Her dark sculpted eyebrows knotted as she stared long and hard at Ellie. She slammed her bottle down on the barrel noisily. ‘I think that’s a fregging brilliant idea!’
‘This would take some money, Ellie,’ cautioned Aaron. ‘We’ll need to do a bit more than throw a bit of paint around. We need to install an O2 system in the hold, and run a power cable through for lighting and the FoodSmart.’
‘And we’d need to work out how we sell these trips,’ added Jez. ‘Some advertising. You know? Leaflets or something, maybe even a counter or something down near the port!’
Ellie nodded agreement with both of them. ‘Yeah, I know. It’s stuff we have to do first. I didn’t say it was going to be easy. But I think between us…? You know?’
Aaron and Jez looked at each other silently. Ellie smiled as the first teasing buzz of excitement tickled her spine. Those weren’t objections they were both voicing, they were the first tentative steps towards a serious brainstorming.
Crud…I think they like it.
‘That’s all gonna take money, Ellie,’ said Aaron.
‘I know, and neither Jez nor I can offer any help at all with that,’ she replied meekly.
‘But,’ Jez stepped in, ‘we can work hard, both me and Ellie can. For nothing, you know, until we start making some money that is.’
Aaron studied them both. ‘I’m sure you’re both hard workers, but whilst you’re earning nothing, how are you going to keep a cube over your heads?’
Ellie looked at him. ‘I was thinking….?’
‘Oh, no! I’m not too sure that’s a good idea ladies. It was bad enough with just us two bunking in there, Ellie. I’m not sure I can cope with another one bunking in the shuttle with me.’
‘It wouldn’t be for long. Just as soon as we start making money, Jez and I could find somewhere else to live.’
‘But, what about during the trips up to the polar region and back?’
‘Well, you’re going to want us girls on board to look after the passengers, aren’t you? You’re the pilot, we’ll be the stewardesses.’
‘Just like Abigail Swifty in Shuttle Stop 7,’ added Jez, ‘we could have a uniform and everything! Ahh, that would be properly-mint. What do you think Ellie-girl? Our own uniforms?’
Ellie kept her mind on the practical issues that Aaron was focusing on. ‘I suppose we could find space in the cargo area to section off as stewardess quarters. It really depends on how much passenger space we need, and how much we can charge them.’
Aaron shuffled uncomfortably on the bench. ‘That’s right Ellie. And that’s what really will decide if this is going to make us any money at all. To work out how much fuel we’d burn, I need to know how much weight we’re carrying. And only when we know that would we know how much we’d need to charge someone for a trip up there. And even then, there’s no knowing if anybody will want to spend money on a trip like that.’
‘You’re kidding right?’ said Jez.
Aaron shook his head sincerely, ‘I’m not big on joking.’
‘No, he’s not, really,’ agreed Ellie.
‘Agghh…just a figure of speech,’ said Jez. ‘No what I’m saying is, I know people will pay a lot to see something like that. It’s just far too cool.’
‘While it lasts,’ he muttered.
‘What’s that?’
Ellie explained. ‘It’s melting. In the next fifty years or so it’ll all go as the world warms up.’
Jez spread her hands. ‘Even better! If it’s going to be gone one day, we could charge even more. Say….lemmesee…say two hundred creds, there and back? How does that sound?’
‘Two hundred creds? You think there’s enough people in this city who can spend two hundred creds on something like that?’ Aaron asked.
‘I’d say so. Most people…frankly, no. They’re like me and Ellie, struggling to keep up with the bills. But you look up at the sky, and count the number of air cars. Anyone who lives up above the highest plaza levels, in the top ten-twenty floors of the tenement towers - they’re the sort of people who can,’ replied Jez. ‘Crud, we could charge maybe three hundred creds a head from those sorts of bubble-heads.’
Ellie looked up at Aaron. ‘And how many people could we get into that cargo hold, comfortably? Ten? Fifteen?’
Aaron locked his eyes on her as he quickly did the maths in his head. ‘Minus fuel - say seven hundred creds fuel burn there and back,’ he looked up at Jez and back to Ellie, ‘that’s two thousand three hundred creds profit for each trip.’
‘Minus some other costs, like food and drink,’ she added.
‘Two thousand then.’
‘Two thousand,’ Jez repeated, with eyes as wide as saucers.
‘And you should have most of that,’ said Ellie to Aaron. ‘Jez and I, could do with…’ Don’t be greedy girl. ‘…three hundred and fifty each?’
Aaron laughed. ‘Three hundred and fifty!?’
‘Alright, then maybe that’s too much. What do you think about three hundred?’ Ellie asked wincing slightly.
Aaron continued to laugh, and then slapped a big hand down on her arm. ‘I was going to suggest four hundred each, Ellie girl. If I’m making a thousand profit with each trip, then I’m one happy-pappy.’
Jez spurted out a mouthful of her Spartan. ‘Four hundred! Crud, that’s twice what I was earning at Dantes!’
The three of them stared at each other in silence. Aaron spoke quietly. ‘That’s IF…we can sell tickets at three hundred creds a go.’
Ellie and Jez nodded eagerly.
‘Look let me think about this for a moment. It’s all a lot to take in.’
‘Of course,’ replied Ellie. ‘It was just an idea to think about. I’m sure one of us will find a very good reason why it can’t be done. For sure.’
Aaron excused himself and went to the toilet.
Jez watched him go before turning back to Ellie and slapping her back proudly. ‘My my,’ she said, ‘you’re a clever little one aren’t you?’
‘It all depends on what he thinks though, Jez. It’s his shuttle, his money, his risk. If it all falls flat, we’re no worse off than we are now. But for Aaron, it’s game over. It’s taken him years of hard work to end up with that shuttle of his. What do you think of him by the way?’
‘He seems okay so far. Not creepy like most older guys. How old is he anyway?’
Ellie realised she hadn’t a clue. At a guess she would put him in his mid-thirties. But it was so hard to even guess. ‘To be honest I haven’t ever asked him.’
‘I think I’d want to work on his presentation skills a bit. You know, if he’s going to be our skipper. The soiled brown boiler suit just doesn’t work for me, especially the stains…uh-uh,’ she said with a grimace.
Ellie laughed, ‘I’m sure we’ll come to that at some point.’
‘And what’s his shuttle like anyway?’
‘Well, it’s not exactly like the ones you’ve seen on the toob.’
‘You mean it’s a rust bucket?’
Ellie waggled her hand, ‘might need a little love and attention on the outside as well as the inside.’
‘Hmmm, sounds like a lot of work there before we can get earning some creds.’
‘But, we’d all be our own bosses, Jez….we’d be business partners.’
Jez perked up and smiled, she very much liked the sound of that. ‘Business partners, eh?’ she repeated.
‘It’s got to be better than slaving away for someone else,’ Ellie continued. ‘Every hour we put into it, is for us three, not someone else.’
Jez nodded in agreement. ‘Crud, I hope he says yes to your idea, which by the way makes you officially überbrain-chik of our little team.’
Ellie laughed. ‘Like you said, I’m the brains, you’re the beauty. And anyway, if Aaron decides to do this, it’ll be the three of us on the team.’
*
Aaron stood in the uni-gender pod and stared at his reflection in the mirror.
Am I going
to do this?
He got the impression Ellie and her friend, Jez, had decided it all rather felt like a done deal. But the fact was, there was one hell of a lot at stake here. He’d been running the Oxxon deliveries for nearly fifteen years, saving every spare cred he had earned in order to finally have enough to own the shuttle outright. And since buying it, he had continued living frugally, most of the time aboard his beautiful Lisa, to save on an unnecessary rent. He had assumed, foolishly as it turned out, that the Oxxon contract would last long past his lifetime, that it would be a reliable contract for the rest of his working life - another thirty to forty years. But then those soulless, suited, corporation dittoheads had placed their business with someone else, and that was that.
There was virtually nothing surface-based heading into and out of New Haven. Everything the city required in terms of supplies came in from off-world via the port. Harvest City, on the other hand, had a much smaller port, and although most of what it needed came in off-world, there was also a trickle of supplies running across world from New Haven. But he knew most of that business was sucked up by the same damned haulage firm that had taken his Oxxon contract.
If he kept looking, he’d find something, right? There had to be other contracts out there. It was early days yet. All he had done so far was check in with the port agent and he had enough savings tucked away to burn for at least three months on a black pad before he needed to hit the panic button.
This idea of Ellie’s, however, it sounded good. But there’d be a lot of work that would need to be done on the shuttle, and the thought of giving up his private space to fit in both girls; the laundry chaos, the giggling and larking around, the fact that it was small enough as it was with just him living in the cockpit. Between them they’d drive him mad.
But, the money could be great.
That was true if Ellie’s friend, Jez, was right, if there were plenty of people out there who would pay good money to goof around in real snow. She seemed to have street-smarts enough to know what’s hot and what’s not in New Haven. But it was a big gamble, a huge gamble; he could blow all of his savings turning his shuttle into a prissy little pleasure cruiser only to find that no-one was interested enough to shell-out for a ticket.
On the other hand, it could earn them all enough to find a way off-world.
He knew Ellie wanted that, she’d said Jez wanted it too. And Aaron longed to transport his surface shuttle to a world much younger, and less tamed than this one and ply his trade there. It might be the one and only chance all three of them had.
Well, it might, but then again, it might just ruin me.
He decided he had wasted enough time mulling this damned thing over. It was a nice idea, a clever idea even, but he knew the haulage game. That’s what he knew. Not the damned tourist business.
‘This is completely crazy,’ he muttered as he shook himself off.
The pleasure cruise game was for some other sucker. On this occasion, he had to let caution rule. His mind was settled. He washed his hands and left the soothing marine-blue calm of the uni-gender pod, working out how he was going to let the girls down as gently as possible. Destroy their dream. Pop their bubble.
‘Sorry girls…this is just too impractical…’ he practiced under his breath.
And no batting of eyelids or impassioned pleading was going to change his mind on this. It was too crazy. Too risky.
No way. Absolutely. No way.
To be continued…..
In
ELLIE QUIN: BENEATH THE NEON SKY
(Book 3 of the Ellie Quin Series)
ELLIE QUIN: BENEATH THE NEON SKY
(Book 3 of the Ellie Quin Series - available NOW)
Ellie and Jez’s plans to escape the suffocating grasp of New Haven finally look like they may be successful. They’re making money now, lots of it…but then, as always seems to be the way for Ellie, nothing ever goes entirely to plan.
Get book 3 now! Available exclusively on Amazon Kindle!
ALSO BY ALEX SCARROW
The TimeRiders series:
Time travel is already happening, there are already people coming through from our future into our past…and they are corrupting it, contaminating it. But, a small covert agency has been set up to preserve our history and our timeline: the TimeRiders.
Embark on a profoundly exciting journey through history with this nine book series published by Puffin. Available on Amazon Kindle, iBookstore, and in print in all good book stores.
About the Author
Alex Scarrow spent the first ten years out of college in various rock bands trying to get a record deal. Failing miserably at that he went into the computer games business as a digital artist.
After a decade in the games business, he ended up as a senior designer working on high-concept projects for next generation consoles.
Finally he got bored of all of that and turned his hand to writing. His first manuscript, A THOUSAND SUNS was published in the UK by Orion in 2005. He now has a number of thrillers out and has recently released the first book in his Young Adult series TIMERIDERS, nominated by Puffin as BEST ADVENTURE FANTASY in their recent BEST SEVENTY CHILDRENS BOOKS OF ALL TIME press release.
Alex Scarrow is fast building a reputation as one of the UK’s most original writers.
“Alex is plugged into the zeitgeist - his themes of religious chaos, environmental catastrophe and the dangers of unchecked power are perfectly in tune with the times.” - Orion Books.
Alex Scarrow, Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin (The Ellie Quin Series)
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