"And, three, two, one, jump. Done. We're good, we came out of jump one third of a lightyear from the intended emergence point. I have the star carrier on total EMCON, and have ordered the Kristang to do the same. Oh, darn, it, pesky lizard. The Kristang commander has noticed we didn't jump to where we were supposed to, he is demanding to know why, and also is demanding access to our ship."

"Can you hold him off?" I asked, alarmed. The last thing we wanted was an armed Kristang force walking through the Thuranin ship and knocking on our airlock door. Or flying a dropship over to our landing bay.

"Oh, yeah, I bitchslapped him right away. The Thuranin don't take any crap from their client species. I told him to shut the fuck up, that we altered our jump to avoid a Jeraptha battleship, and that this frigate is under quarantine. He doesn't like it, he also knows he doesn't have any choice."

"All right, what's next?"

"Colonel Joe, you're the commander. My suggestion is we go aboard the star carrier, and round up the eighty seven Thuranin crew."

"Us against eighty seven armed Thuranin cyborgs?" I asked, incredulously. We had barely defeated a dozen Kristang.

"Eighty seven cyborgs who are sound asleep. I ordered their brain implants to put them all into an unscheduled sleep maintenance cycle, they're basically in a coma." Skippy explained. "Ha! And those little green pinheads think being cyborgs is a strength."

"Just like that?" I asked. "We have complete control over the entire ship?' It felt like a letdown. I could live with that, any day.

"Yup. Just like that. Behold, the magic of Skippy the Magnificent. Truthfully, as magic at my level goes, this is lame. Still, it impresses the monkeys, right?"

I nodded. "This monkey is sufficiently impressed."

"Agreed." Chang said.

"This human is impressed." Simms retorted. "Colonel, if I was skeptical of your shiny beer can before, I'm not now."

"He's not my beer can, Major Simms." I hastened to correct her before Skippy got mad. "Skippy is more of a sentient being than any of us."

"Than all of you put together." Skippy

Damn, that beer can was smug.

Assured by Skippy that the Kristang would not dare to come aboard the Thuranin ship, and that he had their airlock doors locked anyway, we warily ventured through our own airlock. Giraud led the way, armed with a Ruhar rifle, an HK416 rifle that was standard issue for French special forces, and a pouch full of flash bang grenades. All of which Skippy insisted was totally unnecessary, according to him, we could roam around the huge star carrier buck naked. Although he requested that we hairless monkeys wear as much clothing as possible, to spare his delicate sensors. I flipped him off with both middle fingers and asked if his sensors could see that. He didn't respond.