"Oh, uh, of course you have, sorry about that." Why did I bother explaining anything, to a being who knew everything that was in any sort of data storage device humanity had brought to Paradise? Plus every bit of data the Kristang and Ruhar had about humans. He knew far more about humanity that any human did. Whether he understood it, in context, was another question. "To travel eight lightyears takes about sixteen days on a Thuranin star carrier like this. Unless, uh, there are different types of star carriers? I don't know which ship we travelled on."

"There are different types, and the Thuranin have battleships, cruisers and what you would call destroyers and frigates, also transports and support ships. All their star carriers have roughly the same jump capability."

"Ok, so, two weeks between here and the nearest wormhole-"

"You mean the wormhole that leads to Camp X-Ray. That is not the closest wormhole to Paradise."

"It's not?"

"No." It was maddening when Skippy stuck to the facts, usually I couldn't get him to shut up about anything.

"Which wormhole are we going to?"

"The one that is only five lightyears away from Paradise."

I did some quick mental math. "Ten days, then?"

"Sure, if you want to poke along like the Thuranin, one wimpy little jump at a time. We're doing it in jumps that are twice as far as normal, and that's only because I need to calibrate the engines, fine-tune them, as you would say. We could go more than twice as far on a jump."

"I don't understand."

"That's the first intelligent thing you've said since we met."

"Welcome back, Skippy, I knew that asshole was in there someplace."

"I'm ignoring that. The truth, my boy, is the Thuranin stole their supposedly advanced jump drive technology a long time ago, but those arrogant little cyborg pinheads have made zero progress in understanding how it works since then. Morons. The best way to explain it is it's like they stole a car, and they know how to get it started, and how to get the transmission into gear. They have no idea that transmission has multiple gears, but they know the car has a gas pedal, and they've got the pedal to the floor. They're poking along in first gear, with the engine screaming, and it creeps along painfully slowly, but it could go so much faster. Especially since the Thuranin were very bad at copying their stolen technology, and it's like they carved the transmission from a solid block of wood. Idiots. Even without being modified, their crappy copy of a jump drive is capable of much greater performance, with me controlling it."

"Not that you're bragging or anything."

"No, I'm very modest. Astonishingly modest, considering how awesome I am."

"Oh, for sure, your awesome modesty is your most impressive trait." I rolled my eyes at that. "It's amazing how humble you are."