The Simeon led Chanelle across the beach, away from the smoking wreck of the Rearguard Beagles’ ship. They were going straight back to the hotel where the Simeon would find his SignaPhone and get them both teleported back to Defence Cruiser Lexonus immediately. Why would an unmanned battleship be flying around? Something was most definitely up.

The whole experience had scared Chanelle. Dave had barely heard a whimper out of her since the crash. He felt a little guilty about how irritable he had been before, he much preferred her to be demanding and spoilt than quiet and weepy. Her mood didn’t get any better when she spotted another troubled ship on the horizon.

Dave squeezed her hand as she gave out a little yelp.

“Crawk!” she cried.

Sure enough, she was right. All the days he had spent teaching her about the different races in the universe and the ships they flew hadn’t been wasted. She had recognised the unsubtle lime green flames that the Crawklings had emblazoned on the wings of their aircraft.

Unfortunately, Dave the Simeon knew that this was a very unwelcome sight. A Crawkling ship hadn’t been seen in the Outer Galaxies for years. HEDGEHOG had been formed specifically to keep them out.

The ship crash-landed about a hundred feet along the beach from them. Dave and Chanelle crouched and dug into the sand when a door opened in the top of the spaceship and a gangly green alien jumped out. It wouldn’t be done to be spotted by Crawklings, especially one with such a large lazer gun. Unfortunately, they were quite exposed in the middle of a huge, flat beach.