Free Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand by Alex Scarrow

panel behind a distant line of projected mountain peaks. The rest of the sky was a smooth gradient from light salmon pink along the horizon rising up towards a deep night blue at the top of the dome. The air was cozy and full of the chirruping of nocturnal insects.
    They were sitting at a round table in a central plaza; a mosaic of different coloured floor tiles still radiating warmth from the day's sun. Frasier emerged from a doorway nearby, shuffling out on bowlegs and tired feet with a tray full of drinks in his hands.
    'Your usual,' he said placing a tall tumbler of something pink and frothy with a straw in front of Shelby. 'SoyoCandy protein shake.'
    He handed Jez and Ellie a glass of red fizzy liquid each. 'We don't have Spartans here. But this is as close an approximation as I could manage.'
    'Thank you,' said Ellie.
    'Yeah, thanks monkey,' said Jez.
    Frasier sighed, shook his head. 'I'll go and prepare dinner.' He headed back the way he'd come.
    'Sounds like you and this Graham don't get on very well,' said Ellie.
    'I know he must have an Upper-Dip creditation in genetic scripting. He wouldn't have been employed as a technician here otherwise, hmmm. But…he can be such a tiresome, irritating pleb.'
    Jez cocked her head. 'Pleb?'
    'Short for
plebian
. Old Earth language called
latin
.' Shelby rolled his eyes in a way that suggested he was preparing himself to explain what latin was.
    'Uh-uh,' Jez replied disinterestedly.
    'He's a knucklehead. An oik. A chav. A jock. A fratboy to use a few more Old Earth synonyms. Using a more contemporary vernacular; a complete dittohead.'
    'Dittohead,' Ellie smiled. 'We use that term on Harper's Reach.'
    As soon as she'd said that, Ellie realised she'd been careless telling him where they'd come from. She felt her cheeks warm and wandered if they were blotching. Shelby seemed not to have heard her.
    'Honestly,' he continued, 'he has no respect for the science, nor the state-of-the-art laboratory facilities we have at our disposal here.' Shelby shook his head and fluttered his eyelids. 'Its utterly wasted on someone like him!'
    Just then they heard the tap of lazy footsteps approaching.
    'Speak of the devil,' Shelby sighed.
    A raucous piercing whistle echoed around the deserted village. 'Yo! Shelbs! Honey…I'm ho-ome!'
    Shelby tutted and rolled his eyes again.
    Through a stone archway, throttled by creeping ivy, Graham emerged onto the plaza.
    Jez lowered her drink as she lowered her jaw. 'Freg-me,' she whispered. 'He's….'
    Ellie nodded slowly.
Gorgeous
. Not just sopa-dram handsome, not just holo billboard gorgeous. He looked implausible. Like one of the computer generated heroes in the games Ted liked to play. He ambled casually towards them wearing sandals that made a
flip-flap
sound as he walked, shorts that frayed just below his knees and a loose pink vest top that hung artfully from his muscular, tanned shoulders.
    But that perfect body - already a flashing green go-go-go light for Jez - was just the pedestal on which was perched the most beautifully attractive head Ellie thought she'd ever seen in person. A lean, tanned, sculpted face that could easily be used to launch
any
advertising campaign, split with a bright and welcoming smile. All topped off with a long mop of tousled ash-blonde hair. A perfect blend of pretty boy and masculine demigod.
    'Shelbs,
doobie
, there you are, my man!'
    God
. Ellie found herself shuffling in her chair, absently straightening her shoulders and arching her spine. Just like Jez had once taught her ('gives you a longer looking neck and pertier jahoobies').
    'Sorry I'm late, man…got sidetracked.'
    God
,
even the way he speaks is fregging perfect
. Easy, mid-toned; not too high, not too deep, a good-natured drawl that made each word sound like a lyric.
    Graham paused a dozen yards short. His smile turned to a wolfish grin and he wagged a chiding finger at Shelby. 'You're a dirty donkey, Shelbs!' He chuckled. 'Good for you! Sheeez, never thought