Johnny blinked at the message on the screen.

We wish to talk.

The ship roared by – eeeyooowwwnn. He reached out for the throttle key and slowed himself down, and then turned and got the big red shape in his sights again.

We wish to talk.

His finger hovered on the Fire button. Then, without really looking, he moved it over to the keyboard and pressed Pause.

Then he read the manual.

Only You Can Save Mankind, it said on the cover. ‘Full Sound and Graphics. The Ultimate Game.’

A ScreeWee heavy cruiser, it said on page 17, could be taken out with seventy-six laser shots. Once you’d cleared the fighter escort and found a handy spot where the Scree Wee’s guns couldn’t get you, it was just a matter of time.

We wish to talk.

Even with the Pause on, the message still flashed on the screen.

There was nothing in the manual about messages. Johnny riffled through the pages. It must be one of the New Features the game was Packed With.

He put down the book, put his hands on the keys and cautiously tapped out: Die, alein scum/

No! We do not wish to die! We wish to talk!

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it?

Wobbler Johnson, who’d given him the disc and photocopied the manual on his dad’s copier, had said that once you’d completed level 10 you got given an extra 10,000 points and the Scroll of Valour and moved on to the Arcturus Sector, where there were different ships and more of them.

Johnny wanted the Scroll of Valour.

Johnny fired the laser one more time. Swsssh. He didn’t really know why. It was just because you had the joystick and there was the Fire button and that was what it was for.

After all, there wasn’t a Don’t Fire button.

We Surrender! PLEASE!

He reached over and, very carefully, pressed the Save Game button. The computer whirred and clicked, and then was silent.

He didn’t play again the whole evening. He did his homework.

It was Geography. You had to colour in Great Britain and put a dot on the map of the world where you thought it was.

The ScreeWee captain thumped her desk with one of her forelegs.

‘What?’

The First Officer swallowed, and tried to keep her tail held at a respectful angle.

‘He just vanished again, ma’am,’ she said.

‘But did he accept?’

‘No, ma’am.’

The Captain drummed the fingers of three hands on the table. She looked slightly like a newt but mainly like an alligator.

‘But we didn’t fire on him!’

‘No, ma’am.’

‘And you sent my message?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘And every time we’ve killed him, he comes back . . .’

He caught up with Wobbler in Break.

Wobbler was the kind of boy who’s always picked last when you had to pick teams, although that was all right at the moment as the PE teacher didn’t believe in teams because they encouraged competition.