“The point is, Skippy, we have no idea what we’ll find when we get to Earth. If we discover the lizards are terrorizing our home planet, you can’t expect this crew to run away and wander the galaxy with you. We need another option.”

“I’m open to suggestions, Joe. You’re the soldier.”

How was I supposed to come up with a space battle strategy, with a tired brain, and no experience or training in space combat? Or ship to ship combat of any type? Oh, yeah, because I wore silver eagles, that’s why. “All right, how about the Flower? You don’t need that ship, right? Are you Ok with me sending part of the crew away on the Flower, to fight the Kristang? I promise you, Skippy, I promise you I won’t leave you here. I will remain aboard the Dutchman.”

“The Flower is somewhat useful, as having a Kristang ship attached, particularly a battle-damaged Kristang ship, is an effective ruse. But it is not essential. Ok, you can detach the Flower, I’ll even program a jump for you. I don’t know what good you expect your untrained crew to do, with a ship they don’t know who to fly.”

“Then I need to get them started on training, pronto.” We needed a strategy also. Or, not? I considered what Giraud said about flexible battle plans, and it made total sense. We couldn’t make plans until we had intel. Any intel. “How about this, Skippy? Can we jump the Dutchman in close enough to see what forces the Kristang have around Earth, but far enough away to be safe? Then we can either detach the Flower, or, if you agree the risk is minimal, we jump the Dutchman into orbit.”

“Hmmm. Sounds suspiciously weasel-wordish. Minimal risk is not the same as no risk. Oh, what the hell, why not? I’m bored already. Just for you, Joe, I’ll agree to this: we can jump directly into orbit and scope out the situation from there, and we jump right out again if I judge the risk to be too great. Not that I don’t trust you or your crew, but I will program the autopilot on a timer to jump us right back out unless I cancel the command.”

“Deal.” I hastily agreed before Skippy could change his mind. Any risk too great for Skippy would mean it’s best for us to retreat and consider our options anyway. Maybe we could lob a couple railgun rounds at the Kristang just before we left, as a wake-up call. Having a Thuranin star carrier jump into Earth orbit and blast a couple Kristang ships without warning would certainly throw the Kristang into panicked confusion.