A Plain Jane Book One (19 page)

Was she Paran? It was the
only possibility that made any sense. She’d managed to activate the
Paran Artifact. He’d handled it himself, and not once had the black
box turned into a great big robot.

There was only one problem
though – no one really knew what a Paran looked like. They’d always
been a stupendously paranoid race and had never revealed their true
identity to the rest of the Galaxy. Whenever a Paran had travelled
outside of their empire, they’d all undergone extensive genetic
surgery to mimic whatever race they went to live with or
visit.

Lucas suddenly leaned
forward, and shook his head, almost laughing to himself.

He was trying to piece
together little snippets of probably inaccurate information about
an ancient race when he had a database about them loaded into his
armor.

When the Paran Artifact
had uploaded it, there’d been no time to go through it. What, with
the pressing fact that Specimen 14 had broken out of its
containment field and had actually melted the floor in order to get
to Jane.

Now Lucas had the time. It
would probably be an hour or so until they reached the Central
Shipyards. While he knew Jane was safe, the best way for him to
spend that time was finding out exactly who she was and why she was
so integral to all of this. So Lucas rested his head back again,
tried to get comfortable, crossed his arms in front of him, and
closed his eyes. He opened his mind to the on-board computer of his
armor and he tried to access the database.

At first it was hard,
almost painful. Then it would work, but in confusing bursts. He
would get rushes of disparate information flashing before his mind.
Pictures, words, symbols. The words and symbols were in the Paran
language, and he had to wait for the computer to translate
them.

After a while, Lucas
clutched a hand to his head and tried to squeeze his eyes closed
tighter as he fought harder to get the information he
needed.

The database was clearly
having problems integrating with the rest of the knowledge in his
armor. And he couldn't forget that the Paran Artifact had somehow
managed to alter his armor, even upgraded it in order to upload the
database in the first place.

‘
Come on,’ he mumbled to himself
through gritted teeth. ‘Show me what I need to know.’

The more he tried to find
out about the Parans, the more images of the Darq appeared before
his mind. He would see buildings that were no doubt on the Paran
worlds destroyed in seconds. The Darq would rush them, starting off
in their white forms, and then melding and shifting their bodies
until they were dark shadows that sprung up destroying them in
seconds, tearing and ripping at whatever lay in their path. They
were like a horrible swarm, a relentless storm.

Eventually Lucas opened his
eyes, his breath heavy as he tried to process the horrible images.
Then he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes again, forcing his
mind forward. ‘Come on, come on,’ he said through clenched teeth,
‘show me what you know.’

Yet the more he tried to
find out about the Parans, the more he found out about the Darq. He
saw image after image of the destruction of the Paran worlds. He
saw whole cities fall within hours.

Eventually, reluctantly,
he gave up and he opened his eyes.

Jane was standing on the
other side of the room looking at him warily.

He blinked heavily as he tried
to shift through the pain that was clenching at his skull. He
leaned forward a bit. ‘Are you okay?’ he said through a shaky
voice.

Jane nodded.

‘
We should be arriving at the
Central Shipyards in another 10 minutes or so.’

‘
There's something in my head,
isn't there?’ Jane blurted out, but her voice wasn't angry, and
there wasn't a touch of the vehemence that there’d been before. In
fact, her expression was exactly the kind of expression he would
expect to see on Jane. She looked concerned, awkward, uneasy, but
still . . . well, still cute. Still Jane.

He nodded uneasily,
keeping his eyes on her at all times. He didn't want to make the
wrong move and cause the implant to kick into gear again. He was
almost certain that if he started to question what race she was
from or heaven forbid whether she was normal or plain, Jane would
turn on her heel, scream at him, and run out of the room. Or maybe
the implant would decide that it’d had enough, and cause her to
outright attack him. And he really didn't want that. So he just
looked at her carefully and waited for her to make the next
move.

‘
I'm not normal, am I?’ she asked
through a stuttering sigh.

Lucas had to try hard,
really hard not to laugh. He wasn’t amused because he thought she
was stupid, far from it, it was just the sheer innocence in her
voice, as though she'd been asleep during the last hour's
terrifying events.

He didn't answer at once,
he just kept waiting for her to make the next move.

She sighed again. ‘I don't know
what to do,’ she looked over at him, fixing her large and
expressive hazel eyes right on his.

He sat up straighter; he
was pretty sure that Jane was now looking to him for a solution. Or
something like that. Though he couldn't say for sure that her
expression was pleading, he still got the distinct impression that
she didn't have anywhere else to turn, but that she had turned to
him nonetheless.

‘
There will be scientists,
doctors at the Central Shipyards. We will be able
to . . . ’ he trailed off. Prack it, he kept on
trailing off at the moment. It was as if he couldn't form a full
damn sentence any more. As if he’d gone back to preschool and he’d
forgotten how to carry on a conversation. Jane probably thought he
was going mad. If, in fact, she had enough attention left over to
spare on something as frivolous as his sanity right now. Still,
Lucas was aware of how stupid he sounded, and it irritated the hell
out of him.

‘
But what then?’ she asked
carefully.

Then we get that implant
out of your head, Lucas said to himself. There was absolutely no
way that he would say it out loud though. He was sure that if he
threatened the implant, it would go absolutely bananas and take
control of the ship, lunging Jane's body towards the console and
setting her fingers to work as it hacked everything in sight.
Still, that's what he was planning to do, even if he wasn't going
to admit it to her.

He could appreciate the
point of the implant; without it she would have been a ready and
soft target for Specimen 14. But he seriously didn't think its
insidious effects on her were worth it. Her actions, her mood, the
way she thought about herself, were all being controlled by the
implant. The more Lucas thought about it, the more it disgusted
him. It seemed to be a parasite that was hooked up to her very
brain. And parasites were not nice.

He leaned forward in his chair,
clapped his hands together softly and looked up at her. ‘We will
find a solution,’ he said simply, though he didn't dare articulate
what he thought the problem was.

‘
What about . . .
that strange robot down at the Galactic Force Main Campus?’ she
managed to force her words out, but they were slow and stuttering.
Lucas didn't know whether she was having a hard time fighting
against the implant or if she was just understandably
tired.

‘
You mean the Paran Artifact?’
Lucas asked, realizing that she honestly had no idea what it had
been. She’d simply broken into the laboratory, after all, activated
it, and let it protect her.

The second he mentioned
the word Paran, was the second she started to frown. Though the
expression was obvious, it didn't last long. Eventually she closed
her eyes and opened them again. Although she still looked
irritated, it just reminded him of the way she usually looked
around him.

A mild level of irritation
that, to be honest, Lucas was not used to seeing in people,
especially not women, not whilst they were looking at him anyway.
Nonetheless a mild look of irritation that Miranda would probably
say was very healthy for him to be on the receiving end
of.

While the expression remained
on Jane's face, she appeared to loosen up. ‘What
about . . . that . . . ’ she
trailed off.

Lucas did not need her to
say it. He knew exactly what she was talking about. She was talking
about Specimen 14, the Darq. She may not have the vocabulary to
describe it, or even have the slightest idea of what it was, but he
could see in the fear marching across her face that she knew at
least one thing: it was deadly and it most certainly had been after
her.

‘
Look,’ Lucas suddenly felt
uncomfortable, incredibly uncomfortable. There wasn't anything he
could say to Jane to make her believe that she was okay, because,
in all honesty, he doubted she was. Too much was happening, and
there weren't any certainties. Nothing was concrete enough for him
to know what to do next, let alone to know how to solve this
problem. ‘We will go to the Central Shipyards, and then from
there—’

‘
We will see what happens next?’
Jane suggested, her voice light.

He shrugged, offering a
wan smile in agreement. It was probably the best way to sum up
their current plan. They would just have to wait to see what would
happen next.

The computer behind him
started to beep, and he turned to see the view on the main screen:
they were starting to zero in on the Central Shipyards.

The Central Shipyards were
out near Jupiter, taking advantage of the powerful gravity of the
planet. Ordinarily you had to schedule weeks beforehand any
intention to visit them. They were one of the most sophisticated
shipbuilding docks in the entire quadrant. They were a hub of
scientific activity and technological advancement. And, considering
the number of secrets they held, they weren't exactly the kind of
place you could drop in on whilst on a cruise through the star
system. You had to have clearance, and your clearance had to be
checked by people with higher clearance. Yet Lucas had just set
course and bombed his way towards them, without heed for the usual
procedures.

Now he was starting to get the
messages – the angry bleeping ones – that told him to either turn
around or come up with a damn good reason as to why he was ignoring
the standard operating procedure.

‘
Prack,’ Lucas turned towards the
panel and started to type something quickly. Eventually getting
frustrated with that method, he simply docked his hand right into
the center of the panel, and let his armor do all the
work.

Jane slowly walked up to him
and sat in the navigator's chair. ‘You swear too much,’ she
mumbled.

Though Lucas was concentrating
on relaying a message to the Shipyards – one that would tell them
in no uncertain terms that they were to let him in, and that they
were not to ask questions – he looked to the side at Jane, his
eyebrows dropping low, his lips sucking in as he smiled
automatically. ‘They didn't talk about that in the fan supplement,
did they?’

She shook her
head.

His smile doubled. ‘Well, I
have a lot to swear about.’

She flicked her gaze over
to him.

He shrugged his shoulders
in reply.

She shook her
head.

It was a simple and painfully
cute interaction, and while Lucas should certainly be paying
attention to relaying his urgent message, he couldn't help but
chuckle to himself. ‘I think you will find there is a lot about me
that the fan supplements got wrong.’

‘
Your favorite meal isn't beef
stew?’ Jane asked.

Lucas snorted. ‘No.’

‘
Your favorite color isn't
blue?’

‘
Actually, it is, but I have to
say, I'm not the kind of guy who defines himself by what his
favorite color is,’ he kept on shaking his head and
chuckling.

‘
You aren't dating Marie Cooper,
daughter of Senator Cooper?’ Jane asked, her tone artificially
even.

Lucas finally turned to Jane,
but it wasn't because of the question, it was because he remembered
something. Marie. Prack she’d been in Research Lab Two. Prack,
prack, prack, with all that had happened, he’d forgotten about it.
He’d left her there. And what about Alex? He’d been in Basement
Level One when Specimen 14
had . . . .

Jane watched his
expression carefully, and even blinked as she probably noted how
sallow his skin had become and how he suddenly yanked his hand free
from the dock.

‘
I hope . . .
dammit, I can't believe I didn't check up on them,’ he closed his
eyes and shook his head bitterly.

Her mouth gently dropped open.
‘It's my fault,’ she responded immediately. ‘You didn't have to
come. I did this to myself . . . what I
did . . . ’ she trailed off. It wasn't the
first time she’d trailed off after trying to make sense of what
she’d done down on the planet. Lucas didn't wonder whether it had
something to do with the implant. Maybe it was blocking her from
remembering it, perhaps it accurately reasoned that if she paid
enough attention to the fact something had taken over her body, she
would try to figure out what the implant was and try to get rid of
it.