Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand by Alex Scarrow Page B

imagine that wouldn't be easy to-'
    'Nah,' She hefted her shoulders. 'They wouldn't have to say anything clever, or convincing, just dance and look sexy and famous. When I got bored of any of them I'd just zap 'em and replace 'em.'
    Zap them?
    Ellie wondered about these
products
. Did they actually have feelings? Were they self-aware? All those bodies of dead Sugar Beanies and Chocco Chop Bars? Did they feel pain? Fear? Or were they just simple-minded play-things, automatons that looked and acted convincing? Certainly Shelby's chimpanzee,Frasier, seemed to have real thoughts and feelings, although they appeared to be limited to a one-note tone of irritable sufferance.
    '
Zap
them? Jez you can be so cruel!' No internal morality filter, that was her problem. Actually, to be fair, she had a heart. But she had a tendency to blurt out stuff first then consider much later on whether it was inappropriate or hurtful.
    'Hey, Ellie?'
    She stirred from her thoughts.
    'Uh?'
    'What do you think about Gray?'
    'He's….he's quite-'
    'Fit?'
    Ellie pursed her lips thoughtfully. His well-defined features reminded her just a little bit of Sean Eltwood; her first and so far only crush. 'He looks quite nice, I suppose.'
    'Oh, isn't he? Definitely my type. I like hump-buddies to be athletic. Muscles on muscles, but not too much though.'
    Ellie sighed. 'I'm sure he thinks you're equally gorgeous. You'd be perfect together.'
    'You think?'
    Jez wasn't so thick skinned she didn't register a tone of resentment from her friend. 'You know, you're actually not that bad, chick. You just….need to work on it a bit. Put a bit of effort in.'
    'Yeah, thanks so much.'
    'Hey, we could maybe do a foursome thing. You know, while we're stuck here? Me and Gray, you and Shel-'
    'No!' Ellie squawked suddenly. 'No! Thank you!' Shelby seemed friendly enough, and oddly likeable in a stiff formal sort of way, but….no. Uh-uh. Nope. Not likeable in
that
way.
    'I'm fine as I am.' She smiled. 'Seriously, if you want to go off and frolic around with Gray, while we're waiting for our lift away from here, it's okay. I'll be all right. I won't be bored.'
    'You gonna come with me and check out Gray's world?'
    She was vaguely curious. But if it really was going to be as, Shelby suggested, nothing more than a tacky and testosterone-fuelled fabrication of a bored technician's smutty mind, then she was probably going to turn right round and head back out again.
    'Maybe.'
    They watched the last of the sun's light drain away on the lowest sky panel, through the silhouette of an oak tree with a circling flock of swallows dipping and soaring around it.
    Ellie's thoughts returned to something she'd been puzzling over before Jez had started gushing like a child about this place. Puzzling over something Shelby had mentioned earlier.
    Shelby had definitely mentioned there'd been a caretaker team of twelve left to run this place. And she was pretty convinced there was something about them that the young man didn't want to discuss.
    The number one question in Ellie's head was…
where the hell did they go?

CHAPTER 13
    'Look at them, running around like bloody headless chickens,' said Deacon. He led Leonard and Karl across the busy intersection, through a swirling morass of foot traffic and impatient d-peds weaving their way perilously through them.
    News of The Administration enforced quarantine had finally been officially announced on all the news streams yesterday evening and inevitably, a herd-like panic had spread among the population of New Haven overnight.
    Deacon shook his head derisively at them.
Look at them rushing out this morning to spend whatever spare creds they have to stock up on that protein crap and drinking water
.
    'You see, Karl, this is the problem we have with most of the colonised systems in Human Space. On every planet there's too much over-reliance on cross system distribution networks. A properly colonised planet should be able to stand on its own two legs. To feed