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Lost in Translation

The paperback from DAW Books

Praise for Ed's previous novel, Lost in Translation:

"Edward Willett has arrived, and SF is the richer for it." -  Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids

"A believable, absorbing, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable read." - Kathy Tyers, Author of the Firebird trilogy, Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura, and Star Wars: Balance Point

Andy Nebula: Interstellar Rock Star
Published by Roussan Publishers

Nominated for the 2001 Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award
Named to the Our Choice list by the Canadian Children's Book Centre

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Back to Chapter 11

CHAPTER TWELVE

 Flash is called flash because it acts instantly (as I'd already discovered) and because its effects recur in ever-shorter bursts until it's eliminated from the body. For the next few hours I'd be out of my mind more than I was in it--and might not know the difference.

Meta headed for the gate. "Qualls--" I said, resisting.

"The security people come with the stadium, don't they?"

Did they? Yeah, they did. I nodded.

"Then just leave it to me."

I didn't have much choice. Neither my brain nor my body were exactly at their best. Only Meta's arm kept me upright.

A frowning security guard met us at the gate. "Passes?"

"I'm with him," Meta said sweetly, and I managed to lift my head. The guard shone a flashlight in my face. His eyes widened.

"Sorry, Mr. Nebula--"

"Oh, label me Andy, gladeye," I said. "Everyone else does... did...didee-da-dit-da-dit..." My words turned into phosphorescent balloons, and I waved good-bye as they lifted into the sky.

The guard looked up, then back down at me. "Is he all right?" His voice started three octaves below middle C and screeched to a high C-sharp in the space of four words. I winced.

"Should be a singer, gladeye! What a range...range...range, range on the home..." The guard sprouted bovine horns.

"He's just--happy," Meta said. "Happy to be home. We're going out celebrating!"

"Looks to me like he's already been celebrating," the guard said. "Well, enjoy yourself, Mr.--Andy."

"Moo! Moooo!" I said to him, and suddenly everything snapped back to normal. I straightened abruptly. "Um--I mean--thank you very much." I turned to Meta. "Come along, my dear." Taking her arm, I led her grandly down the street.

Behind us, a clamor abruptly arose from the stadium and the guard's communicator squawked. "Uh-oh," I said.

"What's going on?" Meta started to turn around, just as the guard shouted, "Stop! Mr. Nebula, stop!"

I grabbed Meta's hand. "Run!"

"A minute ago you couldn't even walk!" Meta shouted above the thudding of our feet on the pavement.

Sirens wailed from somewhere ahead. "Police--and ambulance!" I shouted. "Faster!" My blood blazed anew, filling me with energy. This was what flash was all about! I ran as fast as I could, almost dragging Meta, laughing out loud as shockwaves of colour exploded around us. Green fire burned in our wake, silver stars burst from our mouths and drifted to the ground like snow--

The flash ended. "Kit, stop! Stop!" Meta screamed.

I stopped. Meta broke free and stumbled away from me, sobbing, clutching her arm, and I saw my handprint outlined in red on her skin. "What's wrong with you? What's going on?"

The manic energy had vanished. I felt weak, sick--and lost. I stared around. How far had we run? Blank brick walls surrounded us. I could still hear the sirens, slowing, fading, back at the stadium. "Meta, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to--it's the drug--"

"What drug? I thought--a sedative, to knock you out--"

"No..." My knees gave out and I sat down abruptly on the curb. "No, Meta. He--" I took a deep breath. "He gave me flash."

Her hands flew to her mouth. "Kit, no!"

I nodded miserably. "And that's not all...I can't go back, Meta. I've got to hide from him, hide until he gives up."

Meta sat down on the curb beside me. "Then I can't either!"

"What?" Awful realization hit me. "Oh, Meta--I'm sorry, I didn't--" Rage suddenly exploded in me like a volcano, rage at my stupidity and blindness. I roared my anger and self-loathing at the top of my lungs, pounding my thighs with my fists--then I raised my hands high over my head, screaming, and brought them down as claws to rake at my face--

--and something stopped me, some force that dared to stand against my fury. I could feel my anger coiled under my skin like vicious, poisonous black snakes and suddenly it turned outward, toward whatever it was that dared to thwart my--

And then the flash passed, and I found myself standing over Meta, fingers clawed, her hands holding my wrists. I jerked free of her and stumbled back, dragging the back of my hand across my froth-flecked lips. "Meta...I can't--you've got to leave, get away from me. I was going--I could have--"

"I've got nowhere to go," Meta cried. "You know this city, I don't. And if I go back to Qualls--if he's as bad as you say--"

"But I--" I covered my face with my hands, took a deep breath and tried to control the shaking. The flash was a time bomb in my blood. The first dose hit hardest, I'd heard that often enough...but how hard? How long? Yet Meta was right. I couldn't leave her, she wouldn't last six hours on the street, and I couldn't send her back to Qualls. I'd gotten her into this, I had to get her out. I leaned against the nearest wall. "I'm all right now. The lucid periods should last longer and longer, and I've never heard of a dose lasting longer than a few hours." And after that? How long before I began craving the next dose? Well, one problem at a time. "Just...watch me. If I start acting strange, stay clear until--until it's over."

"But what if you try to hurt yourself again?"

"Maybe you should let me," I muttered.

"Don't be stupid!" The words came out like a verbal slap.

I couldn't help grinning a little. "Thanks, I needed that."

She came closer. "So where will we go? "

"Fat Sloan's. It's a flop--um, a hotel. A friend sent me a message to meet him there."

"Can you trust him?"

I opened my mouth to say yes--and stopped. Could I trust Rain? I hardly knew him. And he was a Hydra, like The Dealer. Maybe he was a friend of The Dealer's, and sent the message just to ensure that I escaped the stadium, I'd still run straight into their clutches. After all, Qualls had reminded me of the message waiting for me on the terminal... "Maybe not. So forget Fat Sloan's. We'll just hole up around here until I'm--normal. Then tomorrow, I'm putting you on the first ship to Carstair's Folly."

"Kit--"

"No arguments. Qualls is dangerous--and right now, so am I. I'm getting you away. Then I'll just have myself to worry about."

"But they gave you flash, Kit. You're going to need help--"

"My problem. Not yours."

Her lips pressed together. "Fine."

"Good. Now..." I didn't know exactly where we were, but I knew the neighborhood. No good for street-singing, but not bad for hiding. I used to have three or four "addresses" in this district--mostly abandoned warehouses. All I needed was a signpost. I started up the street.

Meta watched me carefully as we splashed along the potholed pavement. "Are you--normal, right now?" she said finally.

My heart skipped a beat. "I think so," I said cautiously.

"Just checking." She shrugged. "It's hard to tell, with you."

I laughed and took a playful swipe at her head. "Why you--"

She danced out of reach and I ran after her, and for a few seconds as we played tag, I forgot everything else--

--right up until the peaceforcer car slowly rounded the corner far behind us. I saw it first and lunged at Meta. "Meta--"

"You sure are slow for such a great dancer--" she taunted, then must have seen something in my eyes, because she stopped and turned around. "Maybe you could just tell them about Qualls--"

"Not with flash in my blood. That's a crime all by itself. Run!" I dashed down the street. Maybe they hadn't seen us...

They must have had nightsight. I heard the whine of their powerful electric motor and suddenly the whole front of the car lit up with blinding light that made the street brighter than day--and showed us only too clearly there was nowhere to hide.

But it also revealed street signs up ahead: Warehouse Road Four and Thrustfire Boulevard. "Got it!" I cried. "Come on!"

We reached the corner with the 'forcers half a block behind but gaining fast. I dragged Meta out of the light and across Thrustfire, then dodged immediately down a narrow space between two buildings. We reached another alley, parallel to Thrustfire, just as the police car squealed around the corner. As we ducked into the cross-alley the flash of a spotlight speared the space between the buildings where we'd just been. "I've still got my old timing," I said gleefully. "Who's slow?"

"Don't stop!" Meta cried, tugging at my hand.

"Not that way. This way!" Back into the narrow slot between the buildings we went. The whine of the 'forcers' car slowed and stopped; a door unlatched. "They'll be down here any second," I whispered, stooping over and searching the base of the building on the right. "This place had better still be--got it!"

"Got what?"

I bent down and lifted up the boards that covered a small basement window, its glass long-vanished. "After you."

She hesitated. "It's dark."

"Well, wait a sec and the 'forcers will light it up for you--"

Without another word she lowered herself through and disappeared. I sat down, poked my legs into the basement, slid forward--and stuck. My heart raced. Eight months--I'd grown-- "Pull!" I whispered fiercely to Meta, and felt her grab my legs and tug on them. I pushed with all my strength.

Footsteps echoed from the street. The 'forcers would find me, half in and half out, caught like a rat--

I felt myself transform, my clothes turning to gray fur, my face elongating, sprouting whiskers, my teeth growing long and sharp. I could smell the human coming, smell his sweat and the sharp metallic scent of his horrible rat-killing club, and I wriggled frantically and suddenly was free, leaving fur and skin behind but dropping into wonderful darkness. Quick as thought I turned around and closed the jaws of the trap, and seconds later heard the heavy tread of the human passing by, never knowing the rats he sought were close enough to bite him.

Ignoring the squeaking of the little rat who shared my hole, I curled myself up nose to tail and went blissfully to sleep.

#

On to Chapter 13...