“You're ok!” cried Captain Scheider.

“Er... what?!” replied a dazed looking Beagle.

“You're ok!” he repeated, beaming from ear to ear. “We noticed your ship spiralling out of control as soon as we stopped talking to you. We felt a bit guilty as we had obviously been distracting you, so we teleported you here. I hope that's ok?”

“I guess so...” stammered Officer Howler.

“We weren't sure if we'd got you in time,” continued Captain Scheider.

“It's true,” interrupted Corporal Jess Adams. “We really hoped so though, I wasn't looking forward to clearing up a bloody mess from the floor.” She smiled kindly, and Officer Howler returned a dry grimace to the joke.

“What happened?” he asked. “How did you do that?”

“Simple,” answered Captain Scheider. “As long as we have the co-ordinates, we can retrieve anything through teleportation.”

“We traced you following our conversation,” continued Jess “and you looked in trouble. We assumed it was our fault.”

“Well you did distract me a little,” admitted Officer Howler, “but I should probably have told you earlier.”

Officer Howler was a bit freaked out by the whole situation. Whilst he was definitely glad he wasn't dead, he would much rather be back at home. This place was weird. The people didn't even have slightly hairy faces and they definitely didn't have tails.

“Thanks for saving me and all that,” he said, “but can you send me back home? I've got a war to fight.”

“We can,” confirmed Captain Scheider. “But we've actually got a more important role for you in this war, should you choose to accept it.”

Officer Howler would have preferred to go back home, but he sensed that he might not have a choice in the matter. Besides, he did have a very strong sense of duty and if this was truly more important to the war then he supposed he had better do it.

Officer Howler nodded and Captain Scheider continued.

“The weather forecasters next door are in need of a pilot and you are the best one here. Officer Howler, you are going to Crawk.”