Aberrant: 2011 - I Can't Stop Now

[Sue 'Flow' Yin]

It had been a long day for Ah Suyin, even by the standards of the hard-working poleteriat. The clothing manufactory was two percent down in its production, and as the forewoman, she was responsible for her workers' performance to her superiors. Her uncle had secured a lucrative contract for her manufactory to fashion the uniforms worn by the Heavenly Exploding Mandate, and in focusing on that, she had allowed the production of other garments to falter. Ah Suyin blamed no one but herself and she resolved to find a solution to the problem. She was determined not to fail the People's Republic of China.

Distracted by plans, she failed to smell the leaking gas in her tiny, state-alloted apartment. In later days, she was grateful Meili was staying at the neighbour's when the pipe exploded due to a spark and the inefficiency of the repairman. Not everyone was dedicated as she to her state, especially with the outside influences from the West. Ah Suyin's parents were old-school Communists, and she had been raised accordingly. Her uncle was a colonel in the Red Army and though there was some minor disgrace involving her former husband, none had stuck to her. She was a loyal cog in the great machine of China.

Time slowed as the burst of orange and scarlet tinged with smoky black and a hint of electric blue blossomed before her. Ah Suyin felt that she could reach out and catch the explosion in her hands, and she thought it was strangely beautiful, like the fireworks let off every New Year. She wanted time to stop. And it did.

Her body, wiser than the head beginning to beat with agony in time to the pounding drum of her heart, jumped away from the deadly fire-flower. Time flowed in its normal course as she screamed for help.

Ah Suyin, unremarkable member of the poleteriat, had become that most precious of national resources: a nova.

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They returned Meili to her two hours afterwards when an official from the Heavenly Exploding Mandate came to question her. She answered truthfully, her four-year-old daughter playing at her feet, when there was casual mention of tests needed for Meili as novas sometimes ran in families. Ah Suyin had been a four-year-old once, terrified as tanks ran down protestors in Tiananmen Square. Meili would not - could not - understand her duty. When she pointed this out, they insisted, and she argued, which led to threats of arrest.

Quite before she knew what she was doing, she had picked up her daughter and ... flowed. Taiwan was the only place away from the government she could think of, so she landed in the middle of a public place in Taipei. Guilt kicked in, and she flowed to Hong Kong. Fear of what they would do to Meili had her flowing to Mumbai, the movie place, which was so alien she flowed to a Chinatown on another continent.

An hour later, she was in New York, exhausted and sick. She collapsed on the roof of a restaurant in Chinatown and slept like the dead.

When she awoke, she remembered that Cuba accepted anyone. It was a lawless place, but had she not broken the law? It was the safest place for Meili, surely.

The government was only too happy to give her citizenship. Novas were a precious commodity, and teleporters (or so they called her ability to flow around the world) were doubly precious. Two months of handling secret cargoes for the Bloody Bitch paid for her citizenship and set her up as Sue 'Flow' Yin. It was dealing with capitalism at its worst, but what choice did she have?

Of course, the People's Republic of China was angry, and called her a traitor. In the message - the only one - she sent her uncle, she told him that for Meili, she would do anything. It ended with this postscript:

"I can't stop now."

Stop what... she was not quite sure.