A Plain Jane Book One (13 page)

Suddenly Jane realized
that she had control over her body again, and slowly, as she shook
violently, she let herself crumple down onto the ground, brought
her knees in, grabbed her arms around them, and just sat there,
trembling wildly, rocking back and forth in fear and
desperation.

Shot after shot slammed
into the security field, but soon they stopped; nothing could get
through.

Jane didn't care anymore. She
just sat there, huddled behind the creature, her back to all the
action, rocking back and forth, her arms clutched around her legs,
her head huddled down between them.

Lucas Stone

Lucas finally lowered his
gun, though it was slow. He had called off the shooting; it didn't
seem to be having any affect. No matter what they threw at the
strange blue security field, nothing weakened it.

Pracking hell, what was
going on?

The thing wasn't attacking
anyone or moving anywhere. It simply knelt there, with one of its
strange arms jammed right into the ring that produced the security
field.

‘
What the hell is going on?’ one
of the security officers asked by his side.

Lucas didn't answer. His
eyes were stuck open and focused on the creature before
him.

A robot had sprung to life
right from the Paran Artifact.

While that was incredible,
it wasn’t what stopped him from breathing.

Jane.

When he'd rushed into
Research Lab Two – when they’d finally broken through the insanely
sophisticated hack that had kept the doors closed, only to find a
security field in front of them – was when he’d seen her. He hadn't
believed his eyes at first. Hadn't believed it when he’d watched
her walk carefully, with perfect poise and control, towards the
security field and the Artifact, blasting away as she
neared.

He hadn't wanted to shoot
her. So he’d ground to a halt and watched as she’d collapsed on top
of the box, bringing it up to her chest and slamming her palms onto
it, the robot forming instantly.

Now she was simply sitting
there, crumpled into a ball, rocking back and forth, head between
her legs, back towards them.

‘
Lucas, Lucas,’ someone called
from his side. He turned to see Marie.

It was hard to tear his eyes
off Jane and the creature, but when he finally realized that Marie
was in the room, he took several steps towards her. ‘Get these
containment fields down now,’ he snapped quickly. ‘Are you okay,
Marie?’

Marie nodded her head, her
beautiful tousled blonde hair bouncing in front of her face.
‘What's going on? Who is she? What is that thing?’ Marie asked
quickly, her wide brown eyes pressed with concern and
surprise.

Lucas turned away from
her, settling his gaze back on the sight before him. The creature,
whatever it was, was not attacking. It had never attacked. The
second someone had shot at Jane, was the second that it had sprung
into action. And Lucas did mean sprung. He’d never seen anything
move so fast. Whatever that creature was, it was
amazing.

In any case, it didn't
seem much interested in them. It still had its hand jammed into the
security field, and it was clear that whatever it was, it was
capable of redirecting its own energy into the field and making it
far stronger, far stronger than anything Lucas currently had to
attack it with.

Jane was still crumpled
into a ball, rocking herself backwards and forwards.

He had no idea what was
going on. Dear god, he had no idea.

It didn't take them long
to get the containment fields down. Lucas had the feeling that the
only reason it didn’t take long, was that the creature didn't
care.

The second they finally got the
scientists and other security guards lose, was the second Marie ran
over to him and placed a hand over his arm. He put his own hand
over hers. ‘You'll be okay; we've got it under control.’

‘
Got this under control?’
somebody snapped from behind him.

Lucas turned to see none other
than Yaka Bakal – one of the best scientists that the Galactic
Force had. It was clear by the very stiff and stern look to his
green face, that Yaka was not pleased. ‘Don't fool yourself, Stone,
we aren't in control here.’ Yaka pointed a heavy finger towards the
creature. ‘That thing is.’

Lucas let his helmet flick
to transparent. He also let his gaze slip past Yaka and back onto
Jane. She was still sitting there in exactly the same position,
with her head tucked between her knees and her back turned to
everyone. She looked completely overcome. If he hadn't seen her
easily and calmly walk towards that security field and shoot the
hell out of it, before twisting around and pistol whipping it, he
would suspect she was traumatized by the whole
situation.

‘
Who is she?’ Marie asked. ‘Is
she a mercenary? A space pirate?’

‘
She works in admin,’ Yaka
replied with a grunt.

‘
What?’ Marie asked, her
confusion obvious.

Lucas couldn't blame her. His
own confusion was like wildfire burning right between his eyes. He
had no idea what was going on. Granted, he’d only really met Jane
last night, and although he had seen her on and off over the past
five years, he would not have suspected her to
be . . . to have done . . . to be the
perpetrator of whatever the prack had just happened.

Lucas often felt he was an
okay judge of character, and when he had met Jane, even all those
years ago, he'd formed the impression she was one of those
genuinely kind people. The kind of person who wouldn't begrudge
you, who wouldn't mind what you did or what race you came from, who
would give you space and would help you out whenever she could. She
certainly did not seem to be the kind to pistol-whip a security
field, shoot three security officers, and hack through the Galactic
Force terminals.

Yaka now walked right past
the security officers, and headed straight up to the security field
and the creature behind.

‘
Hey, get back,’ one of the
security officers said, trying to grab at Yaka's shoulder. Yaka
just shrugged out of his grip, and gave a snarl for good
measure.

‘
Dammit,’ Lucas spat, and jogged
up after him.

‘
Right, what are you?’ Yaka said
as he approached the security field, his walk completely
determined, and his voice sounding not at all put out or
frightened.

‘
Yaka,’ Lucas growled as he
caught up with the scientist. Lucas kept his gun raised and pointed
right at the creature. ‘We need to get out of here. We don't know
what it can—’

Yaka gestured to the field
almost offhand. ‘It is plainly not a threat to us, Stone. If it was
a threat to us, it would have killed us already. Trust me, I saw
that girl move, and I saw how fast the robot moved too. If they
wanted to, we would be gone by now. Yet we are still here, and the
both of them are hiding behind that security field. Now I want to
know why.’ Yaka walked up to the field, and though the creature
watched with interest, it did not move and it certainly did not
attack.

Feeling the fear and
hesitation rip through him, Lucas still walked right up next to
Yaka. He kept his gun raised, though pointed it at that creature
rather than Jane behind it.

Yaka leaned over and put a hand
on the end of Lucas' rifle, pressing it down. ‘Don't aggravate it,’
he snapped. Then he turned back to the creature.

There was complete silence
in the room now, and while Lucas knew that every security guard
would be pointing their weapon right at the creature, none of them
were moving and none of them were shooting. Everybody seemed to be
waiting.

‘
What are you? What do you want?’
Yaka asked, letting his hands drop down neatly to his sides, his
tone now even and careful, and certainly lacking the aggravated
edge that he had used on Lucas.

The creature now twisted
its head to the side, and the look to its gaze was one of keen
intelligence.

Lucas shifted his weight,
the tension in his body threatening to seize his muscles. As he
did, his gun shifted with him and momentarily pointed towards Jane.
As soon as it did, one of the creature's eyes shifted and focused
right on him. Now it had one eye focused on Yaka and one eye
focused on Lucas.

‘
Do not,’ it said simply. Its
voice was a low but sharp one.

‘
Yes, don't,’ Yaka agreed, ‘put
the gun down, Lucas.’

Lucas clamped down hard on
his teeth, looking from the creature to Yaka and then back at Jane.
The second he glanced her way, was the second the creature directed
both eyes towards him.

Eventually, despite his
years of training, Lucas let the gun drop in his grip until it was
pointed right at the ground.

‘
Right. We aren't a threat to
you,’ Yaka said directly. ‘Tell us what you want.’

‘
Protect,’ the creature
answered.

‘
You want protection? What is
after you?’ Yaka kept his arms down evenly by his sides, and Lucas
could tell that the scientist was fighting the urge to cross them.
After all, whenever Lucas saw Yaka, the alien always had his arms
crossed, and his expression was always a scowling one.

The creature darted its head to
the side. ‘Protect,’ it repeated.

‘
Right. What are you trying to
protect?’ Yaka then nodded his head towards Jane. ‘Is it her? If it
is, let me tell you, she doesn't appear to need any
protection.’

‘
Needs,’ the creature replied
simply.

‘
Right. Why?’ Yaka narrowed his
eyes, though his expression was still neutral. The scientist was
obviously trying very hard not to give away any bodily signs of
aggression.

It was something that
Lucas was completely failing at. His body was tensed, his shoulders
almost up around his ears, his lips stuck open, his jaw locked. He
hoped like hell Yaka knew what he was doing.

‘
From what?’ Yaka
asked.

The creature let its head
turn to one side, then its gaze slid down to the ground until it
finally looked back up at the both of them.

‘
I'm going to need more than
that,’ Yaka noted quickly.

The creature paused for a
moment and then looked straight at Lucas.

Suddenly
the usual steady stream of live
information feeds coming from the Galactic Force computer straight
into Lucas' armor changed. The creature somehow got access to them,
and immediately Lucas was bombarded with a new stream of
information. It was so fast, there was so much of it, and it was
such a shock that he clutched a hand to his head in
pain.

Yaka twisted to the side to
stare at Lucas. ‘What’s it doing?’

‘
It is, it is, it's giving
me . . . it's giving me,’ Lucas kept on trying to
speak, but the searing pain of having so much information thrust
upon the computer that connected his bio armor with his brain was
overwhelming.

Yaka slowly pulled a device off
his wrist, and as he did, it emitted a small blue hologram. It was
a personalized computer, a data pad with a sophisticated sensor
array. ‘I'm linking my computer to yours,’ Yaka said, glancing up
at the creature as he did.

Lucas kept clutching his
head, but slowly the information was starting to abate, slowly it
was starting to come to an end. In those brief few seconds, the
creature had managed to upload more information into Lucas' system
than he’d processed in years. Hell, Lucas doubted there was this
much information on the whole Galactic Force computers, let alone
the relatively small memory capacity of his suit.

‘
I am having trouble linking up
to your computer,’ Yaka said, voice low and irritated. ‘What is it?
What did it tell you?’

The creature did not move,
its hand was still pressed into the ring of the security field, but
it did keep both eyes directed at Lucas. It was obviously waiting
for something.

Lucas now had both hands
clutched to his head, and though he couldn't actually touch his
skin – the armor of his helmet in the way – it was the only thing
he could do to fight against the pain. He stumbled forward, but
before he could stumble right into the arcing blue electricity of
the security field, Yaka put a hand up and stopped him.

‘
Are you okay? What did it do?’
Yaka now snapped. Perhaps he was starting to lose his diplomatic
tone, or maybe he was just jealous that the strange alien robot
hadn't bombard his head with a planet-full of data.

Slowly Lucas was starting
to come around, and he let his hands drop from his head.
Straightening up, he closed his eyes for a moment and then finally
blinked them open.

‘
What the prack was that?’ he
managed to swallow.

Yaka moved his fingers about
until the blue hologram hovering above his hand changed shape and
it looked like a small, square, scanning device. He stared down at
the display, his eyes darting to and fro. ‘It has uploaded a great
deal of information right into the living membrane of your
suit . . . ’ Yaka trailed off, and it was
obvious from his tone that he was impressed. And Yaka was never
impressed; supernovas, incredibly rare quantum singularities, a
half-price sale at ChemEquip, nothing moved Yaka. Now the guy was
practically whistling through his teeth, his jaw slack, his eyes
wide with interest. ‘This is incredible technology. Somehow it has
updated the organic memory system of your bio suit. You are now
storing more information in that thing than we can store in the
entirety of the Galactic Force computer banks.’