"No, we didn't talk about it, you talked at me. You weren't listening. Joe, there is almost no chance of you idiots successfully flying this ship back to Earth. If anything, I mean anything, goes wrong with this primitive Thuranin technology, you'll be dead in space with no options. You have no idea how often I'm constantly tweaking systems to keep them running. Your best people don't even understand how the toilets work on the bucket."

All true. Thuranin toilets didn't use water, and they somehow split waste into individual atoms of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, etc. in a way our that our physicists said was medieval alchemy, not science. The environmental systems didn't just recycle oxygen, they created oxygen molecules out of pure energy, in a way that violated Einstein's famous equation. According to our scientists, the way jumps were plotted used the speed of light as a variable, not an unchanging constant. Skippy responded yes, he could see how it looks that way, and no, he wouldn't help us understand how the universe truly worked, because such knowledge was too dangerous for monkeys. It was small comfort that he told us even the Maxohlx and Rindhalu didn't really understand how the universe worked either.

"You're missing the point, Skippy. It's not whether we are likely to get home again, it's whether it's possible at all. I've got seventy people aboard this ship who need hope, any hope at all, that they won't automatically die out here when you abandon us."

"I'm not abandoning you, Joe. I'm, hmmm. Maybe I am abandoning you. I don't want to. As monkeys go, you're reasonably entertaining, you even surprise me sometimes, which ain't easy, I got to tell you. I need to do this, you understand? I need to know who I am, where I came from."

"I do understand, and I'm a soldier. I made a promise to you when we first met, and I'll keep it. My species is safe again now, thanks to you. Whatever you need, I owe it to you, no matter what it takes. That doesn't mean I self destruct the ship, if I don't absolutely have to." Next to the Big Red Button app on my zPhone, there was now an app labeled Boom. It had two options; one destroyed the ship in thirty seconds, leaving me time to change my mind, the other option destroyed the ship immediately. Destroyed, Skippy assured us, down to the subatomic level, leaving no possible trace the Dutchman had ever been hijacked by lowly humans. We'd be gone, while Skippy could drift in space, pinging like a Thuranin flight recorder beacon. I pitied any ship that picked him up.

"Got it, and thank you. Confirmed all decks and systems are ready for departure."

I turned the intercom back on. "Pilot, signal Houston that we're ready for departure, then take us out."

"Aye aye, Captain." Desai said with satisfaction. "Engaging course, now."