Wow!

Although dreams ought to be a bit more exciting. You got chased in dreams. Things happened to you. Sitting in the cockpit of a starfighter bristling with weapons was fun, but things ought to happen . . .

He wondered if he should launch a missile or something . . . No, hang on, they’d surrendered. And there was that thing about safe conduct.

His hands wandered over the switches in front of him. They were a bit different from the computer keyboard, but this one—

‘Are you receiving me?’

The face of the Captain appeared on the communications screen.

‘Yes?’ said Johnny.

‘We are ready.’

‘Ready?’ said Johnny. ‘What for?’

‘Lead the way,’ said the Captain. The voice came out of a grille beside the screen. It must be being translated by something, Johnny thought. I shouldn’t think giant newts speak English.

‘Where to?’ he said. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Earth.’

‘Earth? Hang on! That’s where I live! People can get into serious trouble showing huge alien fleets where they live!’

The grille hummed and buzzed for a while. Then the Captain said: ‘Apology. That is a direct translation. We call the planet that is our home, “Earth”. When I speak in ScreeWee, your computer finds the word in your language that means the same thing. The actual word in ScreeWee sounds like . . .’ There was a noise like someone taking their foot out of a wet cowpat. ‘I will show our home to you.’

A red circle suddenly developed on the navigation screen.

Johnny knew about that. You just moved a green circle over it, the computer went binkabinkabinka, and you’d set your course.

They’ve shown me where they live.

The thought sunk in.

They trust me.

As he moved his fighter forwards, the entire alien fleet pulled in behind him. They eclipsed the stars.

The cabin hummed and buzzed quietly to itself.

Well, at least it didn’t look too hard . . .

A green dot appeared ahead of him.

He watched it get bigger, and recognized the shape of a starfighter, just like his.

But it was a little hard to make it out.

This was because it was half-hidden by laser bolts.

It was firing at him as it came.

And it was travelling so fast it was very nearly catching up with its own fire.

Johnny jerked the joystick and his ship rolled out of the way as the . . . the enemy starfighter roared past and barrelled on towards the ScreeWee ships.

The whole sky full of ScreeWee ships.

Which had surrendered to him.

But people out there were still playing the game.

‘No! Listen to me! They’re not fighting any more!’

The starfighter turned in a wide curve and headed directly for the command ship. Johnny saw it launch a missile. Someone sitting at a keyboard somewhere had launched a missile.

‘Listen! You’ve got to stop!’

It’s not listening to me, he thought. You don’t listen to the enemy. The enemy’s there to be shot at. That’s why it’s the enemy. That’s what the enemy’s for.