Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin Read Free Page A

racing home at great speed across the vast empty space between systems to their training planet, GL5-D. She tried to imagine him locked inside his own sarcophagus, awake, thinking, albeit incredibly slowly, about home. She imagined him dreamily contemplating the exciting challenges that were awaiting him, perhaps, possibly sparing a thought for her in return. Quite possibly, in that dreamy slow motion existence; worrying about how she was faring alone in New Haven?
    She desperately hoped that she’d not caused him any trouble with his father attempting to contact him aboard the Freezer to ask him if he knew of her whereabouts.
    She played with a scenario. What if Sean turned up right now. Appeared right now on this skyhound and asked her to marry him and settle down on some agri-plot out there in that clay wilderness?
    The farm. Raise a crop of plant-animals. Maybe put in for a child or three? She could see herself becoming mum. A world of three domes and a once-a-year trip to a trade show.
    She answered her hypothetical scenario very quickly.
    No, thanks.
    The life she was leading right now was what she wanted. At least for now. The work she had was pretty dag, but it was bringing in the creds, and living life with Jez was fun. Plain and simple. Ellie wasn’t ever going to admit to her cube-mate that she was the first proper ‘girl’ friend she’d ever had. That would sound so sad, so pathetic, so like her. In fact Ellie had so far been very coy about telling Jez about her life before New Haven. All she’d told her was what she’d figured within minutes of meeting her; a farm girl drawn to the big shiny city. That’s it. It was enough for Jez.
    Things have changed so much, so quickly.
    She had moved into that cube three weeks ago with absolutely nothing. Jez said that she’d been sharing the cube with another girl who had upped and left with no warning, leaving her in a tangle with a rent she couldn’t afford on her own. So, Jez had said, actually it was a mutually beneficial arrangement to both of them; not an act of charity.
    She had offered to cover Ellie’s first month of rent, to give her time to find a job and get established. Then of course, she could fregging-well start paying her half.
    That very first night in the habi-flat? They’d stayed in. Jez had whipped up some savoury gunk in the FoodSmart, produced a few bottles of Lemon-Bubba and they ate, talked, drank and giggled (after a couple of bottles each) until the early hours of the morning.
    Ellie figured, as she nursed her first ever hangover the next morning, that things were going to turn out just fine.
    The skyhound descended several hundred feet as it passed over the Industrial Sector and approached the South entrance. The ceiling height was lowering as they approached the edge of the city and the huge plexitex dome above them began to slope down to meet the ground.
    Ellie could just about see the outline of the landing fields through the fogginess of the plastic shield and wondered if
Lisa
was parked out there on one of the green pads. She hoped Aaron was already down and grabbing an unhealthy breakfast at Dionysius. She wouldn’t be able to stay long, perhaps ten, maybe twenty minutes, then she’d need to make her way back on foot to the Industrial Sector to start her morning shift.
    The skyhound was beginning to fill up with people starting their commute to work, and she was relieved when it finally descended to street level near the plaza she’d stood on when she’d first entered New Haven three weeks ago.
    Seems like ages ago now.
    Just three weeks, and all of a sudden, the previous nineteen years she’d lived on Harpers Reach felt almost like
somebody else’s
life.
    She hopped out on to the street, fighting against a surge of people trying to get on the hound, and made her way up the wide thoroughfare towards the small, unremarkable bulkhead that opened onto the immigration centre; New Haven’s busiest entry point.
    She walked past