"Mister Skippy," Desai asked, "does this mean you can remotely control Kristang ships in the future?"

"Yes! Yes, I can, as long as we're close enough. The Thuranin are constantly changing their control codes, and their encryption is pretty good, so I need to bypass the Thuranin control system and activate the nanovirus directly. Short answer: yes, I can do it. Long answer: meh, it depends. I wouldn't want to count on it in a critical combat situation."

I gave an exaggerated shrug. "And, once again, you are filling me with confidence, Skippy."

"Hey, it's better than what we had before. And I'm working on it, the technology the Thuranin are using isn't quite right, it's corrupted from the original. The Elders abandoned this type of crude technology a long, long time ago, I'm having to dig through my memory to figure out how it's supposed to work, and if I can fix it, then I can control it much more easily. Give me some time. Your time, not my superfast time."

"Hey, Colonel Joe? Are you asleep?" Skippy's voice rang out of the speaker in the ceiling of my sleeping compartment.

I bolted upright, and whacked my head on a low-hanging cabinet. Before I tried going to sleep in the tiny bed, I figured that cabinet would be a problem, so I hung two pairs of pants over it as padding. Probably saved me from a concussion. Next night, it was time to try sleeping on the floor, the Thuranin beds were too small. "Damn it, Skippy, you made me crack my head." Rubbing my scalp made it worse. Stop rubbing it made it worse too. "What is it," I asked as I stumbled to my feet, ready to run out the door to the bridge. "That Maxohlx cruiser found us?"

"No! No danger, Joe. Good news, I have good news."

My zPhone said it was 0134 hours, I'd been asleep for less than three hours and my duty shift on the bridge started in another three and a half hours. "There is no good news at this time of night, Skippy." I settled back in the bed as best I could, alternating between rubbing my head and letting it throb painfully. "Can this wait until morning?"

"There is no sunrise on a starship, Joe."

"Oh, for crying out- what is it?" Clearly, he was not going away.

"Among the data I pulled from that command ship is an interesting analysis of the Kristang asteroid base where we're going. The Thuranin have been monitoring it closely for years, they've mapped the gaps and vulnerabilities of the Kristang defenses."

"Oh, that is good news. It's going to be easy?"