***
Stella, Tom, Helix and Doctor Dodds caught a late train to London. They sat in a deserted carriage in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Throughout the journey, Doctor Dodds never loosened his grip on his umbrella. Once they got to London, Stella thought they would be going on the underground, but Dodds marched them to the bank of the river Thames.
“If we hurry, we can catch the last ferry,” he explained.
Stella remembered what her dad had told her. “My dad says you live in Greenwich. Is that where we’re going?” Stella asked.
“Yes. I find that going home is usually an excellent place to start a journey.”
Stella was too worried about her parents to notice much of the riverside view sliding past her. Helix clearly relished putting his paws on the side of the boat and feeling the wintry wind rustling through his fur. Tom, however, kept moaning that he was seasick, until Stella told him to shut up. They reached the ferry stop, and Uncle Dodds led them past the imposing museums and up a steep hill. Leg weary and more tired than she’d ever been, Stella was grateful when they at last reached a set of rusted iron gates.
Through the gates, they followed a rambling path, hidden out of sight from the other houses on the hill. It led to a great, rambling building, with a domed roof and long windows, eventually ending at a formidable red door that started to open of its own accord as they walked towards it.
Doctor Dodds’s face creased into an unaccustomed smile.
“Welcome,” he said, “to the furthest place on earth.”
Stella and Tom stood for a while in the tiled porch and looked at a bronze plaque hanging on the door. Etched on it were the words The Greenwich Interplanetary Society.
***