dom-tech yet.’
‘I’m…I need to change the filter in Betsy.’
Ellie slid open the door and left her habi-cube.
He sat in silence for a while, half expecting her to return a moment later with a playful ‘gotcha’ grin. But no.
He looked around Ellie’s habi-cube as he awaited her return. For the first time it occurred to him how little she had. The room belonging to a girl of nineteen, nearly twenty should have more in it. It ought to look like a cross between a stuffed-toy factory and a cosmetics store. Ellie’s cabin was stark. A bed, a storage cabinet, a desk, and one stuffed toy, a tartan patterned dog she called ‘Johnny’. He knew her Dad paid her pocket money for the chores she did on the farm, but he was damned if he knew what she spent it on. He saved the files they had been working on and turned off the writing tablet.
CHAPTER 3
Ellie sat in a quiet nook of Betsy, well away from the stirring tubweeds. This was her corner of the world, her domain - a wobbly wicker chair and a small glow lamp. She could hear the irritating twittering voices of yet another cartoon on the holo-toob echoing through from the domestic dome, and the guffaw of Ted and Shona as, presumably, another unfortunate character was squashed, diced or blasted into space.
And Sean? Probably he’d just say goodbye to her parents and let himself out.
She looked up at the plexitex ceiling of Betsy. It was dark outside. The sky a rich and deep purple, divided by a golden misty slash; the gas clouds of the nearby Seventh Veil. To the south the faintest tinge of blue-green on the horizon. The glow of New Haven.
There was a thumping sound coming from the tubweed beds. It was, no doubt, the frisky one from earlier on that afternoon taking out hunger-induced frustration on its neighbors. She reached down and grabbed a handful of fertilizer pellets from the bucket and threw it out into the darkness in the rough direction of the misbehaving plant. There was a gentle rustling of leaves and tentacles. She didn’t care too much if the damn plant got its meal or not, or whether another had managed to scoop an extra helping, the thumping had stopped.
Ellie was angry with herself; angry with so many dregging-bloody-things at the same time, she didn’t know which way to spit venom first. That Sean now knew for certain she had - yes, a girly-wirly crush on him…well, maybe that was just more embarrassing than annoying. Sean was a good guy. He wouldn’t brag about it to anyone. Mind you, what was there to brag about? She was hardly catch of the century; a scrawny yard stick with long and lank hair, a plain face and welt marks on her hands and wrists.
She was angry that he was getting away. Yes, that hurt. Envy then; he was getting a chance to go off-world, to see that large universe and the closest she was ever going to get was looking at the stars, watching inbound freighters stitch lines across the sky.
Colonial plot 452; this tatty cluster of dusty agri-domes bang in the middle of this flat, dry, baked-mud world, Harpers Reach. And what was that but a mud-ball planet on the edge of Nebula Cirrus 5, otherwise known as the Seventh Veil. A sparsely populated and generally uninteresting region of space; a little piece of nowhere.
‘This damn farm, this is my universe,’ she muttered to herself. ‘This is all it’ll ever be.’
‘Not necessarily.’
She spun around in her chair. The canes creaked with the sudden movement. Sean stood in the dark beyond the light thrown out by the glow lamp.
‘Sorry Ellie, I wasn’t spying, I just wondered whether you were coming back to finish up on your study session.’
‘Don’t worry, Dad will still pay you,’ she replied testily.
‘Hey, I’m not worried about that. Can I sit with you?’
She thumbed her lip in the dark. ‘Sure…yes, why not?
Sean walked over to her and found an old crate nearby. He pulled it up beside her, sat down and leaned back to look at the sky. Ellie settled back in
‘I’m…I need to change the filter in Betsy.’
Ellie slid open the door and left her habi-cube.
He sat in silence for a while, half expecting her to return a moment later with a playful ‘gotcha’ grin. But no.
He looked around Ellie’s habi-cube as he awaited her return. For the first time it occurred to him how little she had. The room belonging to a girl of nineteen, nearly twenty should have more in it. It ought to look like a cross between a stuffed-toy factory and a cosmetics store. Ellie’s cabin was stark. A bed, a storage cabinet, a desk, and one stuffed toy, a tartan patterned dog she called ‘Johnny’. He knew her Dad paid her pocket money for the chores she did on the farm, but he was damned if he knew what she spent it on. He saved the files they had been working on and turned off the writing tablet.
CHAPTER 3
Ellie sat in a quiet nook of Betsy, well away from the stirring tubweeds. This was her corner of the world, her domain - a wobbly wicker chair and a small glow lamp. She could hear the irritating twittering voices of yet another cartoon on the holo-toob echoing through from the domestic dome, and the guffaw of Ted and Shona as, presumably, another unfortunate character was squashed, diced or blasted into space.
And Sean? Probably he’d just say goodbye to her parents and let himself out.
She looked up at the plexitex ceiling of Betsy. It was dark outside. The sky a rich and deep purple, divided by a golden misty slash; the gas clouds of the nearby Seventh Veil. To the south the faintest tinge of blue-green on the horizon. The glow of New Haven.
There was a thumping sound coming from the tubweed beds. It was, no doubt, the frisky one from earlier on that afternoon taking out hunger-induced frustration on its neighbors. She reached down and grabbed a handful of fertilizer pellets from the bucket and threw it out into the darkness in the rough direction of the misbehaving plant. There was a gentle rustling of leaves and tentacles. She didn’t care too much if the damn plant got its meal or not, or whether another had managed to scoop an extra helping, the thumping had stopped.
Ellie was angry with herself; angry with so many dregging-bloody-things at the same time, she didn’t know which way to spit venom first. That Sean now knew for certain she had - yes, a girly-wirly crush on him…well, maybe that was just more embarrassing than annoying. Sean was a good guy. He wouldn’t brag about it to anyone. Mind you, what was there to brag about? She was hardly catch of the century; a scrawny yard stick with long and lank hair, a plain face and welt marks on her hands and wrists.
She was angry that he was getting away. Yes, that hurt. Envy then; he was getting a chance to go off-world, to see that large universe and the closest she was ever going to get was looking at the stars, watching inbound freighters stitch lines across the sky.
Colonial plot 452; this tatty cluster of dusty agri-domes bang in the middle of this flat, dry, baked-mud world, Harpers Reach. And what was that but a mud-ball planet on the edge of Nebula Cirrus 5, otherwise known as the Seventh Veil. A sparsely populated and generally uninteresting region of space; a little piece of nowhere.
‘This damn farm, this is my universe,’ she muttered to herself. ‘This is all it’ll ever be.’
‘Not necessarily.’
She spun around in her chair. The canes creaked with the sudden movement. Sean stood in the dark beyond the light thrown out by the glow lamp.
‘Sorry Ellie, I wasn’t spying, I just wondered whether you were coming back to finish up on your study session.’
‘Don’t worry, Dad will still pay you,’ she replied testily.
‘Hey, I’m not worried about that. Can I sit with you?’
She thumbed her lip in the dark. ‘Sure…yes, why not?
Sean walked over to her and found an old crate nearby. He pulled it up beside her, sat down and leaned back to look at the sky. Ellie settled back in
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