Holding the gun was an alien as thin as a beanpole and two metres tall. Its flaking dark green skin hung off its body like feathers stuck on tar. It was floating about a metre above the ground and its body was making a low humming sound. Its head wasn’t separated from the rest of its body – it was integrated into the whole, and its ultra-thin eyes viewed Max suspiciously.

‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ it demanded in deep, slurred voice.

‘Er…you….you….you could do with some weight gain?’ Max offered, gazing at its rake-thin body and hearing the roars outside, that were fast approaching the ship. It wasn’t just the Guzzlets he was worried about. What if over-zealous specttaots were on his trail as well?

‘And who are you that speaks to a Thargon Commander in this fashion?’ demanded the incensed creature.

‘I’m SO sorry,’ Max smiled weakly, ‘I didn’t realise you were a Commander, I just thought you were, you know, your….average, er….non-Commaner, Thargon.’

The noise outside was getting deafening and Max wasn’t going to wait around. In one swift move, he thumped the ENGINE IGNITE button and after three seconds of a great roar the ship broke free from its moorings and leapt up into space.

‘HOW DARE YOU TRY AND COMMANDEER THIS VEHICLE!’ screamed the Commander.

Max felt the sweat running down his forehead.

‘That’s an interesting choice of word isn’t it,’ he said hurriedly. ‘I mean Commandeer and Commander – they’re almost the same.’

The Thargon Commander eyed Max with a hostile glare and grimaced. ‘Surely they come from the same rooy,’ he mused.

Word origins was not one of Max’s specialities and he was delighted when the whole ship lurched leftwards and the Thargon Commander fell backwards. As he tumbled, Max jumped forward and high-kicked the gun out of his hands.

It flew over the Commander’s shoulder and smashed against a flashing red panel. A shot of searing heat ran over it and Max watched as the weapon melted before his eyes.

‘You will very much regret that action!’ snarled the Commanmder furiously.

‘No weapon – less options,’ offered Max.

But any joy at disarming the Commander disappeared the next second when two more Thargons suddenly appeared at the back of the flight deck.

‘My Lieutenants!’ crowed the Commander, ‘deal with him!’

This is all I need!

The Thargon Lieutenants drew their weapons, which were exact replicas of the Commander’s.

‘This being needs to be frazzled!’ barked the Commander.

The two Lieutenants edged forward, training their guns on Max’s head.

Max felt his heart go ricocheting around against the walls of his chest.

This is it! The final countdown! The end! Oblivion!

As they stepped closer, the Thargon Commander let out a bone-jangling laugh

‘I don’t think you’ll be doing much more space travelling, do you?’

Max gulped.

He has a point.

But at that moment, Max spied a yellow panel on the floor with a word spread across it.

It’s my only chance.

The Lieutenants were closing on him their fingers moving towards the triggers on their guns. He just needed a few more seconds. He waited until the Lieutenants were just about to step onto the panel, Max suddenly barged into the Thargon Commander with his right shoulder. As expected the creature weighed very little and it didn’t take much to shove him alongside his Lieutenants, so that the three of them were all now standing on top of the panel.

In an instant, Max dived back towards the control desk and pulled on a black lever. The Thargons realised what was happening too late. The word on the yellow panel was EJECT and as soon as Max had pulled the lever, a circular panel in the roof shot open and the three Thargons shot upwards and out into the starry sky.

Max quickly pushed back the EJECT lever and watched through the viewing screen as the Thargons tumbled back down towards Feronda. They had all activated their parachutes, but Max could see them shaking their fists at him and shouting at the top of their voices.

Max jumped onto the low chair in front of the control desk and checked out the Thargon ship. There were thousands of controls on the desk, but only a few were marked with large signs.

I better stick to these and give the unmarked ones a miss.

Max hit the THROTTLE of the Thargon ship and it started increasing its speed. He had no idea where he was going, he was just delighted to have lost the Thargons especially their not very pleasant Commander.

After a couple of minutes Max was beginning to relax a bit. Driving the Thargon ship wasn’t much different from playing a computer spaceship game.

He even managed to smile to himself and feel a spark of pride at how he’d dealt with the Guzzlets in the stadium and the Thargons on their ship.

But a second later, the smile was swiftly erased from his face.

That was because the Thargon spaceship took a direct missile hit and Max was violently hurled across the flight deck.