Johnny stared at the wall. Among the items pinned over the bed was a card for winning the Under-7 Long Jump. She wins everything, he thought. Wow. She actually assumes she's going to win. Someone who always thinks they're going to win . .
He stared up at the movie posters. There was one he'd seen many times before. The famous one. The slivering alien monster. You'd think she'd have some- thing like a C Inlay 4 Details photo over her bed but no, there was this thing
'Don't tell me,' he said, 'you want to get inside the ship and run along the corridors shooting ScreeWee? You do, don't you?'
'Tactically-' she began.
'You can't. The Captain wouldn't want that. Not killing ScreeWee.'
Kirsty waved her hands in the air irritably. 'That's stupid,' she said. 'How do you expect to win without killing the enemy?'
'I'm supposed to save them. Anyway, they're not exactly the enemy. I can't go around killing them.'
Kirsty looked thoughtful.
'Do you know,' she said, 'there was an African tribe once whose nearest word for "enemy" was "a friend we haven't met yet"?'
Johnny smiled. 'Right,' he said. 'That's how-'
'But they were all killed and eaten in eighteen hun- dred and two,' said Kirsty. 'Except for those who were sold as slaves. The last one died in Mississippi in eight- een sixty-four, and he was very upset.'
'You just made that up,' said Johnny.
'No. I won a prize for History.'
'I expect you did,' said Johnny. 'But I'm not killing anyone.
'Then you can't win.'
'I don't want to win. I just don't want them to lose.'
'You really are a dweeb, aren't you? How can anyone go through life expecting to lose all the time?'
'Well, I've got to, haven't I? The world is full of peo- ple like you, for a start.'
Johnny realized he was getting angry again. He didn't often get angry. He just got quiet, or miserable. Anger was unusual. But when it came, it overflowed.
'They tried to talk to you, and you didn't even listen! You were the only other one that got that involved! You were so mad to win you slipped into game space! And you'd have been so much better at saving them than me! And you didn't even listen! But I listened and I've spent a week trying to Save Mankind in my sleep! It's always people like me that have to do stuff like that! It's always the people who aren't clever and who don't win things that have to get killed all the time! And you just hung around and watched! It's just like on the television! The winners have fun! Winner types never lose, they just come second! It's all the other people who lose! And now you're only thinking of helping the Captain because you think she's like you! Well, I don't bloody well care any more, Miss Clever! I've done my best! And I'm going to go on doing it! And they'll all come back into game space and it'll be just like the Space Invaders all over again! And I'll be there every night!'
Her mouth was open.
There was a knock on the door and almost imme- diately, mothers being what they are, Kirsty's mother pushed it open. She brought in a wide grin and a tray.
'I'm sure you'd both like some tea,' she said. 'And-'
'Yes, mother,' said Kirsty, and rolled her eyes.
'-there's some macaroons. Have you found out your friend's name now?'
'John Maxwell,' said Johnny.
'And what do your friends call you?' said Kirsty's mother sweetly.
'Sometimes they call me Rubber,' said Johnny.
'Do they? Whatever for?' 'Mother, we were talking,' said Kirsty.
'Cobbers is on in a minute,' said Kirsty's mother. 'I, er, shall watch it on the set in the kitchen, shall I?'
'Goodbye,' said Kirsty, meaningfully.
'Um, yes,' said her mother, and went out.
'She dithers a lot,' said Kirsty. 'Fancy getting married when you're twenty! A complete lack of ambition.'
She stared at Johnny for a while. He was keeping quiet. He'd been amazed to hear his own thoughts.
Kirsty coughed. She looked a little uncertain, for the first time since Johnny had met her.
'Well,' she said. 'Uh. OK. And.., we won't be able to fight all the players when they get back to game space.
'No. There's not enough missiles.'
'Could we dream a few more?'
'No. I thought of that. You get the ship you play with. I mean, we know it's only got six missiles. I've tried dreaming more and it doesn't work.'
'Hmm. Interesting problem. Sony,' she added quickly, when she saw his expression.
Johnny stared at the movie posters. Sigourney! Games everywhere. Bigmac was a tough guy in his head, and this one kept sharp pencils and had to win everything and in her head shot aliens. Everyone had these pictures of themselves in their head, except him...
He blinked.
And now his head ached. There was a buzzing in his ears.
Kirsty's face drifted towards him.
'Are you all right?'
The headache was really bad now.
'You're ill. And you look all thin. When did you last eat?'
'I dunno. Had something last night, I think.'
'Last night? What about breakfast and lunch?'
'Oh, well ... you know ... I kept thinking about
'You'd better drink that tea and eat that macaroon. Phew. When did you last have a bath?'
'It's kind of . .
'Good grief!'
'Listen! Listen!' It was important to-' He didn't feel well at all.
'Yes?'
'We dream our way in,' he said.
'What are you talking about? You're swaying!'
'We go on to their ship!'
'But we agreed we don't know what it looks like inside!'
'OK! Good! So we decide what it does look like inside, right?'
She tapped her pad irritably.
'So what does it look like?'
'I don't know! The inside of a spaceship! Corridors and cabins and stuff like that. Nuts and bolts and panels and sliding doors. Scotsmen saying the engines canna tak' it anymoore. Bright blue lights!'
'Hmm. That's what you think is inside spaceships, is it?'
Kirsty glared at him. She generally glared. It was her normal expression.
'When we go to sleep ... I mean, when I go to sleep I'll try and wake up inside the ship,' he said.
'How?'
'I don't know! By concentrating, I suppose.'
She leaned forward. For the first time since he'd met her, she looked concerned.
'You don't look capable of thinking straight,' she said.
'I'll be all right.'
Johnny stood up.
10
In Space, No-one Is Listening Anyway
And woke up. He was lying down on something hard. There was some sort of mesh just in front of his eyes. He stared at it for a while. There was also a faint vibration in the floor, and a distant background rumbling.
He was obviously back in game space, but he cer- tainly wasn't in a starship
The mesh moved.
The Captain's face appeared over the edge of the mesh, upside down.
'Johnny?'
'Where am I?' 'You appear to be under my bed.' He rolled sideways. 'I'm on your ship?' 'Oh, yes.' 'Right! Hah! I knew I could do it...' He stood up, and looked around the cabin. It wasn't very interesting. Apart from the bed, which was under something that looked like a sun-ray lamp, there was only a desk and something that was probably a chair if you had four back legs and a thick tail. On the desk were half a dozen plastic aliens. There was also a cage with a couple of long-beaked birds in it. They sat side by side on their perch and watched Johnny with almost intelligent eyes.
Right. Sigourney was right. He did think better in game space. All the decisions seemed so much clearer.
OK. So he was on board. He'd rather hoped to be outside the cabin the Captain was locked in, but this was a start.
He stared at the wall. There was a grille.
'What's that?' he said, pointing.
'It is where the air comes in.
Johnny pulled at the grille. There was no very obvious way of removing it. If it could be removed, the hole behind it was easily big enough for the Captain. Air ducts. Well, what did he expect?