The shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun, much to Luke’s relief. It did have one good result, though. Asimov announced that Primary One’s tour of the research station was over, as the science team had to analyse what had happened.
‘At last!’ said Yasmin. ‘Please sir, can we just go and have some fun now?’
‘Yes, Yasmin, of course,’ said Clarke, giving her an indulgent smile. ‘I’d like to say a couple of things about safety before you head off, though. Kids, wait!’
It was too late. The whole class stampeded out of the dome, even Yuri, with Luke and Yasmin in the lead. Within minutes the three friends were trudging through the snow, making for the nearby hills Chung had said were good for snowboarding. They kept up a snowball fight along the way, Yasmin proving to be the most powerful and accurate shot, the boys having to work together to have any chance of beating her. After a while they reached the top of a hill.
Chung had lent them her snowboard, and Yasmin decided she should have the first go. She was pretty good too, flying down the steep slope, Luke and Yuri whooping their encouragement. She made a perfect stop, curving round and sending out a spray of snow like a surfer on a wave. Then she came running back up the hill and threw the board onto the snow in front of Luke and Yuri.
‘Who’s going next?’ she said, panting. ‘Bet neither of you can do better.’
‘Er… I wouldn’t argue with that,’ said Yuri. ‘So you can count me out. I’m more comfortable with my laptop than with one of those. Over to you, Luke.’
‘No problem,’ Luke said, trying to sound confident even though he felt quite nervous. He wasn’t going to let Yasmin – a girl – get one over him. ‘OK, then,’ he murmured, stepping onto the snowboard and pushing off. ‘GERONIMO!’
He moved quite slowly to begin with, but soon he was whizzing down the slope, his cheeks burning as he sliced through the freezing air. It was fantastic, a really great sensation, and he couldn’t help grinning. Yuri was cheering him on, then yelling something about watching out for the huge rock at the bottom of the slope. Suddenly Luke’s grin vanished – he didn’t know how to stop!
The rock was getting closer, looming in front of him, so Luke did the only thing possible – he dived off the snowboard, landing head first in the snow, rolling over and over until he finally came to a halt. He lay groaning, surprised he was still alive, his top half buried in a snow drift that seemed to be moving.
Luke quickly raised his head, worried he might have started an avalanche – only to find himself being stared at by a pair of unblinking, very alien eyes.
They belonged to a chunky, foot-long, millipede-like creature with a ridged grey hide and dozens of tiny legs. For a brief instant alien and human continued to stare at each other – and then the creature started moving towards him. Luke squeaked in panic and struggled to free himself completely from the snow, but ended up on his back – and watched horrified as the creature flowed onto his chest. It opened a wide mouth, revealing a set of sharp-looking teeth.
Fear paralysed Luke’s limbs and he closed his eyes, terrified of what the creature was about to do. Then he felt something rough and wet on his cheek.
‘Awww, I think it likes you!’ he heard Yasmin say. ‘How cool is that?’
Luke opened his eyes and saw that the creature was licking his face with a long, green tongue. He sat up and tried to push it off, but it was harder to shift than an eager puppy, and soon his face was dripping with alien creature spit. Yasmin and Yuri were standing over him, Yasmin with a soppy look on her face, Yuri making notes on the laptop he’d whipped out of his backpack.
‘Well, don’t just stand there, you two,’ said Luke. ‘Get this thing off me!’
‘It’s not a thing, Luke Riley, it’s a living creature,’ snapped Yasmin, glaring at him. ‘You could have killed the poor animal landing on top of it like that.’ But then she smiled. ‘Mind you, the way you dived off was pretty funny…’
‘Too right,’ said Yuri, and they both laughed. ‘You looked ridiculous!’
Luke got to his feet and wiped his face, scowling. But he couldn’t keep it up for long – he was already starting to like the friendly little alien creature. It was rubbing its chunky body against his legs now, purring and making soft yip-yip noises. He couldn’t imagine it ever being threatening or hurting anybody.
‘You two can laugh all you like,’ said Luke with a shrug. ‘But I’m the one who’ll go down in history as the boy who discovered life on this planet.’
‘Not if we get to the research station first, you won’t!’ laughed Yasmin.
She ran off, Yuri laughing and following, the creature flowing away after them. Luke sighed and picked up the snowboard. But he paused, sure he had seen the huge rock moving slightly. Then he shook his head, and trudged on.
Behind him the grey, ridged rock moved again, like something uncoiling…