Peace Talks, Peace Shouts

Johnny awoke in the starship.

Normally he was some way from the fleet, but thistime it was around him. There were ScreeWee ships onevery side.

They were flying the wrong way.

Immediately, a face appeared on the screen. Exceptfor a few differences on the crest, and a slight orangetint to the scales, it might have been the Captain.'Calling the human ship.'

'Who are you?''I am the new Captain. These are my instructions-''What happened to the old Captain?''She is under arrest. These are my instructions -''Arrest? What for? What did she do?''She did nothing. Listen to me. You have sixty seconds toget beyond range of our guns. For honour. After that, you willbe fired upon with extreme force.'

'Hang on-''The count has started.''But-''End of communication. Die, human.'The screen went blank.Johnny stared at it.It hadn't been a friendly face. The voice had soundedas though it had learned Human out of a book, just likethe real Captain. But in this case it had been a nastybook. It also sounded as though it belonged to someonewho would count to sixty like this: 'One, two, three,four, five, seven, eighteen, thirty-five, forty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty - firing, ready or not'

His ship jerked forward, ramming him back in hisseat. That was one good thing about game space - youcould do the kind of turns and manouevres that, in realspace, would leave the human body looking like thinpink lino across the cabin wall

The fleet slid past, dwindling to a collection of dotsbehind him. A couple of laser beams crackled past, butsome way away; it looked as though they were tryingto frighten him off rather than kill him.

The ScreeWee had turned around. They were head-ing back deeper into game space. Why? They'd showup on people's screens soon! There were always someplayers who'd go looking. Any day now some kid'dswitch on his machine and there'd be wall-to-wallScreeWee, heading straight for him. They weren't safeeven now. Yes - there were always some people who'dgo looking

And there was a green dot ahead of him. He recog-nized the way it moved, like a dog creeping around theedge of a sheep field.

He headed towards it.

Now he could remember. You thought better ingame space, too. It was as if he was more him in gamespace. Krystal or Kylie or one of those made-up names,Wobbler had said. And Bigmac said the other name wasDunn

He twirled the knob of the communicator panel.

'Krystal?' he tried. 'Kylie? Kathryn? Whatever?'

There was just the hiss of the stars, and then: 'It'sKirsty, actually.'

'Don't fire!' said Johnny, quickly.

'Who are you?'

'Don't fire, first. Promise? I hate dying. It makes ithard to think.'

The other ship had stopped being a dot now. If shewas going to fire, he was as good as dead - if dead wasgood.

'All right,' she said, slowly. 'No firing. Peace talk.Now tell me who you are.'

'I'm a player, like you,' said Johnny.

'No you're not. None of the other players talk tome. Anyway, you're on, their side. I've been watchingyou.

'Not ... exactly on their side,' said Johnny.

'Well, you're not on my side,' said Kirsty. 'No-oneis.

'Did they try to surrender to you too? I heard yousay in Patel's shop that they'd sent you a message.

There was another silence filled with the whispers ofthe universe, and then a cautious voice: 'You're not thefat one who looks as though he could do with a bra,are you?'

'No. Listen-' Johnny tapped his controls hurriedly.

'The black one who looks like an accountant?''No. Look-'

'Oh, no ... not the skinny one with the big bootsand the pointy head ...

'No, I'm the one who kind of hangs around and no-one notices much,' said Johnny desperately.

'Who? I didn't see anyone.~'Right! That was me!'

'They surrendered to you?''Yes!' Number three missile went ping as it lockedon to her ship. Now for number four-'But you're a nerd!'Ping!

'I think it's dweeb now. Anyway, I'm more than adweeb.'

Ping!

'Why?'

'I'm a dweeb with five missiles targeted on you.

'You said you weren't going to fire!'

'I haven't yet.'

'You said this was a peace talk!'

'You did. Anyway, it is. It's just that I'm ... kindof shouting.'

If he concentrated, he thought he could hear musicin the background when she spoke.

'You've really got missiles targeted on me?'

'Yes.'

'I'm amazed you thought of it.'

'So am I. Look, I don't want to shoot anyone: ButI need help. The fleet's turned round. They firedat me!'

'That's their job, dweeb. They fire at us, we fire atthem. Why did they stop? It's no fun if they don't fireback.'

'They surrendered.'

'They can't surrender. It's a game.

'Well, they did. Sometimes you change the game. Idon't know, Kirsty!'

'Listen, I hate that name!'

'I've got to call you something,' said Johnny. 'Whatdo you call yourself?'

'If you tell anyone else I'll kill you-'

'I thought you were planning to do that anyway.

'I don't mean just kill you, I mean really kill you.'

'All right. What's your game name?''Sigourney - you're laughing!'

'I'm not! I'm not! It was a sneeze! Honest! No, it'sa ... good name. Very ... appropriate . .

'It's just dreaming, anyway. I'm dreaming this.You're dreaming this.'

'So what? Doesn't make things unimportant.'There was some more silence with the scratchy sug-gestion of music in the background, and then: 'Ah-ha!While we've been talking, Mr Clever, I've targetedmissiles on you!'

Johnny shrugged, even though there was no way shecould see that.

'Doesn't matter. I thought you would, anyway. Sowe kill each other. Then we'll have to go through allthis again. It's stupid. Don't you want to find out whathappens next?'

More scratchy music.

'I can hear scratchy music,' said Johnny.

'It's my Walkman.'

'Clever. I wish I'd thought of that. I tried dreamingmy camera, but the pictures weren't any good. What'reyou listening to?'

'C Inlay 4 Details - "Please Keep This Copy ForYour Records".'

There was another scratchy pause.

Then, as if she'd been thinking deeply, she said:'Look, we can't be in the same dream. That can'thappen.'

'We could find out. Where'd you live?'

This time the pause went on for a long time. TheScreeWee fleet appeared on the radar.

'We'd better move,' said Johnny. 'They've startedfiring. Something's happened to the Captain. She'sthe one that wanted peace in the first place. Look,I know you live in Tyne Avenue or Crescent orsomewhere-'

'How come we live so close?''Dunno. Bad luck, I suppose. Look, they're going tobe in range soon-'No problem. Then we shoot them.''We'll be killed. Anyway-''So what? Dying's easy.''I know. It's living that's the problem,' said Johnny,meaning it. 'You don't sound like someone who takesthe easy way.

C Inlay 4 Details played on in the distance.'So what do you have in mind?'Johnny hesitated. He hadn't thought that far. Thenew Captain didn't seem to want to talk.

'Dunno. I just don't want any ScreeWee to getkilled.'

'Why not?'Because when they die, they die for real.

'I just don't, OK?'

Several fighters had left the fleet and were headingpurposefully towards them.

'I'm going to try and talk one more time,' he decided.'Someone must be listening.'

'Nerdy idea.'

'I'm not much good at the other kind.'

Johnny turned his ship and hit the Go-faster button.A few shots whiffled harmlessly past him and did a lotof damage to empty space.

And then he was heading at maximum speed towardsthe fleet.

Music came over the intercom.