The Ancient Starship (7 page)

‘Get in where?' Charlie grumbled. ‘Grawk could be taking us to see his favourite peeing tree for all we know.'

But Amelia could tell he didn't really mean it, and in fact, when they scrambled up the side of a boulder and saw the fake Bowler-Hat Man walking along the bottom of the gully below them, Charlie didn't seem surprised.

The impostor was still carrying the laundry bag over his shoulder, and now Amelia noticed there was something odd in the way it hung across his back, bumping up and down with each step.

‘It's not heavy enough to be a body,' she whispered.

‘Unless he's super strong.'

‘Even then. The bag would still show strain under the weight. That bag looks like it's full of feathers.'

The man looked around him, then wandered over to some thick bushes, whirled the bag around his head, and let it fly so that it arced up over the tips of the bushes, and landed hidden behind them. Without a backward glance, the man turned and walked back the way he'd come.

There was no sign that he'd suspected he had been watched, but still Amelia and Charlie waited ten long minutes before they went out to inspect the bag. A month or so ago, they might have just crashed their way through the undergrowth as soon as the man was out of sight. Now that they'd seen Krskn in action, they understood that these adventures that kept befalling them had no safety net. No time-outs, second chances, or places to respawn and try again. If this man were really a murderer, they couldn't afford to act like kids.

They waited until Grawk led the way out.

‘You were right,' said Charlie. ‘No matter how strong he was throwing that bag, it didn't sound heavy as it hit the trees.'

They scrambled through the leaves and branches to get to the bag.

‘But if it's not a body …' Amelia began. ‘That means the real Bowler-Hat Man is still missing.'

‘And whatever is in this bag,' Charlie finished, ‘he still came all the way out here to dump it.'

Grawk was at the bag already, wagging his tail and sniffing in delight.

Amelia took a sniff too. ‘Ugh!' Even from a metre away it was rank – off-milk and vomit.

Charlie poked the bag with a stick and the end of it sank in without resistance. Amelia stretched out a foot and pressed on a bulge with her sneakered toe. It gave way like wadding or a folded doona.

‘So weird,' said Charlie.

Amelia bent down and grabbed the edge of the bag. ‘Ready or not …' she said, and yanked it open.

A gust of rancid, puke-flavoured air engulfed them, strong enough to make them both cough. They held their noses and stared at the bag's contents.

‘So …' Charlie said at last. ‘What the heck is that?'

The thing inside the laundry bag was so strange, it took Amelia several long moments to process what she was seeing. It was a pale yellowy colour – that was the first thing that got through. Then she noticed how kind of
hairy
it was – like a huge, loose spool of wool, if the wool had been so fine it looked more like fibreglass. Strangest of all, Amelia saw that it was hollow and she was looking into it through a big gash along one side. It looked as though it had been violently torn open.

It definitely wasn't a body, but in its own way it was nearly as horrible. And although it was clearly alien, there was something weirdly familiar about it, as though Amelia had seen one of these before.

Except who would ever forget seeing one of these? Or smelling one? She shuddered.

‘We have to tell Dad. Or Tom. Probably Ms Rosby, too.'

‘Can you imagine how angry Arxish will be?' Charlie said. He poked the bag again. ‘Do you think we should bring it with us?'

He bent down, reached into the bag and touched the woolly thing. ‘Oh, yuck! It's all sticky!' He wiped his hand on his pants.

‘It doesn't look sticky,' said Amelia. ‘Is it like fairy floss?'

‘Almost,' said Charlie. ‘Only much stickier, more like – oh! That's what it is! It's a spider web!'

They both looked in horror at the bag.

‘That's what spiders do when they catch a bug,' said Charlie in a low voice. ‘They wrap it up in silk and suck the guts out. I bet that's what happened to the real Bowler-Hat Man. And that's why there's no body – the new guy already
ate
it.'

But Amelia, sick with fear, shook her head and squatted down for a closer look at the empty wrappings. ‘I don't think that's it, Charlie … I think it's much, much worse than that …'

She pointed into the hollow space and Charlie crouched down beside her. ‘Look how clean it is inside. No-one died in there or had their guts sucked out.'

‘Then what? You don't think Bowler-Hat Man is dead?'

‘Oh, no, I think he is – or
wishes
he was.' Amelia closed her eyes. ‘I think this is an egg sac.'

‘An egg sac –' Charlie frowned. ‘But there are no eggs in there.'

Amelia looked at him bleakly. ‘There wouldn't be – once they
hatched.
'

Now Charlie turned a sickly green and gulped. ‘So the giant alien spider had babies, and they are … in the hotel? And the real Bowler-Hat Man …?'

‘Baby food,' Amelia nodded. She flung a small stick at Grawk, who was nibbling happily on the edge of the stinky silk sac. ‘Stop it! Bad dog!'

Grawk didn't turn around, but kicked back with one paw, showering Amelia with a little cloud of dirt, leaves and gumnuts.

‘Fine,' she snapped at him. ‘Be gross, then. Come on, Charlie.'

‘Come on
where?
' He followed her back up the gully to the rocks. ‘We're not going to the hotel, surely?'

‘Tom's. He's got a phone. We can call the hotel and tell Mum and Mary to evacuate.'

‘This is a disaster.'

Grawk got over his irritation with Amelia and soon caught up and started leading the way through the bush again. Amelia was grateful. She'd been so absorbed in being stealthy on the way down, she hadn't memorised the path. Plus, she couldn't deny it, she felt much safer having Grawk with them, just in case the alien spider-daddy had actually sensed them spying on him and was now lying in wait behind a bush somewhere …

But no-one was waiting in ambush for them. No-one tried to trap them. There was one bend in the track where Charlie walked face-first into an orb-weaver's web and freaked out, clawing the strands off his cheeks and yelling, ‘Get off me, you sicko!' Other than that, they got to Tom's without a hitch.

Except Tom wasn't there, and James was just leaving.

‘Hey,' he smiled broadly. ‘You're just in time. Mum called from the hotel.'

‘Mum's in the hotel?' Amelia almost yelled.

‘Where else would she be?' James looked at her, puzzled.

‘We've got to get her out!'

‘And my mum!' Charlie added. ‘And the guests.'

James frowned. ‘Why would we do that?'

‘Because there's a brood of alien spider babies in Bowler-Hat Man's room and they've already eaten him up!'

To James's credit, he accepted their story immediately. Only weeks ago, he would have patted Amelia on the head and told her how cute it was she still played make-believe with her friends. Now he didn't even ask her how she knew, he just went back to Tom's and opened the door.

Amelia and Charlie followed him inside.

‘Whoa!' said Charlie.

Amelia stared. The chaos and clutter of Tom's cottage had undergone a radical change. James snatched up the phone and dialled the hotel, while Amelia gazed about her. Tom's messy piles of half-rolled charts and lists had been organised into five neat sets, and one whole portion of the desk had been cleared to make room for a huge square of grid paper. She could see James's careful handwriting in several different colours on the grid, and off to the side, scraps of paper with scribbled maths equations, lots of crossing out, and several large, cross-looking question marks.

‘Mum?' James sounded calm, but his expression was tense. ‘Amelia and Charlie are down here – they want you to evacuate the hotel.'

He listened intently, then said, ‘I'll put her on,' and held the phone out to Amelia.

‘Mum, get out now!' Amelia said. ‘Charlie and I saw Bowler-Hat Man go into the bush and dump a giant, empty spider-egg sac, but it's not the real Bowler-Hat Man, this guy is a fake. And now there are probably thousands of cannibal spider babies in his room, and they're going to eat everyone, and –'

‘Amelia!' Mum was abrupt. ‘Stop!'

‘But –'

‘Amelia, I heard you and I'm taking you seriously. I'm so glad you told me straight away. I'm going to tell Ms Rosby as soon as I see her. Illegal alien immigration, visa over-stay and invasion is her department, and she'll know exactly what we're dealing with.'

‘OK,' Amelia said, ‘good, but you still have to get out!'

‘Cookie, I can't evacuate the hotel on your hunch,
even
,' she raised her voice over Amelia's protest, ‘even a very good hunch, which I know yours is. In our situation, with aliens we know little or nothing about, there may be more than one way to understand even the most suspicious behaviour.'

Amelia groaned.

‘Anyway,' Mum went on briskly. ‘Hadn't you better get a move on?'

‘Why?'

‘Oh, I thought James told you.'

Amelia looked up at James. ‘Told me what?'

‘Dad's with Control at Lady Naomi's. They're going to blow up the you-know-what.'

On any other day, exploding an ancient alien spaceship would have been electrifying news, but right now Amelia's only feeling was relief that everyone who needed to know about the plague of giant spiders was together in one place. She slammed down the phone.

‘What?' said Charlie.

‘Let's go,' said Amelia, already running for the door. ‘Lady Naomi's place –
now!
'

The three of them raced toward the clearing with the spaceship. James powered along easily on his giraffe legs. Amelia and Charlie kept up only by sheer force of will – there was no time to waste if Amelia were right about the alien egg sac.

Then, from the top of the hill beside them, someone else started running for Lady Naomi's clearing: the woman in the scarf. She streaked away from the hotel, cutting across the lawn in a frantic sprint that outpaced all of them.

‘Look at that!' Charlie panted. ‘She's heading for the spaceship too!'

‘Maybe it's hers,' said James.

Amelia didn't bother explaining how ridiculous that theory was. She just increased her pace another notch and moments later, crashed through the low-hanging banksia branch.

The woman in the scarf was already out of sight, but as the three of them leapt and ducked and swerved and twisted their way toward Lady Naomi's clearing, they could hear her. Oh, man, could they hear her.

She was screaming so loudly, her voice was sort of tearing in her throat. The thing that most shocked Amelia, though, was how frightened and heartbroken she sounded.