by Alex Scarrow
‘As friends, Ellie, that’s all. Good, close friends. No more than that, and just for a few weeks.’
She steadied her voice. Conjured up a dismissive grin. ‘Yeah, that’s what I meant. Buddies. Best buddies. I…’
Sean cupped her chin in his hand, he couldn’t help but see the momentary twinkle of a suppressed tear in the flickering side-show carnival lights.
‘I’m not a complete idiot. I know how you feel.’ He struggled to find the right blend of words. ‘If things were different. If I wasn’t going…maybe you and I…?’
‘We’d eventually get together?’
He nodded an answer rather than actually saying it. Well, not so much nodded, as shrugged. But it was an affirmation of sorts.
‘Sean…’
Oh, don’t say it, Ellie. Really. Don’t say it.
‘Sean, I really…’
Don’t be a complete fregging moron. What she wanted to say - needed to say - felt like wind; halfway up and determined to burp out of her mouth. ‘Sean, I think I love you.’
Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Id-Errrr…hang on, did he actually just wince?
‘Look, Ellie, I’m very fond of you too.’
And there, he just said ‘fond’.
In summary; you idiot. She felt her face flush. She’d always thought there was a ghost of a chance there. That perhaps if one evening during a math class, if she made a rash move on him. Perhaps a jokey play-wrestle that somehow randomly – deliberately - ended up with him pinned down and their faces inches apart…the rest would just kind of happen.
‘Ellie, I…this is uh, a bit awkward. It’s not that I don’t-’
‘I’m plain. That’s it? Plain and dull.’
‘No! God, no! It’s not that.’ Sean shook his head. He looked up to see where Shona was. She was still queuing to be served. ‘It’s just…I just…’
‘What?’
Sean pressed his lips. ‘You’re kind of what I’m running away from.’
Ellie felt like he’d just punched her in the ribs.
‘No, see, that came out sounding all wrong. You represent it. No. What I mean is…Harpers Reach, this world. Farm-fregging-life. I hate it. It’s suffocating. I want what’s way out there, beyond the sky. I want that!’
‘And I’m just a part of this dull ol’ life?’
He stopped a nod. ‘Yes, but. You’re the only interesting part of it, Ellie. That’s my point. You want the same as me. Maybe even want it more than me. If there was any fairness in the universe it would be you going, not me.’ Sean shook his head. ‘I’m not making much sense, am I?’
‘Oh, I get it.’ She nodded. ‘You want to leave this all behind you. No strings. A new shiny life.’ She dabbed at her face. Damned if she was going to let him see a tear rolling down her cheek. ‘I guess I’d be the same if it was me.’
‘But I don’t want to go and be worrying about you, Ellie. I want to go knowing you’re going to be all right.’
‘Why worry? You’ll be gone. A new life an’ all that.’
‘Because maybe after my eight years tour of duty I want to know there’s someone special to come home to?’
Shit! He’s asking me to wait for him? She was halfway between gushing with rekindled hope, and decking him for being so fregging arrogant. Oh yeah, Sean wanted to see the universe; to fight and shag his way around the planets of Human Space, and then know he could come home to Loyal Little Ellie Quin. Waiting patiently for him?
Tell him to go freg himself. Ellie. Tell him to-
She smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
Idiot!
She told her brain to shut up. And added for good measure, that maybe, just maybe, she’d make sure they had at least one long night together before he went. Confirmation that she was more than a dumb math student and a friend. So much more than a kid now.
A woman.
He looked up to see where Shona was again. ‘Listen, if you really want to go to New Haven then I think we should leave soon. My Dad’s given me a load of creds. He wants me to go see the city before I leave, have a ball, y’know? Live a little before the marines get their hands on me. So I can leave any time now. I’ve got the money to find us somewhere half-decent to rent whilst we get you sorted out.’
Ellie felt a surge of excitement as she listened to Sean thinking aloud. ‘Also,’ Sean continued, ‘Dad has a couple of friends in the city, we can maybe look them up, see if they can help you out with a job.’
‘You’d do all this for me?’
‘I’m doing it because I know you’d go and do this on your own anyway.’
Ellie shrugged nonchalantly and nodded. He wasn’t wrong.
‘And if you walk into New Haven with just three hundred creds and no return ticket home you’re going to end up in big trouble. At least this way, when I leave I’ll know you’re okay and not walking the streets. But I’m doing this on one condition.’
‘What?’
‘When we go, you leave a letter for your Mum and Dad. And when I leave Harpers Reach you make sure you stay in touch with them. Okay?’
‘Okay.’
Shona was getting served now. She would be back in a minute.
‘We’ll talk about this some more when I come over next week for your studies. But like I say, we should go sooner rather than later. The more time we have in the city before I have to leave on the Freezer, the better.’
Ellie nodded silently. She could see Shona beginning to weave her way back through the crowd towards them. Before her sister got too close Ellie decided to kiss him on the cheek. He didn’t flinch. There was no awkwardness or passion in it, just warmth and gratitude. ‘Thank you,’ she said in a whisper, ‘for doing this for me.’
Sean stared at her firmly. There was something about this girl, something that set her apart from the other farm kids he knew and the few city people he’d met. Her eyes always seemed focused on the far away things; horizons, star ships, distant cities. He knew she was going to run to the city with or without his help. He suspected there was an iron-rod of will inside Ellie that perhaps one day would be the making of her, or perhaps the end of her.
‘I know you’re meant for something better than this. I can see it, feel it. Call it a hunch, but someday not only will you outgrow New Haven, you’ll make it off-world too.’
She shrugged, ‘I’d love to think so.’
They both heard Shona whistling a jingle as she approached them with a carrier bag full of steaming, savory treats.
‘Umm…you guys look busy, you want me to leave again?’ she asked with a mischievous grin.
Sean broke his gaze from Ellie and cracked a smile for Shona. ‘No need, just giving your sister a pep talk, she needs to put a little more work into her math.’
‘Uh-huh, didn’t look like that to me,’ she said with a knowing wink.
CHAPTER 7
‘…So you see, it’s really happening Hufty. I’m going at last.’
Ellie snapped off the mic’ of her diary. She gazed at the shimmering horizon - the humidity was low enough this morning to catch the distant reflective glint of sunlight on the dome over New Haven. From her favorite perch-point up here on the overlook she could see horizon three-sixty degrees around her. The terrain was a relentless rust red, broken with occasional patches of ochre, the hardy native lichen of this planet and, in fact, pretty much the only form of indigenous life discovered on Harpers Reach.
Down below she could see her Dad carrying out some routine maintenance on one of the domes. From this distance it was hard to see what he was up to, but Ellie guessed he was repairing wear-and-tear holes in the plexitex. The business of growing an oxygen crop was hard enough work without losing the valuable profit to rips in the plastic skin. She watched him stand up, arch his back and tiredly wipe his brow.
It was thirsty work, standing out here in the mercilessly intense glare of the sun. A job Jacob Quin wished he could afford to have subcontracted to some maintenance company. Not being able to afford such a luxury me
ant it was an endless chore he had to do himself, or lose money through seepage.
He was constantly reminded of how the perceived value of oxygen was slowly sliding. Not just the gentle but persistent decline in price over recent years, but in other ways too. Twenty years ago when he had started out, the O2 industry planet-wide had been treated with respect. Whether you were a small independent farmer, or a worker in a large refinery or even just a buying-agent, association to this life-sustaining resource had a noticeable effect on the way people treated you. It was respect, but it came across almost as gratitude, despite the fact that everyone in the oxygen business was in it for hard profit, not out of some altruistic sense of civic duty. Nowadays, of course, as testing stations around the world were starting to register pockets of atmosphere with nearly tolerable levels of O2 on a regular basis, courtesy of the Oxxon refineries in the north pole, the business was starting to lose its kudos. In the not too distant future it would lose its ability to make money.
It was finally time, he decided, to move over to something new.
He studied the plastic patch he had just applied to a jagged rip in the dome.
At least when the air on Harpers Reach becomes rich enough to put the likes of me out of business there’ll be no need for these damn domes any more.
He heard Ellie approach. The clattering of pebbles and small rocks tumbling down the slope gave her away long before she slapped her hand amicably on his sweaty shoulder.
‘You missed a bit,’ she laughed, her voice sounded muffled through the oxygen mask.
‘Oh, spectacularly funny. You come to give me a hand?’
‘Why not.’
Jacob Quin looked curiously at his daughter. ‘Okay, what are you after?’ he asked with a tone of suspicion.
‘Nothing. I just guess it’s about time I gave you a hand with this particularly shitty job.’
‘Better late than never, I suppose. Oh, and less of the ‘shitty’. Your mother hears potty-mouth like that and it’s me that’s going to get it, not you.’
‘Freggin’ sorry ‘bout that.’
Jacob smirked, ‘Thadda-girl. Anyway, you’ve got to hold something back for a stubbed toe.’
Ellie studied her father work as he resumed the process of patching up the plexitex. Around the base of all three domes occurred the worst wear and tear. The occasional strong winds would scoop up clouds of dust and gravel that would scour, wear thin and occasionally tear the plastic sheath. Larger items of wind-borne debris would simply punch a hole through. Jacob routinely and laboriously checked the entire perimeter of his farm each and every week, often finding dozens of tattered holes to repair. Ellie squatted down beside her father as he finished off applying and sealing a patch with the plasti-welder.
‘You want to have a go?’ he asked.
‘Sure.’
He passed it to her. It looked like a soldering iron. ‘Just run it slowly along the edge of the patch. Don’t stop…just keep moving or you’ll melt right through and then we’ll have to patch the patch.’
Ellie applied the welder along the remaining seam. The plastic sizzled and bonded instantly.
He rapped the patch with his knuckles. ‘Good as new. See? Easy, huh?’
‘And strangely fun.’
‘Great. I’ll get us another welder for your birthday then.’
Ellie laughed, ‘okay, to be clear…not that much fun.’
He stood up. ‘Come on. More holes to fill.’
The pair of them walked slowly, scanning the base of Booster and periodically stopping to stick on a patch. A good half-hour passed in silence as they slowly broiled in the hot morning sun.
‘We’re going to be okay, aren’t we Dad?’ Ellie asked suddenly as she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow.
‘Okay? What are you talking about?’
‘The future, the way things are heading in the long run. I just want to know that things will be okay.’
Jacob turned to Ellie, ‘has someone been feeding you scare stories?’
Ellie didn’t answer.
‘Let me guess…Sean?.
Ellie nodded reluctantly.
‘Well don’t worry about letting on and dropping him in it. His father gave me the same lecture as Sean has given you, I’m sure.’
‘And?’ she asked.
‘And…it’s annoying having everyone tell you how to run your agri-plot. But to answer your question though, things are going to be fine in the long-run. I’m going to think about trying a meat crop again.’
Ellie smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.
‘But, if we do go ahead and change the crop,’ he continued, ‘it’s going to cost us a fair bit to adjust. We’ll need to tighten our belts over the next few years.’
Ellie slapped him proudly on the back. ‘Well done Dad. I know how hard a decision that was for you.’
Jacob Quin shook his head sadly. ‘I’ve been an oxygen man since before you were born. I guess we all knew the business wouldn’t last forever.’
‘That’s right. We’ve done well out of tubweed, haven’t we? I mean, you own the farm, we have a home, we’re not in debt. Things are fine aren’t they Dad?’
‘Yup, things are fine. I guess it’s just that after all these years of learning how to grow the stupid things, rigging the domes to just the right temperature and moisture, you know? Getting It Right. And now I’ve got to start over.’
Ellie knew how stubborn her father was, how difficult it was for him to adjust when needs required it. In her mind’s eye she had seen her father farming tubweed to the end of his days and steering them all inexorably towards bankruptcy and a tough life of subsistence and making do. Since talking to Sean at the fair she’d nursed a residual concern about leaving them for New Haven; a worry that the family business would soon begin to be affected by the distant, as yet, but inevitable, O2 industry recession.
‘So anyway, why are you so interested all of a sudden? Not that I mind you showing an interest.’
Ellie shrugged, ‘I just wanted to be sure things’re going to be alright.’
‘Why? You going someplace?’
She froze. She looked at him. He was being flippant. ‘Nah…just watching out for my inheritance.’
Jacob winked at her. ‘Good girl.’ He reached out and ruffled her hair. She went through a stage of hating gestures like that; being treated like a son, a tom-boy. A favorite farm hand. But right now she relished it; this one last moment of connection with Dad. Savored it and knew there’d be a time soon enough that she’d miss it.
‘We’ll be fine Ellie.’
She smiled. ‘I know.’
The pair of them finished the weekly inspection tour half an hour later and went in gasping for something ice-cold to drink. Jacob split a can of beer with her without a second thought and despite disliking its metallic taste, she proudly chugged it down in several manly gulps.
CHAPTER 8
Ted had the habit of sleepwalking around the central dome in just his underwear. It bugged the hell out of Ellie, particularly when he decided to amble into her cabin unannounced.
‘Shit! Hey, Ted!…ever heard of knocking?’ she said snapping off her diary and throwing a sweatshirt over her narrow shoulders.
Ted swayed sleepily in the doorway, his hair tousled and fluffed up on one side like a hairy horn. His cheeks were flushed and judging by the look of his sleepy and teary face, he had been having a bad dream.
‘Ellie…where’ve they taken my Baxter?…he’s gone.’
Ted had had an android pet, a puppy dog. For most kids needing an android pet was usually a short-lived phase experienced between the ages of three and six. It was little more than a fad that most kids grew out of in the space of a year. Ted had grown unhealthily close to his and Mum and Dad had taken it away from him not many months after his sixth birthday; they had begun to worry about his excessive attachment to what was really nothing more than a simple circuit board covered in fur. For Ted the whole incident had proved to be quite t
raumatic and even now, just over a year later, he still occasionally awoke in the middle of the night and reached out for his beloved dog for a reassuring cuddle. On those occasions he usually ended up tearfully and sleepily walking across the courtyard to Ellie’s cabin.
Her irritation evaporated when she realized that this would probably be the last time she would be carrying her little brother back to bed. He wasn’t so bad, as far as little dwarf boy brothers went.
She got up from her desk, walked over to the doorway and knelt down beside him.
‘He’s gone Ted, gone away to doggy heaven. Come on little guy, let’s get you back to bed.’
She turned her back towards him and he automatically hung his arms around her neck and climbed aboard, still more asleep than awake. Ellie stood up carrying him piggy-back and stepped out of her habi-cube. Ted stirred as she walked lightly across the ‘grass’, the plastic fibres rustling noisily against her bare feet.
‘Don’t put me back in bed…please?’
She had things to do.
‘You’re not a dogface. In fact, you’re prettier than Shona,’ he said.
The little rascal, she thought. He could charm the birds from the trees, if there’d been birds or trees. She clucked and hummed, feigning indecision.
‘Ple-e-ea-se, Ellie?’
‘Okay, but just five minutes, then I’m putting you back in your bed. You want to sit out here for a while?’
Ted nodded. Ellie walked over to the hammock, tipped him gently in and clambered on beside him. The hammock swung slowly causing the support poles to creak rhythmically. Ellie stared up at the rich purple night sky through the clear plastic of the dome. Ted followed her gaze.
‘I like stars…I wish we had a spaceship,’ he said, more thinking aloud than talking to Ellie.
‘So do I,’ she agreed.
‘If you had a spaceship, where would you go?’
Ellie looked at Ted. That seemed to be a curious question for him to be posing. ‘Why are you asking me that?’
‘I dunno…just asking. Me, I’d go to Danger Nebula 5.’
‘Ted, that’s just a pretend place.’
‘It’s where the Plasma Rangers base is,’ he replied indignantly.
