Ellie Quin Episode 5: A Girl Reborn by Alex Scarrow Page B

health and safety matter we need to look into.’
    ‘Was it
my
fault?’ asked Jez. ‘Did I do something wrong with the design?’
    ‘The design software shouldn’t have passed it on for production. Either the design software is faulty, or something went wrong in the fabrication process.’ He looked at Ellie. ‘During the wargame, did any other creature act threateningly towards you?’
    She shook her head. ‘No. I don’t think so. It was just that scorpion.’
    He shrugged. ‘Then perhaps it was a one off. Maybe it’s chemical receptors were confused or damaged in the combat somehow.’ He frowned, losing interestin talking with the girls any longer, now deep in thought about the problem. ‘For some reason…it didn’t recognise her as a human.’
    ‘Yeah, it happens to her all the time,’ said Jez.
    Ellie rolled her eyes and Jez provided her own laughter as Shelby turned and walked away, still tugging thoughtfully at his lip, Frasier accompanying him up the path leading to the control tower.
    They watched them go, then Ellie sat up on the sun couch. ‘I guess you’ll be heading back to Gray’s weird world now?’
    ‘Nope. I’m sticking with you El’.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘Oh, don’t thank me. I’m staying ‘cause I feel fregging guilty about your hand. Cause you’ll need some help. Cause I’m your friend. Cause I’ve been neglecting you recently. All that kinda stuff.’ She sat down on the end of the couch. ‘And because Gray seems to be…in a total fregging shitty mood right now.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I dunno. Maybe he feels like it was his fault too. I suppose he should’ve checked over my creatures first. I think he’s really embarrassed about this whole thing. I haven’t spoken to him in days.’
    They sat in silence for a while, watching the jimps tending the gardens and a flock of bird-like things swooping around the real oak tree in the distance.
    ‘Jez?’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Do you think…?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Do you think…there is something
different
about me?’
    ‘You’re kidding, right?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well duh, of course there’s something different about you!’
    ‘I mean…sort of…I dunno, not quite right. Not quite human-’
    ‘Duh! You’re the most human person I’ve ever met! That’s what’s so different about you. You’ve got an energy about you…a get-up-and-go-ness that I love about you. That’s what I fell in love with when we first met; the fact that you were thinking of the stars, wanted to get the fregg out of that crap-hole domed city.’
    ‘I’m not like my folks really though, am I? They-’
    ‘I loved your family too! They were….’ Jez quickly bit her lip and puffed her cheeks, ‘they
are
adorable. Particularly Ted. He’s such a…a…total little clown.’
    ‘I really hope they’re okay. Do you think there’s a way I could try and contact them? Let them know I’m still alive?’
    Jez shook her head quickly. ‘No! No…that’s not a good idea, El’.’
    Ellie looked up at her. 'Surely-'
    ‘The…the Administration, Ellie, I’m sure they’ll be snooping on everyone right now. Listening in on communications. You ring home and they’ll track your call somehow.’ She nodded. ‘Oh…and also, that might draw the Administration’s attention to
them
. Put them in danger. No, that’s probably the last thing you should do right now.’
    Ellie figured she was probably right. Until they found a way out of this system they were sitting ducks. Just like back at that abandoned colonial outpost, hiding in that store locker, they'd been trapped. Out there a net had been cast across the entire system. Bit by bit the Administration would be reeling that net in and eventually she and Jez were going to land in their laps, flapping and flopping like fish on the deck of a boat.
    We have to get out of here. We have to leave
…
before they come and check this place out
.
    ‘Ellie?’
    ‘Hmm…’
    ‘Something I’ve been kinda thinking about, a