"Ha! As if! No way, Colonel Joe, you don't get off that easy. No, I can case the joint remotely, but then we need to ransack the place to heist the loot I need."

Case the joint? Heist? Where was Skippy getting his slang? "Ransack? As in, raid? I don't suppose the Kristang there are all unarmed research nerds?"

"Ho, ho, no way! They'll be mad as a nest of hornets. This asteroid base is where the Kristang try to figure out how Elder tech works, so they're keeping it secret from the Thuranin, because they're hoping they can leapfrog past their patrons, and crush them. The Thuranin know all about it, of course, they're not as stupid as the lizards think. They let the lizards conduct their research in case they discover anything useful, then the Thuranin can swoop in and take it. The place is heavily guarded; stealth detection grids, nukes, x-ray lasers, all the bells and whistles. Even this ship could be destroyed."

"That is a tough target." I didn't like the idea of raiding a hardened target. We'd surprised the crew of the Flower, and barely managed to take that ship. Any base the Kristang were trying to keep secret from the Thuranin would be constantly on the alert.  "There must be some place else we could go?"

"Nope. Not any place convenient. Besides, Joe, what you need is there also."

What I need? A cheeseburger? "What is that?"

"A wormhole controller module. The module has the codes I need to shut down a wormhole."

Now I was pissed. "Skippy, you told me you could shut down that wormhole!" What the hell else hadn't he told me?

"Hey, I can, I can! Temporarily. What I can do is disrupt the wormhole's connection to the network, but that's only temporary. The network protocols will eventually reestablish the connection, and reset the wormhole. I need the full set of controller codes to actually shut it down permanently, the Elders didn't provide those codes to me."

"I wonder why." I said dryly. "You're so incredibly trustworthy."

"I am! It's not my fault you're too dumb to ask the right question. Remember, when you assume, you make an ass of u and me. Or you, anyway."

It took everything I had not to try stomping his shiny lid into the deck. The Elders had a lot to answer for, building such an asshole. Through gritted teeth, I asked carefully "You have a plan to get past these stealth detection grids, nuclear missiles, lasers, and starships, right?"