"Oh, yeah," he said casually, "that's child's play for me. Their stupid grids can detect anything they want, I'll instruct their master computers to ignore the inputs, the lizards won't know anything has been detected. And their weapons aren't a problem, I'll spoof their fire control systems so they can't get a lock on us. For a while. Once we knock on the door, even my incredible wondrousness can't prevent even the dumbest of lizards from figuring out something is wrong."

"Great, fine," I said irritably, "we can plan how to cross that bridge when we get there. Is everyone ready for the jump?"

Chang and Simms were talking over each other, I was trying to interrupt both of them, and everyone had something to say. This went on for only a second or so, before Skippy fairly shouted, using the ship's intercom. "Enough! Dammit, this is like a troop of monkeys howling in the tree tops. Quit with the jibber jabber, I can't hear myself think. Out! Out! Everyone out of the bridge, except Colonel Joe and the pilots!"

I looked up guiltily at the others, especially Chang and Simms. "Skippy, we can-"

"Colonel Joe, you said we need clear lines of communication. We're going to be flying this ship in enemy territory, through wormholes, and potentially in combat. Having a troop of monkeys screeching at me is not clear communication. They can stand outside the bridge in the CIC, listen to us, and watch, but I don't want to hear from them unless you open the intercom. You're the captain, you're a colonel, you're in command. I will only communicate with you or the pilot, while this ship is in flight."

I could see Skippy's point. Chang and Simms wanted to weigh in on everything, because they didn't truly accept my authority. I didn't blame them, I couldn't believe it myself. And, truthfully, this was a great opportunity for me to assert, or more correctly, test, my authority. If Chang, Simms, Giraud or anyone else wasn't taking my command authority seriously, this was a great time to find out. "Skippy is right," I declared in my deepest, most authoritative voice, "it's too crowded in here also. Access to the bridge is restricted to the duty officer," at that time the duty officer was me, "and the two pilots. Everyone else, take stations in the CIC." We needed to schedule shifts for who sat in the big chair as the duty officer, we also needed more than two pilots, Desai had been our pilot since we broke out of the Kristang jail and she had to be tired by now, having flown three unfamiliar spacecraft already today.

To my relief, no one objected to being banished from the bridge, they had better access to the controls and displays in the CIC anyway, the bridge area was way too crowded.