On page 13, if the original line had Callotta's name in it, then it was likely Nell starting the intro followed by a long pause as she thought up the rest. The ? would have been there to indicate Nell's pondering of what she'll say. It's hard to describe in text, but if you can picture those 4...
This is why, when you do a 'time prison', you slow down the prisoner's time, not speed it up, so that, to the prisoner, only a short time has passed, while decades or centuries go by in the regular world.
@InsaneInsomniac
There's a couple things you missed. In regards to the guy being able to read English, he mentioned 'code' in the first few pages. That would indicate to me that he was a Japanese codebreaker which would require knowledge of the source language to do, since he's on the Pacific...
I agree with D4rkShatter. it was all over the place and mixing things like crossbows and halberds with mechs and modern tanks, artillery and rifles just didn't mesh.
Also too many girls. They would finish introducing one just to add another, never felt like we really got to know any of them...