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Ellie Eleven
Chapter 2 – The Garbage Scow

Chapter 2 – The Garbage Scow

Ellie was tired, hungry, and extremely annoyed by the time she found her way to the star port. She had to show her ID to several guards. The budget committee actually listing her as an adult raised a few questions.

“Yes officer, I know I am only ten!” Ellie said annoyed. “But they made me an adult so you should ask your questions to them.” Ellie grounded out after the third officer stopped her.

The officer glowered at her, Ellie wondered if he was waiting for her to break down and confess something. Noving chance of that! Finally the officer shrugged and let her through, unable to find a reason to hold her. Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.

After entering the star port main area she followed her chip's instruction to an out of the way shipping office. A real live person greeted her. “Hello dear! Are you lost?” The woman asked.

She wore a ship suit and had black hair and brown eyes and was about Ellie's height, 5'3. Ellie took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. How did people deal with this everyday!

“No ma'am. You are Hemwell travels and shipping?” The lady nodded looking puzzled. “Then I would like to book passage to Cullen Town on Cullen Island.”

Not very imaginative but the small settlement on the coast had only a few hundred people.

“Dear you need to be with a guardian to book passage.”

Ellie sighed. “I know ma'am, but I am a legal adult as of today.”

The lady was highly skeptical of this assertion and for the fourth time today she had to prove she was indeed an adult in the eyes of the powers that be.

“Well this is very unusual but we do have a cargo ship leaving in a few hours if you don't mind roughing it.” She gave a really good price.

Ellie had looked at other shipping companies and the few that went there charged passengers a lot more. Ellie had made a few credits on the dark sub net selling small software jobs. She had to do this clandestinely so the overseers didn't find out and confiscate her credits. Rosa had turned a blind eye to this.

The price for the ticket was in her budget and she didn't need a first class luxury seat.

“Thank you ma'am”

“Jane dear.”

“Thank you Jane where can I get a bite to eat around here?” If she had hours to wait and then a long ship travel, she wanted to eat beforehand.

Jane sent her to a close dinner that she eat at often and promised to send a message when the ship was ready. Ellie thanked her and went to eat and relax hoping her day would get better.

After Ellie ate a large vat grown burger, she had to admit Jane had been right, the small place was good. She spent her hours waiting going over more manuals. She wanted desperately to open Rosa's packages but now wasn't the time or place. Jane finally pinged her.

Ellie went back to the office and Jane led her to a large garbage scow.

“Sorry about the ship Ellie.”

“Don't worry about it, this is perfect.” Jane looked at her skeptical. Ellie was not lying. She was on her way to look through trash and here was her first opportunity.

“Really Jane this is fine.”

Jane still did not look convinced but turned to a man standing nearby. “Ken this is Ellie, the one I commed you about.”

The man wore a dirty ship suit and had messy light brown hair. “Well this isn't a first class cruise Ellie. I hope you know that.” Ellie nodded. “Understood. Um just what sort of trash are you hauling?”

Ken shared a confused look with Jane. “We have a contract with the local UEN military to trash some old equipment.” Ellie want to dance. This was awesome.

“Can I look though some of the trash holds?” Ken and Jane shared another look. “Sure I don't see why not. Just don't track oil and trash around the rest of the ship!” Ken admonished.

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“Understood. Can I go aboard?”

“Sure we will be leaving soon.” Ellie turned and gave a quick goodbye to Jane, then raced aboard, leaving Ken and Jan looking at each other in confusion. Why would anyone get so excited by trash?

The ship was on the small size, about a hundred and fifty feet long and sixty wide. It had four holds, two on either side. The ship ceiling and sides opened up to load trash. When they dumped it the ship hovered and a hatch under the ship opened and it rained out.

The ship smelled of oil, fried electronics, and something Ellie couldn't identify. She started on the first hold on the left and did a dance in glee. Old military light powered armor suits filled the hold. They were not the hulking tin cans of the front lines, that could take rail gun fire, hit after hit, but they were still useful for rear area coverage.

Ellie immediately saw the usefulness of the suits for her planned salvaging operation. The suits were very outdated and worn but there were so many that Ellie spent a fun hour mix and matching. The new suit fit perfectly when she tried it on, though she had to plug it in to the ship's power. The suits main batteries were long drained of any charge.

Ellie piled up several critical parts for future maintenance and repair, wondering how she would transport all the pieces, the second hold held the answer. When she opened up the hatch she laughed and wanted to scream in joy, light armored grav carts. Carrying two people and a small load of cargo grav carts were useful to get around on military bases. The carts were small but big enough for Ellie, measuring eight feet long and six feet wide, with four small nacelles at each corner. They could carry a tonne, the maximum weight the small sized grav plates could lift and the nacelles could push.

Again Ellie had to build a new unit form parts. She checked eight carts before she found one with a working micro fusion plant. After swapping out a few bad grav plates, and a nacelle, a ding hit her commpad and Ellie wanted to growl. She wasn't done!

“Yes?”

“We will be arriving in an hour. I have seen you going through the trash. Are you really planning on using that old suit and grav cart?” Ellie blushed hot red. She didn't realize she was being watched! She never had to worry about it with Rosa.

“Ye..” Ellie cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes I am.”

“Well you may want to check the other holds.” Ken chucked before ending the comm.

Embarrassed she went to the next hold. It was filled with small sensor hover bots! About a foot in diameter they were packed with radar, lidar, sonar, thermal, and standard cameras. They made great watch men.

Ellie could reposes the bots to scan trash! Barely keeping form dancing again, she went through the bots; this would be a lot harder than fixing a grav cart. Ellie didn't have time! She did a fast diagnostic of two dozen bots and set aside twenty of the best ones. Then she grabbed anther thirty at random hoping to repair them or use them as parts later.

With time closing in she check the last hold. Ellie wanted to groan, miscellaneous electronics! If Ellie had hours she would love do go through each piece. Over there was a mini reactor, that corner looked to have maintenance bots, over in another corner military grade harden data servers, and look commpads! Ellie was frozen. So many options! Her pad dinged.

Noving Ken, he was probably laughing his head off! Sighing and trying to calm down she answered the comm.

“Yes Ken?”

“Just wanted you to know we well be over the drop area soon. For you, I will start with hold one. You can then move your items into the cleared hold.”

Ellie lost all her anger and was extremely grateful. “Thanks!” She said brightly.

“No problem.”

Scrambling around, she grabbed the mini reactor and a box of commpads and threw them into the hallway. Then she piled five data servers up and pushed them out with the rest of the pile. She run to hold one and went about removing the armored suit and parts. Ken was probably enjoying watching her run back and forth like a defective bot.

“Okay stand clear of cargo one door.” This time Ken didn't comm her but announced it over the ships systems.

The door slid closed and Ellie heard a grinding noise. The door whisked open soon after and without prompting, Ellie started moving her salvage back into the now empty hold. Ellie then ran to get her sensor drones and electronics form the last hold. The grav cart was a lot harder to move.

‘Just set it to hover near the ceiling.’

She linked the controls to her pad and exited the hold. The rest of the dumping happened fast. Ellie was tired but happy, loading everything into her reclaimed grav cart. Ellie was thankful the whole cart, including the cargo area, was covered and armored. It would protect her items not just form the elements but form other people. Not that she could think of a reason someone would steal it. Too many would consider it just junk.

“Ellie we will be landed in five.” Ellie acknowledged the comm.

Soon the cargo bay doors opened and Ellie drove down the ramp, the nacelles whining as air was forced through them then expelled out. Ken met her outside. Ellie climbed out of the grav cart and was hit with more heat then she felt back at the star port. It was an oppressive dry heat with the nearby ocean breeze barely cooling her down. She stopped and stared at the great expanse of water, jaw hanging open.

Ken chucked. “Never seen the ocean before?” Ellie could just shake her head.

After few moments entranced by the sight, Ellie was able to pull her focus away.

“Thank you Ken!”

“No problem kid. Stay safe.”

Nodding in acknowledgment, Ellie climbed back into her vehicle. The cart was easy to drive and soon she was exiting the port into the town proper, there was not much to see. The whole town maybe held a fifty building, not one taller than four stories. Ellie could even see the end of the town form the port. There was an incredible amount of large ships flying above her head, not nearly has many as the UEN port, but she could see dozens of trash scows, several times larger than the ship she just came in on, flying toward distance locations on Cullen Island to drop off garbage. Garbage like the grav cart and powered suit! Ellie was giddy. This could work. She could save herself!