Aberrant: The Infinity Hour - [ItB:The Infinity Hour] - Andrea Nast

[Titan]

Monday April 13, 1998 [8:26pm PST]

Andrea Nast opened the door to her apartment and darted inside. She closed the door quickly, locked and leaned against it. Her heart still hammered in her chest, and she took a long shaky breath.

"You SUCK!" a shout from the living room.

Andrea smiled in spite of herself.

"No, YOU suck!" she yelled back.

Tess, her best friend, peeked her head around the corner. Behind her, the TV droned. Tess eyed Andrea up and down.

"I don't see any claw marks."

"Tess, I-"

"Your dress isn't ripped, so he didn't attack you, more's the pity. So, what happened?" Tess demanded.

Andrea sighed.

"I just..."

"You just left," Tess said, "again." She shook her head, a wry smile playing at her lips. "How'd you get home?"

"SLO-mo," Andrea admitted, the Polytechnic nickname for the San Luis Obispo transit.

Tess burst into laughter. After a second, Andrea joined her. They laughed together for a minute, then Tess wiped her eyes.

"God, Andrea, you are sooo lame! Ted's nice! Why are you like this? Jeez, hon!"

Andrea realized suddenly that Tess was dressed for an evening out. She wore a backless silk thing with black jeans and heels. Her hair was up, and her face done. She had glitter on her shoulders, and looked ready for anything.

"What are you doing here, anyway, Tessa?"

Tess barked a laugh.

"Because I knew you would bail on your blind date, ninny!"

Andrea walked into her living room. Neat and well organized, except for a book open on the sofa, Veterinary Computed Tomography. On the TV, the talking head gushed about some Nova press conference.

"Were you reading this?"

Tess made a pfft sound. "As if. I skimmed a bit, made me glad I go to Cuesta." She snatched the remote off of the ottoman as Andrea closed the textbook, and aimed it at the TV. The CNN guy had a still from Return of the Jedi over his shoulder when he disappeared. Tess tossed the remote onto the sofa. "So, are we going out or what?"

Andrea groaned.

"It's late, and I have a paper due in the morning. Tess, it's Monday night, for the love of-"

"Oh shut it, it's eight thirty, and you finished that paper a week ago, minimum."

Andrea shelved the text on the short shelf next to her rolltop desk. She turned to Tess.

"I want to look it over again, and what could you possibly want to do on a Monday night?"

Tess grinned.

"Your paper is perfect and you know it. Now come on, it's ladies night at the Pourhouse, and they're having a 'Hundred Days' party."

Andrea groaned louder.

"Oh, no, not me. Ladies night at the Pourhouse is not my idea of a good- Hundred days 'til what?"

Tess looked at her like she was from the moon.

"Til Juno's birthday, Andrea! Are you kidding? Do you read 'People'? Good lord! Now, shut it, you're going. Go fix your face."

[Karren Gaunt]

There was a moment where Andrea stood there massaging her right shoulder nervously, on the verge of saying no again and hoping the other woman didn't press her, feeling terribly guilty for running away *again*... But then she drew in a deep breath, determination in her green eyes, and nodded agreement. Tess would have her back. Tess had always had her back, ever since she met her. And Ted *had* been nice far as she could tell through her mounting nerves before she stammered her excuses and all but sprinted to the bus stop. It was just her old problems holding her back. Again.

Another deep breath as Tess grinned at her, and Andrea darted into her bathroom, trying to borrow some of that infectious confidence as she checked herself out and fixed up what needed fixing. There wasn't a lot, just a little touch up, a few pulls of a brush through her auburn hair and a bit of straightening... And her reflection looked back at her, ready for a nice, causal evening out with her friend with no forced romance or further matchmaking. She looked nice. More than nice actually, Andrea forced herself to mentally note, years of good-natured brow beating having gotten at least that insecurity out of her psyche. Yes. 'Hot', even. And the paper *was* finished, much as there was something she could fix about the syntax that bugged her, another reference she could use...

No. No no no. She wasn't going to go that way. They were going to go out and have a good time and nothing bad would happen. Yes. Precisely that, and it was going to be fun. Even if she only vaguely knew about Juno from the news as one of the 'Novas' who had shown up since the space station blew up. Tess would get a kick explaining it to her anyway. She always did.

A few more indrawn breaths and inward focus on that final good throught, and Andrea considered herself ready, heading back into the living room with her best 'okay. let's do this.' smile in place.

[Titan]

Tess burbled about this Novus or that one all the way to the Pourhouse, and especially about Juno. Apparently she wasn't the youngest of them, but she was closest to the legal age of sexual consent, so every boy and man alive was supposed to be fascinated with her. And apparently a lot of them were. It was exactly the kind of fake pastime that the 'news' had been pushing for years. Why they didn't focus on the actual story mystified Andrea. People were getting honest to goodness powers following the worldwide irradiation of the Galatea explosion, and everyone was talking about a seventeen year old girl being legal for sex. It just made no sense. Andrea knew why Tess cared, of course. Tess cared about whatever boys cared about, and vice versa.

As long as Andrea had known her, Tess had had boys around her. She almost always had a boyfriend, or a boy friend, or a boy who wanted to be her friend hanging around or calling her. Not that she was easy or anything, quite the opposite. As far as Andrea knew Tess was a virgin. As far as she knew for certain, anyway. Andrea liked boys fine, and it's not like she'd never been kissed or anything, but she just didn't really enjoy talking to them all that much. Or girls, for that matter. Tess was, for whatever reason, the only person Andrea could just relax around. And she was so grateful for that friendship, that she found herself going to the Pourhouse on ladies night to make her friend happy.

Andrea sighed as she unbuckled, Tess finally having found the ever-elusive parking spot, and got out of the car. Tess met her by the trunk, and grabbed her arm, grinning like she knew every single thought Andrea had just had.

"It'll be fun, c'mon!" Tess about dragged her to the door, laughing.

The Pourhouse was rocking when they entered, showing their I.D.s to the largish bald fellow at the door, every person in the place standing and singing the traditional Hundred Days party anthem:

"-on the wall, Eighty-Four bottles of beer!"

Andrea glanced around. The Pourhouse had an elevated bar, and a young man stood on it drinking from a huge mug. His throat worked as the crowd gathered around him goaded him on.

"Take one down, pass it around-"

Separated by a rail was the rest of the bar, sunken and populated by sparse tables. In the back was a smoking section whose days were numbered. More kids than could possibly have fit at all the tables stood elbow to elbow, arms raised, pumping fists as they sang. The young man on the bar tilted the mug all the way vertical.

"Eighty-Three bottles of beer on the wall!" The young man threw his arms wide, like a magician at the end of a particularly good trick, only spoiled by the foam mustache that dripped at his chin. The crowd erupted in cheers.

Tess had perfect timing, she always had. She waited until the cheers had died sufficiently to be heard, then shouted.

"Gimme one on the WALL!"

"TESS!" It wasn't possible that Tess knew everyone at the bar, Andrea considered. Mathematical impossibility. But, it sure sounded like the whole bar knew her. She strode to the bar, and hands lifted her so quickly and smoothly to the bar top that she seemed almost to fly there. The bartender laughed and passed up a large mug. Tess held up her hand, asking for and receiving quiet. Then she grinned and raised the mug to her lips. The hand became a conductor's baton, engaging the choir.

"Eighty-three bottles of beer on the wall! Eighty-three bottles of beer!"

[Karren Gaunt]

"Um. Excuse me? Pardon me... If you could just please move for one second..."

Andrea was a soft litany of apoligies and requests as she fought her way to the bar through the crowd, feeling the beat of the music like a chisel against her nerves. She flashed a desparate, pleading smile every time she pumped into someone, trying not to flinch at the looks of inebrieted interest she was getting before moving past. She grabbed the bar like a life preserver in a storm when she reached it, sucking in a breath of relief.

God, how did Tess do this? If she had one half her friend's talent and drive... Tess was drinking up the attention like she was a fish to water, or, and this made her smile for heartbeat or two, beer in this case. Speaking of which, no way that one beer was going to be enough for Tess, much as she'd nurse hers the rest of the evening... Andrea waved to get the bartender's attention over the ruckus, voicing a quiet plea once he seemed to be looking at her, "Two Coors, please."

[Titan]

Andrea ended up drinking the two Coors herself, but they were the last drinks she paid for that night. Everyone and their brother stepped up to buy Tess a drink, and Andrea got caught in the crossfire. She didn't mind so much. Almost everyone was paying attention to Tess, who kept Andrea close, and included her in everything. The beers were gone before the two guys got in the fight. Over Andrea.

The strangest part was, they both started out trying to get Tess' attention. But when that didn't happen, they seemed to edge closer to Andrea. One of them was tall, with wavy brown hair. The other guy was thin, with sharp features. His name was Dave, he said. Wavy brown hair guy brought her a Pina Colada when her second beer was only a third full and warm. She smiled at him gratefully.

Someone asked Tess if she was going home for Spring Break. Tess opened her mouth to answer, when Sex and Candy started playing. Every girl in their cluster of people, except for Andrea, jerked upright. Tess' eyes got wide, and she grinned at Andrea.

"I love this song! Let's dance!"

[Karren Gaunt]

As the slow beat of Marcy Playground's song played over the bar, Andrea mouthed 'in a minute' to Tess, a quick incline of her head indicating the two guys seeming to court her, doing her best between a slight alcoholic haze and a secret thrill at the attention to keep her nerves at bay. Her best friend's leftovers or not, she wasn't going to mess this up.

She turned her full attention back to the two, glancing between them and sipping the drink for more courage. Andrea swallowed a gulp of the drink with a distinct swallow, fragile smile flickering across her lips as she ventured to the brown-haired guy, "Um, Thank you. My name's Andrea. Want to dance?"

'Dave' got an apoligetic glance, but the other guy had gotten her a drink already. It was the least she should do. Maybe later she could make it up to him...

[Titan]

That song ended, and another one began, and the dancing barely paused all around Andrea. She danced another one with the brown haired guy- Mark, he had shouted over the music, then she and the rest of the group made their way back to their tables. Tess threw an arm around Andrea's neck, and kissed her cheek. She took the hand of a boy she had been dancing with, and when they sat, sat on his lap.

Dave, meanwhile, waited with a drink for Andrea. A 'mind-eraser', he called it. In fact, he and another boy had bought a round for all the girls in their group, making them very popular for a bit. He grinned at her like a mischievous boy as they all clinked glasses, and Mark went for a drink of his own. When the next song that the group decided to dance to came on - 'I Want You Back', and the girls squealed, Dave offered Andrea a hand. She shrugged. It seemed only fair.

The next dance became the next drink, became the next boy, became the next song, became the next drink... and it all started to kind of mush together in her mind. Andrea was studious and sometimes painfully shy, but like kissing boys, this too was something she had done before. For the life of her, she didn't know how people could do this every other day. But, with all the attention she was receiving from the boys, neither of whom had even mentioned Tess once since they started buying her drinks, she was having a lot of fun. To her very great surprise. She went over to Tess to tell her so.

Behind her she heard one of the boys calling her name, and the other one said something nasty to him. She swung around,stumbling a bit, to see what was going on. Mark was pushing on Dave's chest with his hand, pointing a finger in his face. Suddenly, Dave punched Mark in the face. Mark fell back for a second, then wrapped Dave in a bear hug and twisted him off of his feet, attempting to throw him to the ground. Andrea felt stupid, and dismayed. Somehow this was her fault. Someone grabbed her arm from behind.

"To heck with this noise. Let's blow, Andy." Tess shouted in her ear. Andrea nodded and they beelined for the door. The bald bouncer passed them, going the other way in a hurry. Behind them, the bar erupted in song:

"FOUR bottles of beer on the wall..."

Andrea pushed her way into the refreshingly cool night air and turned to face Tess. She was puzzled and a bit hurt to see that Tess had her boy by the hand. Tess fell into him laughing, and reached out for Andrea.

"Oh my God! Did you see those guys? What the hell?!" She laughed, "They are fighting over you, honey. Oh, your face!" She laughed all the way out to the car. The boy nodded and agreed genially.

"I hope they don't hurt each other," Andrea said.

"Whatever! They love you!" Tess dropped her keys suddenly, stooped to pick them up. "Let em fight it out." She unlocked the car. The boy was mildly disappointed to discover that he was in the back seat, but took it with equanimity. They all three got in the car. Andrea didn't even think of her seatbelt, she was so embarrassed.

The whole drive home, Tess gushed about how the boys liked her, Andrea, and how they fought a duel for her honor. The boy in the back seat continued to agree with Tess' assessment, and offered opinions on who would likely win the fight. Andrea sat silently, staring out the window at the passing night. Finally, she felt a touch on her arm. Tess looked at her with compassion.

"Are you O.K. Andy? What's the matter, hon?"

Andrea thought of what she wanted to say. That the boys were nice, that she liked them both. That she didn't particularly care about seeing either one of them again, and not just because their fight embarrassed her. That she didn't understand why Tess was bringing a boy home. But mostly, how she wished she could handle people the way Tess did, skillfully dodging situations like the one Andrea had caused. She opened her mouth to speak, as the boy in the back leaned over the seat between them.

"FUCK! WATCH THE ROAD!"

Tess turned her head, and the wheel at the same time. Andrea saw headlights in front of them, then jerk to the left. The car tilted, and Andrea came up out of her seat. A sudden cracking pain in her skull caused Andrea to scream. She reached up and held the ceiling, as the car slammed onto its side, skidding across the road with a screeching scream. She heard Tess's shriek, and the boy's high pitched yell. Fire roared up her back, exploding in her brain, and she screamed hoarsely, feeling something tear in her throat. She fainted from pain- her friend's cries echoing in her ears.

[Karren Gaunt]

Andrea came to standing up, but immediately started falling, her knees buckling as a double hammer blow of total exhaustion and throbbing migraine hit her. Exclamations of distress accompanied the fall, strong arms catching her before she hit the ground.

She cracked open her eyes and started wishing that she hadn’t as the migraine spiked in intensity again, slamming her eyelids shut again. What the hell had happened? Last thing that she remembered… Tess!

Her eyes shot open, and Andrea groaned as she fought against the pounding behind her eyeballs, taking in the scene around her. A small crowd of raptly-watching people, typical late-night coffee house crowd save for the near-fanatical focus in their eyes. Tess’ guy holding her up to her continued gratitude, earning looks of acute jealousy from the crowd. Tess, to Andrea’s profound relief, earning more looks of anger as she kept the more ardent of the crowd back. A glance over one shoulder through a window to reveal that someone had parked Tess’ car inside a restaurant upside down and pushed all the furniture just out of the way. Something… off about her reflection, not wrong, but better..? It hurt to think. What the hell had happened?!

[Titan]

Lincoln and Susilo appeared with a faint pop. Lincoln staggered a bit. He wasn't sure that he was going to get used to that, no matter what assurances August had given him. He looked around. They were on a lonely street- in San Luis Obispo, if August's brief could be believed, and if you trusted the accuracy of Susilo's teleportation ability. Some college town, anyway. Cars parked along the street mostly had stickers in the window that said Cal PolyTechnic. While he was scanning the cars, he saw an overturned Wal Mart tractor trailer had scattered a full dozen cars like ninepins.

He gawked at the damage, but shook himself. That wasn't his concern. Not tonight, anyway. He was here for the girl. Lincoln nodded as though he were totally confident, and tried not to let his butterflies show on his face. He didn't want Susilo to think he had never done this before. Especially since he hadn't. At least, not by himself. August had taken him to find Susilo after a few days of rest at the house in Munich, and almost immediately had notified Lincoln that he would be taking Susilo to find the next one on his own. So here they were.

Lincoln was supposed to be looking for a coffee shop, but it was the Indonesian man that found it first. Lincoln was sneaking another peek at the overturned tanker when Susilo nudged him and nodded. Lincoln looked, and saw the upside down car sitting inside a shop called 'Common Grounds'. Must be the place, then.

"Good looking out, Susilo."

"No problem." Lincoln nodded. That, and I. Am. Susilo. was about all the man said. Still, they hadn't had any problems communicating so far. And the teleportation had to come in handy in something like this. Lincoln wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and looked both ways before crossing the street.

He opened the door to the coffee shop, motioning for Susilo to wait on the street. The Indonesian man had been almost gibbering with fear when he and August had approached him, but now he was blankly impassive. Lincoln wasn't sure what, if anything, that meant. He was just glad to have someone that wasn't scared half to death with him. His own nerves were jangling. He went inside.

Lincoln wasn't sure what he thought he should find inside. Maybe confusion and shock, probably fear. Certainly some damage. But, he found none of that. Instead, it looked at first glance almost like some Neo-Pagan ritual. A young man was holding up an astonishingly beautiful girl, and was surrounded by a dozen people, young men and women, who fawned over her. Lincoln felt the air whoosh out of his lungs, like he had been punched in the gut. He felt the urge to join in the near-worship. He had never in his life seen any woman that made him feel like he felt at that moment. He shook himself, and looked again.

The girl was stunned. She gazed around at her worshipers in a daze. One hand was up artlessly in her hair. It looked like a pose evocative of Eve, innocent but knowing at the same time, but with his unique perspective, Lincoln realized that she simply had an excruciating headache, and the illusion vanished for him. She was still beautiful, but mostly he just saw a young woman that barely understood what had happened to her.

The car. The car was upside down in the middle of the floor of the coffee shop, however nothing was pushed aside or askew. In fact... Lincoln bent down briefly, glanced into the car. Yes. Two different tables and chairs were actually inside the car. The little vase with the flower was still on each, as was the holder-thing for the sugar and Sweet-N-Low packets. Completely undisturbed. He straightened, and went over to the young woman.

This crowd was delirious with affection for her, and could probably turn ugly, but Lincoln had the feeling that her power was fading. Plus, he was pretty confident that he could wade through a warzone without much difficulty. A dozen or so undergraduates didn't pose much of a threat. He gently pried the boy's fingers from her, and put his own arm around her. She looked up at him, eyes unfocused.

"Hi, there." He tried to smile reassuringly.

"Hi." She smiled and he felt his knees wobble. He guided her to a seat instead. Just as they were about there, she protested.

"Tess! Where's Tess?" She focused on him briefly. "Who're you?"

He gently pushed one of her admirers aside. "My name is Lincoln Goode, and I am a Novus, like you."

"Novus?" She looked deeply confused. He sighed and looked around.

"Which one of you is Tess?" One of the girls raised her hand, and came to him. She seemed drugged, like everyone else in this creepy coffee shop. He realized that it was coming from the girl he held.

"And what's your name, dear?"

"I'm Andrea. I'm a Novus? Why would you say that?" She was still having trouble focusing. He needed to get her out of here.

"Because you are. And that is a big thing, I know. Can we leave here?"

"Leave here?" She seemed to think the idea was ridiculous.

"Yes. We need to leave here, so that we can talk about what you should do next," Lincoln explained patiently.

"Omigosh! I don't want to go to London!" He smiled. This might be easier than he thought.

"You don't have to go to London if you don't want to. You can come with me, to Munich. A quiet place to think, some other Novus to talk things over with, much better than needles and doctors, don't you think?"

She looked doubtful. "Munich? Germany? Why would I go there?"

He shrugged. "Because that's where we are getting together."

She shrugged back. "I mean. I guess, maybe. But we'd have to see my parents first."

He nodded slowly. "Of course, but-"

"And, I would have to tell the school something." She was warming to the idea, he thought.

"Yes, we can go by-"

"And what about Tess? Her finals are in a few weeks!" He was baffled, but felt that agreeing was probably the best course just now.

"You can take care of Tess, too. This is just a place to visit when you want to. It is not like London. Still, we should run these errands of yours as quickly as possible, because once they get here, it will be hard to get away." He wondered if she would take the bait the way he had. He rather suspected she would.

"Once who gets here?"

He grinned.

"Yes, that's right. I promise, I will explain everything I know. For right now, can we please get out of here before the police at the very least arrive?"

"Police?" She suddenly looked very concerned. She clutched at her stomach, and he felt deep sympathy for her.

"I'll take care of it. Come on, Andrea. There's a guy I want you to meet. He'll take us home."

Propped up by her oldest and best friend and her newest, oddest acquaintance, Andrea stumbled out of the coffee shop.