Effie was just returning at that moment, she and her subnodes laden down with assorted goodies that she'd..... 'found laying about' the base to spruce up her cabins. She frowned a bit when she saw them all jokingly picking on Ari. "Now then, now then, now then, what's all this going on here then?" she asked Ari and the others as she clambered up her gangplank with a big wing-back armchair in her arms, while her subnodes carried a large wooden desk, a big rug, a rather worn looking radio and a partly dismantled cabinet; the subnodes that were carrying the stuff also had multiple bottles stuffed into their pockets.<br/><hr/>Just ahead of Effie's ship, Zara had repaired her hull, and was now pumping the water out of her bilges to restore her water-tight buoyancy. The name-ship of her class of heavy cruiser was once again looking splendid, and also fairly under-clad, as she listened to the conversations of those around her, but for now just held her peace.