Wow, what a great idea, I hadn't thought of that. That's what ran through my mind, not what I said to Skippy. "Colonel Chang," I said through the zPhone, "you'll have to dig through that pile to find the comm node. You know what the thing looks like." Every member of the raiding party had seen the models Skippy fabricated of the two items we needed to steal.

"Yes, acknowledged." Chang said, his voice was strained, there was a rattle in his throat.

On the displays, I could see Chang, Darzi and Asok Putri walk into the room and begin sorting through the pile. Chang was moving very stiffly, because of his injury he didn't get down on the floor, he started with the top of the pile. He kept them organized, keeping items they'd sorted through in one pile so they didn't lose track. It was efficient, focused, as fast as possible and way, way too slow. Chang's group was way behind schedule, it was a large room, with five piles of junk extending to the ceiling and after five minutes, they'd only sorted halfway through one pile. Giraud's team had reached their target, he had the luck that day, as the room with the wormhole controller module was as organized as Chang's target was disorganized. Giraud, Sergeant Thomson and Private Marsden raced down the aisles, showing the contents of the shelves to Skippy, who quickly deciphered the indexing system and directed Sergeant Thomson exactly to where the wormhole controller module was, sitting on a shelf.

"Target acquired," Giraud reported. "Heading back now. Advise, should we proceed directly back to the docking bay, or help Colonel Chang's team?"