Saga Continuums – a Red Dwarf fanedit series

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Back in 2014, a young faneditor named Sean McDonnell, who was a member of this very forum until he turned to evil, created two (well, three technically, as he made a second version of one of them) feature-length fanedits of Series VII and VIII.
I come to you now to tell you that since October of 2021, I have been working (with the aid of our own KT) on my own such endeavour to create four 90-minute “specials” that, when watched in sequence, tell a much tighter, and hopefully more Dwarf-y version of events following Out of Time.
At the time of writing the first of these, Canaries, is completed has been submitted for listing on IFDb, the Internet Fanedit Database, though at the moment that’s currently slightly stalled for reasons I’ll explain in a later post.
Anyway, the edit is functionally complete and for legal reasons is not currently available on any platforms, though I intend to eventually upload a password-protected version to Vimeo as soon as this whole listing thing is straightened out.  In the meantime, if you want to watch it, contact me on Discord and I’ll pass a link to you.  (No, I’m not going to tell you what it is.  
Canaries comprises the events of Cassandra through Only the Good…, and if I do say so myself is a massive improvement over the original episodes, with such changes as follows in the non-exhaustive list below:
• No more pencil Dwarf
• No more fat jokes
• All long/repetitive gags have been significantly trimmed down
• The entire A-plot of Krytie TV has been removed – in the new sequence, Kill Crazy has the idea before boarding the Silverberg, and subsequently forgets about it when he has his head injury
• The Time Wand is onboard the Silverberg, thus removing the need for a separate trip to a separate ship
• The sequence of events is re-ordered so that Kryten and Kochanski’s revenge on Lister for the period prank is to trick him into trashing and then cleaning Ackerman’s quarters on live television
• Pete now explicitly follows on from Krytie TV
• Virtually all conceivable filler in Pete is gone – Hollister’s punishment for the prank is the spud duty, Pete’s rampage is significantly shortened, the cow vindaloo is omitted entirely, and Baxter and Kill Crazy never steal the Time Wand
• Rimmer and Lister are now hospitalised as a result of the delayed fight scene
• Via rotoscoping, Birdman is among the escaping crewmembers when they discover the microbe
• No, I didn’t use the alternate ending, because it’s unfinished, it lacks foley and finished effects, and one scene is missing a laugh track, now please stop asking me that
One of the recent additions made at the suggestion of the IFDb reviewer was a short “life in prison” montage using various VIII moments that hadn’t made it into my cut, and one beta watcher told me that the scene, and I’m paraphrasing here, made them nostalgic for Series VIII in a way that actually watching VIII itself could never quite evoke.  I’m quite proud of that, and I’m strongly considering getting the quote printed and framed.
Next I plan to tackle Series VII.  As there’s less of an obvious through-line between these I have a feeling this is going to be a tougher edit, but nevertheless, I intend to try my very best on it, and you can be sure that’ll be submitted to IFDb when finished as well.  Wish me luck!

Topic

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I might as well address the aforementioned stumbling block in the application process now – I hadn’t actually intended to go public with this edit so soon, but I’m at an impasse and I don’t know what to do.
This is a distress call.  I’m very distressed.
Below I’m going to post a short excerpt that will show off how I managed to segue from the Time Wand scene back into Cassandra.  This involved a great deal of what I seem to increasingly refer to as “frankensteining”, for several reasons.  Please ignore the incorrect aspect ratio, it’s from an earlier render.  See attached.

As you can see, that’s just a mite abrupt, and the reviewer – quite rightly – pointed this out and told me that the edit couldn’t be considered for review until, in their own words, a “better narrative bridge” could be constructed.
Unfortunately, if there is any such way of bridging the two better, I’ve no clue how to make it.  Just getting Geraldine to say one full line that was remotely relevant to the situation was a feat Disney still has yet to perfect.
I need your guyses’ help.  I need ideas.  Anyone who knows enough about the VIII material that might be able to suggest some way of doing it.
Help me, G&T.  You’re my only hope.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Why is it that the video only ever embeds properly in the editor?  Then again, I seem to have a lot of trouble posting videos on here.  Any time I try to embed a YouTube video it tells me I’m possibly breaking the law and posting suspicious content that has been blocked.

[Flap Jack]

Ooh! I remember you talking about fan editing, so very cool to hear that those ideas are bearing fruit. Just seeing it all laid out, I’m getting kind of hyped! They all seem like good changes, especially the complete excision of the Krytie TV A plot (I know Pete is justifiably considered worse overall, but Krytie TV is easily more offensive and out of character as far as I’m concerned). I’m also intrigued by the ambition of the Birdman rotoscoping.

I’m a bit surprised people kept asking you to use the alternate Only The Good… ending. Since Back to Earth came out, the fact that Series VIII ended on a cliffhanger really shouldn’t be as big of a deal – and the alternate ending is kind of contradicted by The Beginning anyway (because if they defeated the microbes after Rimmer successfully retrieved the formula for the antidote from the mirror universe, then it shouldn’t really be in doubt that he saved the day).

On the subject of Only The Good’s ending, I just had a thought – does ‘Canaries’ keep “The End? The Smeg It Is.”? I don’t feel strongly either way, but I can see the argument for cutting a cringe-inducing caption, or replacing it with “To Be Continued… Eventually” or something.

Regarding your current issue,

1. Don’t believe the text editor’s lies. This forum has a finite amount of HTML tags and attributes it will support, and that unfortunately doesn’t include everything the text editor allows you to preview, even just counting the stuff you can create without switching to code view and back. The ‘video’ tag unfortunately does not seem to be supported (ditto the ‘width’ attribute for images).

2. The non-embedded video link doesn’t work for me, but if you can get a link working, I’m happy to try and think of ideas.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Have you tried removing the “&#8243” from the URL?
Yes, “the smeg it is” remains.  I was so focused on the narrative I never gave it much thought.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with leaving it there in much the same way some editors of The Phantom Menace leave Jar-Jar intact.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Here’s a non-embedded link to the YouTube version, because if I try to embed it I get complaints from the government – https://youtu.be/H5b4vxzPTi8

[Flap Jack]

Ah! That worked, thanks.

The cuts are indeed very sudden. Seeing Kochanski going down those steps 2 seconds after we see her ‘react’ to Cassandra’s interruption is especially unreal. I, uh… don’t suppose there are any establishing shots of the Silverburg that suit having that classic scene transition music put over it?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Ah yes, well you see, in this edit I tried to remove as many CGI shots as possible and replace them with practical model shots from earlier series, so the Silverberg in this edit is portrayed by the Esperanto from Back to Reality.

Actually, that’s a pretty good idea.  I’ll try that out shortly, thanks for that.

[Flap Jack]

Cool, no problem.

I do understand the aversion to the CGI, but maybe it’s an acceptable compromise to keep it when it’s establishing stuff unique to Series VIII. The pencil Dwarf is the main offender.

[Jonathan Capps]

Right, let me try and sort out the video posting stuff for good.

[Edit: I think this is sorted now? Feel free to test out in this thread, Future Producer, and I’ll fix any remaining embedding issues you get]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Wow, that actually seems to have worked.  I don’t know what you did, but well done!  I’ll test it out now actually, it just so happens that I’ve had a go at trying out that establishing shot idea.

Edit: It works!  Siri, play Victory by Darren and Stephen Loveday!

[Flap Jack]

Sweet, that already flows so much better! Ideally I think there would be bit more of a gap between the end of Cassandra’s line and the scene transition, but I assume you’ve got limited footage of the 3 characters just standing around to work with.

A couple of other things occurred:

1. It’s strange to think about the Canaries doing missions in Starbug, even though logically there’s no reason they couldn’t have done. I think maybe it’s because Starbug was the replacement for Red Dwarf as a main setting for 2 series, and them returning to Red Dwarf and exploding that Starbug felt like a line being drawn under the Starbug based shenanigans.

2. In the final 2 shots, should they be the other way around? (Or the Rimmer/Lister one not be there at all.) Because to me it seems like Rimmer and Lister are reacting to Kochanski’s entrance, but having a half second reaction as the very first thing in a scene feels a bit odd. Although maybe it’s needed for what comes after.

By the way, I’d never heard of Sean McDonnell, but I found his Dailymotion. I assume his turn to evil was him cropping BBC Red Dwarf to widescreen? Can’t disagree with the assessment if so.

[Jonathan Capps]

Wow, that actually seems to have worked.

Yay! I’ve achieved it by probably giving you lot a few more WordPress permissions than is strictly sensible, but oh well.

[Warbodog]

[Jonathan Capps]

Our 404 page predicted this.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Yay! I’ve achieved it by probably giving you lot a few more WordPress permissions than is strictly sensible, but oh well.

Is this because of the whole Dave B thing?  Because I swear I’ve long since gotten over that lol.

Sweet, that already flows so much better!

Excellent!  I’ve already had a few other people say the same thing, so now we just have to hope that the submission reviewer agrees.

Ideally I think there would be bit more of a gap between the end of Cassandra’s line and the scene transition, but I assume you’ve got limited footage of the 3 characters just standing around to work with.

You would be absolutely right there.

A couple of other things occurred:
1. It’s strange to think about the Canaries doing missions in Starbug, even though logically there’s no reason they couldn’t have done. I think maybe it’s because Starbug was the replacement for Red Dwarf as a main setting for 2 series, and them returning to Red Dwarf and exploding that Starbug felt like a line being drawn under the Starbug based shenanigans.

Yeah, I didn’t want to use Starbug initially, I’d actually originally planned to use some model shots from Star Cops to show some new craft, but I couldn’t find any useable footage anywhere for a satisfactory submersible craft, so I had to abandon that idea.  I did make an attempt at changing Starbug’s colour to imply it’s a prison variant though, and I managed to sneak in one Star Cops shot, so it’s not a total loss.

2. In the final 2 shots, should they be the other way around? (Or the Rimmer/Lister one not be there at all.) Because to me it seems like Rimmer and Lister are reacting to Kochanski’s entrance, but having a half second reaction as the very first thing in a scene feels a bit odd. Although maybe it’s needed for what comes after.

Well, it’s only natural they’re going to be a bit jumpy and respond to unexpected sounds quicker in a situation where there may or may not be a terrifying monster lurking round any corner that devoured three whole battalions, bones and all.  And on the editing side, there really wasn’t a lot of space to fit them in on the other side of Kochanski’s line what with the crossfade.

By the way, I’d never heard of Sean McDonnell, but I found his Dailymotion. I assume his turn to evil was him cropping BBC Red Dwarf to widescreen? Can’t disagree with the assessment if so.

You assume correctly.  Twisted and evil.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

McD, as I call him, has posted on the site previously under the handle srmcd1, but he’s not been on in quite a long time.  I only saw his own movie edit of VIII because a friend had a copy floating around, and let me tell you, it was okay-ish but I found a couple of his editing choices questionable (for example, he cut out Krytie TV’s B-plot and left in the A-plot, albeit minus the bedroom trashing).  To his credit though, I did find one or two editing tricks he did pretty impressive, to the point that I referenced/borrowed two of them in my own.

[Flap Jack]

All very good explanations! Fingers crossed you get the approval.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Thank you!  I’ll be keeping mine crossed lol.

[srmcd1]

McD, as I call him, has posted on the site previously under the handle srmcd1, but he’s not been on in quite a long time.  I only saw his own movie edit of VIII because a friend had a copy floating around, and let me tell you, it was okay-ish but I found a couple of his editing choices questionable (for example, he cut out Krytie TV’s B-plot and left in the A-plot, albeit minus the bedroom trashing).  To his credit though, I did find one or two editing tricks he did pretty impressive, to the point that I referenced/borrowed two of them in my own.

*shrugs*

Fan Editing is a spectrum. We all experience it differently. But I’m glad to see a new take on Series VIII (I only did Series VII as a dare), so I can’t wait to see the finished product!

And I’ve been around. Just haven’t had anything to say in the last few years lol

[Flap Jack]

Oh my, we summoned him! Exciting to hear from you, srmcd1.

As long as you’re chill, I am prepared to dismiss your experiments with 16:9 as a youthful indiscretion.

[srmcd1]

Oh no, I’m pure evil. 100 percent. Muahahaha and stuff.

But yeah, I did that almost a decade ago, and after looking back at these edits, I would totally do certain bits and bobs differently.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Oh hey, nice to finally catch you McD!  I shot you a message on your WordPress, dunno if you’ve seen it.  I had a read of a script you wrote, it was very good.  I’d actually thought of contacting you about doing an audio adaptation of it with some friends.  I’m most gratified at the vote of confidence and I hope the edit lives up to expectations!

Btw, someone suggested I include your edit as a special feature.  I’m still on the fence but having your opinion would be much appreciated.

[srmcd1]

To be honest, I have trouble remembering sometimes that I even have a WordPress lol but I never got the message and can’t seem to find it on the site. One of these days, I’ll figure out technology. But I’m gratified you liked something I wrote, and I am totally fine with you doing an audio adaptation and including my edit. Cheers!

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Always a pleasure, and thank you very much!  I hope it all works out on the tech front lol.
So my last version didn’t seem to address the problem either, but I’ve got a better understanding of exactly what the issue is now.  As I understand it, the examiner feels that Kochanski’s running down the stairs isn’t forecast enough, and Cassandra’s appearing out of the blue (almost literally) and saying Kryten is a bit too left field.  I’ve got an idea on how to address both of these but it’s dependent on what material is available (as in the episode she just runs down the stairs with no fanfare, and I’m struggling to think of a moment where Cassandra says “it’s”), so stay tuned.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Well, it worked.  I think the edit’s almost ready for approval, but I’m gonna have one last shot at something not too major but probably worth trying to improve before I submit *the* final version.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I’ve started work on the next two.  I’ve only got working titles at the moment, but if anyone wants to make some suggestions, I’d be much obliged.

Here’s how the cuts will run:

1) Untitled 1 (working title: The Starbuggers) – Tikka to Ride (depreciated), Stoke Me a Clipper (depreciated), Ouroboros (depreciated), Duct Soup, Blue (depreciated), Beyond a Joke

2) Untitled 2 (working title: Red, White and Flu) – Epideme, Nanarchy, Back to Earth Part 1, Back to Earth Part 2 (depreciated), Back to Earth Part 3 (depreciated)

3) Canaries – Cassandra, Krytie TV (depreciated), Pete Part 1, Pete Part 2 (depreciated), Only the Good…

4) Back to Earth – I don’t think I need to spell that one out

Depreciated means I’ll be using a significantly reduced amount of narrative content from it, though in the case of BitR there wasn’t much to begin with.

[Warbodog]

I’d love it if someone wrote the conventionally revised/expanded novelisation of series VIII. Not to try to make it good, but taking the piss. Inconsequential early chapters fleshing out the doctor who inflates Kryten’s hand, the woman who doesn’t get to shag Rimmer because he’s too tired, that sort of thing.

[Flap Jack]

Hmm, I don’t know, Future Producer, I trust your vision, but I have a feeling that Back to Earth will seem really out of place in between Series VII and VIII!

Anyway, colour me re-intrigued for phase 2. I wouldn’t have thought that fan favourite episodes Duct Soup and Beyond A Joke would be the non-depreciated episodes in the 7A edit, so it’s definitely interesting to think about how that structure will play. And pairing up 7B and 8A in a single edit just makes sense.

I’m not sure what we’re in a position to suggest at this point though. Just title ideas?

[loadoftottnumb]

Not to put words in Mr Producers mouth but suspect he meant Back in the Red 1,2,3 after Nanarchy 

[Flap Jack]

Not to put words in Mr Producers mouth but suspect he meant Back in the Red 1,2,3 after Nanarchy 

😲

[loadoftottnumb]

You knew that didn’t you? #FacePalm 

[Flap Jack]

OK, my folded up piece of paper in the hat for the 7A edit title is “Legacies”.

– Tikka to Ride is about JFK’s legacy.

– Stoke Me a Clipper is about Ace Rimmer’s legacy.

– Ouroboros is about Lister’s legacy.

– Duct Soup is about… uh, OK, I got nothing for this one.

– Blue is about Rimmer’s legacy.

– Beyond a Joke is about Professor Mamet’s legacy.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

  

[Flap Jack]

I did also have a thought about the title for the 7B/8A edit, which is that the throughline might be that Epideme and the nanobots are both… small. The best I can think for that as a title is “Microscopic Menaces”, but something along those lines might make sense. It even kind of applies to the luck and sexual magnetism viruses (and whatever drug was used to induce the BitR hallucinations), if you really stretch it.

Possible it might make you think of Only the Good… too much, though.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Microscopic Menaces

Or ya know … Nanarchy ;) 

[Flap Jack]

Or ya know … Nanarchy ;) 

Microcracy.

[clem]

[loadoftottnumb]

Hotel mints 

[si]

Sorry, misread.

[Flap Jack]

Red Dwarf: Those Little Fuckers – A Series VII & VIII Fan Edit

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

No updates just yet, but I just want to mention that Refresh For The Memory has been really useful in gauging “a” general consensus on what to try and keep in and what to trim out for my own edits to the best of my abilities. And something else that I can’t remember because I got distracted while writing this.

Oh and also, how does Red, Bytes and Flu sound? Bytes because nanobots, flu because virus, and red because… yeah…

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Finally making a start on the Part 2, but as my PC is currently out of commission I’ve enlisted the help of wilhelm scream to get an assembly cut together. Once it’s all up and running again I’ll be doing most of the heavy lifting, including giving Kochanski a nice new lavender jumpsuit that you won’t need those sunglasses they hand out during eclipses to look at.

[Formica]

I see you plan to upload the finished product to tiktok as well.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

… wut

[ReddiShadow]

I’d love it if someone wrote the conventionally revised/expanded novelisation of series VIII. Not to try to make it good, but taking the piss. Inconsequential early chapters fleshing out the doctor who inflates Kryten’s hand, the woman who doesn’t get to shag Rimmer because he’s too tired, that sort of thing.

I would never be so gauche as to derail a thread by offering my services in pointing out I have experience in doing pisstake novelisations of shitty instalments of otherwise beloved British sci-fi TV.

So I will not do that. The link below is completely unrelated to the above paragraph.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15268269?view_full_work=true

[Warbodog]

I wrote a bad origin chapter for Birdman and Pete when training an AI writing tool that I legally can’t specify. Looking forward to the whole thing being authentically spewed out one day.

[ReddiShadow]

If you’d indulge me, this is like Series XI-XII in that it’s a first draft in desperate need of a second, but here is some rough sketches of what I’d do, from my own brain with no AI involvement whatsoever:

—————————————————————————————————————–

He rummaged and rummaged, before triumphantly pulling a tiny disk with BLACKMAIL MATERIAL – USE ONLY WHEN FUNNY scribbled on it in felt tip. As he did, his hand brushed against something that felt round and sounded glass-like.

Rimmer wasn’t sure what he was expecting to pull out when curiosity overtook him, but two perfectly undamaged phials, one containing dark red liquid and the other dark blue, wasn’t hitting number one on the list.

He angled his wrist so that Holly could see them.

“Holly, why did the others keep the confidential crew files in the same bag as Lister’s Baby’s First Mad Scientist Starter Kit?”

“Oh, that,” Holly nodded. “We got those yonks ago from this scientist, Langstrom. Positive viruses, y’see. She theorised that there were types of virus that could not only benefit you, but shape reality around you for the better… until your body’s natural defences combat the virus, that is.”

“So, I’m holding two tickets to the Admiralty?!” Rimmer said, completely forgetting the disk.

“Not quite,” said Holly. “The blue one’s luck, that’ll make you incredibly lucky for a short time. The red one’s the Naylor-Alexander virus. That one rewrites reality around you, and anyone you get within six feet of, into one of those bawdy end-of-the-pier postcards that are charming and funny, apparently.”

Rimmer recoiled slightly. “Holly, forgive me for being perchance a trifle thick, but how is that a positive virus? Why in smegging hell would anyone want to live inside a video cassette of Carry On Emmanuelle?”

“Ooh, well,” Holly inhaled like a cheap mechanic who’d just identified tons of excuses for upsells under a car bonnet. “Lots of reasons, I s’pose. You do have to put up with dialogue that would make Ken Dodd weep, but it does mean that conventionally unattractive men repeatedly have it off with conventionally attractive women because that’s theoretically funny instead of just desperate and you’re not supposed to swig it all at once!”

Rimmer wiped some Naylor-Alexander residue from his lips, stoppering the now half-empty phial.

“Holly, didn’t you know? The world loves a bastard!” He strode off confidently through the Starbug wreckage into the cargo bay.

“Unfortunately, I did,” Holly murmured into the side of Rimmer’s pocket.

———————————————————————————————–

“You weren’t here for that time Hollister did a roast, were you Listy? We all had to sit and watch the most painful standup routine this side of Butlins. They dragged Dennis off the donut shop on C Deck and made him listen to Hollister ‘make fun’ of him.”

Lister straightened, staring like a headlight-lit deer at the figure that appeared in the doorway.

“God, if that’s what ‘fun’ looks like to Captain Hollister, Champion Bigot of the Year 2244, well, no wonder he’s hurtling through his fifties with nothing in his bunk but a old pinup calendar so crusty and stiff you could use it as a poppadom…”

He was going to continue, but was distracted by Lister’s incessant nodding towards him.

“But, I mean, HE is a good captain though, Captain HOLLISTER, isn’t HE? Eh? On the ball, doesn’t miss when people are IN the ROOM, QUIET…”

“Quiet?!” Rimmer continued. “The only time he’s quiet is right after he tells one of his jokes. Even then, he’ll be right in there, insisting ‘you can’t just ignore it!’ in between explaining why the most obvious fat jokes you can fail to imagine are funny, actually?”

Lister was now staring pointedly over Rimmer’s shoulder while he nodded in what was certainly agreement at everything Rimmer said.

“You do admire HIM though, don’t you?” he said, making weird flailing motions with his arms.

“The wacky inflatable tube man routine? Again? God Lister, you’re as pathetic as Hollister. Going around with material that Bernard Manning would tell you to do a second draft on. Doing ‘har-har man in dress isn’t that disgusting’ gags like it’s 1972. You should go to one of his open-mic nights, you’d be the first person to laugh without a pink slip at your throat.”

Lister was so awed by Rimmer’s truth that he was now sweating profusely, having to wipe it all off his brow so violently he was jabbing his finger towards the door.

“But you ARE AWARE ENOUGH that YOU respect HIM and-“

Rimmer didn’t give him time to finish.

“Respect him? A man who does stand-up like a concussed rhesus macaque who’s only ever watched 20th century American sitcoms? A man who thinks the answer to people not laughing at his prison rape jokes is to bring out the Asian woman driver routine? A man whose idea of a light entertainm- he’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?”

“Yes he is,” said Captain Hollister, standing right behind Rimmer.

[Moonlight]

I am 100% in favor of a thread where we humorously novelize sections of Red Dwarf that don’t deserve it.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Oh, and in case anyone’s interested, I’ve got a name worked out at last for it – Size Matters. Bit of a double entendre there, but I think it makes the most sense in the context of nanobots, viruses and super-sized spaceships.

[Nick R]

I am 100% in favor of a thread where we humorously novelize sections of Red Dwarf that don’t deserve it.

“Late late late,” muttered Marcus Cookson, tapping his left hand against the steering wheel. “Crap, bugger, shit.”

He was on his way to Sarah’s to pick up their son and take him to his swimming lesson, and he was already running ten minutes behind. This would be the third late week in a row…

Still, not far to go now. He was approaching the junction with the building marked with a large sign saying “NOSE WORLD” (something that his son had pointed out the last time they came this way, and had found utterly hilarious).

He looked ahead; a bus had just pulled out, and at the bus stop, a small group of people were engaged in conversation.

Then, out of the corner of his eye – a flash of blue, moving into the road! One of the people standing at the bus stop had just stepped out – or fallen? – into the path of his car. He registered the startled look on the woman’s face, and was about to slam on the brakes, but it was too late, it wouldn’t do a bit of good, he was about to hit her and–

*Ting!*

“Ting”? Not that Marcus had much experience in the matter, but he didn’t think that human bodies colliding with cars tended to go “ting”. At the same time, his eyes caught a flash of light glinting off a small, metallic object which had ricocheted off his bonnet and been flung toward the side of the road.

He looked in the mirror back toward the bus stop. The people there did not seem at all concerned. The man in blue was having a calm chat with another man in a hat and long coat.

Why would they be so calm if they’d just seen their companion colliding with moving traffic? And why weren’t any other cars behind him slowing down to gawp?

That settled it. He must have been mistaken. It couldn’t have been a person he’d hit, after all! Obviously, another vehicle had thrown up a stone or a tin can from the road, and due to some trick of the light, just before it struck the front of his vehicle, it had just looked like a woman in blue.

Yes, that was it.

Marcus carried on driving. If he sped up a bit, he could make up some of the time he’d lost.

In the roots of a bush at the side of the road, the remains of Katerina Bartokovsky’s crumpled light bee flickered for a moment, then fizzled out.

[Author]

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