'Oh, bomb!' said Nettie. 'This is Nettie. Remember me?'

'Er... One...' said the bomb. 'How many fours make eight?'

'Er...er...Zeee...'

'No... How many fours make eight?' 'Er... er... Two?' said the bomb. 'How many twos in six?' 'Three...' said the bomb.

'And how many times does three go into twelve?'

'Four...' said the bomb. It paused for a moment and then continued: 'Five... Six... Seven...'

'Phew!' said Nettie. 'That'll buy a bit of time...'

'Why have you put this bomb onto our ship?' demanded Bolfass.

'Your ship?' exclaimed Nettie.

'Why do you sound so surprised?' cried Bolfass. 'Do you think we're not skillful enough to have built such a wonderful thing?'

'Oh no!' replied Nettie. 'I didn't mean anything like that - it's just that you attacked the ship. It didn't seem like you owned it.'

'Of course we own it!' Nettie thought Captain Bolfass appeared a trifle defensive. 'Legally and morally! This ship is our rightful recompense for all the misery and hardship that we have suffered at the hands of the Blerontinians!'

'Look! I don't want to appear stupid...'

'You could never look that, Nettie,' the Captain assured her.

'Thank you...' Nettie felt herself charmed by this short, fair stranger, in whose hands her fate apparently lay. 'But I don't know the background history to all this...'

'And I will be delighted to tell you the whole story, dear lady-' Bolfass gave her deep bow - 'but first it is my unpleasant task to ask you once again: Why have you placed a bomb on this ship?'

'We haven't!' Nettie gave a little laugh that sent the Captain's heart reeling after his wobbly knees. 'We're on this ship by accident...' and she told Bolfass the whole story; how Dan and Lucy were about to turn the old rectory into a hotel, with the money from the Top Ten Travel Agency, and how the Starship had crashed into the house; how they had been invited aboard by a polite robot, and of all the things that had passed on the ship up until the invasion by the good Captain's forces.