At that moment, The Journalist suddenly burst onto the Captain's Bridge.

'The ship's on automatic!' he panted. 'But the central intelligence core is missing some of its parts. We can't control the ship unless we can locate all the missing bits of the system and get them back into place!'

'Too late!' said Lucy and nodded out of the window. The Starship was now entirely surrounded by the smaller spacecraft.

The Journalist muttered: 'Holy Pangalin!'

A voice suddenly boomed over the ship's loudspeaker system: 'You are surrounded. Give up at once or we open fire!'

'Quick!' yelled Dan, pushing The Journalist over to the console. 'How do we give up at once?'

'I haven't the slightest idea,' returned The Journalist.

'If you refuse to give up, we shall open fire in thirty seconds,' said the voice from the enemy spacefleet.

'WE GIVE UP!' yelled Lucy, but her voice merely echoed round the Captain's Bridge.

'DO SOMETHING!' screamed Dan.

'I told you! The ship's missing essential bits! I don't know what to do!' The Journalist was flipping controls as fast as he could but to little effect.

'Since you refuse to co-operate...' boomed the voice.

'WE'LL CO-OPERATE! JUST GIVE US A CHANCE!'

Lucy had climbed onto the console and was waving her arms at the spaceships in a desperate attempt to attract their attention.

'... since you refuse to co-operate you give us no choice but to open fire,'

The space outside the Starship suddenly exploded in light and a terrific noise battered the mighty hull - deafening those inside. Lucy fell off the console and Dan and The Journalist both dived for the floor, where they lay trembling with their hands over their ears.

There was then a pause.

The voice boomed over the loudspeaker again: 'Do you surrender?'

'YES! YES! WE SURRENDER!' screamed all three occupants of the Captain's Bridge.

'Very well! You leave us no choice!'

Another almighty din broke out around the Starship, and this time they could feel it shudder with the impact of the explosions outside. Then there was silence. The smaller spacecraft edged in a little closer.