Captain William MacGill, of the space ship Spotted Runner, stood on his bridge. He was about to lead his crew in the hardest act they’d ever tried.

In order to escape their enemies they would travel through the awful Abacay cluster. It had eaten more spaceships than the fleet wanted to say, and could only be entered by one route, but it was their only hope.

“Pilot, where are we?” the captain asked.

“Almost there, sir,” the pilot said back. All of the sudden the ship rocked and the lights on the bridge flickered. “But the enemies keep blasting us every time I get to the right route.”

The captain let himself be angry, “Weapons, get those enemies off us!”

“We’re trying, sir! They’re too fast!” Another rumble rolled through the bridge, and a few computers caught fire.

“OK, that’s enough,” the captain said. “Pilot, next time they come to shoot at us make it look like we’re running away. When they change directions to follow us get us to our fastest speed and then turn back to the entry route. That will surprise the enemies and our weapons should be able to blast them. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” both the pilot and weapons officers said back.

“Here they come!” a tall alien shouted from behind the captain’s chair.

“Go Pilot. Go!” shouted the captain.

The pilot wiggled the ship to make it look like they were running away, and the enemies turned to follow them. When she turned the ship back they were right in the sights of the Spotted Runner’s weapons.

“Got them!” Weapons shouted as the two ships exploded on their screen.

“There are more out there, stay on route.”

“Captain,” the tall alien pointed toward a flashing light, “That’s your special alarm!”

Captain MacGil groaned. “Not now!”

The captain rose from his seat, “Mel’on, you take over. I need to go.”

The tall alien nodded as the captain ran by him, “I won’t let you down, sir!”

The captain didn’t hear his first officer, he had to reach his button to shut down the alarm before…

“Billy,” said Ms. Marron. “Did you hear me?”

“Yes, Ms. Marron,” Billy said back.

The teacher smiled, “Oh good. Now, can you read the next line?”

Billy gulped and looked down at his reader, “See… spot… run..?”

Ms. Marron clapped her hands. “Very well done! I knew you could do that, Billy.” Then she leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Do you think you could stay with us for the rest of the lesson? I don’t want you to miss anything.”

Billy sighed, but nodded. As Ms. Marron went on with the lesson about the sounds letters could make Billy looked down at his pencil. He held it over a small hole in the top of his desk and could hear the voices of his crew, who were still trying to get into the Abacay Cluster. He set his pencil down with a huff and looked back up at his teacher, who winked. The crew was just going to have to get along without him, at least until recess.