Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin (11 page)

CHAPTER 16

‘Hufty, it’s me again. Things are not so rinky-dink for us right now; not exactly happy-clappy. You know we had those jobs that were paying quite well? The ones at StarBreaks? Well, guess what? We lost them. Crud…it was going alright for a while there. Jez and I were beginning to put some creds away, we were making our first steps towards getting out of here. Then it all went a bit wrong.’

‘Jez was nearly arrested for hurling one of her deliveries at a law marshal. They came to visit the restaurant and cautioned Jez in front of our boss Mr Noah. And that was it, we were both of us kicked out there and then.’

‘So…that happened a while ago. Then a few weeks back, we nearly got arrested for selling this drink that, as it turns out, can occasionally turn poisonous and kill you. I’m serious. Both me and Jez had some of it, a lot of it actually…thought it was great. But you know, it could have turned funny on us, and
blap
we could have been poisoned. So we had to stop selling it, and get rid of it. But that really cost us a lot of money, and we’ve been scraping by ever since.’

‘We’ve both been trying as hard as possible to get some decent work. I mean, there is work out there and we’ve picked up and had a go at several jobs, but they just haven’t been working out.’

Ellie stopped recording and looked out through the scuffed Perspex of the bubblestop. She watched a skyhound rise up from the streets below, slowly turning as it rose, its twin headlights casting powerful beams through the haze. On its flaking yellow painted roof, red and green navigation lights blinked in turn. She listened to the dull hum of the vehicle’s thrusters as it gently drew nearer, the intensity of the noise gradually drowning out the ever present chaotic symphony of the city. She waited until it had made its final approach and nestled gently against the bubblestop before climbing aboard and making her way to the back of the vehicle.

‘Jez’s in a bad way. I’ve never seen her so low, so depressed. It’s like she’s given up. Mind you, I can’t blame her. Nothing seems to have gone right for her since…well, since she met me, I guess. She lost that job at Dantes, then at StarBreaks, then all that money we lost on that stupid drink that poisons you if it doesn’t like you. It’s just been hard because we’re now behind on the rent, and we’re playing catch-up. It’s like this city is ganging up against us…or, I dunno, like New Haven is alive and doing everything it can to stop us leaving, to suck us back down.’

She sat at the back of the skyhound as it ascended with a hum of its thrusters, then, looked down at the glistening, shimmering carpet of the city below. For the first time she realised that the view didn’t fill her with a sense of wonder or excitement. Not any more. The lustre was beginning to dull, the novelty of this new world beginning to wear off. It dawned on her that for the first time since arriving nearly six months ago, the city somehow felt smaller. It seemed like the enviro-dome had shrunk, and now she was beginning to feel as trapped as she had, once upon a time, sitting in her little agri-dome, Betsy, and staring up at the stars, the Veil and the flickering light of occasional star ships.

She felt like all she had done is exchange one plastic sky for another one.

Sucking us down.

Aaron was right. That’s what the city did to you after a while. It was like some giant Venus flytrap. Yes, she nodded…that’s exactly what it was like, some mean-spirited carnivorous plant; luring its prey in with a promise, and then snatching at you; trapping you and then slowly sucking you dry, digesting you bit by bit in its juices. Aaron had warned her something like this would happen.

And Jez had warned her too, after losing her job at Dantes. With hindsight, she realised that Jez’s outburst weeks ago, had been her last cry of desperation, as she struggled frantically against the gravitational pull of the city. The trip to meet the fortune-teller with the penis-trunk, the StarBreaks job, and all the others in the last few weeks - all of that was Jez making her one last big effort to break free. And now it seemed like she had finally given up squirming and thrashing.

Now it was time to sit still and be digested.

It frightened her.

If Jez gave up the fight, Ellie wondered selfishly what would happen to her. She knew she couldn’t survive here alone. Her friend had been the driving force for the two of them. Without Jez pushing them both onwards and upwards, they would both sink.

‘The last job we both had at the Recyc-plant, Hufty, lasted only four days. And then Jez said she couldn’t be bothered to do it any more. I covered for her for a couple of days, then they found out she hadn’t been turning up for the shift, and she got kicked out. So, that was last week, and Jez’s just been watching the toob since.’

Yesterday, Jez hadn’t even bothered to put any clothes on. Ellie had left her and set out to catch a hound to take her to the Recyc-plant in the Industrial Sector and returned ten hours later to find Jez in the same position on the jel couch, still only in her underwear and her cleavage filled with synthipop crumbs, watching a cruddy off-world sopa-dram.

Ellie sighed forlornly, her breath spraying the window with an opaque cloud of condensation, which she smeared away with her fingers. ‘The job I’m doing now is another daggy one, I’m afraid. I’m sorting through rubbish for recyclables. It’s the only job I could get. And we need the money, so…got to do it really. I hope….’

Ellie paused her voice diary. She was going to say
I hope Jez snaps out of it soon
. But unless something radical turned up, she couldn’t see Jez suddenly jumping up out of the couch, dressing, and joining her to go and work over at the plant. Truth be told, Ellie couldn’t see herself keeping it up for much longer. The pay was poor, the hours long and the work tedious.

‘I’m sure it’ll turn out for the best, Hufty. It’s just a rough patch we’re going through, that’s all.’

With that she turned off the voice-diary and looked out of the window once more, as the grimy hues of the Industrial Sector loomed into view. She smiled though. At least there was something nice to look forward to before the start of today’s shift. It had been too long, and she realised she had really missed him.

*

‘Aaron!’ she called out as she crossed the street towards the plastic seats and tables set out in front of the diner. Amidst the crowd of seated shuttle pilots enjoying a quick meal outside Dionysius’s, she saw a mop of floppy fair hair turn one way then the other.

‘Over here!’ she called out again as she approached him.

Aaron sat upright and finally caught sight of Ellie. His broad face instantly creased with a grin. ‘Hey! How are you girl?’ his deep voice boomed, to the irritation of the other pilots sitting nearby. ‘Sit down, and I’ll get you a coffee.’

Ellie slumped down in a seat and watched him shuffle his way through the tables to the diner.

The gloom she had been feeling all last night had lifted.

She had failed to turn up here again the last time they were scheduled to meet. That made it three times in a row that she had stood him up; nine weeks in total since they had last sat here together. All day at work she had agonised over whether he would be here waiting for her one more time. She was almost certain that he wouldn’t.

And she would only have herself to blame for that.

But here he was, just as he said he would; same place, exactly the same time….true to his word. Catching sight of the top of his scruffy head had been the tonic she most desperately needed. Seeing his tanned face, his craggy eyes, his tatty beard, and the crumpled beige boiler-suit that he seemed to live in all the time, was in a way like coming home.

Ellie clamped her lips together and felt her throat tighten. She felt like crying, but was damned if she was going to do that right in front of him.

Aaron returned from the diner carrying two steaming cups of coffee, squeezed himself through towards Ellie and sat down heavily in front of her.

‘There you go girl,’ he said. He studied her silently for a moment. ‘I was getting really very worried about you,’ he said finally. ‘You stood me up last time and the time before. I was beginning to think that was it. No more Ellie Quin.’

Ellie struggled hard to keep the tears in. She nodded guiltily. It would be all too easy to let it out in front of him; to spill her worries over Jez, the lack of money, missing her home and family. Aaron would insist on taking her home there and then. And the thing was, feeling as she did right now, she would probably agree to go.

And then, her little voyage of self-discovery would be all over, and Jez would be left all alone to rot in that cube of theirs.

‘I’m sorry Aaron. I….I’ve just been so busy,’ she muttered guiltily.

‘You look less…
dressy
this time,’ he said pointing at her more practical clothing; baggy grey trousers and a faded red sweatshirt.

‘They’re my work clothes.’

‘You still working in a diner?’

‘No, it’s…umm, it’s factory work now.’

‘Okay, well…that’s good,’ he said offering her an encouraging nod. ‘Probably.’

‘I don’t wear my dressy clothes for work….it’s mucky there.’

I don’t wear them at all now. We’ve never two creds to spare for going-out fun.

‘Sure. I can imagine turning up at a factory wearing what I saw you in last time wouldn’t go down so well.’

Ellie offered a muted laugh. ‘No, not really.’

‘So how are you doing girl? You earning enough? You keeping up with your bills?’

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘How’s your friend? Jez?’

‘Jez? Oh yeah she’s great. She’s taking care of me,’ Ellie said, the slightest wobble of emotion beginning to creep into her voice. She coughed, cleared her throat. ‘We’re having a fine old time.’

‘Good,’ said Aaron. He smiled and nodded and then took a sip of his coffee. ‘Have you been keeping in touch with your folks?’

‘Yes, I spoke with them a couple of weeks ago. I told them I was okay, doing alright in the city.’

Aaron studied her silently for a moment. ‘Are you?’ he asked.

‘What?’

‘Are you doing alright?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she replied a little too quickly.

Aaron studied her silently, as she made-busy, blowing at her coffee.

Ellie’s struggling, it’s written all over her face.

He knew, though, that she would never admit to it. This girl was too proud to let it slip that things weren’t working out. And perhaps that’s what he liked most about her. She had a strength of purpose, a will, an energy that you rarely saw in people these days. Lethargy and a sullen listlessness seemed to be the norm he noted, looking around. If there was any justice in this world, a bright young thing like Ellie would be doing far better than some crappy job in a factory. He wanted to help her out again, but he knew she wouldn’t accept any charity, and anyway, he needed to watch his money now. The best he could do was to keep meeting her like this, keep an eye on her. But then, the way things were headed, he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to keep doing even that.

Ellie blew on her coffee, and then tested the temperature with her top lip. ‘Thanks for the drink,’ she said.

‘S’alright.’

In turn she studied Aaron out of the corner of her eye as he looked around the plaza. He seemed different somehow, less jovial than usual. Well, at least less jovial than she remembered him being. He looked tired in fact. ‘How’s the shuttle business going then?’

Aaron shrugged. ‘It’s been better,’ he said dismissively.

‘Why? What’s up?’

‘No big deal…’

‘What? I know you…
no big deal
, means it’s a big deal. What’s happened?’

Aaron laughed. ‘You can read me that easily can you?’

Ellie frowned impatiently. ‘Come on, tell me.’

The big man leant back in his chair and stroked his chin. ‘Well, see…I’ve lost the Oxxon run.’

Ellie gasped. ‘Why? What happened?’

‘Undercut by a bigger haulage company. They’re winding things down up there, cutting costs again…and I’m a part of that process.’

‘But that’s
most
of your business isn’t it?’

Aaron nodded casually. ‘A large chunk if it. Yeah, I suppose so.’

‘What are you going to do?’

He looked around, up at the towers across the street. ‘I dunno. I’ll work something out.’

Aaron’s reluctant glance at the industrial towers around them weren’t wasted on Ellie.

‘You’re not thinking of selling up and moving into the city are you?’

‘What? Hell no…of course not,’ he replied awkwardly.

‘Oh my crud, you are, aren’t you?’

Aaron looked at her across the table. Ellie could see he was weighing up the answer. If he was even
considering
selling his beloved shuttle,
Lisa
, then things had to be pretty bad for him. She knew how much he despised the city and the sort of people who flocked into it. It would be the end of him if that was all he could do; sell up, move in and end up working some loader down by the port.

‘Uh, no. I’m sure it’ll work out alright. I’ll find some other contracts out there.’

‘There has to be, right? It’s a big planet, things need to be transported around,’ nodded Ellie.

‘Yup. It’s a big planet, there’s always work. You don’t need to waste time worrying about me young lady.’

Ellie took a sip of her coffee. She realised he was just as bad as her, tucking his woes away behind a shrug and a smile. They had that in common alright, stupid stubbornness. ‘So, are you totally finished with the Oxxon refinery run, or do you have any more to do before it’s over?’

‘It’s all done. I’ve got a green pad lined up for a few days, then hopefully I can get on to a black pad whilst I see if I can scare up some more business.’

Ellie recalled the colour-coded landing pads down at the port. The green pads were only for short term stays. The black pads were for long term stopovers, useful for Aaron while he needed to sort his business out, but expensive as they charged an extortionate occupancy fee per day.

Although it would be nice to know he was around; parked-up in New Haven, just a skyhound journey away from her for the immediate future, she found herself worrying about what would eventually become of him. She had no idea what his position was, whether he had creds saved up for a slack period like this to tide him over, or whether he was right on the edge. But unless he found some new business, eventually he would have to sell the shuttle for what he could get.