Bigger caves, though. They’d got wider. Mysterious passages led off in various directions.

Sigourney crept along with her back against the wall, spinning around rapidly every time they passed another passage. She stiffened.

‘There’s another one coming!’ she hissed. ‘It’s pushing something! Get back!’

She elbowed them into the wall. Johnny could hear the scrape-scrape of claws on the floor, and something rattling.

‘When it gets closer I’ll get it. I’ll leap out—’

Johnny poked his head around the corner.

‘Kirsty?’

She took no notice.

‘Sigourney?’ he tried.

‘Yes?’

‘I know you’re going to leap out,’ said Johnny, ‘but don’t pull the trigger, right?’

‘It’s an alien!’

‘So it’s an alien. You don’t have to shoot them all.’

The rattling got closer. There was also a faint squeaking.

Sigourney gripped the gun excitedly, and leapt out.

‘OK, you – oh . . . um . . .’

It was a very small ScreeWee. Most of its scales were grey. Its crest was nearly worn away. Its tail just dragged behind it. When it opened its mouth, there were three teeth left and they were huddling together at the back.

It blinked owlishly at them over the top of the trolley it had been pushing. Apart from anything else, Kirsty had been aiming the gun well above its head.

There was one of those awkward pauses.

‘Around this time,’ said the Captain behind them, ‘the crew on the bridge have a snack brought to them.’

Johnny leaned forward, nodded at the little old alien, and lifted the lid of the tray that was on the trolley. There were a few bowls of something green and bubbling. He gently lowered the lid again.

‘I think you were going to shoot the tea lady,’ he said.

‘How was I to know?’ Kirsty demanded. ‘It could have been anything! This is an alien spaceship! You’re not supposed to get tea ladies!’

The Captain said something in ScreeWee to the old alien, who shuffled around slowly and went off back down the corridor. One wheel of the trolley kept squeaking.

Kirsty was furious.

‘This isn’t going right!’ she hissed.

‘Come on,’ said Johnny. ‘Let’s go to the bridge and get it over with.’

‘I didn’t know it was a tea lady! That’s your dreaming!’

‘Yes, all right.’

‘She had no right to be there!’

‘I suppose even aliens get a bit thirsty in the afternoons.’

‘That’s not what I meant! They’re supposed to be alien! That means slavering and claws! It doesn’t mean sending out for . . . for a coffee and a jam doughnut!’

‘Things are just like they are,’ said Johnny, shrugging.

She turned on him.

‘Why do you just accept everything? Why don’t you ever try to change things?’

‘They’re generally bad enough already,’ he said.

She leapt ahead and peered around the next corner.

‘Guards!’ she said. ‘And these have got guns!’

Johnny looked around the corner. There were two ScreeWee standing in front of a round door. They were, indeed, armed.