The thing was shiny and vertical and it stretched up into the clouds as if it always had. It was so huge – so present – that it seemed to have a perfect right to be there. As they watched, a small pin-point of light descended down the side of the thing and disappeared into the ruined house. Then it went up again.
The swirling clouds, meanwhile, had begun to diminish, and by the time the pin-point of light started to descend for the second time, the clouds had cleared to reveal the full, awesome vastness of the thing. The wide blade or prong that had buried itself in the house stretched up and up almost a mile into the sky and there it seemed to widen out into an immense metallic body – rather like a gigantic submarine.
‘It’s a spaceship,’ murmured Nettle, and she began to walk towards it as if mesmerized, her camera dangling forgotten from her wrist. Suddenly the pin-point of light shot up again.
‘Don’t! Nettle! Come back!’ Dan yelled.
But Lucy was already racing after Nettle. So Dan raced after Lucy. Nigel, in the meantime, tried his best to help by hiding under the steering wheel.
‘Don’t go near it!’ said Dan,
‘Nettle!’ Lucy was pulling her arm, trying to head her back to the car. ‘We… we… don’t know what it is!’
‘It’s wonderful…’ murmured Nettle. Something in Nettle’s tone made all three of them look up at the great thing and stop whatever it was they were doing. Confronted by something so immense, so beyond their experience or imagination, anything they did suddenly seemed irrelevant – pointless.
The pin-point of light had descended into the house for the second time, and there was now a glow coming from the hallway. As the three of them brought their eyes back down to earth, they froze: a shadow had appeared on the window of the front door.
‘There’s something coming!’ Dan could feel his knees beginning to quiver. Lucy pulled at Nettle’s arm. But Nettle edged forward – as if eager to greet whatever it was that was even now opening the front door of the destroyed vicarage ..
‘Aggggh!’ screamed Lucy as the thing emerged into the starlight.
‘Good evening to you, unknown life-forms,’ said the thing. ‘The proprietors of Starlight Travel Inc. would like to apologize for any inconvenience you may have suffered due to the inadvertent emergency parking of their vehicle.’
‘Arrrrghhh! Aaaaaaarggghhh!’ Lucy was by now screaming incredibly well. Nigel was covering his ears and trying to get even further under the steering wheel of the car.
‘It’s all right, Lucy!’ Dan was trying to calm her down.
‘Arrrrghhh! Aaaaaagghhhh! Arrrrrgggghhhhh!’ Lucy was not about to be calmed down by anybody. She was confronted by an Alien From Outer Space, and she was jolly well going to have a good scream.
‘Sh!’ said Nettie. ‘It’s talking to us!’
‘Quite,’ said the Thing From Outer Space. ‘By way of apology, may we have the pleasure of offering you a free cruise on board our Starship?’
‘Perhaps another day…’ said Dan.
‘Aaaaaaaarrrrgggh! Arrrgh! Aaaaah! Aaaggghhhh!’ continued Lucy.
‘Yes!’ cried Nettle. ‘I’d love to!’
‘Come with me, madam,’ said the Thing From Outer Space and turned smartly back into the ruined house.
‘Well? Come on!’ said Nettle. ‘What a hoot!’ And before either Lucy or Dan could stop her, she had followed it through the front door.
Dan hesitated, and then realized he had no choice; before Lucy could start screaming again, he was racing after Nettle, and Lucy found herself racing after Dan.
The Thing was standing by an illuminated porch and they could now see that it appeared to be nothing more frightening than a smartly dressed robot wearing headphones, who bowed politely to them and apologized for having to invite them into the service elevator.
‘Please do not be alarmed,’ it said in a soothing voice. ‘I can assure you that the Starship Titanic is the most luxurious and technologically advanced Inter-Galactic Starship ever built, and every state room has hot and cold running water and colour TV.’
It bowed again and ushered them in, and somehow or other – neither Dan nor Lucy nor Nettle could later quite explain why – they all three found themselves climbing the steps into the elevator. Before they knew what was happening, the steps had retracted up behind them and the robot had flicked a switch.