"Yup. I'm very proud of my humbleness. Besides, as one of you humans said, it ain't bragging if it's true."

"Uh huh." It continuously amazed me how Skippy knew so much about human history. How did a shiny beer can know quotes from Muhammad Ali? "This making longer jumps, it won't damage the engines?  I don't want to get stranded out here. Not that the idea of spending eternity on this ship with you, doesn't sound absolutely wonderful. Because it doesn't."

"I don't want to spend an eternity looking at your ugly face either. No, the Thuranin control their jumps by forcing far too much energy through the engines, that wears them out. I'll be using a third of the energy to jump more than twice as far. The engines will last much longer. Which is good, because we can't exactly take our stolen pirate ship to a Thuranin repair station."

"Can us monkeys help with keeping the ship running? You could show us where the jack and spare tire is, in case we get a flat."

"If we get stuck, you can get out and push."

I stuck my tongue out at him. Even the smartest human was probably incapable of fixing even a toilet aboard a Thuranin ship, we'd be totally useless if something happened to the engines or any other critical system. Although, if Skippy was going to drag us on a long trip across the galaxy, toilets were going to be a critical system.

"Ok, so, we're going to jump to a wormhole. How are we going to get through the wormhole? Won't the Kristang, or the Thuranin, or even the Ruhar at this point, have ships guarding the entrance?"

"How would they do that?"

"Do what?"

"Guard the entrance."

"With, uh, you know, ships. Or, like, a battle station or something like that." For a second, I pictured a Death Star. Only filled with lizards instead of storm troopers.

"What good would a battle station do? It just sits there."

I couldn't believe a super intelligent being needed me to explain what a space battle station could do. Particularly since I'd never seen one. Slowly, I explained. "It sits there, in front of the entrance, preventing unauthorized ships from-"

"Whoa!" Skippy interrupted me. "I see the problem. Huh, you really don't know. Damn, your species is even dumber than I thought."

"Don't know what?"

"Wormholes aren't static. They move around. A battle station would be totally useless."

"Ooooh-kaaaay. No, Mister Smarty Pants, I didn't know that." The burgermeister hadn't mentioned that important detail. "What do you mean, move around?"