The Ancient Starship (11 page)

She crouched down to study it, Grawk still growling beside her.

‘Wow!' said Charlie, who immediately reached out to grab it.

Amelia slapped his hand away. ‘Careful!'

‘Ow!' Charlie looked at her reproachfully. ‘Grawk brought us here. He
wants
us to see it.'

‘He's growling. Do you think he wants you to
touch
it?'

Charlie ignored her and quite deliberately picked up the sphere. Instantly, his hair stood on end as though charged with static electricity, and currents of blue light swirled over the surface of the globe. A look of delight on Charlie's face suddenly vanished as he jerked his head over one shoulder and stared behind them. ‘Who was that?'

Amelia tried to follow his gaze. ‘What? Where?'

There was nothing to see.

‘I thought I saw …' He frowned. ‘Here, try it for yourself.'

He tossed the sphere to Amelia, who flinched but caught it by instinct. She'd been afraid it would burn her but it actually felt cool in her hands, and the cool feeling swept up her arms and then through her whole body until even her scalp was tingling. She could tell from Charlie's smirk that her hair must be puffed out like a dandelion too. She felt deeply peaceful, as though her mind were at one with the universe.

And then she saw a flash of movement, and had the sense that someone was standing right behind her. She dropped the sphere into the hole and scrambled away from it.

‘We shouldn't mess with this,' she said, flattening her hair down with both hands. ‘We should go and get Dad.'

Charlie nodded.

‘Grawk, will you stay? Guard the hole?'

He sat down obediently, but looked grim about it.

‘Good boy,' said Amelia, reaching out a hand to pat him. ‘Thank –'

Grawk turned his head away and closed his eyes, growling steadily the whole time.

‘Oh.' Amelia pulled back her hand, hurt. She didn't have time to deal with it now, though. Until they figured out what the sphere was, who put it there and why, she had to assume it was a bigger issue than Grawk's attitude problem. ‘Come on, Charlie.'

Leaving their school bags with Grawk, they sprinted up the last rise of the headland to the hotel, and leapt up the main stairs. Forcing themselves to steady on a bit, they paused and then
walked
through the double doors into the lobby.

Just as well. The business was slowly building, and there always seemed to be some new guest just arriving, or wandering around vaguely. More and more humans were coming to stay at the Gateway Hotel, charmed at the thought of a holiday where the natural magnetism of the headland stopped all mobile phones, computers and TV from working. Amelia's mum and Mary had heard visitors gushing about how refreshing it was to have a ‘digital detox'.

Right now, Mum was in the middle of a conversation with a woman at the reception desk, and it was never a good idea to interrupt.

‘What's that?' said Charlie, pointing to a large vat by the foot of the stairs up to the guest wing.

Amelia shrugged. ‘Food?'

Some of their alien guests could eat in the dining room alongside the human guests. Wearing the holo-emitters Tom lent them, they were totally indistinguishable from real humans, and lots of aliens were curious to try Earth cuisine. Amelia felt sorry for them that their only experience was Dad's cooking, but most of them seemed to enjoy it. Some aliens couldn't digest human food, though, and so every now and then, special room service had to be arranged. Like their very first guest, Miss Ardman, and the tank of giant centipedes.

‘Yes, but what's it doing
there?
' Charlie persisted.

He was right. Any non-human food should have either been in the kitchen, or safely delivered to the alien's room. It shouldn't be left out where any actual human might see it and get curious.

Amelia wasn't interested in hotel procedure right now, though. She was too focused on what Mum was saying to the woman at the counter.

‘I'm sorry.' Mum's voice was very polite, but absolutely unbudging. ‘There are no rooms available in that wing of the hotel.'

The family wing,
Amelia realised. All the guests, even Lady Naomi who'd been there longer than the Walkers, slept in the wing at the top of the right-hand stairs. The rooms at the top of the left-hand stairs were where the Walkers slept. It was totally off-limits to guests.

‘But I so want a room with a big bay window,' the woman said. ‘And you've told me the bay-window room is already taken on the other side.'

Lady Naomi's room,
Amelia thought, then stared as she realised what the woman was really saying.
She wants my room!

She was indignant at the woman's cheek, but not too worried – obviously Mum wouldn't chuck Amelia out of her own bedroom.

‘I really must insist,' the woman went on. ‘I don't care how much it costs, you know. Whatever the amount – go on, make up something silly. I'll pay it!
That's
how much my heart is set on it.' She put her handbag on the reception desk and opened it, as if Mum had already agreed.

Who does she think she is?

Amelia saw a spectacular bracelet sparkling on the woman's wrists as she pulled out her wallet and smiled at Mum.

Charlie tugged at her elbow, a strange look on his face. ‘Amelia, don't ask why, but I think we should go to your room. Like,
now
.'

Amelia didn't want to miss how Mum was going to deal with this pushy guest, but she kind of wanted to go to her room too. More than anything, just to show that woman whose room it really was.

She followed him to the left-hand stairs, but just as her foot touched the first step, the hotel lobby burned up in a blinding flash of white light streaked through with blue.

Keep reading
The Time Shifter
to find out what happens.

In all good bookstores March 2016!

The Ancient Starship
published in 2015 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

eISBN 9781743583579

Text copyright © 2015 Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley and David Harding
Illustration and design copyright © 2015 Hardie Grant Egmont

Illustration by Craig Phillips
Book cover design by Latifah Cornelius

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