On the screen the fake stars drifted by. After an hour or so a yellow dot appeared in the very centre. After another hour it grew slightly bigger, enough to be seen as a cluster of smaller yellow dots.

Then Johnny’s mother, who had come to see where he was, tucked him up and switched it off.

Chapter 5

If Not You, Who Else?

There was a constant smell of smoke and burnt plastic in the ship now, the Captain noticed. The air conditioners couldn’t get rid of it any more. Some of the smoke and burned plastic was the air conditioners.

She could feel the eyes of her officers on her. She didn’t know how many of them she could count on. She got the feeling that she wasn’t very popular.

She looked up into the eyes of the Gunnery Officer.

‘You disobeyed my orders,’ she repeated.

The Gunnery Officer looked around the control-room with an air of injured innocence.

‘But we were being attacked,’ he said. ‘They fired the first shots.’

‘I said that we would not fire,’ said the Captain, trying to ignore the background murmur of agreement. ‘I gave my word to the Chosen One. He was about to fire.’

‘But he did not,’ said the Gunnery Officer. ‘He merely watched.’

‘He was about to fire.’

‘About is too late. The tanker Kreewhea is destroyed. Along with half our campaign provisions, I should add . . . Captain,’ said the Gunnery Officer.

‘Nevertheless, an order was directly disobeyed.’

‘I cannot believe this! Why can’t we fight?’

The Captain pointed out of the window. The fleet was passing several more ships of the ancient Space Invader race.

‘They fought,’ she said. ‘Endlessly. And look at them now. And they were only the first. Remember what happened to the Vortiroids? And the Meggazzoids? And the Glaxoticon? Do you want to be like them?’

‘Hah. They were primitive. Very low resolution.’

‘But there were many of them. And they still died.’

‘If we are going to die, I for one would rather die fighting,’ said the Gunnery Officer. This time the murmur was a lot louder.

‘You would still be dead,’ said the Captain.

She thought: There’ll be a mutiny if I shoot him or imprison him. I can’t fine him because none of us has been paid. I can’t confine him to his quarters because . . . she hated to think this . . . we might need him, at the end.

‘You are severely reprimanded,’ she said.

The Gunnery Officer smirked.

‘It will go on your record,’ the Captain added.

‘Since we will not escape alive—’ the Gunnery Officer began.

‘That is my responsibility,’ said the Captain. ‘You are dismissed.’

The Gunnery Officer glared at her.

‘When we get home—’

‘Oh?’ said the Captain. ‘Now you think we will get home?’

By early evening Johnny’s temperature was a hundred and two, and he was suffering from what his mother called Sunday night flu. He was lying in the lovely warm glow that comes from knowing that, whatever happens, there’ll be no school tomorrow.