Young Writers Society

They left bright and early the next morning, just packed up their belongings and hopped on a rocket shuttle out of LaGuardia Airfield. The return tickets had been booked for that day anyways, but Ellipse was glad to be in space again. She wanted to be out of the reach of other bounty hunters sooner rather than later.

The ride up, unlike the plummet through the atmosphere, was smooth. Strapped into the ceiling with the duffel bags and Tejal’s folded-up wheelchair, Ellipse hardly registered the shuttle’s movement outside of takeoff, a bit of turbulence in-atmosphere, and the sudden rush of gravity upon docking at the ISS.

Ribs pressing down into the elastic restraints, Ellipse wriggled her legs free and shimmied butt-first out of the straps across her torso. She landed a hair’s width away from Focci’s webbed fingers, boots hitting the metal floor with a satisfying clunk.

From the wall, Tejal let out a grunt. “Get my chair down first. This is really uncomfortable.”

Ellipse considered hauling their luggage down first, just to be petty, but she figured now was not the time. They only had a few days left together. Rolling her eyes, she stretched up onto her toes and pulled loose the elastic straps holding Tejal’s chair and tugged the chair down so she could open it up.

“Just put it there,” Tejal said, gesturing at a spot on the ground with his neck.

It took another few minutes, most of which Ellipse spent on her toes pulling down the luggage while the boys finagled their ways to mobility, but eventually the group was ready to leave. With waves of their twin tails, Crane and Shell led the way down the cramped shuttle corridor, past a few other passengers struggling to free themselves from the restraints, and out into the landing dock.

The docking room stretched out, thin like the shuttle and long enough to have a noticeable curve in the floor. It was chrome, all spiffy, spick-and-span, though Ellipse noted with some distaste that the corners of the room looked dull with dust. Whoever the janitors were, they were not up to snuff.

As the gato led the way out of the docking room and into the eclectic, Arts and Crafts revival style hall just beyond, Ellipse kept her eyes peeled. She adjusted her grip on the duffle bags and lifted her gaze up above the heads of the other earthlings scattered through the space.

She spotted a particularly well-nourished specifus whose maple-tree canopy lifted way overhead, and then a tyran even lankier and knobbier than Wrecktrix, but thankfully, only those two and a tall, blonde earthling woman stood out among the crowds. No day tubai yet. Ellipse slouched in relief. Hopefully the rest of the walk through the ISS would proceed smoothly.

“You seem tense,” Focci observed, flopping alongside her.

Ellipse’s knee banged into the trumpet case tucked into one of the duffle bags, and she bit back a wince. “I have to be on guard until we make it onto the Ink.”

“Tejal’s parents are professionals,” Focci reassured her. “Even if some rival bounty hunters show up, I am sure they can make sure everything runs smoothly.”

Ellipse walked right into Crane, knocking the same banged knee into his ribcage, and she nearly toppled over. She looked back at Tejal. “Why did we stop?”

She felt a rumbling under her knee before Tejal responded.

“Apparently there’s some weird crowd path patterns up ahead. Shell is going to scout it out.”

Okay, wow. Ellipse already knew about the uncanny pattern sensing—Universal Biology had explained it as a mechanism for detecting prey in vast ice fields—but seriously? No wonder Crane and Shell had caught her before.

Crane rumbled again, and Ellipse sent Tejal another pointed look.

“We’re going to keep moving forward for the time being. It’s probably just an unlicensed street performer or something.”

They pushed on, weaving through the other travellers in single file, and when Shell returned purring the old ‘no news is good news’ adage, Ellipse let herself relax. The group passed into the shipping sector, with its exposed industrial structures, weathered concrete walls, and big central conveyor belt, and Ellipse found that despite lugging around two duffle bags, she had a spring in her step. They were almost there.

And then something made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight. She glanced up, but could not spot any tall, white day tubai exoskeletons. The closest thing was a pale blue tyran with beefy muscles who stood surrounded by a flock of brilliantly colored avians.

“Is something wrong?” Tejal asked.

“I do not think so?” Maybe the earthling bounty hunter was alone. “Your parents could figure out if someone nearby was a fellow bounty hunter, right?”

“Probably.” Tejal rolled forward, closer to his parents. “Do you see anyone suspicious?”

Crane meowed something back and moved to find a vantage point, and the moment that Ellipse stepped out of his way, closer to the conveyor belt, she felt a set of cold fingers close around her elbow.

She was yanked backwards. One of the duffle bags dropped to the ground, and she stumbled back, legs struggling to keep up with whatever force had taken hold of her arm.

“And here I thought you were trying to stay free.”

Ellipse knew that tenor. It was the earthling bounty hunter. Ice crawled down her spine, and she tried to drop her weight, to fall, but the grip on her elbow tightened, and her shoulder ached the moment she dipped too low. She twisted over, remaining duffle bag swinging out in a wide arc. Her trumpet case smashed into the bounty hunter’s knees with a hollow crack, and the grip loosened just enough for her to slip free.

“Ow!” The hand closed around her wrist. “Oh, no you don’t. If anyone’s getting that money, it’s going to be-

Ellipse dropped to the ground, tugging the man off balance, and twisted her hand to dig her nails into his skin. “Let go of me,” she hissed.

The words had hardly left her mouth before a white blur streaked across her vision. She heard the yowl and the scratchy shriek of a man about to be mauled by a cat, and then her wrist was free. Scrambling backwards, she looked around for Tejal and Focci, not sure if she should help or not.

Through the denim-clad legs of a huddle of delivery workers, Ellipse saw Tejal waving. “Come on! Shell can take care of that guy!”

Ellipse gathered the bag in her arms and ran.