A terrified Gary looked from the window to us and back again, unsure what to do. Another blast rocked the ship, causing red lights to start flashing.

  “All right, all right,” he said, taking out his laser cannon. “Moretta has the keys,” he added, seeing the alarmed looks on our faces. He pointed the cannon at the handcuffs and blew them apart. First mine, then Max’s.

  I stood up, keeping a tight hold of my chair as the ship thrashed around, but didn’t move any further.

  “What are you waiting for?” yelled Gary.

  “I want some armour,” I said. “If we get hit, the pilot is the first to take damage. I don’t have any armour to absorb it, so I’ll be obliterated.”

  “We don’t have any spare armour on board,” Gary said.

  “What about yours?” Max suggested.

  Gary stared. “You’re not serious?” he demanded.

  “Well, if you think you can get us through this, then…” I said, leaving the thought hanging and moving to sit back down.

  “OK, OK!” shouted Gary. He pressed a button on his chest, causing his suit of armour to pop off then retract violently, until it was nothing but a miniaturised breastplate, about the size of a small handbag. Gary, now a few feet shorter and looking a lot less musclebound in a pair of space-themed boxer shorts, grudgingly handed the armour to me, at which point it expanded round my own body.

  “WOAH!” shouted Max. “Flo, you’re huge. You look like a superhero.”

  “I feel like one,” I said, flexing my now-huge biceps.

  “Yes, yes, you look very big and impressive,” said Gary. “Now would you please get us out of here!”

  “Oh right, yeah,” I said, shoving past him to get into the cockpit. By now there were what looked like hundreds of ships outside, all shooting at each other. A quick glance at the Lightbringer’s control deck told me that our shields were at critical level. One more shot and we were toast.

  “First tanks, now spaceships,” groaned Max, strapping himself into the co-pilot’s seat next to me. “People in this game really need to find a way to communicate instead of shooting at each other all the time.”

  I yanked the flight stick, pulling the ship up just in time to avoid a blast that would have finished us off.

  “Nice moves, bro, but I’m still going to get you,” came a voice.

  “Who’s that?” asked Max.

  “That’ll be the guy who just tried to blow us up,” I said.

  “How come we can hear other players anyway?” asked Max.

  “Star Smasher has built-in Voice Chat,” I explained.

  I picked up the microphone. “I’m no bro, bro,” I retorted, rounding the ship to face him. A couple of shots later, his ship exploded into a collection of brightly coloured pixels.

  “Back to the nearest space station for him,” I said. But there was no time to relax. When the explosion cleared, two other fighters emerged. Instead of retreating, I flew straight towards them, spinning the ship like a drill. In their rush to get out of the way, the two ships flew into each other, creating another spectacular burst of colour.

  More shots from other ships rained down on us, but none of them hit. I twisted, turned, looped-the-loop, dived, climbed, spun and shook through the laser blasts, firing back my own more accurate shots. It was like dancing. Except with laser cannons. And explosions. And spaceships. It was nothing like dancing.

  “Who’s next?” I yelled over the microphone. But most of the ships had come to a standstill.

  “Ha!” I said, grinning at Max. “They’re too scared to come at me now.”

  “That was incredible,” said a wide-eyed Gary. “That was the best piloting I’ve ever seen. You saved my life! I’m so sorry about that whole Red Ghost thing.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  A puzzled expression had formed on Max’s face. He was staring at the console. “Um … Flo … what is that huge green blob on the radar?”

  “What huge green blob?” I said, looking for myself. Sure enough, there it was. “Where did that come from… According to this it’s now directly behind us.”

  I slowly rotated the ship until we were staring at the blob. It was the size of ten cruise liners, and it had appeared from nowhere. Its sides were bristling with laser cannons bigger than our ship. And they were all pointing at us.

  “What is that?” cried Max.

  “It’s the Phoenix,” said Gary and I together.

  Max’s eyes lit up. “You mean…”

  “My dad’s ship,” explained Gary. “It’s the crown jewel of the Imperial Fleet – the largest, grandest spaceship in the entire universe. It must have heard our distress call after all.”

  “It’s very big,” noted Max.

  “It’s also our ticket out of here,” I whispered in his ear.

  Our ship shuddered again.

  “What was that?” asked Max. “Have we been hit?”

  “No,” I said, taking my hands off the flight stick. Our ship had started moving towards the Phoenix. “I think we’re being beamed up.”

  Gary nodded. “Yeah, that’ll be the new tractor beams Dad had installed. He’s been itching to use them.”

  A huge panel in the side of the Phoenix slid open, revealing a large spacecraft hangar. As our ship floated into it, I realized I had been here before. Many times, in fact. I recognized the assortment of steel beams scattered randomly about the place, the smoke coming out of pipes for no obvious reasons and the odd faceless droid busily soldering the sides of a few half-built ships. The only difference was the army of three thousand soldiers carrying laser cannons and waiting for us.

  “Oh yeah,” said Gary, slapping his forehead, as the ship touched down on a landing pad. “I totally forgot. They all still think you’re the Red Ghost.”

  “Then correct them,” I told him.

  “Right, yes, of course,” said Gary. He let out a long sigh. “Pity. Dad would have been so proud of me if I’d actually caught the real Red Ghost.”

  “Look, just be honest with him,” I said. “Tell him you don’t want to be a Space Soldier any more. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

  “You really think so?” He hesitated. “Maybe you’re right. Yes, that’s what I’ll do. Thank you, Flo.”

  Gary looked like he was about to hug me when the ship doors burst open, revealing several Space Soldiers, their laser cannons trained on me and Max.

  “Outside!” barked the large soldier closest to us. “Nice and slowly. But quickly. But not too quickly. Move!”

  “Bit grumpy, that one,” said Max as we got up and followed Gary outside.

  “That’s Space Soldiers for you,” said Gary. “They’re always in a foul mood. To be fair, they spend ninety-nine per cent of their lives getting blown up by lasers, which would annoy me too.”

  We were led out of the hangar and along a marble corridor. Lining the walls were more Space Soldiers, each one carrying a bigger laser cannon than the last.

  Eventually, after walking for what felt like a mile, we stopped outside a large golden door. Waiting in front of it was a tall, thin, slightly bored-looking man dressed in what appeared to be an armoured tuxedo.

  “Ah, Henry, good to see you,” said Gary. “This is Henry, Dad’s right-hand man. Or left-hand man. It depends where he’s standing.”

  “Your father is waiting for you in the imperial throne room,” said Henry in a dull, monotonous voice. “He wants to see the Red Ghost with his own eyes.”

  I glared at Gary as he pushed open the door, but he gave me a look that said, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it,” so I kept my mouth shut.

  “This is perfect,” I whispered to Max as we stepped inside on to a glistening marble floor. “I never thought it would be this easy! The throne room is where they keep the Resurrection Gem. They’re delivering us right to it. The gem is our ticket out of here.”

  “Yeah,” muttered Max. “We just need to do something about the million soldiers watching our every move.”

  “Minor details,” I said.

  “Seriously, we need to come up with a… Wow, that’s a lot of jewels!” cried Max, gazing open-mouthed at the golden walls adorned with rubies and emeralds. He was so in awe of our new surroundings that he almost walked into one of the many large pillars standing throughout the grand room.

  My attention was drawn to the left-hand side of the room – a wall made entirely of glass. The Phoenix never normally entered Combat Zones so most of the ships had gathered outside, clearly trying to see what was going on. “It’s like being fish in an aquarium,” I said.

  Like seemingly everywhere else on the ship, the throne room was full of heavily armed, heavily armoured and heavily annoyed-looking Space Soldiers. Most of them were focused on us, but there were a handful over in one corner of the room, surrounding what I could just make out as being a glass case housing a pulsating orange jewel. The Resurrection Gem!

  At the far end of the room, sitting on a jewel-encrusted golden throne, was a short white-haired man wearing a suit of golden armour with a black cape trailing regally behind him.

  “Presenting Emperor Horatio Orioncloud,” boomed Henry, “leader of the Thousand Galaxies, ruler of the Fallen Stars, champion of the Celestial Wars—”

  “Yes, yes, Henry, that’s plenty,” said the Emperor, before jumping up from his throne and rushing over to hug Gary. “My boy! Tell me, why is it every time I send you out on a mission, you come home in your underpants?”

  Gary rolled his eyes. “It’s not every time. It’s happened like … five times.”

  “This is your sixth mission,” interjected Henry.

  “Oh, never mind all that,” said the Emperor. “You’re the hero of the Empire. I knew you had it in you. Everyone thought you’d never make it as a Space Soldier but now look at you.”

  “Everyone thought that?” asked Gary, looking a bit downbeat.

  “Oh yes, absolutely everyone,” the Emperor assured him. “Henry said you were the worst Space Soldier he’d ever seen, didn’t you, Henry?”

  Henry gave a little cough. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “But here you are,” continued the Emperor, “single-handedly capturing the Red Ghost. I’m so proud of you!”

  Gary looked over at me. “Well … actually, Dad,” he said. “That’s not completely true.”

  The Emperor’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?” he said.

  Gary shook his head. “No… That is … I didn’t do it single-handedly. My squad helped.”

  “WHAT?” said Max and I together.

  The Emperor let out a belly laugh. “Ha! My boy! Not only is he the finest Space Soldier the Empire has ever seen, he’s also the humblest. Recognizing the contributions of others – why, if that isn’t the mark of a true leader, then I don’t know what is. Now, which one is it, then? Neither of them looks particularly red. Or like a ghost.”

  “It’s the girl,” said Gary. “She’s got a red dress on underneath, you see. I saw it before she stole my armour.”

  The Emperor nodded. “Ah, yes, of course.”

  “You lying weasel!” I shouted. “I saved your life!”

  “What’s she talking about, Gary?” asked the Emperor.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t listen to her,” said Gary. “She’ll say anything to get out of trouble.”

  Suddenly everyone’s heads turned towards the window, where the ships that had been watching us were suddenly dashing off in all directions.

  “What the…?” said the Emperor, marching over to take a look.

  A series of bright flashes outside lit up the throne room. It was chaos at first, as ships scrambled to get away. It took a few moments before I could see what they were rushing to escape from. It was a single ship. A red one.

  “Gary,” said the Emperor quietly, as he stared out of the window. “If the Red Ghost is standing right here, would you kindly explain to me – WHO THE DEVIL IS OUT THERE?”

  Gary laughed nervously. “Ah, yes … funny story…”

  “I can explain,” said Gary.

  “I’m looking forward to this.” I folded my arms.

  “Yes, well, it’ll have to wait a moment, won’t it?” said the Emperor. “Henry, get every Space Soldier we have in a ship and send them out there. I want that Red Ghost taken care of, once and for all!”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” said Henry. He made a gesture and within seconds the room was entirely cleared of Space Soldiers. Max and I shot knowing glances at each other and then towards the corner of the room, where the case containing the Resurrection Gem was now unguarded.

  “When you say every Space Soldier…?” asked Gary nervously.

  “Don’t worry, Gary, I didn’t mean you,” said the Emperor.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” said Gary.

  “I meant REAL Space Soldiers,” the Emperor snapped.

  Gary’s face fell flat. “Oh.”

  “I’m so disappointed in you,” continued the Emperor. “To lie to my face like that. I don’t know where I went wrong with you, I really don’t. I did all the things a father is supposed to do for their child: I enrolled you in Space Soldier Nursery when you were just a baby. I made sure you went to the best Space Soldier schools. Then when you didn’t get the grades you needed for Space Soldier University, I threatened to blow them up unless they let you in. And for what? To end up with a son who abandons his squad in the middle of a mission. I bet you left them behind with the actual Red Ghost?”

  “Well … we weren’t sure…” said Gary, his lips starting to quiver. I thought he was definitely about to cry, but instead his face hardened. “Dad, have you ever once stopped to think that maybe the reason I’m no good as a Space Soldier is because I don’t want to be one?”

  The Emperor screwed up his face. “Of course not,” he said. “What kind of question is that? Why in Alpha Centauri wouldn’t you want to be a Space Soldier? It’s the only job there is. Besides Emperor. And I’m the Emperor.”

  Gary shook his head. “There could be others,” he said. “Like acting.”

  Max nudged me and nodded towards the Resurrection Gem.

  “We should do it now,” he muttered. “While those two are busy arguing.”

  “Right,” I said. Slowly we started shuffling sideways towards the gem, until it became clear that Gary and his dad were way too busy yelling at each other to notice us. Then we broke out into a full sprint.

  Close up, I could see that the pulsating orange stone was shaped like a diamond but roughly the size of a pineapple. A sign above the case read: In case of emergency break glass. I looked at Max.

  “I’d say being trapped inside a video game counts as an emergency,” he said.

  “Fair enough,” I said, before punching a giant armoured hand through the glass, leaving the Resurrection Gem exposed.

  “So we smash this weird glowing orange thing, and … game over?” asked Max.

  “Right,” I said. “And hopefully we go home.”

  I reached down and picked up the gem. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be, but the light shining out of it made it difficult to look at directly. I lifted it above my head.

  Just as I was about to bring it down, someone grabbed it from behind me, yanking it out of my hands.

  “As if I don’t have enough to deal with!” said the Emperor, clutching the gem to his chest. “The Empire under attack, finding out my son is a coward and now you two trying to smash the Resurrection Gem.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” I protested.

  “Er … Flo,” said Max, pointing towards Gary. “What’s going on with him?”

  Gary’s face had turned bright red.

  “COWARD, AM I?” he yelled. “WOULD A COWARD DO THIS?”

  Gary lunged towards his dad and tore the Resurrection Gem from his hands before bringing it crashing to the ground, where it smashed instantly in a huge surge of blinding orange light.

  “NOOOOOOOO!” wailed the Emperor.

  The light quickly faded, but that was the only thing to leave the room. Max and I hadn’t gone anywhere.

  “Gary, why would you do that?” asked the Emperor. “That’s the last one we had in stock. We won’t get any more in until Monday.”

  “Serves you right,” said Gary, folding his arms.

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Are you saying that you just … keep replacing those things?”

  The Emperor looked at me as if I’d asked if he thought space was a bit on the large side. “Of course we do,” he said. “We usually replace it several times a day. Why else do you think it’s called the Resurrection Gem?”

  “Because it restores life to all your Space Soldiers,” I said.

  The Emperor screwed up his face. “Is that what people think?” he said, scratching his head. “Is that why we have Space Soldiers in here every day smashing the thing? I say Space Soldiers, but Henry has this curious theory that they’re actually spies who’ve infiltrated the army to gain access to my throne room. He’s forever trying to get me to update our recruitment policy… Anyway, no, it doesn’t do that. It’s just a nice light that I’m fond of, that’s all. Our Space Soldiers come back to life, because … because that’s just how things work.”

  This wasn’t good. I looked at Max who had slumped to the ground.

  “Max…” I began.

  “It’s hopeless,” he groaned. “We’re going to be stuck here forever! Why couldn’t we at least get stuck in a nice peaceful building game like Blocktopia? Or maybe a puzzle game? I love a good puzzle. Like anagrams. I’m really good at those.”

  “Pull yourself together, Max,” I said.

  “Truthful Alex employs ogre,” said Max. “See? I can make anagrams of anything!”

  “All right, knock it off,” I told him.

  “Folk lick a fortnight,” replied Max, before giggling to himself.

  Just as I was about to tell Max to get up, the Emperor and Gary gasped. I turned round to see the small red fighter ship floating outside the window as if it was staring at us. There was no sign of any other ships out there. The battle was already over.

 

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