Ellie Quin Episode 5: A Girl Reborn Read online

  So, Tez Mahmoud was stuck in quite probably the best place to be stuck in this little system. GateWay wasn't just the exit/entry portal for the Seventh Veil. Around the vast circular Hawking-Voltram fold-space field loop - a circular energy field that contained a singularity tuned to an exit field in another system - had developed a vast free-floating doughnut shaped metropolis. The centre of the doughnut, the hole, was of course the gateway itself. Since it also functioned as a powerful gravity well in the vicinity, it provided a useful uniform gravity ‘floor’ for the hoop construct built around it. And that’s why virtually every system gateway in Human Space had become a free floating ring-shaped 'world' in its own right.

  And Tez should have been as happy as a kravitt in mutterjuice (as his mom used to say) about being marooned here. Except he wasn’t. He was worried. Very worried.

  He’d originally suspected that the old man who’d cornered him back on Harpers Reach in Harvest City port was attempting to cover up some personal scandal. Tez's first suspicion was that the dirty old bugger had something going on with one, or even both of the girls, and needed them to be gone…like, ghosts, like, yesterday. Gone As Far Away As Possible. That this was some seedy scandal he was trying to cover up.

  Tez didn’t blame the old man. After all, the taller, sassy-mouthed one was an absolute stunner to look at. He’d been happy to back-pocket the ten thousand creds the old fool had pushed into his hands to drop the girls off at GateWay. It would be easy enough to get them past the freight verification officials. Even if one of their cargo pods was scanned and the girls found hiding inside, a small bribe, probably no more than a thousand, would get them through nicely. System migrants with a decent wad of bribe creds could pass as easily from one system to another as any legitimate traveller.

  A one-k kick back if they got found at worst…and he'd still have nine ks in his pocket. A nice little earner, and, to be honest, it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d smuggled migrants from this shitty system to one of the other older, more established and affluent systems.

  But…only days after they’d set off from Harpers Reach to do their system-wide milk-round, the news had been all over the network. Quarantine. Captain Tez Mahmoud had been around the block a few times, long enough to know there was no lethal contagion going round.

  That was grubb-shit. This was the Administration’s heavy hand coming into play. The fascist sons-of-bitches were either covering up some disastrous screw up of their’s, that, or they were after someone. If it was the latter, then more than likely they were after a bunch of those Awoken religious fanatics.

  Which meant of course, every last goddamned official was going to be on amber alert, including those corrupt slack-jawed desk-monkeys in Freight Verification. No bribe-taking this time. For once, they’d be doing their jobs properly.

  So Tez had himself a problem.

  A problem he’d decided to resolve by dropping the girls off at the nearest viable location; that odd-looking half-finished installation. His sys-nav database had it down as some moth-balled commercial premises. There’d be life-support there of some sort, it might be rudimentary, but the girls would be okay until somebody eventually dropped by. And then they would be someone else’s problem.

  However, since he’d unceremoniously ditched them, some rather unsettling rumours had begun to surface. Rumours…that was all, but as so often seemed to be the case with rumours, there might be a kernel of truth behind them.

  Word on system-WhisperChat was that the Administration were after an Awoken terrorist cell; a cell preparing to carry out some horrific act of terrorism. And, making Tez just that little bit more twitchy, there was mention of…a girl.

  A teenaged girl.

  Now, he was sitting in a busy synthi-caff bar, looking out from his booth through a perspex bubble at the curving doughnut sky above, watching projected adverts for energy drinks and fashion-garb drift like lazy stratocumulus clouds along the artificial sky’s trans-radial axis.

  What if that old guy wasn’t just some old pervert?

  Shit.

  What if he had something to do with those fanatics?

  Shit. Shit. and Double Shit.

  Tez was beginning to feel queasy; he was beginning to get that you-might-just-be-in-a-world-of-fregging-trouble queasy feeling that he hadn’t felt since he'd been a kid and been marched up to a Law Marshal by his mother for sneakily swiping creds off her card.

  What if I just ditched an important terrorist?

  It didn’t seem particularly likely. They were just two girls, for crying out loud, two very normal teenaged girls who seemed to be perfectly happy watching crappy sopa-drams and quizzies and singing along to dance-dub songs and giggling at stupid things his crew said to them.

  But the taller one, what was her name… ‘Jaz’? Hadn’t she been suffering a gunshot wound?

  At the time he hadn’t asked. Didn’t want to know. Didn't need to know. He’d helped the girl into the ships medipod and it had turned out fine. And anyway, Harvest City was full of all sorts of unsavoury violent types; drug gangs, mumps, pimps…sex-traders. In his head, Tez had what he thought was 'their story' nailed; two girls, rescued from some sex-traffickers by some old man who wanted to help, but also remain anonymous….who maybe wanted to avoid a scandal.

  The money in his back pocket, all ten k’s of it was beginning to feel like a curse. Like…like, what was that old kid's story?….Jake and The Beanstalk, or something? Jake stole a golden something-or-other and it screamed and awoke the giant?

  That's what the money felt like, something screaming away in his back pocket, screaming out for someone to come and get him.

  Tez Mahmoud looked around the busy cafe, wondering if anyone was covertly studying him.

  What the crud have I gone and done?

  CHAPTER 9

  Shelby turned to leave her with her army of bears.

  ‘Hang on! You’re not staying?’

  ‘No, of course not. We agreed, Graham and me, that you girls are not to be assisted in any way. So,’ he saluted her, ‘the field is all yours General Ellie.’

  ‘But…but…’ she looked around at the rows of her midget warriors, watching her, waiting for instructions. ‘What do I say? What do I do?’

  ‘Command them, of course.’

  He walked out of the castle courtyard leaving her with an audience of six hundred furry gremlins. The long drawn out, expectant silence was finally broken when the nearest of them stepped forward. ‘You are our leader. What is your name?’

  ‘Uh…it’s Ellie. Ellie Quin.’

  ‘Ell-Ee-Kwin,’ he repeated. Then again, louder for the others to hear. The other bears all muttered her name.

  ‘We will do anything you command of us,’ said the nearest one.

  She looked down at it. ‘What’s your name?’

  He cocked his head. ‘My fabrication identification number is 59 of batch 1. So I am 59-1.’ It’s high pitched voice seemed gender-neutral. She couldn’t decide whether to think of it as a him or a her.

  She turned to another one. ‘What’s yours?’

  ‘I am 78 of batch 2. So I am 78-2.’

  ‘You…all of you,’ she raised her voice, ‘you all have fabrication numbers for names?’

  Heads nodded like a mexican wave.

  ‘Hmmm…’ she turned to the plucky little one who’d broken the ice; 59-1 ‘Can I give you another name? I won’t remember a bunch of numbers.’

  It’s face seemed to express something. What was that? A look of gratitude? Pride? ‘Of course, Ell-ee-Kwin. What would you like to call me?’

  She mulled that over. For a moment there she thought about calling him Harvey. But then thought better of it. If this poor thing was going to be dead in the next hour, she didn’t really want to get too emotionally attached to it.

  ‘Are you okay with…Jonny?’

  ‘You wish to name me ‘Jonn-Eee’?’

  She nodded. ‘Are you…you know, male?’

  ‘I have n
o gender. Jonn-Eee is a suitable name.’

  She decided then that Jonny was a him. ‘Good. You’re going to be my second-in-command then, Jonny.’

  ‘Thank you, Ell-ee-Kwin.’

  I actually made these things. I designed them. She wondered if they even knew that. She wondered if they understood they were artificial life forms, that, in effect, she was their Creator. Their ‘God’.

  ‘So…’ she stepped forward, raised her voice for all the others to hear. ‘I…I’m uh, your commander. I’m in charge here. You…uh….things…all understand that?’

  They chorused a reply. ‘Yes, Ell-ee-Kwin.’

  ‘Good. So…if I said jump on one foot. You all have to…’

  Without being asked to, they were already hopping.

  ‘All right. Okay. Stop that.’

  They were still once more. Ellie caught a smile before it became a foolish grin.

  This is so drool. She could imagine how intoxicating that could be; to command unquestioning obedience, to have absolute power.

  ‘So listen…we have a job. A mission, kind of. There’s this big red thing out there, it’s called a peach. You things know what a peach is?’

  They stared at her.

  ‘There’s this big red and green ball out there. You know what a ball is, right?’

  Their heads nodded in unison.

  ‘Good. Well…you have to roll that ball up a hill into this castle…this place.’ She turned to Jonny. ‘Do you creatures come with a list of things you know about?’

  Jonny nodded. ‘We all have a standard language insert. We have an understanding of many things. I know what a ball is. I know what a castle is. I know what a chair is. I know what a…’

  ‘Okay, okay. Good.’ She turned to face the others. ‘Your mission is to get that ball in here. But there’s these other creatures out there that are going to try and stop you and…’

  Be honest with them.

  ‘…and hurt you.’

  ‘We are ready to fight for you, Ell-ee-Kwin,’ the bears chorused.

  ‘And die,’ added Jonny.

  'Die?' She looked down at him. Taken aback by that. ‘Aren’t you afraid?’

  ‘I am 59-1, Jonny. I am a product.’ He said that with a neutral tone. Like it was a stock answer, a placeholder soundbite for any client query that couldn’t be answered.

  ‘Aren't you, you know, like…a bit scared?'

  He shook his head.

  'Do you have any feelings?’

  He cocked his head. ‘My name is Jonny. I am licensed to Hewson Leisure Corporation. I’m here to do whatever you ask of me.’ She wondered if that was another pre-programmed answer.

  'Look, I feel pretty bad about this…I…I thought it sounded like a fun idea at the time, but now…'

  He cocked his head the other way. 'What are your orders, Ell-ee-Kwin?'

  She decided that it might be better leaving her conscience out of this. The game was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not. Jez was propably already whipping up her creations into a frenzy of bloodlust.

  She tried to assure herself, that even though they were living, breathing creatures, they were really no more ‘alive’ than a child’s robotic plaything. No more alive than Ted’s old robo-dog. Just toys, albeit flesh and blood toys.

  She looked at the creatures arrayed before her. Approximately a third of them were the batch she’d assigned to be fabricated before Shelby had hurriedly stepped in and advised her to weaponise the design more. The other two thirds were armed with those scary-looking tusk-like teeth and brutal scythe claws.

  The toothless and clawless ones were going to be utterly useless at fighting. But at least she could put them to work rolling the peach up hill; they'd be her peach-rollers. The rest…could be her soldiers.

  ‘Jonny?’

  ‘Yes, Ell-ee-Kwin?’

  Jonny was from the first batch, he didn’t have the teeth and claws. ‘You’re going to be in charge of all the batch-one products. The one’s like you without claws. Okay?’

  He nodded.

  ‘You’re in charge of getting that peach up in here.’ She stepped towards the other one. ‘Okay, 78-2. Your name from now on is…Max.’

  Max’s lips widened, revealing more of his razor sharp teeth.

  ‘Max, you’re in charge of the batch two products. Your job will be protecting Jonny and his batch.’

  Max nodded. ‘Yes, Ell-ee-Kwin.’

  ‘And you and Jonny…and everyone else…you’re going to call me, General…or, Sir, from now on. Is that clear?’

  They chorused a mixture of ‘yes sir’s and ‘yes, Generals’.

  For the second time she experienced a guilty shudder of pleasure at the chorus of obedience.

  I could get used to this.

  She spent the next half hour on the wall of the small castle, looking out over the crenellations with Max and Jonny perched on the wall beside her, evaluating the rolling landscape for choke points and pitfalls, and scrutinising the other castle on the far side of the low valley.

  She thought she spotted movement along the top of the distant mint green wall and guessed that that was probably Jez looking right back at her.

  I wonder what horrible monsters she’s come up with?

  ‘Is that the enemy, General?’ asked Max.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What do you know about the enemy, General?’

  ‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Other than…knowing the other General, as I do…they’ll be pretty nasty.’

  Max ground his teeth together and flexed his claws. 'We are ready to fight to the death for you, General Ell-ee-Kwin.’

  ‘Max…when the game…’ she felt the need to correct herself, ‘when the battle starts, I want you to split your creatures into two groups. One group is to go over there, to the slopes over there on the left, and the others on the right.’

  She remembered playing one of Ted’s games on the holotoob. A battle simulator. Ted, even though he’d been just five at the time, had explained to her some rudimentary principles of warfare.

  Hit the bad guys from two sides. It’s called out-flanking, Ellie.

  ‘We’re going to ‘out-flank’ them; charge down and hit them from two sides at the same time.’

  ‘Yes, General.’

  ‘But only when I give the signal though, okay?’

  ‘Yes, General.’ Max nodded. Then his furry brow furrowed slightly. ‘What is the signal?’

  She pondered on that for a moment. She needed some gesture he’d be able to spot from across the miniature world. She lifted both arms above high above her head and made her fingers do flexing claws. ‘This is the ATTACK signal.’

  ‘Yes, General.’

  ‘And if you see me pointing my fingers at something…that’s what I want you to attack. And…let me see, if I wave my hand in a big circle above my head. That means stop attacking and run back to our castle. Is that clear?’

  ‘Yes, General.’

  She figured that was pretty much all she’d need for signals. Three commands; Attack, Stop and Run-For-Your-Little-Lives. As far as she was aware from all the battle-dram viddees she’d seen, that was about as sophisticated as warfare got.

  The klaxon suddenly sounded. It boomed around the biome and caught Ellie by surprise. The sky filled with a projected image of Shelby and Gray’s faces, they were sitting on a couch somewhere, Gray sipped a mug of coffee and nodded at Shelby to go ahead.

  ‘Ladies, the battle may now begin!’ Shelby’s shrill voice boomed. ‘May the best General win!’

  ‘Oh crap!’ uttered Ellie. She should have had her soldiers mustered by the oak doors and ready to pile out. ‘Max, get your two groups out of the front door!’

  The creature nodded, hopped off the top of the wall and padded down the rampart to the courtyard.

  ‘What are my orders, General?’ asked Jonny.

  ‘As soon as Max’s creaures are out, get your peach-rollers down to that big peach, over there okay?’


  Jonny nodded. He hopped off the wall and followed Max down the ramp.

  Ellie remained where she was, intently studying the other castle. Finally, she saw it’s oak doors swinging inwards.

  ‘Ah-hah!’ It was Gray’s voice. ‘Look’s like General Jez is ready to kick some ass!’

  Jez’s army began to emerge into the sunlight…and Ellie couldn’t quite believe her eyes. ‘Oh, crap-o-la…’

  CHAPTER 10

  They were large and dark, almost coal-black, shuffling out through the castle gates. She couldn’t make out what they were, but they were low to the ground and large and she counted about ten of them. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified; she’d been expecting Jez to try and reproduce those giant aliens that spat flames and acid, the ones they’d seen attacking Shuttle Stop 7.

  They looked scuttley and crab-like with far too many legs to be cute. It looked as though they had powerful 'arms' at the front. But there were only ten of them. Maybe Jez had blown her entire budget of biomass on those things then. But, no…there were more things coming out. These were dark again, but much smaller, mere dots from here.

  Below her, the castle's oak doors swung open and her army poured out, Max marshalling his toothed and clawed creatures and Jonny leading out his un-armed peach-rollers. She looked down at them and had the awful feeling she was a observing meadow full of fresh-born lambs being sent out to their slaughter.

  ‘And, ladies and gentlemen, we have Ellie Quin’s army of…what the crap are those, Shelbs! Are those teddy bears?!’

  ‘They’re small hairy hominids.’ Shelby corrected.

  Ellie looked up at the sky, filled with the image of the two men enjoying the show. She wondered where they were viewing it from, they seemed to have a bird’s eye view. Then she saw it. A small hovering platform, near the apex of the biome’s domed sky. They must be sitting on that.

  ‘Teddy bears, Shelbs…versus what appear to be giant scorpions.’