Captain Scheider sat alone in his office, studying diagrams on his computer.

“We don’t have enough left to protect it…” he muttered to himself.

He pressed a button on his desk, and made an announcement over the tannoy.

“Ivan! In my office please.”

A couple of hundred metres away, Ivan sprinted out of the main control room, oblivious to paperwork he knocked out of Jessica’s hands. When you were summoned by Captain Scheider, you were summoned.

He burst into the room and blustered out words.

“Yes sir, you wanted me sir.. How can I help sir?” It was all he could do to not salute him. Ivan was still very new, and new people didn’t get summoned by the likes of Captain Scheider.

“Sit down,” said Captain Scheider, firmly but kindly. “And don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I need your help.”

Ivan sat as Captain Scheider showed him a number of diagrams and talked him through the problem.

“So you see… this white line is the edge of the White Centre. You know what that is?”

“Yes Sir. That is the Imperial Palace of the Inner Galaxies. It is where the Empress lives and rules over us all.”

“Correct. Do you know what else it is?”

“Erm.. no Sir. Just the very centre of our part of the universe.”

“That’s right. And there is a good reason why. The White Centre is also our LifeSource. It is the reason we can do everything we can do. It is the most powerful generator the Universe has ever seen. It is the reason we can see this information on the screen. It is the reason we can fly our ships. It is the source of power for everything.”

“Ok, I understand.”

“Good. So, do you know why the Outer Galaxies were built?”

“Built? I thought they had always been there. Anyway, if not they must have been built for us to live on.”

Captain Scheider nodded. Ivan was partly right but he had forgotten that most people in the Universe didn’t know the true power of the White Centre. It had been thousands of years since the great battles of old when the Crawklings had fought for the White Centre and all of its power. The White Centre’s true meaning had been hidden from the general public and only those who needed to know, knew.

“It was, in part. The true reason however is that the Outer Galaxies were built as a ring of defence around the White Centre. If you look here…” Captain Scheider showed Ivan a screen with a vast number of moving dots, all flashing green. “Do you know what that means?”

“Err..” Ivan had let a wobble into his voice, partly from fear from getting the answer wrong, but partly from fear of the potential consequences if he was right. “Does that mean our defences are breached, and the Crawklings can get to the White Centre? And if they do, that’s the end of everything?”

“That is exactly right,” said Captain Scheider. “If they get there and destroy the White Centre, our power is gone. Every light in every home in the Inner and Outer Galaxies will go off. Every screen in this centre will go off. Every single automatic door will be locked closed. Every ship fighting in battle will fall out of the sky.” He trailed his finger along the screen. “This line here, is our last hope. The Crawklings are nearly through.”