A Plain Jane Book One

  Chapter 16

  Jane

  The ship finally entered planetary orbit.

  Jane had never been much fascinated by Galactic geography and hardly knew anything about the planet below her. Yet she could see with her eyes that it was mostly water with only the occasional patch of green. Its atmosphere also gave off a soft yellow glow. It was really quite beautiful and reminded her of a gem glittering in the sun.

  Lucas keyed different commands into the computer, and then their ship began to descend toward the surface. As it did, the pit of Jane’s stomach bottomed out.

  What was waiting for them down there? The Director had said that a member of that “P” race would meet them, and would hopefully help them find out what was going on.

  The exact second Jane thought about meeting someone from that race, she gave a violent shudder. Lucas looked up at her quickly, and rather than stare at her face, his eyes fixed on a point just behind her left ear. Was he looking at the… at it? Was he using the fancy scanners in his armor to take readings of it, to see if it was active, to see if it was about to take control of her body and send her spinning around the room, cartwheeling, kicking, rolling, and fighting everything in sight?

  “Not long now,” Lucas mumbled, “and I have got this,” he said in a far more certain voice, “I will do everything I can to ensure you are safe,” he put a lot of effort into making his words slow, deliberate, and genuine.

  Jane just nodded. Then her gaze slipped back to the view screen, and she watched the clouds race around the ship as it descended toward the planet below. Eventually, the fantastic view was enough to pull her thoughts away from her problems and to the wonder that was around her. It was such a surreal experience to see the ship moving so quickly in relation to the clouds but not to feel anything move in the ship itself: inertia dampeners were stopping Jane from being smashed up against the ceiling as the ship dropped toward the surface.

  Now they broke through a cloud bank, and a glittering blue ocean engulfed the entire view screen. Jane gasped in amazement. It was beautiful, better than beautiful, incredible. She could see the ocean below glittering, and as they got closer and closer, she could make out various buildings dotted here and there amongst the waves. They were silver and white, obviously made of metal as their surfaces glistened so beautifully in the sun. They were all interconnected, though some were dotted out on the periphery with nothing but the waves lapping around them.

  “Not a bad view, is it?” Lucas stated from her side.

  Jane didn’t answer, and she didn’t look at him but not because she was ignoring him; the view before her completely held and captivated her. In all her fantasies, she’d never imagined something quite so beautiful.

  The ship now slowed and leveled out, traveling flat over the water. Just before it could dock with one of the massive buildings that were now shooting into view, it started to plunge down toward the waves again, and Jane found her hands snaking out and latching onto the armrests of her chair.

  “It’s okay, it docks underwater,” Lucas said immediately, that same genuine, careful edge to his voice.

  In another instant the ship plunged underneath the ocean waves, sinking with incredible speed, the water lapping over the view screen.

  Suddenly there was nothing but blue ocean all around them, but before Jane could get her bearings, the ship started to shoot forward again, and soon it neared one of the massive buildings. Docking in space was one thing and was incredible to behold. But docking underwater… well Jane had never thought such things occurred in the Galaxy, but of course they did: there were so many planets out there all with such different environmental conditions. She was simply finding out just how naïve she truly was.

  The massive building before them that Jane could see stretching out in all directions had a large tunnel that the ship now shot through. Rather than travel through it and for a door to close behind them, cutting off the ocean beyond, they shot through a kind of security field instead: a blue flickering wall of energy that Jane didn’t notice until they actually passed through it.

  She jumped in fright.

  “It’s all right; the ship’s shields prevent us from getting fried by the security field,” Lucas pointed out clearly.

  Now they were in a tunnel, it was completely dry. It was also dark, save for two single lines of illumination that were either side of the ship.

  “Not long now,” Lucas mumbled as he entered something into the panel before him.

  He was right, because in another instant, the ship came hurtling toward what Jane realized was a solid black wall. Once again, before she could scream, the ship suddenly changed angle and started to shoot up through a tunnel that opened out above them. Then finally the tunnel disappeared, and they found themselves in a massive hangar bay, ship after ship docked with magnetic clamps in neat rows to their sides.

  In barely half a minute their own ship docked, a magnetic clamp latching onto the bottom of it and dragging it toward the metal gangway to their left.

  Lucas kept entering things into the panel for a little, and then turned to her, a smile shifting across his face. “Welcome to Planet Gold,” he spread his hand toward the view screen.

  Planet Gold? Strange name, surely Planet Ocean or Planet Blue would be better. Jane didn’t point that out for fear of sounding stupid. As she’d already overreacted several times when the ship had plunged through the ocean, gone through the security field, and had shot up the tunnel, she didn’t want to seem like any more of a Galactic newbie.

  “All right, I have done a preliminary scan of news feeds and any communiqués I have been able to access, and it doesn’t look as if there will be an entire army waiting out there for us,” Lucas kept on staring at the panel in front of him. “But that being said, maybe it is best for you to stay on the ship—”

  “No,” Jane snapped, and there was an edge to her voice, one that she’d never found herself using before. In fact, it almost seemed as if her voice didn’t belong to her at all.

  Lucas blinked in surprise, his eyebrows actually shooting up. “It’s just—” he tried.

  “I’m going with you,” Jane used the same voice and stood up quickly.

  Lucas appeared to wait a moment and then stood up beside her. “Okay.”

  Jane shivered as she caught up to what she’d just said. She was going to follow Lucas Stone as he tried to meet a shadowy contact given to him by the Director of the Central Shipyards, in the hope that the contact would be able to tell him exactly what Jane was and why half the Galaxy apparently wanted her dead. Really, she would much prefer to stay on the ship and let him do all the footwork, the running, the fighting, and the adventure. Yet she couldn’t… she couldn’t turn around and sit back down in that chair; it felt as if that option simply wasn’t available to her body…. It was exerting control. While it wasn’t taking full control yet, she knew that if she fought it, it would. So she took a shaky step closer to Lucas, as if that would help, and set her gaze in front of her, resigning herself to the fact that yes, she was about to continue the adventure. There would be no sitting out this part of it apparently.

  …

  Lucas Stone

  The situation was getting ever more complex. Worse yet: Jane was going to follow him. He didn’t know what was waiting for them on Planet Gold. They were meant to be going to see a Paran, but that didn’t mean that a Paran would actually be waiting there for them. Specimen 14 was turning out to be resourceful and calculating – anticipating their every move. Plus, Lucas still didn’t know how Adam Thomson fitted into all of this. The kid had obviously been trained, equipped, and had sat there on the Central Shipyards well before Jane had ever arrived. Meaning that his attack had likely been opportune rather than planned.

  Was he some kind of spy? Or was he something else? Did Specimen 14 have abilities that Lucas wasn’t yet aware of? Something psychic? Had the creature somehow been able to take command of Adam Thompson’s body just like Jane’s implant had the abi
lity to take control of her own? Though Lucas couldn’t rule it out, he doubted it. Adam Thomson had been equipped with an electro blade, and not only were they banned for use by citizens, but someone usually required a great deal of training in using them to be effective with them, let alone turn them on.

  No, whoever Adam Thompson was, he’d been on Central Shipyards waiting long before Jane had arrived. Which meant that the situation was, in fact, even more complicated than Lucas had once believed.

  He’d been to Planet Gold several times – it was one of the central worlds of the Galactic Union. There was often a lot going on here, everything from politics to corruption to just general and quite fun watersports. Yet this wasn’t going to be a holiday.

  He keyed in the code that opened the door at the end of the ship, and he braced himself. He braced himself for the possible army that was waiting outside.

  The door opened. There was no army.

  Well, at least not an armed one.

  As soon as the doors opened, the filming began. Hovering holographic cameras lined up in front of him, humans and aliens from different news crews standing just behind the row of cameras, all yammering to him as one, their voices creating an unpleasant din, a cacophony he wanted to get away from by turning his armor onto full and disabling all audio feeds.

  Jane was standing right behind him now, one of her arms actually pressed up against his.

  “Lucas Stone,” the closest reporter shouted, “do you have any comments?”

  The question was repeated by all the other reporters.

  Lucas winced at the noise of their shouts and the glare of the holographic projectors as they scanned him over and over again.

  “Comment, do you have a comment?” one of the other reporters shouted.

  “About the incredible events on Earth? About the fact Galactic Force transmissions have been intercepted without correct security codes? Has it been overrun?” one far more excited reporter asked as he jumped up and down on the spot, his tail twisting around and around like a rotor.

  “What?” was all Lucas could ask.

  “All communications with Earth went dark after the Galactic Senate began an investigation into why recent Galactic Force communiques appear to be faked,” the excited reporter said, his tail now twisting around so fast that Lucas wouldn’t have been surprised if the little guy took off in flight.

  “What?” Lucas snapped desperately.

  “Do you have any comment?” one of the other reporters asked. This one was a human woman, and the more Lucas looked at her, the more he realized he knew her. In fact, he was damn certain she had something to do with his Fan Club. Yes, that was it: she’d once done an interview with him when the Fan Club was just getting off the ground, in an attempt to get some kind of exclusive story to pique reader interest. Out of all the other reporters there, she was the only one who looked genuinely concerned. “All communications have gone dead,” she repeated, voice hollow, “you have just come from Earth—”

  Lucas put a hand up. He’d dealt with media circuses before, and the trick was to never let them get into full swing. When they started to bring out the tigers and the clowns, was when you inevitably put your foot in your mouth and said something that would lose you your command. “I have no comment at this stage. I will prepare a comment and send it to the United News Service shortly. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to disperse, as I’m on an important mission,” he puffed his chest out and looked as stern as he could.

  The effect was almost instant, and all the reporters stood off to one side, though continuing to record him with their holo cameras, of course. Even if they couldn’t get him to give a comment, at least they could catch him trying to be the hero, and going about his important business with his chest punched out, his jaw set and his eyes blazing.

  Jane shadowed him, as close to his back as she could get, as they finally made it through all the reporters. Everyone turned to Jane, interest obvious on all their faces, their cameras now swooping in on her and scanning her. Though it set Lucas’ teeth on edge, he didn’t do anything, and he didn’t say anything. Plus, there was always the possibility that Jane’s implant was messing with their equipment anyway, or in fact wiping everything they had just recorded.

  Lucas could only hope.

  When the two of them eventually managed to get free from the crowd, he noticed that she let out a quick and erratic breath of air. “That was horrible,” she managed eventually, “they are like animals.”

  Lucas smiled, though he didn’t turn to Jane so that she could see his expression. Yes, yes, they were much like animals. The kind of frantic almost crazed attention that they gave him was often disturbing. So it was nice to finally have someone else acknowledge that fact.

  “I don’t know how you put up with that,” she continued, “one of those holo cameras got so close it started to singe my hair.”

  Once Lucas had been banged right on the nose by one, and it had left an angry red burn there for several days until he’d bothered to have it fixed. And once a fairly ambitious reporter had tried to actually dock one of his cameras right with Lucas’ armor. His armor, naturally, had recorded it as a threat and had fried it with an interference field. Said reporter had been so angry that he’d chased Lucas all afternoon until he’d finally paid for a new one.

  Oh no, the press weren’t pleasant. That was one fact you could count on throughout the entire Galaxy. That being said, it didn’t stop Lucas from feeling reflective as he remembered the expression on the female reporter’s face. She’d looked concerned… no, more than concerned, she’d looked out right worried. Of course she was, because if what the press were saying was correct, and Earth…. Lucas started to walk a bit faster, his armor increasing his pace as his mind entertained the alarming possibility that something was wrong on Earth, his home planet, his world.

  “Hey, hold on, wait up from me,” Jane called from behind him.

  Before he’d realized it, he’d practically sprinted off, leaving her a good ten meters behind. He stopped, shook his head, and mumbled a sorry. She eventually caught up, and then she rested her hands on her knees, panting heavily.

  It was worlds and worlds apart from the incredible speed, strength, and agility she’d shown both back in Research Lab Two and again in the research lab on the Central Shipyards. Now she was having trouble going for the shortest run. Miranda obviously hadn’t been lying, and Jane’s physiology really was weaker than the average human. Well, not always weaker, that was for sure.

  Despite the fact his mind was filled with the horrible possibility that something was going wrong with Earth, he still found the time to look at her with a compressed, confused expression on his face. She really was an enigma.

  She stopped panting and stood up properly. She looked concerned, her top teeth sunk heavily into her bottom lip, her eyebrows peaked over her eyes. “What’s going on with Earth? I don’t understand, what did those reporters mean?”

  Lucas didn’t know, but one of the reasons he was racing was that he wanted to get to the nearest worldwide computer hub so he could access the interconnected central processing unit of Planet Gold and find out himself. Though technically he could simply send a request with his armor and try to upload information wirelessly, he really didn’t want to do that. While there were ample security protocols in place to ensure that nobody could hack his feed, he had to suspect, considering the current situation, that those were not as secure as they once had been. Plus, he didn’t want to just announce the fact he was on Planet Gold so loudly and so obviously. If he docked with a hub rather than sending a request, he could at least try to hide his presence. Though it really didn’t matter as he’d just been harangued by an entire tribe of reporters, so it was obvious that someone knew he was on the planet. Still, there was a difference between knowing he was on the planet and knowing exactly where he was. So that was why Lucas kept on walking quickly the second Jane had managed to catch her breath. Though she was panting heavily, he
kept up a steady pace. At this rate even if he had to carry her he would. Yet he got the distinct impression that the implant would not like that.

  “How do we find out what’s going on? Can’t you just use your armor—” Jane began, but she stopped as she ran out of breath.

  She really did have a weaker physiology. Or maybe she didn’t; for all Lucas knew Jane had a completely normal physiology or in fact one far in advance of most other races, but the implant simply exerted its control to ensure she never acted in a way that indicated she was special, that brought attention to her.

  Once again Lucas found himself gritting his teeth and repeating that he was going to find out what that thing was and get it out of her head. It was a useful parasite for now, but it was a parasite he was going to get rid of eventually.

  Soon Lucas managed to find a computer hub, and he even waited in line until the row of other aliens in front of him had finished imputing their requests. Some of them docked devices to the various interfaces of the hub, some of them just used wireless hologram feeds, some simply spoke, and some of the more telepathic races just stood around, eyes closed, arms crossed in front of them as they connected their thoughts to the computer.

  Lucas waited, and he waited until the crowd had died down a bit before he eventually found a free console to dock his glove with. He couldn’t deny that his heart was beating fast, his breath shallow, a small slip of sweat picking up across his brow.

  Earth.

  It was his planet.

  He’d grown up there.

  That was where his grandfather had lived. That was where his old log cabin was.

  That was where Lucas had joined the Galactic Force, where he’d trained.

  Though he honestly believed that every single planet in the Galactic Union deserved equal and complete protection, the prospect of something going wrong with Earth sent tendrils of dread wrapping around his gut.

  Earth was incredibly protected, housing the headquarters of the Galactic Force. In all Lucas’ time, there had never been a real threat to the planet. A couple of security incidents here and there, but nothing that endangered everything as a whole, nothing that would have a sea of reporters mobbing him, asking if he had any comment, if he knew why Earth had gone into a communications blackout….

  Lucas was aware that his shoulders were stiff, his arm almost locked into place as his glove maintained the dock with the computer.

  “What is it? Have you found out yet?” Jane asked softly from his side, possibly for the fifth time already.

  He was still sifting through the information, and for some reason, it was harder than usual. Everything was slower than the lightning speed at which he could send and receive information through a direct uplink with his armor. It was almost as if the onboard computer, embedded in the live matrix of his bio-armor, was running some kind of subroutine at the same time, something Lucas wasn’t conscious of, but something that was taking up most of the processing power nonetheless.

  Finally, he began to get several sketchy reports. He confirmed the fact there was a communications blackout, he confirmed that there had been communiqué after communiqué sent by the Galactic Force but that the Galactic Union had almost immediately realized that they lacked the correct security codes, and had instigated an immediate investigation. Yet the second the investigation had begun, was the second the communiqués stopped, and the second that all communication with Earth had gone dark.

  Though Lucas was hardly learning anything new, his back became completely cold, his forehead damp with sweat.

  He undocked his hand.

  He hadn’t found out anything he didn’t know. There simply wasn’t enough information out there. Though he had seriously high security clearance, it hadn’t managed to secure him anything that wasn’t on the general channels, anyway. He finally turned to Jane, then he shook his head.

  Jane took a careful breath and nodded simply. “I hope everybody is okay,”

  So did Lucas.

  “We have to go,” he eventually managed, “we can’t just hang around here and wait for more information to come,” he said more for his benefit than for Jane’s.

  He saw her swallow, saw her eyes instantly darting to the side, her gaze settling on some patch of wall.

  Well, this was it, wasn’t it? He was finally going to find out whether her implant was going to let her actually meet a fellow Paran.

  No time to wait, he would have to find out on the run. He nodded his head to the side. Time to go.