Young Writers Society

I thought, like any teenager who watches too many action movies, that when Shell told me we would ask Elliott about her situation, we would conduct an interrogation. And really, that’s where everything went wrong.

Or maybe that’s where everything went right. I think, no matter what, Andra-Media would have lost. The Independent Titan attacks and Andra’s use of them to set everything in motion created a gap in Andra-Media’s defenses by setting a witness loose in the universe. So for Ellie, I think every option was similar; eventually she would be out from under Andra-Media’s thumb.

She could have stayed hidden until Andra’s plan went into effect. She could have spilled everything to Crane and Shell the moment they let her know they would not let her suffer. No matter what, someone would have exposed Andra-Media’s treatment of their workers.

The moment I attacked her on the earthling fold monitor, I saw the pseudo fire that every teenager has in their eyes, that blend of snark and disillusionment native to adolescence, turn into real fire. In that moment when capture was imminent, she made the choice to remain free.

My family pursued her, of course. At this point, my parents’ enjoyment of the hunt kicked in, but the real reason we kept after her was because Ellipse’s mysterious words caught our curiosities. I remember feeling a distant and jarring shock as she slipped away into the mess of metal and cement and bodies that made up the fold monitor. Elliott Bei had never existed? That was preposterous. Tabloids mentioned her birthday every year, and everyone knew Andra had a little sister. Even people on Titan, who had known the siblings before their fame, confirmed the existence of an Elliott Bei.

We stopped by the citizenship database to confirm her words and found her correct, which made my parents even more interested in her, especially when we found that Andra Bei had reregistered very shortly after Independent Titan’s bombings. It seemed odd that the siblings would not go together. The man who helped us frowned when he noticed this as well, his angular face crinkling in confusion. I only just made out his expression; the desks were quite tall at the citizenship database, and Crane and Shell had to prop themselves up on the desktops with their paws in order to see.

Shipping destinations are made public, which helps both pirates and protective forces locate ships. My parents and I trailed the Conics to Planet Five, and at the time, I thought this was really where things went sour.

Ellie seemed to make friends quickly. The moment my parents prowled up to the tyran and specifus on the crew and asked about her, the Conics crew went on the defensive. Or at least, that is how my parents related the story to me. They asked me to locate Ellie upon noticing that she was not with the ship and rest of the crew.

Again, I mistook locating for subduing, which was probably stupid on my part. I have no excuses for that. I distinctly remember chasing her through the station, with snowy, crystalline Planet Five hanging in the background. That was the sorest my arms had gotten in a while; every subsequent chase involving Ellie also involved her pushing me, thankfully. I once wound up with bruises all over from holding Focci in my lap though.

And then I saw my parents being led away, and I knew somewhere, we had screwed up.

For all that I lived with bounty hunters, I was unfamiliar with the courts and the general ways in which government inserts itself into daily life. I remember rolling up to Ellie and Focci, the two of them already discussing their course of action, astounded at the open space in front of them.

I felt inferior as Ellie talked to me after that. She explained the legal system, which I immediately marked as suspicious, but had no way of acting on at the time, and then sang to Focci, keeping me out of the conversation. Once I joined Crane and Shell, I had never been kept out of a conversation before, or at least not so blatantly. It hurt to have our positions switched, with Ellie in power and me a subject of her whims.

But then, as she turned to walk away, she shot me a grin, one that crinkled her eyes just enough to be kind, and invited me along.

- A Life Unfolded: the story of Tejal Sethi