Starship Spring Read Online Free PDF

book, seen the movie—he said he was very interested in our story. He’d even kept up with how we were doing: he knew you had a daughter, David, and insisted that I give this to Ella.”
    “That’s incredibly kind of him,” Hannah said.
    Maddie went on, “He said it was ancient, an artefact from a race of beings now extinct.”
    “Christ,” I said, “it must be priceless.”
    Maddie frowned. “I doubt it, but it was a nice gesture, whatever its value.”
    Ella danced around the pool, holding up the cone so that it glittered in the sunlight.
    “Anyway,” Maddie concluded, “I came here to see if any of you had worked up an appetite for lunch before we hie ourselves off to the dig?”
    “Food!” Hawk said, unfolding his bulk from the lounger. “Lead the way.”
    I watched my daughter as we left the pool, and it struck me that she was mesmerised by the ancient alien artefact.

FIVE
     
     
    Maria Da Souza led us away from our villa and down a series of switchback stairways that descended alongside the surging torrent of the waterfall. The aural baffles were less effective here, and the roar of the fall was like a jet engine. I brought up the rear, clutching Ella’s hand and squeezing it from time to time. Her excitement at the expedition communicated itself to me through her tight grip and impatient, skipping steps.
    The stairway turned left, leaving the solidity of the rock and U-turning to double back on itself, even closer now to the waterfall. The walkway was horizontal here and covered in a protective crystalline tube running with water. We were walking towards the rock face over which the Falls tipped, through the mass of water itself. The pounding roar was so loud it seemed to transcend any definition of sound to become something more physical. I was relieved when we passed under the torrent and came to the area between the rippling sheet of water and the rock itself.
    Da Souza turned to us and shouted, “The entrance to the subterranean system of caves is on the other side of the Falls. There is a longer way round, but this way is more spectacular.”
    We turned right and walked along the rock face for perhaps two hundred metres. When we reached the far side of the Falls, Da Souza paused before a ragged rent in the rock. Set into the aperture was a solid steel door, which she unlocked. She stood aside while the others, led by Hawk, squeezed through. Hannah went before me, and I brought up the rear with Ella.
    As we were passing Da Souza, she lay a hand on Ella’s shoulder and said, “That’s a pretty necklace. May I?”
    Ella nodded, and Da Souza knelt and lifted the cone. She examined it minutely, turning it in her hand. She wore an odd expression, as if she’d seen the cone before but could not recall where.
    She looked up at me. “Do you mind if I ask you where you got this, Mr Conway?”
    I shrugged. “It was a gift,” I said, and added as if that were not sufficient, “from an alien art dealer. Why?”
    She shook her head, stood quickly, and gestured for me to descend the timber staircase that followed the precipitous natural funnel through the rock. As we walked, movement-sensitive lighting came on ahead, revealing hewn rock marked with the striations of chisels and larger cutting equipment. Behind us the roar of the waterfall diminished until it could no longer be heard. As we descended, clean, cool air enveloped us, refreshing after the rainforest humidity.
    I asked Da Souza, “These cutting marks, are they alien, or—”
    She shook her head. “Human. Made by the initial investigation team. I’ll explain when we reach the bottom.”
    We descended for perhaps ten minutes and the temperature plummeted: I was glad I’d taken Da Souza’s recommendation to wear a jacket.
    We came to the end of the timber stairway and stood on the edge of a swelling cavern. Spotlights illuminated stalactites and stalagmites, hundreds of them stretching away into the shadows. The walls nearby were wan and