‘Oh, no,’ Sophie F moaned. ‘You poor thing, when? You must be so worried.’
‘I am.’ Amelia was relieved. Even though her friends couldn’t ever know the full story, they understood how she felt.
‘Do you think he’ll come back?’
‘I hope so. Actually, that’s where Charlie and I were when you arrived – out in the bush, looking for him.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ said Sophie T. ‘If Arabella Moonglow went missing’ – that was her white rabbit – ‘I wouldn’t do anything else until I found her. I wouldn’t even go to school.’
There was a sad little pause in the conversation out of respect for Amelia’s situation, and then Sophie T, who didn’t like silence very much, patted Amelia’s hand and said brightly, ‘I know! I can help you look for him tomorrow. We’ll do a proper search party.’
‘Thanks, Sophie.’ Amelia smiled. As much as Charlie thought Sophie T was the biggest pain in the world, she really was a good friend. After all, anyone who hated getting dirty, thought all bugs and insects were repulsive, only ever wore the nicest clothes and yet still volunteered to go bush-bashing to find an (alien) dog she’d never met before was pretty special.
Suddenly, both Sophies’ heads swivelled around as though magnetised and Amelia saw James walking toward them. She looked at her tall, gangling, super-sarcastic brother. What did the Sophies see that was making them blush and sit up straighter, she wondered.
‘Hey, sis,’ he said, plonking himself down in the chair next to Sophie F. ‘Who’re your friends?’
Amelia introduced them, and watched as Sophie F shrank into herself and tried to become invisible, while Sophie T flicked her blonde hair back over one shoulder and made her eyes so big and focused on James that Amelia blinked twice as fast to compensate.
Luckily, before it got too weird, Mum signalled Mary in the kitchen. A minute later, Dad came out with an enormous sheet cake covered in lit candles. He was singing ‘Happy Birthday’ and one by one, Mum, Mary, and the kids at her table joined in. Some of the guests did too – the human ones, anyway. The guests eating tinned spaghetti with ice-cream just observed, fascinated.
‘Hip-hip,’ said Dad, setting down the cake in front of Amelia.
‘Hooray!’ shouted all the humans in the room.
Amelia took a deep breath and blew out her candles. And there were a lot of candles, spaced out unevenly all over the surface of the cake. By the time the last one sputtered out, Amelia was gasping.
Sophie T did a quick count. ‘Twenty candles? But you’re not twenty!’
Amelia grinned. ‘No, look – it’s marking out the constellation of Sagittarius. My star sign.’
Mrs Flood gave Dad a funny look. ‘I thought you were a science man.’
‘I am,’ said Dad eagerly. ‘Astro-physicist, actually, and Sagittarius is a great set of stars to have in the sky for your birthday.’
‘Oh, really?’ said Mrs Flood, politely.
Mum smirked and started handing out spoons as Dad got going.
‘Oh, yes!’ he beamed. ‘Did you know, Sagittarius is one of the forty-eight constellations described by Ptolemy in the second century? And, even though we can’t see it with the naked eye, it contains possibly the brightest star in our whole galaxy!’
‘Uh-huh.’ Mrs Flood nodded, unblinking, as Dad picked up the ginormous carving knife and suddenly stabbed it into the cake.
‘Right there!’ he exclaimed. ‘The Pistol Star! Hidden by cosmic dust, but a blue hypergiant so powerful it emits more energy in twenty seconds than our sun does in a whole year! Not only that but –’
‘It tastes delicious, too,’ Mum finished smoothly.
‘Eh?’ Dad blinked, and then looked in surprise at the poor cake he’d just murdered. ‘What?’
‘Amelia’s birthday cake, dear,’ said Mum. ‘You were about to cut it up?’
Sophie T’s eyes were as round as saucers. She had flecks of whipped cream on the front of her dress from the force of Dad’s blow with the knife, but Sophie F was giggling quietly to herself and looking at Dad with great interest.
‘Well,’ said Dad, pulling the knife out and handing it to Amelia. ‘I think you’re supposed to make the first cut.’
Holding her breath, Amelia sliced into a corner without candles. What had Dad dreamed up this time? She sighed with relief as a perfectly ordinary slice of vanilla sponge came away. It was such a large cake that everyone in the dining room had a slice (Amelia talked very loudly to the Sophies, hoping they wouldn’t notice the family of five who were squirting ketchup and mustard over theirs).
Sophie F had another slice of cake and Sophie T said, ‘Hang on – presents!’ and handed Amelia a gift bag. ‘It’s from both of us.’
Lifting out a framed photo of the three of them together, and a box of flavoured jellybeans, and a new adventure book, Amelia thought this might be her best birthday ever. Back in the city, before they’d moved to Forgotten Bay, the Walkers’ old flat had been so small Amelia had always had her parties at the park, or ice-skating, or the movies. Now, for the first time, she had a home that had room for everyone – her family, her best friend, her friends from school, and even random guests from other galaxies, if they wanted to. Even –
The room went silent. Someone had walked through the door, and this time it wasn’t only the Sophies who turned to look.
A small, neat person walked quietly between the tables, making her way to Amelia. She was dressed in her usual drab uniform of cargo pants and a sleeveless T-shirt, but no-one seemed to notice what she was wearing. Everyone was staring at her extraordinary face, at her sweep of long, jet-black hair, at the acrobatic elegance she compressed into just walking across the floor, and at the silver scar that twisted its way up her arm.
‘Who is that?’ Sophie T gaped.
‘That is Lady Naomi,’ said Charlie smugly. ‘I told you she was cool.’
Amelia hadn’t thought for a moment that Lady Naomi would be at her birthday. Apart from the research that usually kept her out in the bush until well after nightfall, Lady Naomi preferred to avoid crowds, and Amelia could see why. For a very private person, it was almost impossible for her to go anywhere without attracting attention.
‘Happy birthday,’ she smiled as she reached the table. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting.’
‘Never,’ sighed Sophie T.
‘Do you want some cake?’ said Charlie. ‘There’s loads left.’
‘Maybe later,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘Right now, I was wondering if Amelia would like her present?’
‘You got me a gift?’
‘Well, not just me. I had an idea, but Ms Rosby ordered the parts, and Tom did all the actual work.’
Charlie goggled at Amelia in open jealousy. ‘I hope you know when my birthday is,’ he said to Lady Naomi.
‘It’s not just for Amelia. You can all enjoy it together.’
Mrs Flood came over to the table and caught Sophie F’s eye. ‘Time we were off, pumpkin.’
‘Oh, but Mum …’
‘No, come on. You’ve had cake and given Amelia her present, and now we have to
go.’
‘Oh, could you possibly stay another ten minutes?’ Lady Naomi asked. ‘I’m sorry to have left it so late, but I wanted to wait until it got properly dark. And we only need to go out to the lawn. You’ll have to walk past anyway, won’t you?’
‘Well …’
Amelia grinned at Sophie F. No-one could resist Lady Naomi.
‘Just ten minutes,’ Mrs Flood agreed. ‘And then we really have to go.’
Sophie F didn’t waste any time discussing it; she was already out of her chair and on her way to the door. Lady Naomi began to follow her and then realised that everyone in the dining room was still looking at her. She paused to check with Amelia. ‘If it’s all right with you, birthday girl, everyone here can come too.’
Amelia was confused now. What kind of gift could a hotel full of people enjoy at once? She couldn’t wait to find out, and scrambled after Sophie F.
It wasn’t until she was standing with Charlie and Sophie F on the lawn that she noticed Sophie T wasn’t there. She looked around and spied her friend standing on the hotel’s verandah, underneath a lantern. ‘Come on, Sophie!’ Amelia called. ‘Stand with us.’
‘I’m fine,’ Sophie T called back. ‘I just don’t want to get any dew on my new shoes.’
‘Oh, but there isn’t any –’
Amelia stopped as Sophie F touched her arm and whispered, ‘She hates the dark.’
Amelia blinked in surprise. She never would have guessed something so ordinary would bother Sophie T, but she tried hard not to show any reaction. She just nodded, then glanced over at Charlie. He had a triumphant gleam in his eye. Why did he have to have such sharp hearing?
Before he could do anything with this new information, Amelia said to Lady Naomi, ‘Where should I be looking? Is it here yet?’
‘Yeah,’ said Charlie, thankfully changing tack. ‘Where is it, Lady N? Did you get her Wonder Woman’s invisible jet?’
Sophie F snorted with laughter.
‘Or did you get her a star? You can do that, you know: buy a star and name it whatever you like.’
‘True,’ said Amelia, ‘but you don’t usually order parts for a star or get Tom to work on it.’
‘Or invite everyone to see it,’ Sophie F added.
‘Well, what then?’ said Charlie.
Lady Naomi appeared to ignore him, but called down the slope of the headland, ‘Ready when you are, Tom.’
Amelia held her breath and peered into the darkness, wondering what Tom might be bringing up the hill. She was staring so intently that when the first explosion came, she gave a little scream.
‘Whoa!’ cried Sophie F, looking up as more explosions popped and thumped around her.
Amelia saw the sky bloom with colour. All the guests from the hotel went ‘Ooh!’ together as one pinprick of yellow burst into a ball of blue sparks, and then they all sighed ‘Ahh!’ as stream after stream of red sparks shot up like pillars.
It was a brilliant show, and much more exciting than any fireworks Amelia had ever seen before. Partly this was because these were so close she could feel the shock waves in her belly, and the ground reverberating through the soles of her feet. It was also because, as well as the usual green and white and red crackers, there were a number of more … peculiar ones.
A mauve firework puffed out like a chrysanthemum and then turned lime green, with hot pink stars winking at the edge of each petal. A turquoise jet drew a sparkling oval in the sky, which then swam with dozens of orange fish. And as the grand finale, a golden comet squealed through the sky and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMELIA in letters so huge and bright, it took a couple of minutes for the image to fade from her retinas.
‘That was amazing!’ cheered Sophie F. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it!’
‘I know!’ crowed Charlie. ‘Who knew Tom was a pyrotechnics expert? No wonder he blew off his finger and eye! I’m going to get him to teach me everything!’
Mrs Flood waved and called.
‘Oh, bum, I’ve got to go,’ said Sophie F. ‘Thanks for having me, Amelia. That was the best!’
She hugged Amelia and then ran back to her mum and their car. Amelia smiled after her, still dazzled from the fireworks. In fact, it almost seemed as though she could see a dull yellow glow out of the corner of one eye …
She turned her head to see if the illusion would persist and got a nasty shock as something like a camera flash almost blinded her.
‘What was that?’ yelped Charlie.
Amelia blinked furiously, trying to recover her night vision, and pointed. ‘Over there somewhere.’
‘I see him,’ said Lady Naomi, and strode off toward the bush at the edge of the hotel’s gardens.
Amelia looked back toward the hotel, torn. There was Sophie T, standing under the light, her arms crossed. She looked small and uncertain, and Amelia knew she should go back to her –
‘Come on, Amelia!’ Charlie called over his shoulder as he jogged after Lady Naomi.
She bit her lip, on the verge of letting Charlie go on without her, but then saw Sophie T’s face break into a wide smile as James walked over to talk to her. Ignoring her guilty feelings, she turned and ran to catch up with Charlie and Lady Naomi.
They were almost at the edge of the hotel’s lawn, where the grass gave way to the bush, when Amelia heard twigs snapping ahead of them.
‘Stop right where you are,’ Lady Naomi called out, running now. But from the sound of crunching leaves and rustling bushes, whoever it was had no interest in taking orders.
‘Right,’ said Lady Naomi grimly, ‘have it your way, then.’ She sprinted ahead with a sudden burst of speed.
Amelia heard a great commotion – more branches being snapped and the frantic scuffling of several feet, and then a yipping voice: ‘Get your hands off me!’
Amelia and Charlie pushed their way toward the ruckus. There was just enough light in the sky for them to make out two figures: one, obviously, was Lady Naomi. The other –
‘It’s the fox guy from Tom’s cottage!’
‘Why don’t you have your holo-emitter on?’ said Charlie. ‘You know Tom will tell Control.’
‘Never mind that,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘What was that device you were just using – and where is it now?’
‘He’s got a pouch,’ said Amelia. ‘That’s how he smuggled it past Tom, I bet.’
‘A pouch?’ said Lady Naomi, and there was a moment’s more struggling and then a high, foxy scream of fury.
‘You picked my pocket? You shameless barbarian! You ignorant savage! I’ll have you know that I’m –’
‘Be quiet,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘We don’t care who you think you are. The only thing you need to tell us is what this device is, and what you were doing with it.’
‘It’s nothing!’ he barked. ‘Nothing you’d understand, anyway.’
‘Try us.’
‘Is it a scientific instrument?’ said Amelia. ‘He said he’s an exobiologist.’
The alien sighed. ‘Fine. It’s a multi-channel bio-scanner. I use it to scan the environment for specific signs of l
ife. Look: I can put in criteria – say, iron-based blood system, a single four-chambered heart, bipedal, put in the estimated size-range of the animal and its usual body temperature and –’ The machine gave an excited clockwork whir and a screen lit up with two pink dots. ‘See, there you are: two humans.’ He paused and then looked at Lady Naomi. ‘But not you …’
‘Right, good,’ she snapped. ‘A bio-scanner. And what are you doing with it?’
‘Surveying the local environment, of course! That’s my job. I’m a junior professor in gateway ecology – I’ve been studying how wormhole activity impacts the local wildlife.’
‘And does it?’ said Amelia.
‘Of course it does! All that magnetism, all those wormholes emitting strange gusts of atmosphere or blasts of alien dust. Imagine how many bacteria and fungi spores and different pollens are wafting onto Earth every time the gateway opens. Not to mention the muck we travellers bring through on our clothes and feet and fur. And what about blowbacks? Ever think about them?’
‘Er, maybe …’ Amelia shuddered. She’d thought about Grawk, but never invisible things like diseases and pollution.
‘Well, that’s my area of study, and I think you can see why it’s so important. I mean, I did my research before coming here – this is Australia, isn’t it? How much trouble have you caused yourselves by bringing rabbits and cats and cane toads here? And they were at least native to Earth! Can you imagine how catastrophic it would be if just one breeding pair of Saulidean snapping yabbies got through? Or if –’
‘All right, all right,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s a good story, but we’ve heard those before. It doesn’t prove that you’re not up to something else.’
‘But Charlie –’ Amelia didn’t disagree with him, exactly, but she’d been hoping to find a way to ask if Foxy had seen any signs of Grawk before they’d burst in on him.
The Dark Giants Page 2
