“Adams, forget what Skippy looks like to us. You saw what happened back at the warehouse, the Ruhar couldn’t use their weapons, but we could. That wasn’t me, it wasn’t UNEF, it was Skippy here. Skippy hacked into this Dodo so we could fly it, that sure wasn’t me and it wasn’t UNEF. We just boosted out of orbit, right through the middle of a Ruhar fleet, and they didn’t see us. Skippy has hacked into the Ruhar sensor systems and instructed them to ignore us. No way could UNEF do any of this. Skippy is the ultimate weapon, our ace in the hole, and humanity for sure by God needs an ace right now. With Skippy, we can disable, shut down, turn off, the only wormhole that allows the lizards access to Earth.”

Adams wasn't convinced. “How do we know this isn’t a trick by the lizards, that this AI isn’t working for them?”

“Adams, if you can think of anything, anything at all, that the lizards would gain from helping us escape from the Ruhar and steal one of their Dodos, please tell me. Because I can’t think of anything. Skippy is going to build our trust the same way we’re going to build his; by doing, one action at a time. He got me, you, Chang and Desai out of prison, and now we’re off the surface of Paradise. If we were by ourselves, we’d still be trying to figure how to open the door on this thing.” I pointed to the Dodo’s deck. “I did consider maybe this is a Ruhar trick, to get us aboard a Kristang ship, maybe the hamsters planted a bomb on this thing, this particular Dodo. Again, I can’t think of why the Ruhar would go through all the trouble. This war has been going on for a very long time without humans involved. They don’t need us; the lizards, the hamsters, the Thuranin, none of them need us primitive humans for anything. Maybe this is all an elaborate ruse for some reason we can’t see. Ok, maybe it is. Or maybe Skippy is telling the truth, and we have a chance to shut down the wormhole that gives the lizards access to Earth. If there is any chance that is true, any chance at all, we need to take it. We’ll know whether we can trust Skippy when we have control of a Kristang warship. It’s as simple as that.” Skippy had remained uncharacteristically silent the whole time I’d been speaking. Part of being super smart is knowing when to keep your mouth shut and let the other guy talk.