Free Starship Spring by Eric Brown

close behind me.
    I came to Ella’s room and pulled open the door. My heart jumped as I saw the empty bed. I stepped into the room, gripped by a terrible fear. “Ella?”
    I stared around wildly, Hannah beside me now, shock vivid on her face.
    Terrible scenarios played themselves out in my fevered mind: we were high up, next to a thousand-metre drop… the was a pool on the roof… the forest began just metres away, and who knew what dangers lurked there…
    Crazed with fear, I pushed past Hannah and hurried from the villa, yelling, “Ella!” at the top of my lungs. “Ella!”
    I stood on the patio, whirling like a madman, looking everywhere but seeing nothing.
    The others were hurrying from their rooms, pulling on clothing as they came, identical expressions of worry making their features oddly uniform.
    “David?”
    “Ella’s gone! She’s not in her room. She was there last night—I looked in. She’s gone!”
    I tried to keep the fear at bay, but I could not help but feel a harrowing, pre-emptive grief for Ella—out of all proportion to what might have happened—and at the same time an echo of the grief I had experienced in the aftermath of losing Carrie all those years ago.
    Hannah was clutching me, tearful now. Matt gripped my arm. “It’s okay, David. We’ll find her, okay?”
    Kee hurried from the villa, staring at me. She took my hand. “This way, David.”
    I shook my hand. “What?” I felt a sudden surge of hope, followed by the rational thought: how on earth could Kee know the whereabouts of my daughter?
    Maddie said, “Do you know where Ella is, Kee?”
    The alien girl turned a serious face to Maddie and said, “Ella is making her way to the third chamber.”
    My senses swam. I laughed, unable to take in the logic of her words.
    “How do you know?” Hannah said, admirably calm.
    “We… my people… we know,” was Kee’s reply.
    Maddie was already pulling out her com. “I’ll contact Da Souza. She has the key—”
    She fell silent, stopped by the logic of her words. She stared at me, and did not need to say: but how could Ella gain access to the chamber…?
    Kee was pulling me towards the steps that led into the forest. “This way. Ella went this way.”
    Unable to bring myself to trust Kee’s certainty, and beset by fears for Ella’s welfare, I could feel only anger welling in my chest. Hannah took my hand as Kee raced ahead, a dryad figure as she paused in the fringe of the foliage and looked back, gesturing us to hurry.
    We caught up with her and plunged into the forest, Matt and Maddie close behind us. I found myself asking where Hawk was, and without stopping Kee replied, “Hawk has gone to get his ship.”
    I could only laugh at this, almost hysterically. “His ship?” I said.
    But Kee was accelerating with every step and failed to hear my question, or perhaps chose to ignore it.
    It came to me then that we were heading up the incline, and not down as we should have been doing if we wished to enter the alien chambers.
    Seconds later my unvoiced query was answered. We came to the clearing where the standing stone stood. Or, rather, where the standing stone no longer stood.
    I became aware of two things simultaneously: that the great monolith was on its side, and that in the forest all around were the Ashentay, watching us.
    Only then did I see the shadow in the ground where the stone had stood; then my eyes adjusted in the dappled half-light of the Ring and I could see that the shadow was a hole in the ground. I approached it and made out small steps, leading down.
    Kee was already slipping into the mouth of the hole, beckoning me. I followed, stumbling as I tried to negotiate the steps: they were tiny, made for feet smaller than mine, and I braced myself against the earth for support. I heard Hannah behind me. I assumed Matt and Maddie were bringing up the rear; I recall wanting them here, with me; needing them.
    There was no natural light down here, but Kee had thought of