1953…

A few weeks later, Ragol was piloting the Space Force patrol craft, as it was his turn to patrol the solar system. His scanners detected a vessel approaching his quadrant. Members of Space Force were equipped with extremely modern equipment. The translator headpieces would take only seconds to determine which language was being spoken and translate it into the programmed language of the wearer, which was in this case Saturnian. Using his own translator headpiece, Ragol attempted to make contact with the approaching vessel.

"This is Space Force. Please identify."

The voice spoke back:
"Excuse us for not understanding your message. This is the touring space vessel from Kadrom, a planet outside your solar system."

"Well that's not unexplored, and my translator works. Now I can use my microphone to reply in their own language," thought Ragol.

They had soon exchanged their greetings, and Ragol bade them an enjoyable tour of Saturn's solar system. Shortly afterwards he noticed a strange warning on his instrument panel.

"My missiles! I haven't fired them, and the instruments prove that they have not been fired; but these missiles - all of them - are leaving their tubes by themselves. What could be causing this? Oh no! The monitor! They're heading straight for the touring vessel from Kadrom! There's not a thing that I can do to stop them!"

In desperation, he managed to make contact with the Kadrom vessel, but was unable to say anything in time, because the missiles destroyed the vessel before it could be prevented.

"I didn't have time to communicate a warning, and now there's nothing. They've all been lost, every tourist aboard that ship. I must report this to Space Force Headquarters immediately," thought Ragol. He contacted the Saturn headquarters and explained what had happened.

"This is very serious, Ragol. You'd better return here at once to have your patrol ship thoroughly investigated. We take you at your word about it being a freak accident beyond your control, but we must investigate the possibility of sabotage, and we'd better do it before they lodge complaints. The people of Kadrom will not believe our story easily."

So Ragol's patrol craft was recalled and searched from top to bottom. There was no trace of a sabotage attempt, and yet the instruments could only continue to display two conflicting items of recorded data: The missiles had not been fired, and yet they were no longer in their tubes. They soon recieved a request from the supreme ruler of Kadrom. It was a request to speak to the leader of Space Force.

"At the moment you are our elected leader, Nezz Narf," said Ragol.

The two leading representatives, worlds apart but nonetheless as close as a long distance radio signal, were soon in contact with each other.

"I am Kibok, supreme ruler of Kadrom. A short while ago, one of your patrol ships made contact with our touring vessel. After the pleasantries were exchanged, the vessel reported being pulled sideways in space, perhaps by a tractor beam. It was then confronted by armed warheads, and that was the last that we heard of it."

"What I have to say will shock you Kibok, but you must believe we are as confused by this whole incident as you are. I regret to say that an unexplained accident caused our patrol craft's missiles to leave the craft by themselves. The instrument bank shows that they were not fired. However our pilot Ragol monitored the missiles exploding upon contact with the touring vessel. We have since been investigating the possibility of sabotage, but we have yet to come up with any answers. We do not know why the missiles left the craft, when the firing buttons had not been pressed. Nor do we know why they homed in on your touring vessel. We will do anything possible to make amends for this unintended destruction, and we will be running extensive tests on our patrol crafts before using any of them again," said Nezz Narf.