Only You Can Save Mankind

'Pretty sure.'

Kirsty turned to the Captain.

'Have we got any rear guns?'

The Captain nodded.

'They can be fired from here,' she said. 'But we should not do that. We have surrendered, remember?'

'I haven't,' said Kirsty. 'Which one fires the guns?'

'The stick with the button on the top.'

'This? It's just like a games joystick,' she said. 'Of course it is,' said Johnny. 'This is in our heads, remember. It has to be things we know.'

The screen showed the view behind the fleet. There were green ships bunched up behind them.

'They're coming right down our tailpipe,' said Kirsty. 'This is going to be really easy.

'Yes, it is isn't it,' said Johnny.

There was a dull edge to his voice. She hesitated.

'What do you mean?' she said.

'Just dots in the middle of a circle,' said Johnny. 'It's easy. Bang. Here comes the high score. Bang. Go ahead.'

'But it's game space! It's a game. Why are you acting like that? It's just something on a screen.

'Fine. Just like the Real Thing. Press the button, then.'

She gripped the stick. Then she paused again.

'Why do you have to spoil everything?'

'Me?' said Johnny vaguely. 'Look, if you're not going to fire, switch the screen back to what's ahead of us, will you? This dial here says we're moving at ~ e per c ~. and that's ~ times faster than it says we ought to be going.'

'Well?'

'Well, I just think it'd be nice not to run into an asteroid or something. Of course, if you want us to end up five miles across and one centimetre thick, keep looking back.'

'Oh, all right!' She took her finger off the screen switch. And then she gasped.

They stared at the expanse of space ahead of them, and what was in the middle of it. 'What,' said Kirsty, after a long pause, 'is that?' Johnny laughed.

He tried to stop himself, because the ship was groan- ing and creaking like a tortured thing, but he couldn't. Tears ran down his cheeks. He thumped his hand help- lessly on the control panel, accidentally switching a few lights on and off.

'It's the Border,' said the Captain.

'Yes,' said Johnny. 'Of course it is.'

'But it's-' Kirsty began.

'Yes,' said Johnny. 'The Border, see? Beyond it they're safe. Of course. No-one crosses the Border. Humans can't do it!'

'It can't be natural.'

'Who knows? This is game space, after all. It's probably natural here. I mean, we've all seen it before.'

'But it is still a very long way off,' said the Captain. 'I fear that-' There was a dull explosion somewhere behind them. 'Missiles!' said Kirsty. 'You should have let me' 'No, listen,' said Johnny. 'Listen.' 'What to? I can't hear anything.'

'That's because something's making a lot of silence,' said Johnny. 'The engines have stopped.'

'The engines have probably melted,' said the Captain.

'We've still got - . . what is it ... momentum or inertia or one of those things,' said Johnny. 'We'll keep going until we hit something.' 'Or something hits us,' said Kirsty. She looked at the Border again. 'How big is that thing?' she said. 'It must be huge.' said Johnny. 'But there's stars beyond it.'

'Not our stars. I told you, that's one place humans can't go . .

They looked at one another.

'What happens, then,' Kirsty began, like someone exploring a particularly nasty hole in a tooth, 'if we're on a ship that tries to go past the Border?'

They both turned to the Captain, who shrugged. 'Don't ask me,' she said. 'It's never happened. It is impossible.'

Now all three of them turned to look at the Border again.

'Is it just me?' said Kirsty. 'or is it just a little bit bigger?'

There was some silence.

'Still,' said Johnny. 'what's the worst that can happen to us?' Then he wished he hadn't said that. He remembered thinking he'd hear the alarm clock waking him up, that very first time, and then he recalled the shock of realiz- ing that he wasn't being allowed to wake up at all.

'You know, I don't want to find out,' he added. 'Without engines, we cannot turn the ship around,' said the Captain. 'I am sorry. You were too keen to save us.

'It is getting bigger,' said Kirsty. 'You can tell, if you watch the stars behind it.'

'I am sorry,' said the Captain again.

'At least the ScreeWee should make it,' said Johnny.

'I am sorry.'

Kirsty stood up. 'Well, I'm not,' she said. 'Come on!' She picked up the gun and strode away into the shadows. Johnny ran after her. 'Where do you think you're going?' 'To the escape capsule,' she said. 'What escape capsule?'

'Indeed,' said the Captain, scuttling after them, 'I ask that too. There is no such thing.'

There can be if we want there to be,' said Kirsty, opening the door. 'You said the game is made up of things we know? Well, I know it'll be right down under the ship.'

'But-'

'It's my dream as well as yours, right? Believe me. There'll be an escape capsule.' Her eyes had that gleam again. She hefted the gun. 'I know it,' she said. 'I've been there.'

He remembered her room. He could picture her sit- ting there, with a dozen sharp pencils and no friends, getting top marks in her History homework, while in her head she was chasing aliens. 'I cannot understand,' said the Captain.

The corridor outside was full of steam. The ship might cross the Border, but it was going to have to have a lot of repairs before it ever came back.

'Um,' said Johnny. 'It's a bit like the models in the cereal packets. It's ... kind of a human idea.'

The ScreeWee hesitated in the doorway. Then she turned to look at the saeen.

'We are getting closer,' she said. 'If you think there is something there, then you must go now.'

'Come on!' said Kirsty.

'Uh-' Johnny began.

'Thank you,' said the Captain, gravely.

'I haven't really done much,' said Johnny.

'Who knows? You never thought of yourself. You tried to work things out. You made choices. And I chose well.'

'And now we must go!' said Kirsty.

'Perhaps we shall meet again. Afterwards. If all goes well,' said the Captain. She took one of Johnny's hands in two of her own.

'Goodbye,' she said.

Kirsty caught Johnny's shoulder and dragged him away.

'Nice to have met you,' she said to the alien. 'Sort of - interesting. Come on, you.'

Some of the lights had gone out. The corridors were full of steam and vague shapes. Kirsty ran on ahead, darting from shadow to shadow.

'We'll have to go down,' she said over her shoulder. 'It'll be there. Don't worry!'

'You're really into this, aren't you.' said Johnny.

'Here's a ramp. Come on. We can't have much time.'

There was another passage below that, and another

ramp, curling away down through the steam.

They came out in a room bigger than the bridge. There was a very large double door at one end, and banks of equipment around the walls. And, in the mid- dle, standing on three landing legs, was a small ship. It had a stubby, heavy look.

'There! See? What did I tell you?' said Kirsty triumphantly.

Johnny walked over to the nearest equipment panel and touched it. It was sticky. He looked at his fingertips.

'It hasn't been here long,' he said. 'The paint's not dry.'

A screen in the middle of the panel lit up, showing the Captain's face.

'How interesting,' she said. 'I look down at my controls and discover a new one. You have found your escape capsule?'

'It looks like it,' said Johnny.

'We have ten minutes until we reach the Border,' said the Captain. 'You should have plenty of time.'

There was a whirring noise behind Johnny. The escape capsule's ramp was coming down.

'I found a switch on the landing leg.' said Kirsty.

He joined her. The ramp was a silvery grey-colour. It gleamed in the misty blue light that streamed down from inside the capsule.

'Can you guess what I'm thinking?' said Kirsty.

'You're thinking: We haven't seen the Gunnery Officer lately,' said Johnny. 'You're thinking: He'll be in there somewhere, hiding. Because this part is your dream, and that's how your dream works.'