Chang, who had remained silent, but had been exchanging increasingly tense looks with his three Chinese soldiers, cleared his throat. “Colonel,” he said with emphasis, “we volunteered for this mission, without knowing the details. I expected the plan was to attack the Kristang. Now you are telling us that our mission is to save the world? To rescue Earth from the Kristang?”

“Uh,” it sounded so dramatic when he said it that way, “yes. Yes, we’re going to shut down the wormhole that allows the Kristang access to earth. The situation will go back to the way it was before the wormhole shift,” I assumed everyone had heard the rumors about that by now, “Earth will be all by itself in the middle of nowhere, and this war will go on without humans.”

“Save the world?” Simms repeated incredulously.

“That’s the idea.” I nodded. "I know it's kind of a cliché, but-"

"No, save the world works for me." Simms said thoughtfully. "Shit. Is this real?"

Chang clicked his zPhone off and spoke briefly to his three soldiers in Mandarin, then turned back to me. “Colonel, I find all this difficult to believe. However, not long ago, I was stationed at an army outpost on the Mongolian border. Now, I am in an alien space ship, a thousand lightyears from home. What is possible has been redefined so many times, that I’m prepared to accept almost anything. So, if this mission has even a small chance to free our planet from the Kristang, we will do our utmost.”

Damn, his English was better than my own. “Thank you, Colonel Chang.” I scanned the other faces.

Giraud gave a Gallic shrug. “We’re going to kill Kristang, no? I am in, as you say.”

Simms and Adams exchanged a glance. “Oh, what the hell, sure, us too.” Simms declared. “Colonel, this is it, right, the whole truth, everything? No more surprises? We’re allied with a talking beer can, to shut down the wormhole?  Now that we’re out here, I expect the need for Opsec is out the window.” She looked meaningfully at the airlock door. “If that expression can be used in space.”

I nodded. “You know everything that I know. I can’t promise there won’t be more surprises, but they’ll be surprises to me too.”

“Why us, sir?” Sergeant Thomson asked in his oh-so-proper British accent. “Why not bring this, Skippy, to UNEF HQ, and let them sort it out? Send up a proper special ops force, SAS, all that?”