Sharon was 'escorted' back to the docking bay with the minimum of fuss, both due to her acting friendly and the soldiers'downright surprise. The whole docking operation of the massive submarine took a good ten minutes, then all the blast doors were locked again and air returned to the smallish compartment.
As soon as it was possible, the men dropped their scuba gear and levelled their weapons. Sharon understood the reason of this sudden change of attitude when the airlock opened again and in came the PO, along with a higher ranking officer. The soliders simply wanted to look professional!
In a somewhat limping Latin, the Leviathan's captain again interrogated her; if anything, he was even less affected by her appearance than the PO. Sharon didn't dare to try singing because her previous attempt had undoubtely been reported.
A few lines swapped in Russian between the captain and the PO gave her the impression that the two were in disaccord about the diplomatic implication of this encounter; both men naturally assumed that where there was one mermaid there had to be a race of merfolk, and while the PO wanted to set Sharon free as soon as possible, the captain sort of disbelieved the whole situation and even advanced the hypothesis that Sharon was an Allied spy. A close look on a soldier's face revealed that he was trying hard to suppress laughter -- did military paranoia go all this far?
The Babel leech had now adapted to Russian almost perfectly, and Sharon could rear the Captain end the discussion by saying
Sat Dec 11 13:14:00 1999