A Plain Jane Book One (29 page)

‘
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 of 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 had
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 am afraid I'm going to have to ask
you to disperse, as I am on a very important mission,’ he puffed
his chest out and looked as stern as he could.

The effect was almost
instant, and all of 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 of 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 very 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 had 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 little
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 had
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 had not 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 very 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 had 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 shifting
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 on-board computer, embedded in the
live matrix of his bio armor, was running some kind of subroutine
at the same time, something Lucas was not 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 un-docked 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 very 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.

Chapter 17

Jane

What was wrong with Earth?
What had happened? Was it that thing?

Though Jane had no real
evidence, she knew that yes, it was the thing. She’d heard Lucas
refer to it as Specimen 14, and while she appreciated it had
another name, she couldn't dare use the word.

Just
thinking about it managed to send a
horrible chill racing through Jane, and she pressed her lips closed
in an instant, even flickering her eyes shut until the cold
past.

Exactly what it had done,
she didn’t know, but she did know one thing for sure: whatever it
was doing, it was all in aid of tracking Jane down. Earth was not
the target of Specimen 14, Jane was.

Y
et she was still walking, with Lucas Stone
by her side, and that meant something.

He was turning out to be
completely different from his legend. In fact, the only thing she’d
been right about was what he looked like: tall and thoroughly
handsome by human standards, and perhaps even by several other
alien standards as well. But tall and handsome didn't mean that
much when the Galaxy was full of aliens, and everybody looked
different; there were so many bodies and shapes and ideals of
beauty. In fact, these days people could be attractive no matter
what they looked like, and concepts of beauty tended to parallel
far more with confidence and authority then long legs and a
charming smile. That being said, Lucas still had something, and
while Jane had once convinced herself that she would never, ever be
drawn in by that certain something, she could still appreciate that
it was there. More importantly, she could still appreciate that he
was there, that he was walking confidently beside her, not leaving
her, not deviating from their path, his head always held solidly
forward, his eyes always gazing fixedly and determinedly towards
whatever lay ahead.

 
. . . 
.W
hat lay
ahead . . . Jane clamped down hard on her jaw, her
teeth setting together, even grating. They were walking through
what looked like a very expensive and posh section of town. Though
Jane couldn't exactly be sure, as every building was astounding in
her eyes. Even so, the aliens she now saw walking around all wore
expensive tunics, and had looks on their faces that suggested they
deemed themselves to be more than your average lazy Galactic
bum.