Read Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand Online
Authors: Alex Scarrow
Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand
Ellie Quin in
WonderLand
(Episode 4 in the Ellie
Quin Series)
By
Alex Scarrow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
© Alex Scarrow, 2014
© Cover Image and Design Alex Scarrow, 2014
[
A Digi-Media fragment – ‘News Broadcast – New Haven Digi-9’]:
‘…fourth day of riots in the Industrial/Port sector of New Haven following the announcement by The Administration of a system-wide lockdown. It is not yet clear what the nature of the emergency is and city officials have petitioned The Administration for more information.’
‘There have, however, been rumours of a virulent strain of H0N1, otherwise known as 'the melting disease' among the influx of refugees from the failed world of Celestion. Although the city authorities have not confirmed the rumour, neither have they denied it. One thing for certain is that the system-wide quarantine will inevitably mean a shortfall on various out-system commodities and essential supplies. But, perhaps more seriously, a longterm impact on the trade economy of Harpers Reach. Analysts expect the biggest impact will be felt by system haulage companies and space port ancillary services.’
‘In entertainment news; Betsy Boomalackah, singsong queen and digi-diva has announced the colour of her new gene-implant skin pigment to coincide with the release of her new digitrack ‘
I’m Going Giddy-zing-dong Green For You
.’ It’s….yellow.’
[End of audio fragment]:
OMNIPEDIA:
[Human Universe open source digital encyclopaedia]
Article: ‘The Legend of Ellie Quin’
The above media clip, retrieved from recently discovered digital storage archives on Liberty, was taken from New Haven’s primary digistream news channel.
Some experts on the Legend of Ellie Quin and many of the more conspiracy- prone fans of this legendary figure – ‘Quinologists’ – have speculated that this broadcast was made only days after Ellie Quin managed to evade capture by The Administration and escape from her home world, Harpers Reach. That the quarantine, imposed allegedly to contain a ‘viral outbreak’ was The Administration’s heavy-handed attempt to prevent Ellie from leaving the system via Gateway.
With information scarce and little to work with other than hearsay and rumour, and questionable accounts by those Quinologists who’d wish to write a more dramatic account of her early years, it is difficult for a historian to be certain of what is true and what is false. It is fair to assume that the mass movement of people from Celestion (Celestion – See Article: Top Ten Terraforming Disasters) may have resulted in a number of outbreaks of very unpleasant pathogens. However, outbreaks of this kind could quite easily have been contained with mere planetary quarantines.
It is tempting to believe The Administration was already so alarmed by the potential of this one girl to destabilise their hold on Human Space that they were prepared to lockdown an entire system; nine colonised planets, thirty-one orbital installations, nineteen non-planetary settlements, thirteen and half billion people…all of that, to get their hands on one girl.
User Comment
>
Anonymous
My gee-mah use to have old digis of Betsy Boomalackah. She was hawt. Until she decided to go green. Then she looked like she was constantly ready to vomit.
User Comment
>
Liz T-Pup111
I Itsa-hoax. Ellie Quin NEVER EXISTED!!! WHEN WILL YOU STUPID PEEPLE REELIZE???
User Comment
>
GoldenNexus
Woah. Someone needs to lay off the stym-chocs for a while.
User Comment
>
Random DittoBoy
There wuz plagues and stuff released back then by those Reborner terrorists. I know that cause i reddit on this Omnipedo somewhere.
User Comment
>
Anonymous
Do you believe everything you read here Dittoboy? Moron.
To read more of
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CHAPTER 1
‘Hufty, it’s me, Ellie. What if I told you that right now, I’m looking out of an observation blister at the big ol’ black universe? You wouldn’t believe me, would you? It’s true though. I’m sitting here on a stool, sipping a hot synthi choccaslop and watching the freight ship’s auto-barges ferrying containers of stuff backwards and forwards down to the planet below. We’ve been aboard now for a couple of months, I think. (Crud. It’s so easy to lose track of that sort of thing).’
‘This ship does the nine-world loop around the system, dropping off, picking up at every planet. It’s mostly automated, so the ship only has a small crew. Eight of them. Mostly big, grubby men like Aaron. They’re really nice though. They’ve looked after me and Jez. Gave us our own cabin and everything.’
'Oh, and Jez? She’s totally all right now. There was one of those BigBoy Medi-Bot booths on board. One of the scarier looking older models; all robot limbs holding horrid looking scalpels and tweezers. It looked like a giant metal spider dangling above her in the booth. Jez was screaming she didn’t want to go inside the booth with that thing – until someone sedated her and she finally shut up.’
It fixed her up though. Printed out a full itinerary of what it had done. There was a bullet went right through her stomach and out the back. BigBoy said the stomach lining was ripped wide open and she was spewing out acid inside. The bullet also passed out right next to her spinal column. Another half an inch and chances are she’d never have been able to walk again. BigBoy said she was really lucky to be alive.’
She sighed.
‘BigBoy also said she has very high saturated fat levels and needs to lay off all the crap takeaway food.’
Ellie paused her voice dairy for a moment and watched the complicated orbital ballet of automated barges as they worked in a ceaseless convoy that descended down through the planet’s atmosphere, appearing like shuffling black dots against the ochre coloured landscape below. From this distance they reminded her of worker ants carrying foraged scraps of food to their nest.
She recalled her parting view of Harpers Reach, a clay-red orb with only the shrinking polar ice cap as a notable feature. Now it was little more than the size of a star, vaguely pinkish in colour and on the far side of this system.
Everything I’ve ever known is back there
.
Her family, her home. The agridomes. Those mean-spirited tubweeds. Aaron Goodman and his pride-and-joy shuttle, Lisa. New Haven with all of its sallow skinned inhabitants, ditto-head deadbeats living out their lives beneath a plastic domed sky.
But there was something else she’d left behind at that world’s other city. A stranger…an old man. They'd spoken briefly, hurriedly. He'd told her his name. There hadn't been much time. His name was Mason. Edward Mason. And there'd been that bizarre digital message disc he’d pressed into her hand.
‘
You’re special Ellie, so very special. You are the only way humanity is going to survive. So…you have to stay alive
.
You have to travel Ellie. You have to run. And you’ll have to be so very careful. The Administration know everything about you and they’ll do anything to find you and to kill you
.’
Ellie had listened to the digital message, now loaded onto her audio diary. Listened to it a dozen times or more.
‘
The Administration’s bloodhounds will never give up on you, Ellie. You must travel. You must. The only advice I can give you is to seek the worlds in our universe that are torn and troubled…and my God, Ellie, there are so many out there. Human Space is falling apart. But you wouldn’t believe that from what you see on the toob, eh?’
‘Fly Ellie, fly away as fast and as far as you can. And stay alive as long as you can. God, I wish there was more I could do to help you
.’
For some reason Ellie had decided not to tell Jez about the message. She didn’t yet understand what the old man expected of her. It was clear she was some kind of threat to The Administration, a threat so big, that apparently this whole solar system, of one star, nine planets and Gateway, had been quarantined from the rest of Human Space. It seemed they wanted to find her so-o-o very badly.
How the crud am I a threat to anyone?
Last time she looked at herself she had no super powers. She was just a whippet-thin, twenty year old girl, with knock-knobbly knees and a face as plain and forgettable as a bowl of un-programmed protein paste. So very unlike Jez, who seemed to make male heads turn wherever she went.
‘Ahoy my dearest darling cabin-chik!’
Speak of the devil
.
Jez slapped Ellie’s shoulder affectionately, perched herself on the creaking stool beside her and relieved Ellie of her steaming plastic cup of synthi choccaslop.
'You doing your stupid diary thing again?'
Ellie tucked the recorder back into a pocket before Jez could grab it and play back what she'd been recording. 'Yes. And it's
not
stupid. It helps me think things through.'
'That's your problem.' Jez glanced sideways at her. 'You think about things way-y-y too much.' She grinned. 'We did it…we escaped crudds-ville. What's to think about?'
'What's to think about?' Ellie shook her head. Sometimes Jez was just too skin-thin carefree and frustratingly shallow. 'Aren't you worried about what's going to happen to us? Aren't you curious about who was chasing us back there? Who shot and nearly killed you?' She sighed. 'Don't you ever think beyond, like, the next five minutes?'
Jez raised a perfectly sculpted brow. 'Well to be honest I'm more totally
fregged-off
with who shot at me than
curious
about them.' She placed a hand on her belly. 'I'm gonna scar there for sure. That's not a good look.'
'And what about the rumours? System quarantine? You heard the news. Right?'
'Uh, not really.'
Stupid question. Jez watched the quizzies, sopa-drams, muso-vids and children's cartoons. That was pretty much it.
'I'm worried. This 'quarantine'. It started on Harpers Reach the day we escaped. Doesn't that seem-?'
'Probably a virulent form of space herpes.'
'Jez?' She looked at her friend. 'Doesn't that strike you as
odd
? A coincidence?'
She pursed her lips for a moment, giving that some thought. 'It is creepy-coincidental.'
'Maybe…' Ellie continued, 'maybe the whole thing's a cover story?'
Jez stared silently at Ellie. 'You mean….a….a…about
us
?'
Ellie nodded. 'A conspiracy. The Administration. They're after me. Maybe they've come up with this story to stop
anyone
leaving the Seventh Veil?'
Jez's jaw slowly dropped, her eyes widened. For a moment Ellie thought Jez was going to burst out laughing. Instead she lowered her voice. 'You saying…they've locked down a whole solar system?! Just to get their hands on you?'
Ellie nodded.
'You're actually being serious, aren't you?'
She bit her lip. 'I think so.'
Jez slurped from the plastic cup. To be truthful, the escape from Harpers Reach had ended up being a bit of a blur for her. The last thing she could recall clearly was what Aaron had told her. In confidence. She knew something that Ellie didn't. Something truly horrific; that Ellie's parents, her brother and sister
had been butchered by those men hunting her. That's what their friend Aaron had discovered when he'd dropped in on the Quin's farm by chance. And that was the secret she and Aaron now shared - something Ellie didn't need to know. Something she
couldn't
ever know.
It would break her into a million jagged pieces.
Someone clearly wanted her badly. But…seriously…The Administration? The actual government? And
seriously
, locking down a whole system in order to find her?