Skippy had better not lock up on us before we got back to the wormhole near Earth, because in one way, our mission was a success. Maybe in the only way that mattered, our mission was a huge success. Success enough that, even only one person survived to fly the ship, the raid was worth the terrible cost. We had stolen an intact Elder wormhole controller module, Skippy verified it was fully functional, able to live up to its name and control a wormhole. Including, most importantly, shutting down a wormhole. We humans had no idea how the damned thing worked, we had to rely on Skippy for that. The point was, because of the raid, we had the ability to shut down that wormhole. We had the ability to deny the Kristang access to Earth. The billions of humans there would consider any price our pirate crew paid to be worth the cost.

Relying on Skippy was a problem, he was frustrated and expected us to continue the mission with the remaining crew. That was a conversation I didn't want to have with the crew listening, I pushed Skippy off until Major Simms could take the captain's chair, Chang and Giraud were both in the sickbay. After taking the Flower back aboard, we'd jumped three times, until Skippy was satisfied we were safely out of the Kristang sensor network's range. The jump engines were almost exhausted, incapable of more than an emergency microjump, we were hanging in deep interstellar space, waiting for the jump engines to fully recharge.

"You comfy now, Joe?" Skippy began as tactfully as he always was. "We need to talk about our next move. There are two more possibilities that I can see for contacting the Collective. One is only three thousand lightyears away, unfortunately getting there requires a roundabout wormhole route, and it's the less likely of the two options. Also, that one is on a Thuranin planet, it's going to be tricky getting in and out. The second one is nine thousand lightyears away, out of Thuranin territory, and that's both good and bad, the species that holds that territory are the-"

Damn in. My boots weren't even untied yet. It was best for me to just say what was on my mind. "Skippy, before we continue searching for the Collective, we're going to Earth to resupply. We don't have enough people to keep going with the mission right now. You're a genius, do the math."

There was an ever-so-slight hesitation, that wouldn't have been noticeable if I didn't know Skippy so well. Did he actually run the math? Of course he did, a billion permutations. Maybe a zillion. "You're in a bitchy mood."

"I'm tired. A lot of people died today, Skippy." I kicked my boots off, would have kicked them across the compartment if the bulkhead wasn't only two feet away. "Sentient beings. Don't give me any shit about how we're just monkeys and bacteria, we're sentient. We matter."