TheBestAtJumping dove once more playfully into real space, this time right inside the Kruyuk-k-k System without their border sensors making so much as a peep. One second there was nothing, the next TheBestAtJumping was in the heart of their territory, glowing on every sensor array like a bonfire.

"Greetings everyone," TheBestAtJumping bombarded the star system's entire electromagnetic spectrum with her message, in perfect High Hive. Any piece of equipment designed to receive messages, and many that weren't, would pick it up "I'm TheBestAtJumping and I'm that Human Consensus ship everyone has been warning you about. I'm going to give you two full revolutions of your primary planet to evacuate the wormhole router before I destroy it."

Several dozen Hive defensive ships, uneven toroids with bulbous weapons protrusions and wasteful engines, maneuvered into position. They intended to ensphere TheBestAtJumping so that there would be nowhere for her to run from their combined attack.

"I would like to make two observations to the ships attempting to ensphere me at this moment," said TheBestAtJumping, still broadcasting her message to everything capable of receiving "The first is that you can't trap me in three dimensions. Do you know what a hypersphere is? Because that's the shape you'd need to make to really give me no means of escape."

"The second is that there's no possible way that any lasers are going to be able to fire within a million kilometers of me without my permission. I invite you to try."

They already were, to no effect.

"It's ugly business, I know, but you stuck your fingers in the wrong cookie jar. Consider this the galactic community slapping your hand away. Take the two revolutions, get your people out of there, and we'll get this over with."

<Why did I give them two revolutions?> asked TheBestAtJumping, as soon as she ceased her broadcast <It doesn't take that long to evacuate a space station with a living space that small. I was just making things up as I went along. I had no idea what I was saying. This is going to take forever.>

<If they evacuate early we'll just destroy it early,> said Mac.

"They won't," said Min-ji "There's no way they'll evacuate, ever."

<Then I'll displace them off the thing once my time limit is up,> said TheBestAtJumping <Can they breathe water?>

"No," said Min-ji "They breathe a mix of fluorine and ozone."

<Maybe I won't displace them into me then but I'll find somewhere to stick them.>

<Hey one of those Hive ships looks like it's up to something,> said Mac.

<They all are,> replied TheBestAtJumping.

<It's changing course though,> said Mac.

<What's it going to do, ram me?> asked TheBestAtJumping <I have concentric layers of defense fields each capable of vaporizing one of those things.>

The Hive ship was building up speed.

<They're playing chicken with me. No chance. I never flinch,> said TheBestAtJumping.

Less than half a minute later the Hive ship slammed into TheBestAtJumping's defense fields at supersonic speeds. There was a violent flash as the ship was atomized.

<Did they just... kill themselves? What in all the worlds?> asked TheBestAtJumping.

<The others are moving,> said Mac.

<Not anymore,> said TheBestAtJumping <I'm cutting their engines. No more waiting either, I won't let these people make me responsible for their deaths.>

"What is wrong with you?" asked TheBestAtJumping, on every frequency "I'm rescinding my offer of a time limit. Prepare for eminent destruction."

TheBestAtJumping reached into the space station with her mind, grabbed the bubble of space/time containing the staff, and displaced them onto the nearby planet. It was rough business moving people onto a planet but the dolphin starship was reasonably certain they survived.

The Hive ships hung in a circle around TheBestAtJumping, effectively dead.

<There,> said TheBestAtJumping <Now we can destroy the space station.>

<Right,> said Mac.

<Okay,> said TheBestAtJumping.

<Let's do that,> said Mac.

<Yes,> said TheBestAtJumping.

<How do we start? How do we bite this apple?> asked Mac.

The space station was a gyroscope with a dark wormhole burning at the center. It was slowly spinning.

<This is embarrassing,> said TheBestAtJumping <These Hive people must think we're have no idea what we're doing.>

<We don't,> said Mac.

<They're not supposed to know!> insisted TheBestAtJumping.

<Why don't we look for some structurally significant areas of it and whack at them with the main EMFM?>

<Define 'whack at',> said TheBestAtJumping.

<You know, aim it in that general direction clumsily with improper modulation,> said Mac.

<That's perfect!> said TheBestAtJumping, activating the EMFM.

Almost in unison, several key connection points of the Gyroscope popped apart in the silence of space. The chain reaction caused the entire structure begin to pull apart into five large pieces. The wormhole winked out of existence.

<Is that good enough?> asked TheBestAtJumping.

Min-ji thought for a moment.

"Better destroy all the pieces," she said "We can't have them repairing it."