, so up you get."
"We'll need to invest in something more comfortable, once we have the funds." Pryseia said as she lay down on one of the slabs, Rhea coming up along side it and pressing one of the glowing lights above where the slab butted up against the wall. An instant later, a rectangular arch telescoped out of the wall, completely encasing the slab where Pryseia lay.
"It's a quick-diagnostic and healing device," Rhea explained, catching Elytra's confused look, "She throw herself into harm's way or something?"
"She had me jam her mech's entry hatch closed with mine's energy sabre. While she was still inside."
"That tracks."
"I needed a way to remain near enough to reach!" Pryseia called out from the healing device.
"And you had to choose the most dangerous way, didn't you?" Was Rhea's stern retort. Elytra could feel the worry that undercut her statement, a sensation as deep-seated as the roots of an ancient tree.
"I chose the most expedient way." Pryseia's confident tone couldn't hide the cold creep of shame Elytra felt coming off her. There was a history here with this kind of behaviour, and she could only guess at how far back it went between the two of them.
"Well, while she's getting stitched back together, how about I get a look at you?" Rhea said, turning towards Elytra. Nodding, she went and stood in the little alcove that Rhea opened with another button press. Not long after, a series of lights and beams passed through the alcove at different angles, and Elytra had to suppress a shiver caused by the sensation of them passing through her.
"Yeah, sorry, thalatte tech isn't known for its comfort," Rhea sympathized, "It's quick, though, so you won't have to put up with it for long."
And sure enough, the beams blinked out a few seconds later. Rhea pulled an obviously detachable panel off the wall, and Elytra just caught the edge of a display screen on the front of it. Rhea scanned whatever it showed for a few moments before she spoke.
"Not as bad as I feared. They weren't really set up to feed the population they had back on Iromay, so the food for the general public was full of filler and appetite suppressants. Looks like they were feeding you on the same stuff, so you're a little malnourished, but we should be able to remedy that with some proper food and vitamin supplements pretty quick. Looks like they did a full spacefarer suite on you too - psychically implanted language and some physical skills, induced zoastasis, some gene therapy to allow you to survive the harsher radiations in space, things like that. They also had you in suspended animation for a while, but not long enough to permanently damage any of your pigmentation. You probably already noticed your colour coming back."
"Can you tell how long they had me for?" Elytra asked, at once both desperate and dreading the answer.
"Yeah, looks like it was about f- hang on, you're homeworld's Hurni, right?" Rhea asked, cutting herself off.
"Yes?"
"Okay, just gotta do a little math about that…" She tapped away at the display pad for a moment before she continued, "Alright, looks like it would be about 87 years."
"87?!" Elytra repeated, feeling lightheaded. She knew she'd been in stasis for a while, but she hadn't expected it to be nearly a lifetime's worth of time. She'd been forced to watch her immediate family get killed, but she'd hoped - however remotely - that she could get in contact with her extended family once she escaped. But 87 years… anyone she knew would likely be dead by now.
"Hey, whoa, come over here." She dimly became aware of Rhea talking, a hand on her shoulder as the woman guided her into a chair she'd pulled from somewhere. She then moved her hand to Elytra's back, and began rubbing soothing circles there. Elytra focused her attention on that to try and ground herself in the here and now.
"I'm alone." Elytra managed to choke out after a few minutes, and the hand on her back stopped moving.
Rhea instead came to kneel in front of her, taking both shoulders in her hands and saying, "You aren't. You're here, with us, strangers though we may be."
"I did pull you out of that place for a reason, after all." Pryseia said, now out of the healing device and crouched down next to Rhea. Elytra hadn't even noticed her getting out of that thing.
"And what reason is that?" Elytra asked, desperate for any other subject to cling to, "We're out of that prison, away from prying eyes, so you can freely share now, can't you?!"
"I can indeed," Pryseia said as she stood, "We should get the others, however. I only possess one portion of the details."
"Mess hall," Rhea replied before standing as well, though she kept one hand on Elytra's shoulder, "We can do a proper meet and greet before we get into it, and get some proper nutrition into the two of you."
Elytra had never felt further away from hunger in her life, but she nodded anyway. She'd be willing to put up with anything if it got her the full picture on everything she could feel moving behind the scenes.