Ellie Quin Book 3: Beneath the Neon Sky (5 page)

CHAPTER 7

‘It was a great success, Hufty. We landed on the snow in the late afternoon and our passengers loved it,’ she said, then paused the diary as she looked out of the window.

She smiled at the recollection of them flooding out of the hold, down the ramp onto the snow like a class of unruly children. Later on, after the obligatory fun and frolics with snowballs, they had separated out, and wandered in couples and small groups around the arctic terrain. They had all carried emergency oxygen masks, but none were required.

As the light began to fade, Aaron had emerged self-consciously dressed in Jez’s hand-picked captain’s uniform and a thick, hooded coat over the top, more to hide his uniform, than to keep the evening chill out. He dutifully exchanged greetings and small talk with the passengers who were interested in the shuttle, about flying it and the topography of their world. And then, as the stars and the Veil emerged, and with the last trace of the sun finally absent from the sky, Aaron had produced a metal crate and some packing fiber and started a bonfire that they all merrily huddled around as they stared up, entranced, at the purple night and the golden slash of the Veil.

And Ellie could have sworn there was a moment right then, a passing moment, when Jez glanced sideways at Aaron in his smart uniform and pursed her lips thoughtfully; giving some notion a fleeting consideration.

When they returned to the city two days later, and their passengers had disembarked to be processed through the port’s immigration hall, the three of them had collectively heaved a sigh of relief. The whole trip had taken only four days and they had made a clear three thousand creds for their efforts, subtracting all of the overheads such as the fuel, food supplies and the docking fees at the port.

Ellie un-paused the voice-diary.

‘Aaron gave both Jez and me the four hundred creds we agreed on, and another three hundred creds each as a bonus!
Seven hundred creds
for a few days work! We’d never find work that paid like that in New Haven if we spent the rest of our lives looking.’

Ellie paused the voice-diary again and set it down on the table. She sat back in the quilted couch and looked out of the restaurant window again at the passing street traffic. In the background, she could hear the Crazie-Beanie track being played. She tapped a finger against her cup in time with the beat and mouthed along with the gibbering Beanie catchphrase, whilst Harvey, sitting beside her, slurped a glass of protein-solution through a straw.

Jez was due to meet them for lunch, but true to form, she was running on Jez-time so was unsurprisingly late. She was out clothes-shopping, and Ellie knew she had probably completely lost track of the time and would show up an hour from now with some hastily concocted tale that would absolve her of any guilt whatsoever.

Ellie took a sip of her drink and then picked up the diary once more. ‘The creds have been burning a hole in Jez’s pocket since we returned. I’m surprised she lasted this long to be honest. I mean, it’s been three days since we got back, and this IS her first shopping-frenzy. But she’s being good. She’s not spending it all.’

In one of her more lucid moments since returning to New Haven, Jez had handed Ellie five hundred creds to look after for her, with the explicit instructions that no matter how much she pleaded and begged once
the fever
had gotten a proper grip on her, Ellie was not to give her any more of her money to spend. In fact, Ellie had banked that money, and most of hers, in one merchant’s account. Both of them would need to be ID scanned for a withdrawal to be made.

She had kept out a hundred creds of her own money for spending too. She had weakened momentarily yesterday and taken herself down to Baldini’s Bazaar to the stall in the main atrium on the ground floor where she had spotted those wonderful knee-high, turquoise pvc boots. Amazingly they were still there. So, successfully haggling the price down several creds, she had decided to treat herself. She ran a hand down the ribbed side of her lovely boots and smiled.

My little ‘well done’ present.

Ellie felt only the mildest pang of guilt for spending-out on them. She had worked hard on the shuttle trip; she had worked even harder painting the damned shuttle. The boots, therefore, were a well-deserved and belated thank you to herself for being such a good sport over the last few weeks.

‘The plan was that we’d come back to New Haven and rest for a few days then do it all again. But there’s been a change of plan,’ Ellie said, struggling a little not to smile too much as she spoke.

‘Aaron needs to take the shuttle across to Harvest City. There’s a faulty component on Lisa that needs to be removed and a new one fitted in. According to Aaron it needs to be done over there because it’s a lot cheaper…but also, there’s another reason. He’s going to see if we can extend the license on Harvey.’

She cast a glance down at him. The logo on his forehead was beginning to change in hue, very slightly…but enough to show that he was fast approaching the last few weeks of his life.

‘The company that engineered him are also based there, so whilst he’s in Harvest, he’s going to apply for a renewed license, and an extender-serum.’ She patted Harvey’s bald grey head affectionately and he, in turn, looked up at her with his expressionless, beady black eyes.

‘But the great news Hufty, the really great news, is that right on the flight path to Harvest City is home. Good old plot 451. He’s going to drop me off, right outside the farm on the way there and pick me up on the way back!’

Ellie felt her cheeks flush with joy. Not only was she going back to spend a few days with her family, but Jez, curious to see what farming folk looked like, had invited herself along too.

She sighed. This was going to be a truly wonderful stopover. There was so much that she wanted to tell her family about and in turn, so much that she wanted to show Jez. Over the last few months, she had tried to explain to her what the farm looked like, how it worked, the sort of chores she used to do, what her Mum and Dad and Shona and Ted were like. But, she suspected, her confused gabbling had done little to enlighten her friend. Well, now she was about to see it all for herself. And, despite the fact that there wouldn’t be a shop within several hundred miles, Jez seemed like she was genuinely looking forward to it.

Ellie looked out of the window once more, savoring the warm glow of satisfaction and contentment. She realized that she couldn’t remember,
ever
, feeling this fulfilled, this happy. Even though she was still probably a year or two from having enough money to finally claw her way off-world and explore the great big universe out there, she was at last off the starting blocks and on the move towards that goal. And that’s what really counted - that she was at last moving in the right direction. It was the standing still, the getting nowhere, that got her down.

She had a suspicion that many, many years from now, when she was an old woman she would look back at this moment. Sitting here, right now, in the window seat of this greasy-spoon chop-shop and looking out at the dreary tide of people passing by…she would one day realize that
this
was the moment when she knew for certain that it was all going to turn out all right in the end.

Savor the moment Ellie, savor it.

She nodded at the wise words of advice from herself. Dad had once said ‘life goes by faster and faster with each passing year. If you get a chance to pause it every now and then, do it. Pause it, and just enjoy the view for a few moments.’

This, Ellie decided, was definitely one of those moments to pause.

It was then that she spotted a face in the crowd; a vaguely familiar face studying her intently from across the street. A moment passed as their eyes locked, and then the face disappeared behind a cluster of moving pedestrians and was gone, almost as if it had been erased by their passing. She sat up in her chair and pressed her face against the window, looking for it again.

There had been something familiar about that face, but she couldn’t place it; a man, an old man, but gone now, like a puff of vapor blown away in a strong breeze.

‘How odd,’ she mumbled. ‘Who was that?’

‘Missss Eh-leeeee?’ Harvey whispered quietly, looking up at her curiously.

‘Oh it’s nothing Harvey…I Just thought I saw someone I knew.’

*

Aaron checked the nav-display and shouted back over his shoulder towards the girls, ‘it should be coming up any time soon ladies!’

Ellie and Jez scrambled forward to get a view as Aaron hit a button on one of the control panels and the windblast shields outside slowly wound up with a noisy whine. All three of them shaded their eyes and winced as the bright sunlight spilled into the cockpit. Below them was nothing but the ever-present orange clay mud, punctuated with sharp shards of rock.

‘How far are we from Ellie’s place?’

Aaron consulted a display, ‘we should see it up ahead some time soon. That is, if I’ve got the right co-ords. It was plot 451, Ellie?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

Jez squinted. ‘Hmmm, I see nothing but sand and rocks.’

‘That’s home alright,’ Ellie shrugged. ‘But we should see a large rocky outcrop soon.’

‘Large? How large?’ asked Jez.

‘Well, not so much large….but big enough you won’t miss it.’

They silently scanned the flat horizon racing towards them, and then finally Aaron spotted the slightest bump ahead of them. ‘That it?’ he asked, pointing.

Ellie smiled, ‘that’s it. The only thing close to resembling a hill in the area.’

‘Okay here we go!’ said Jez, ‘a week on the ol’ farm!’ she announced with her rendition of a prairie accent.

‘Crud, Jez, we’re not that bad!’

‘Just kiddin’, farm-chik.’

Aaron dropped altitude by a hundred feet and they skimmed the ground. ‘Here we go girls. You got your things ready?’

Ellie felt the strap on her shoulder. Her bag contained the presents she had brought from New Haven, her diary of course and the things she needed for the next few days. A change of clothes, toiletries, would all be at home, just as she had left them in her own habi-cube all those months ago.

‘Yeah, we’re good,’ replied Jez casting a glance back at the three stuffed bags stacked by the bulkhead door.

Aaron looked down at the jimp, who was curled into a ball on the seat beside him, fast asleep. ‘And you’re taking your pet monkey with you?’

‘Yes, he’ll love it,’ Ellie replied. ‘So will Ted, for that matter.’

Aaron began to decelerate as the hill, Ellie’s ‘overlook’, rushed forward to meet then. He pulled the nose of the shuttle up slightly as they slid gracefully over the top of it.

‘And there it is,’ said Ellie. ‘Home.’

Jez looked out at the farm nestling at the bottom of the reverse side of the slope leading up to the rocky outcrop; three one-acre domes surrounding a smaller one in the middle. ‘Hey, it’s bigger than I thought,’ said Jez.

Which was odd, because to Ellie it looked a lot smaller than she remembered.

Aaron eased back on the thrusters as they moved down the slope of the hill towards the farm. ‘You did call them to let them know you were coming?’

Ellie shook her head. ‘Nope. I want this to be a big surprise.’

Aaron nodded, ‘well, a four hundred ton surface shuttle dropping out of the sky into their back yard unannounced…I think it’ll be that alright.’

As the shuttle settled to the ground amidst a furious, amber dust cloud, Ellie spotted the round bulkhead door to one of the agri-domes swing open and a figure cautiously emerge holding a protective hand up to cover its face from the swirling eddies of airborne sand.

‘Who’s that who’s just come out?’

It was hard to see…..a lean man for sure. ‘My Dad, I guess.’

Aaron turned round to face them. ‘Okay girls, I’m not going to cut the engines.’

‘You’re not? I’m going to get dust all over my hair,’ Jez complained.

‘So shoot me. Anyway, I’m not coming in for tea. I’m heading off now. I’ll be back in four or five days for you, understand?’

Ellie nodded and then put an arm around one of his shoulders and hugged him. ‘Thank you, for bringing me to see them.’

‘Hey, that’s alright,’ replied Aaron awkwardly, taken aback. ‘They deserve it as much as you do. Just make the most of your visit, eh?’

‘I will do.’

Jez reached out a hand and punched his shoulder affectionately. ‘Just don’t lose the shuttle in some seedy poker game alright? I know what you trucker-boys are like.’

Aaron laughed, ‘yeah right. And you mind your city-talk, Jez. There’s little kids on that farm.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll have them swearing like troopers before we leave.’

Ellie gently prodded Harvey out of his slumber. He uncurled himself and dutifully followed her down the walkway as she made her way to the back of the cabin. Jez picked up the smallest of her three bags and Harvey, dutifully, the other two, much heavier, ones.

Ellie looked at her, then the jimp, ‘poor little thing.’

‘Just letting him earn his keep.’

They climbed out through the bulkhead and down the ramp to the ground outside, their eyes squeezed tightly shut against the swirling gritty clouds of blown up dust and the buffeting of wind. With a whine, the ramp pulled up and closed with a metallic clang. The shuttle swiftly rose a hundred feet into the sky and the turbulent air around them began to settle. Aaron banked the shuttle slightly to afford one last glimpse of them. They returned his wave. He straightened out once more and then headed northeast.

Ellie lowered her mask and took a sniff of the air. It was quite good today. She guessed one could be outside for a good two or three minutes before needing to resort to a mask. She then turned her attention to the figure standing motionless beside the bulkhead staring at her silently, intently, as the roar of Lisa’s thrusters dwindled into the distance.

‘Ellie?’ said Jacob Quin. ‘Is that you?!’

CHAPTER 8

‘Dad,’ she replied, her voice thick with emotion. Ellie ran forward and Jacob Quin swept his daughter up in his arms, holding her tightly.

Jez watched them as they held each other silently for a full minute. She looked anxiously around at the peach sky and the reddish ground, and then towards the round entry hatch leading inside to the agri-dome.

‘Ahem, shouldn’t we head inside before we all, like, suffocate?’ said Jez, gazing uncertainly around at the infinite, flat horizon surrounding her.

Jacob Quin put down his daughter and Ellie turned round to introduce her.

‘This is my friend Jez, you know, the one I told you about. She’s lived in New Haven for quite a while, so she’s a little fazed by not having a plastic sky over her.’

‘Actually I’m a little fazed at being, like, outside? You know? Where there’s no air?’

Jacob smiled. ‘Yes of course, let’s get you all in.’

He pulled open the hatch into the agri-dome and led them inside. He watched with amused curiosity as the jimp waddled past under the burden of Jez’s wardrobe.

Inside, Ellie heard the voice of her Mum, Maria, calling through from some other part of their home.

‘What the hell was that whooshing noise, Jake?’

Jacob winked at Ellie and then replied. ‘Why don’t you come and see?’

‘Where are you?’

‘Booster.’

They listened to approaching footsteps, and then, as she entered the dome, she cast a casual glance across the field of pulsating and twitching proto-meat bulbs towards Jacob. For a moment her expression was puzzlement as she studied the two people and the weird pale grey four-armed dwarf standing with her husband beside the exit.

‘Oh-my-crud!’

Ellie smiled.

‘Ellie! Is that you?! You look so different!’

Ellie realized she must do; her clothes, her hair –longer than it was when she left, the girly make-up. It had been nearly nine months since she had last seen them. Ellie realized she must look so different from the tomboy who had run out on them all that time ago.

Maria wiped her hands, smeared with engine oil, on a rag as she slowly approached her daughter, and then without another word said, she wrapped her arms tightly around her.

Whilst mother and daughter embraced, Jacob offered a hand to Jez. ‘Pleased to meet you at last, Jez. Ellie told us you’ve been looking after her.’

Jez grabbed his hand. ‘Well,’ she replied coyly, ‘she’s done her fair share of looking after me too.’ She looked around the dome and then at the rows of green gourds that wobbled and pulsated every now and then. ‘Nice uh…farm, you’ve got here Mr Quin.’

‘Thanks. It makes us money, just. And it’s home too,’ he replied. ‘We like it.’

Jez wrinkled her nose.

‘Ah yes. That’s the meat crop, smells like spicy sweat doesn’t it?’ he said.

Jez nodded. That was a pretty good description.

Maria let Ellie go and introduced herself warily to Jez, studying the tall city-girl from head to toe as she did so. ‘I expect Shona will love examining
your
clothes,’ said Maria a little coolly.

Jez nodded and smiled awkwardly, ‘great.’

Jacob called out for Ted and Shona. Ellie could hear the toob in the background, cartoons playing as usual. After being called another two times, they eventually wandered in unenthusiastically, before freezing in the doorway.

It was Ted who broke the tableau first and pointed at the jimp. ‘Dad, look! An alien!!!!’

*

Supper was a stew made from the various vegetables they had growing in small patches wherever there was space in all three of the agri-domes, complimented with one of the meat gourds plucked from the soil in Booster, writhing and wriggling desperately until it was disemboweled, chopped into bloody cubes and added to the stew.

Afterwards, the Quin family and their guests sat out in the rec-area, the toob, for once, turned off and forgotten as Ted played with the jimp and Shona studied Jez in silent awe.

‘So, how did you manage to afford to take a shuttle out here? I know those damned things are expensive,’ asked Jacob, ‘and what’s more, I didn’t know they made house calls.’

Ellie and Jez looked at each other. ‘We’re in business with the owner,’ Jez replied.

‘We do tours up to the polar cap,’ added Ellie, ‘Jez sells the tickets, I look after the passengers, and our friend, Aaron, flies the shuttle.’

Jacob nodded, impressed. ‘And you make money doing this?

Jez was about to reply that they made a
lot
of money, well, off the first run they had anyway. But Ellie, sitting next to her on the hammock, subtly nudged her and answered instead. ‘We do okay on it.’

She knew Mum and Dad were struggling a little right now as they crossed over from tubweed to this new meat crop. The last thing she thought they’d want to hear would be Jez bragging shamelessly about how much money she managed to extort from their passengers on their first sightseeing trip.

‘Uh…yeah, it pays us enough to get by,’ Jez added, ‘better than the job I was doing when Ellie and me first met.’

‘Oh, what was that?’ asked Maria.

Ellie answered quickly, ‘Jez used to work as an…
entertainer
.’

‘Ooh, that sounds good.’

Shona’s interest was piqued. ‘Like on the toob?’

Jez looked uncertainly at Ellie. ‘Not really, Shona,’ she replied hesitantly.

Ellie decided a well deployed distraction was in order. ‘So Ted, what do you think of Harvey?’

Ted turned round and grinned. ‘He’s great. I’m teaching him to play stone-paper-scissors.’

‘Who’s winning?’

‘Well he is. He keeps using all four of his hands.’

Jacob studied the jimp for a moment. ‘So is that
your
animal, Jez?’

‘Oh no, Mr Quin. That’s Aaron’s, our partner in the shuttle business. He bought it cheap to help us with fixing up the shuttle. It’s a strong little chap. It’s taken a shine to Ellie though.’

Jacob had noticed the sinewy strength in the creature’s four arms. He guessed any one of those four muscular limbs could do a lot of damage. ‘It’s safe isn’t it? I mean, Ted playing with it like that?’

Ellie nodded, ‘Harvey’s very docile. Gene-imps are engineered to be that way.’

Jacob smiled. ‘Harvey? Didn’t you have an imaginary friend called that, when you were Ted’s age?’

Ellie felt her cheeks color slightly.
Thanks for that Dad.

Jez giggled and nudged Ellie. ‘Oooh, I’m looking forward to hearing all these teeny-weeny baby stories about you Ellie-girl.’

‘No Dad, he was called
Hufty
, not Harvey.’

The jimp looked up from the game with Ted. ‘Name….issss….Har-veeeee.’

‘Yes that’s right Harvey, that’s your name…not Hufty, Harvey.’

He nodded and Ellie thought she saw the flicker of a smile touch his lipless mouth.

‘Well, it’s getting past your bedtime Ted,’ said Maria.

Ted thumped the ground angrily with his fist. ‘Ohh Mum! Can’t I stay up a bit longer?’

‘No, come on. It’s past your bed time as it is.’

‘But I want to see Ellie.’

‘She’ll be here tomorrow when you get up, don’t worry.’

‘Can Harvey sleep with me in my cube tonight?’

Ellie glanced at her parents. They looked unsure about the idea. ‘Maybe tomorrow night Ted,’ she replied. ‘We’ll see how you and Harvey get on tomorrow, okay?’

Ted nodded sullenly as he got up and wandered over to the hammock to hand out kisses and hugs, whilst Maria gathered up his toys and took them across to Ted’s habi-cube.

‘I’ve really missed you, you little nugget,’ said Ellie, squeezing him tightly and ruffling his tufted blonde hair.

‘Me too. Are you staying here forever now?’

Ellie shook her head. ‘Just visiting for a few days. But I’ll be back again, and again.’

‘Okay,’ he said, satisfied with that, and then stood in front of Jez with his arms outstretched and his lips puckering. Jez was taken by surprise, expecting a timid handshake at best.

‘No one gets away without a Ted-snuggie at bed time. Except Shona, that is,’ Ellie explained.

‘Thank crud for that,’ Shona muttered.

Jez leant forward and awkwardly reached out for him. Ted wrapped his arms around her neck and planted a quick and self-conscious kiss on her cheek. ‘You’re a baby-babe,’ he said with a nervous giggle.

Jez looked up. ‘Is that good?’

‘It means he’s got the hots for you, Jez,’ laughed Ellie.

‘If he starts trying to impress you with armpit farts, then he’s
really
hot for you,’ added Jacob.

Maria returned from Ted’s cube and peeled him off Jez. ‘Come on then tiger-Ted, time for bed.’ She led him away, with Ted waving over his shoulder as he staggered tiredly towards his cube.

The evening drifted on pleasantly.

Maria returned with the all-clear that Ted was fast asleep, Shona went off to her cube and returned dressed up in the most fashionable of her clothes for Jez to inspect and pass approval on. Ellie watched her friend with growing affection as she took Shona on and they exchanged tattle on clothes and accessories; Shona trying on Jez’s hip bag and leather belt, and Jez some of Shona’s play-jewelry.

Later, after Shona had gone to bed Jacob Quin opened a bottle of home-brewed wine which Jez admitted was quite nice after the first startling mouthful.

Ellie was grateful that her parents didn’t cross-examine Jez, satisfying themselves with general questions about New Haven and what it was like to live there, which they both answered in turn.

Mostly honestly.