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or fuel, for that. We also had a limited
supply of fixings for critical cheeseburgers in the galley. Our first jump
wasn't an acceptable effort; the crew knew it. "The ship didn't
explode," I observed, "we didn't break the jump drive, and we didn't
emerge in the middle of a planet, or next to a Thuranin battlegroup. Good
enough for a first jump. We'll debrief tomorrow morning. In the meantime,
Skippy, can you program the next jump? We need to get moving."
    "Whoa, whoa, slow down, monkeys. Have you
analyzed the jump drive system? Are the coils calibrated and ready for another
jump?"
    "Pilot?" I asked. The drive charge indicator
on the bottom of the main display read 87%. Good for several regular jumps, or
one really long jump, with the magical modifications Skippy had made to the
Thuranin's crappy jump drive.
    "It looks like it is Ok?" Desai answered
slowly.
    "It looks like it's Ok?" Skippy scoffed.
"Ok? Such a precise term, I am completely impressed by your
professionalism. Consider that if it's not 'Ok', as you say, another jump could
rupture spacetime and destroy the aft part of the ship, leaving us stranded
here in interstellar space. Forever. By 'us', I mean me, because you air
breathers will be out of luck, once the backup power fails. Yup, I'll be here,
alone, surrounded by the dry, dusty corpses of monkeys. My only hope then will
be that, in four billion years, the collision of the Andromeda galaxy with the
Milky Way will throw some solar system's orbit to intersect with wherever I'm
drifting at the time. Considering that, I'll ask again; and I'll speak slowly
this time. Is the jump drive ready for another jump?"
    "You made your point, Skippy." I said with a
touch of anger, I didn't appreciate him bullying Desai. "How about this,
Mister Smartass; you need to show us how to analyze the status of the jump
drive. We're not doing that now, unless you want another delay. Is the jump
drive ready?
    "Of course it is. You never let me have any
fun."
    "You can find some type of fun that doesn't
involve talking about the ship exploding. Program the autopilot for another
jump, and let's get moving. Also, put together a briefing for us tomorrow,
about what we did wrong, and right, with that last jump."
    "Aye, aye, Captain. You will be dazzled by the
brilliance of my PowerPoint slides."
     
    When we left the now-dormant wormhole near Earth,
Skippy had programmed a course to bring us to an abandoned Kristang space
station. The Kristang had built a space station in orbit around the innermost
planet of a red dwarf star, not because the planet or the star were in any way
interesting. What was interesting were the shattered remains of an Elder
starship in orbit around the innermost planet, a treasure trove well worth the
expense of the Kristang building and maintaining a space station to establish a
permanent presence there. Sometime around three hundred years ago, there had
been a fight between the Kristang there, or a rival clan had raided the
station, because a major battle had damaged the station badly enough for the
place to be abandoned ever since.
     
    The abandoned space station was both the closest, and
easiest, site for us to investigate. Closest, because of the roundabout journey
we had to take through multiple wormholes, still meant we wouldn't reach the
first site for thirty eight days. Thirty eight dull, boring days cruising
through isolated interstellar space, jumping, recharging engines, jumping
again. And occasionally transiting wormholes.
    The first two weeks after leaving Earth behind were
reasonably stimulating, with our new merry band of pirates getting used to
being in space, being aboard a starship, being aboard a captured alien
starship. Setting up a training routine kept people interested, which was
critical for keeping special forces types sharp and focused. The first two
weeks included a first-time jump for most of the crew, their first wormhole
transit, a lot of first things. Firsts were good, firsts were