Read Ellie Quin Episode 5: A Girl Reborn for Free Online Page A

their noses to rot and fall off. A famous landmark sculpture called the ‘Spinx’ [fact-challenge pending: user> Garriott3554] that existed before it was destroyed in the Second Nuclear War, depicted this widespread disfigurement.
    In the twenty-first century, a widespread beauty treatment was to inject silicate gels under the skin to even-out bumps and creases. The practice became so common among the rich and famous that their faces became mobile rigid masks of hardening gel beneath the skin, permanently locked into an expression of startled surprise.
    Over the next few centuries, until the major wars and the colonial era, beauty treatments and anti-ageing therapies used more sophisticated stem-cell technology and finally genetic ‘surrogating’. For those few who could afford it, complete surrogate clones were kept on ice; perfect facsimiles grown in vats and kept sedated and unconscious, ready to be harvested for replacement parts.
    These days, the technology of beauty and age-reversal has become a very niche industry favoured by only the extremely rich and powerful. One of the most well-known users of extreme beauty and anti-ageing gene therapy is [article redacted by order of Administration Dept (Cultural Maintenance): 23:11:93]
    User Comment > CohenShmoen411
    This article is ancient!!! Look at the date! It’s over two hundred years out of date!!! Does anyone ever bother to clean out Omni?!
    User Comment > ToftyLovesMufty
    More to the point, Cohen…there’s an example of the Administration’s censorship right there! I did a history course on the Administration-Era, and the person this article is referring to (before it was deleted!) was one of the ruling council members.
    User Comment > CohenShmoen411
    I know! They were complete fascists. You should read this article on the Old System concentration-camp planets. It’s quite horrific. Particularly some of the vid-images. They were truly barbaric.
    User Comment > Anonymous
    *****myLove, my froobyGroovy Love**** buy it: here!!!!
    User Comment > CarlCohen23
    MyGod. For anyone who’s interested. I think CohenShmoen was my great-great grandfather. I was looking up my ancestors trying to track their comments on Omni. It’s incredible to find something he posted here…like it was just yesterday! Weird, it’s like he’s alive somewhere out there, right now.
    User Comment > XXX-bloodlineSearch-XXX
    Want to track your ancestors back to Administration-era, or Pre-Colonial times? Come try us out. We charge credits by results only.
    User Comment > [[[[aaaaaaaaaaadvice?]]]]]]]
    Want to know how to get rich quick? Ten reds per tip. Guaranteed success!!!
    User Comment > Anonymous
    Talk about out of date! Even this last (non-spam) user comment above is ancient! (if you query-gesture the user name, the comment above was posted THREE hundred years ago!!!) Seriously. The archives REALLY need cleaning up.

CHAPTER 7
    ‘Ladies, gentlemen…and genetically fabricated chimpanzee, are you ready to be amazed and aghast?!’
    Jez tucked her fingers into her mouth and wolf-whistled. ‘Get on with it!’ she heckled good-naturedly.
    Gray ignored her. ’Beyond these doors lies a magical kingdom. A world of possibilities and wonder…’
    He was standing in front of the closed bulkhead to World Three like some travelling showman before an audience of straw-chewing hicks. Shelby stood beside him, arms crossed and eye-lids fluttering with irritation.
    ‘Behind these carbosteel doors lies a world beyond your imagination. A place where…’
    ‘Oh, good grief.’ Shelby turned to the coms panel. ‘Mother? Open the bulkhead doors please.’
    ‘Certainly, Shelby.’ Mother’s beady eyes shifted to Gray. ‘Were you showing off again, my dear?’
    Gray shook his head and huffed. ‘Just adding some drama to things.’
    Motors either side of the bulkhead doors hummed and a moment later they parted revealing a slither of bright light that lanced out into the gloomy passageway. Ellie and Jez