The Ancient Starship by Cerberus Jones Page A

that the first alien Amelia and Charlie had ever seen going through the gateway under Tom’s cottage had in fact been a giant space-reptile. She hadn’t told anyone about it. She shot a sideways glance at Charlie, but he seemed as bewildered by Callan’s announcement as she was.
    Ms Slaviero turned and noticed Amelia and Charlie had arrived.
    â€˜Hello, you two,’ she said. ‘Well, if we’ve got the whole class here, I think I know what we’re studying today.’
    Callan nodded fiercely. ‘The real history of the Illuminati and their plans to enslave all humanity.’
    â€˜Er, no …’ said Ms Slaviero.
    â€˜How proof of alien existence will unite all humanity in a new era of peace and enlightenment,’ said Erik.
    â€˜No!’ Ms Slaviero was starting to sound irritated. ‘More like: truth versus fiction, and how to tell whether a story comes from a reliable source or not.’
    Charlie groaned. ‘How do teachers do that?’
    â€˜Do what?’ said Amelia as they joined the crowd heading to the classroom.
    â€˜Take something as awesome as a fight about aliens and turn it into the world’s most boring lesson.’
    But as far as Amelia was concerned, the quicker they got off the topic of aliens, the better. She was good at keeping secrets, but she was a terrible liar – if anyone asked her if she believed in aliens, it wouldn’t matter what she said. The truth would show clearly in her face.
    And what would happen if, even as a joke, someone asked her if she’d ever seen an alien? Worse still, what if they asked Charlie?

    For a while, it seemed like the whole thing might just blow over.
    Despite Charlie’s whingeing, Ms Slaviero was one of those teachers who could make anything fun. Twenty minutes later, she had the interactive whiteboard covered with ideas and arrows, with words circled in purple or slashed through in red, or surrounded by green question marks.
    By this time, the class had settled down. Amelia had felt the atmosphere in the room calm and cool as Ms Slaviero taught them the difference between facts, theories and inferences. Even Callan and Erik were concentrating, their argument forgotten.
    And then Ms Slaviero wrecked it all.
    â€˜So let’s look at this aliens-in-Egypt story together,’ she said, bringing her web browser up on the board.
    Amelia’s leg jiggled under the table. Charlie leaned over his desk in anticipation.
    Ms Slaviero typed into her search engine, and then gave a little oh of surprise at the results. Skimming down the page, Amelia saw how good the sources were – Science Today, the Egyptian National News website, the major news services in England, the USA, China, Germany, Canada, just for starters.
    It’s not a hoax …
    Amelia hadn’t seen or heard any news that morning, of course. The headland where the hotel was built was so strongly magnetic, they couldn’t use a TV, radio, computer, or even a mobile phone anywhere.
    A sick feeling was growing in her stomach. It wasn’t a fact, but she was starting to develop a theory of her own … The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that all those phone calls her dad had been getting that morning were somehow connected to whatever had happened in Egypt.
    Ms Slaviero clicked on a link and the board became a big TV screen showing a video of a news crew at what looked like an archaeological dig. A pyramid was glowing pink in the background as the setting sun hit it, and a very excited reporter was speaking directly to the camera.
    â€˜An astonishing discovery – absolutely, this will rock our understanding of the history of Ancient Egypt – perhaps our understanding of humanity itself …’
    The video cut to the bottom of the excavations. Little pegs and string markers showed exactly where they were in the vast hole that had been carved into the sand. Towering over the archaeologist who