‘Of course not, but we need to—’
‘Wait,’ Mum said. ‘He’s doing something.’
Halfway out of the door, Zak glanced back to see the Spider lower its body, the intricate leg joints shifting its weight.
‘He’s going into a cycle,’ Mum said. ‘How is that possible? It must be receiving instructions from somewhere.’
As she spoke, a high-pitched whirring came from the Spider, and it began to move its body in quick, jerking movements. Its legs remained strong and stationary, keeping it stable, and it was moving at such speed, it was almost impossible to detect the tiny changes in direction, but Zak knew what it was doing. He’d sat at the kitchen table at home, watching videos of it doing this, Mum and Dad showing it off like proud parents.
The Spider was printing something.
‘What is it?’ Mum said. ‘What’s he spinning?’
Spinning? Yeah, that’s about right. Like a spider spinning its web to catch a fly. Except we’re the flies.
‘I can’t tell.’ Dad couldn’t take his eyes off it as he returned to where Mum was standing. They were lost to it now; the way Zak and May had seen them lost to their work so many other days of his life.
‘Let’s get out of here.’ May nudged her brother.
On the underside of the Spider’s body, the stinger-like printer head was moving so quickly it was a blur, as if the monster was conjuring objects out of thin air. Beneath it, where Zak had been lying a couple of minutes ago, there were now two discs, no larger than a ten-pence piece. Beside them, a series of electronic components that could have been ripped out of a smartphone or a games console. As the printer continued to spin tiny new parts, the Spider’s arms retracted, selected two fine attachments, and began fixing the components together. Fine wisps of smoke snaked up from it, and there was a vague smell of burning.
May tugged at the back of her brother’s coat. ‘Zak, let’s go.’ She raised her voice. ‘Mum. Dad. Please. I’m scared.’
Mum approached the Spider. ‘Just a second, sweetie. We need to…’ Her words trailed off. ‘Adam, what does this look like to you?’
Dad went to join her, crouching to get a better view of what the Spider was building. ‘It looks like… I’m not sure. Is he building…? No, it can’t be. We don’t even have blueprints for something as sophisticated as this.’
As the Spider continued to assemble the parts, the high-pitched whirring stopped and the needle-like printer head retracted back into its underside. The room was overcome with an eerie silence. The only sound was the gentle tick tick tick as the spider fitted the components together.
‘It’s building itself,’ Zak said. ‘A small version of itself.’
‘Can’t be,’ Mum told him. ‘That’s impossible.’
Impossible? That was a word Zak had heard too much since arriving at Outpost Zero. But he was beginning to think anything was possible.
The Spider’s arms jittered and flicked at incredible speed, and within less than a few minutes of starting, it stopped. It didn’t step back or sit or crouch, it just stopped.
They all stayed exactly as they were.
No one said anything until May broke the silence. ‘Can we please go. Like, now?’
But Mum and Dad weren’t listening. They were scientists – robotic engineers – and they had witnessed something they had never seen before. Their robot had built a smaller version of itself. Now it had their undivided attention.
‘Hey!’ May shouted at them. ‘We’re here. Right here. Zak and me. Forget about your stupid robots for a minute and think about us!’
The small version of the Spider tapped its legs on the smooth surface of the lift. Tick-tack.
‘Wait. Did you see that?’ Mum asked.
‘I saw it,’ Dad replied.
‘Mum!’ May shouted again. ‘We’re literally standing right here!’
The small legs tapped again, one at a time, and the tiny monster began to move forward. Slowly at first, but gathering speed. It made a beeline for Dad who stood there, transfixed as it scuttled towards his foot. But it didn’t stop there. As soon as it reached him, it gripped the front of his boot and began to climb.
That’s when Dad started to back away. He lifted his leg, shaking it, trying to get the scuttler off, but it clung to the coarse fabric of his boots and continued to clamber higher. Dad slammed his foot down, dislodging the creepy robotic-spider-thing. It swung to one side, losing its grip, and skittering away across the floor. Before it came to a stop, though, it righted itself, planted its feet and headed for Dad once more.
Tick-tack-tick-tack. The noise was so horrible. Tick-tack-tick-tack.
The way the scuttler moved was so lifelike. It reminded Zak of a spider scurrying across the carpet, heading for a dark place. But this thing wasn’t trying to escape; it was fixed on attacking Dad, and there was no sign it was going to give up.
May was out of the door faster than Zak had ever seen her move. Zak was close behind her, Mum and Dad too, but the scuttling robot was catching up. Behind it, in the centre of the module, the drone was spinning up for a second cycle and Zak had a feeling that soon there would be two of these little monsters to deal with.
Full of confusion and fear, Zak chased May along the tunnel, glancing back to see Mum and Dad make it out of the Drone Bay. Mum stopped to watch as Dad slammed his fist on the button and the door swished shut. But he was a fraction of a second too late.
The scuttler slipped through the gap as the door closed, and it jumped. It travelled at least a metre through the air and landed on Dad’s thigh. Immediately, it was on the move again, scurrying up his trousers, heading for the hem of his jacket and the dark safety beneath.
‘Get off!’
Zak had never seen Dad so scared.
‘Get off!’ He swatted at his leg, swiping the thing away. Once again, it hit the floor with a quiet ting. Its legs skittered as it flipped itself over, but this time it wasn’t quick enough. It had fallen close to Mum and she brought her boot down on it with a satisfying crunch.
‘Got it.’ She lifted her foot and inspected the tiny broken robot on the pale blue floor.
‘Is it… dead?’ Zak wasn’t even sure it had ever been alive.
‘Who cares?’ May opened the entrance to The Hub. ‘Just leave it and let’s get out of here.’
But they couldn’t get out of there; that was the problem. There was no way for them to leave, and there was nowhere for them to go. They were trapped and alone. In the middle of nowhere.
And from inside the Drone Bay came the high-pitched sound of the Spider going into a third cycle.
15
OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA
NOW
The four of them stood in The Hub, staring at the closed door leading to the North Tunnel.
‘That thing was going to kill Zak.’ May moved close to her brother and did something that surprised him – she put both arms around him and hugged him. ‘We need to get out of here.’
She held him so tight Zak could hardly breathe, but he didn’t object because he could feel her trembling. She needed the hug more than he did. When she broke away, he saw her black eyeliner was smudged and the colour had drained from her face.
‘You’re right,’ Dad said. ‘But if— Wait.’ He stopped. ‘Why didn’t we think of this before? There are rules in place to protect data on the base; emails, documents, CCTV recordings… everything’s uploaded to the servers and to Head Office in Switzerland—’