“Your Jake’s not covering himself in glory I’m afraid Rosemary,” said Officer Howler. “Come and see this.”

“What have they done to him now?” said Rosemary as she walked into the bridge area, where Officer Howler was sitting, flying their ship whilst watching a large plasma screen with Jake’s face on it.

“Rewind 30 seconds!” he commanded, and the clip started from the beginning.

On the screen was Jake, sat with a crowd of cheering green aliens around him. The shot quickly zoomed in on a piece of paper, showing what Rosemary instantly recognised as Jake’s scrawled handwriting. The voiceover said ‘This video, released by the Crawkling Broadcasting Association appears to be confirmation that Jake’s actions in beginning the war were, in fact, intentional. He appears to have become the Crawk-King, their traditional Leader of War. We can only hope that he is as rubbish at this as he was at living a normal life in Schmingleton. Here is a written confession of his treachery.’

“Hmmm…” said Officer Howler. “Having seen the end, I’m not so sure. Is that really Jake’s writing? From what you’ve told me I can’t imagine him doing anything that isn’t computer based.”

“Unfortunately, it does look like it,” conceded Rosemary. “But it must have been forced to write it. I’m telling you, Jake is not a traitor.”

“Well I hope you’re right,” said Officer Howler. “If you are, and Jake is on our side, we have an ally who is in command of the whole Crawkling army.”

“We do!” said an animated Rosemary, looking at the screen which had frozen with an image of Jake with a joypad in his hand. “And I know exactly how we can get in touch with him!”