Special Effects: Survival

straightened, and lay flat, forming a large cross design on the sand. The red, pulsing light, which had been at the top, was now at the centre of the cross. Brad went closer and took several more photographs, but this time he was not so casual.

From the sides of the four arms on the cross, a fine, silvery webbing began to appear. It spread outwards across the sand, forming thin, almost invisible wings, which touched at the middle points between each arm and joined, like the soft, white fibres of mould. At the same time, the four aims curved upwards gently at their farther ends. When this new stage was finished, the whole effect was to make the shape of a large, silver-white bowl.

"Its some kind of solar collector!" said Brad.

"What's it doing here?" asked Turran.

"It might be from one of those Space Programs," said Brad "Maybe its fallen from one of their rockets and landed here by mistake?"

"Maybe its part of an alien spaceship?"

"Sure it is," smiled Brad, "And I'm Abraham Lincoln."

The bowl sat there, perfectly still for half an hour, while Brad inspected it. He worked out, (and it wasn't hard to do so), that the sunlight was being converted into electricity and channelled off the bowl the bowl-shape, down the main arms and into the central area. From there he had no idea what happened. He surmised that there was some kind of machine under the ground, for which the electricity was essential. The remaining pipe-shape must have been activated by the incoming power supply.

"Well we can't go driving away now!" said Brad at last, "Not with this thing here!"

Turran sighed and sat down in the slightly blue shadow of the bowl. He didn't touch it though. It made his hair prickle with its static charge.

"Oh Dad, why did we have to find this thing. I wanted to get home this week!"

"We might still do so," said Brad "But when we get there, we might be famous too!"

"I don't want to be famous," said Turran.