A Plain Jane Book Three

By Odette C. Bell

The fight for the galaxy begins now.
When the senate is attacked and chaos breaks loose, Jane and Lucas must dig deep to save each other and the Milky Way. It’ll take them right into the heart of her broken empire and out again – if they’re lucky. For danger and the ultimate darkness loom.
....
A light-romance space-opera, A Plain Jane follows a hero and a hidden princess fighting to stop a galactic war.

If you love your sci-fi with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab A Plain Jane Book Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Dec 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301276394

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lucas Stone

It was over. He’d said his piece.

Lucas turned off the recording, leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and tried to let it sink in. He hadn’t just addressed the Senate – he’d given them and the rest of the Galaxy access to four weeks of his life. So much for privacy – his fan club would be going insane.

He couldn’t focus on that aspect of it for too long – the entire point of addressing the Senate was to get them to act. So now he had to wait and hope that they would do just that.

He only rested there with his eyes closed for about a minute before he got a priority one call from Carla. He directed his armor to answer it.

Lucas, Lucas, did you see what happened? Carla asked, her voice so pressed that Lucas had a great deal of trouble making her words out.

He snapped his eyes open. What are you talking about? Have they already made a decision?

Senator Cooper, he turned into something, some kind of creature. I’ve never seen anything like it, Carla’s voice was so tense that it didn’t sound anything like her.

What, what are you talking about? he stood up ramrod straight, his hands clutched into such tight fists that he could snap steel.

There is some kind of creature in the Senate room, I’ve never seen anything like it, none of the databases we have access to know what it is.

Lucas didn’t bother asking Carla what on Earth she was talking about. He just used his armor to log into whatever news feeds he could pick up. In a second it accessed what he wanted, because every single news feed in the Galaxy was playing the same footage. It wasn’t the last four weeks of Lucas’ life. It was footage of a Darq, or more importantly, it was Senator Cooper turning into a Darq mid-pounce, grabbing one of Jane’s Guards off her platform, and then right at the end a tail appearing out of nowhere and yanking her off the platform too.

Lucas wasn’t breathing.

He accessed another news feed, this one from a different angle. He’d set up the massive holo recording of him in the Senate room to record all of the senatorial responses as well, so he had access to every imaginable angle and perspective of the room.

He waited to see Jane fall.

Lucas still wasn’t breathing.

Finally, he got the angle he was looking for, the footage that showed Jane as she tumbled from the platform.

A black tail had snaked out from underneath her, grabbing her ankle and yanking her right off the platform.

Now Lucas could see who the black tail belonged to, and it wasn’t the Darq.

He began to run. He ran right out of the room he was in and right out of the building. Though he was perhaps one of the most wanted men in the Galaxy, he ran with his helmet set to transparent straight toward the Senate building, one of the most secure buildings in the Galaxy.

He had to get to her.

…

Jane

Was she still alive? Was she still breathing? Everything had happened so fast….

She could hear people screaming around her, and while she could feel her ankle smarting with pain, she didn’t feel as if every single bone in her body had been shattered and she was some kind of bloody pile at the bottom of the Senate building.

She opened her eyes.

Element 52 was standing above her.

There was an incredible commotion going on.

She could pick up screams – she could hear alarms blaring. From the pitch and insistence of them, she could tell they were the senatorial version of the red alert.

Her attention turned back to Element 52.

Though the robot had the kind of face that could only be termed fearsome, Jane couldn’t help but smile up at it.

Jane, Element 52 said.

Element 52, she replied. She pushed herself up, trying to get past Element 52 to look down into the pit of the Senate building. She had to check that her Guard was okay. Senator Cooper – the Darq – had pulled it right off her platform.

But Element 52 put one of his pointed, pin-like arms out and stopped her. Not safe, it said simply.

Jane could appreciate that. There were so many sirens blaring, and security drones were filling the room as Senators and Representatives ran for their lives. There was also an unholy commotion going on from down below.

She wasn’t sure whether she was breathing, and her heart was racing so quickly that she shook on the spot. She rested a shivering hand on her mouth. What’s… going on?

Senator Cooper is Darq, Element 52 responded.

Yes, he was.

Before Jane could ask Element 52 anything else, a whole host of security drones started to fly their way.

What are they doing? Jane asked, her voice pitching high as she realized the drones’ sights were trained on her and Element 52.

Then she realized something else: Element 52 was a goddamn assassin robot. Whereas he might have endeared himself to her over the last several weeks, all of the security drones would not know that. To them, he was one of the most dangerous and most illegal synthetic forms of life in the entire Galaxy. As Lucas had pointed out to her, there was a Galactic Force decree that told all security forces to eliminate assassin robots on sight.

No doubt the drones were coming in to naturalize Element 52, and quite possibly her in the crossfire.

As the drones neared, Jane flung herself right in front of Element 52, spread her arms wide, and clutched her teeth hard. She’d done the same thing on Planet Gold when she’d tried to protect Element 52 from Lucas. But unlike Lucas, these drones could fly around her and dodge past, and also unlike Lucas, they may have no compunction in shooting right through her.

Before they got the chance, Jane felt a tail wrap around her middle again, but not so tightly that it bruised or injured her. Then she was flung into the air as Element 52 jumped right off his platform and onto another one. Just as he landed, he set off again, using his six legs to leap high and fast. Yet somehow, as Jane dangled there in his tail, she wasn’t swung around and didn’t impact with any other platforms or get smashed into the faces of any Senators or Representatives as they ran for their lives.

As Element 52 dodged and ran away from the drones, it was clear he was making his way to the doors at the other end of the room.

Jane clutched both her hands around his tail, and she ground her teeth together in an effort not to scream.

The holographic doors were still operational, but in another moment, they failed. In an eruption of sparks and arcs of energy, they flickered out, leaving an open doorway.

While it was still far away, Jane could see two dark shapes standing by, their arms twisted around as light and energy shot forward from them.

They were her Guards.

Apparently, they had even more skills that Jane had not been aware of – they could produce weapons out of their own bodies. Their arms had become powerful-looking plasma rifles.

Before she could call out to order them to protect everyone, they surged forward and jumped right off the platform that ran around the edge of the room and sailed all the way down to the bottom.

There were two loud, massive clunks, and the cacophony of the fight taking place at the lowest level of the Senate building rang louder and louder.

If Jane thought the other Senators and Representatives had been screaming and hollering before, it was nothing compared to what they were doing now. They were desperate, they were frightened, and Jane, though she hadn’t paid much attention in history class, knew that nothing like this had ever happened in the entire history of the Galactic Senate.

Element 52 dodged past the drones, and soon he’d made it all the way to the doors.

Wait, wait, we can’t leave them alone, Jane called to him. We can’t leave them alone. What if the Darq kill them? Jane’s voice was twisted and high as the grip of Element 52’s tail around her middle cut her breath in half.

Element 52 didn’t stop. If it kills them, it will then kill you, he answered.

Jane appreciated that, but she still didn’t want to leave her Guards. She couldn’t run away and abandon them as they fought the Darq. It felt so wrong. Element 52 didn’t care, though, and he kept on sprinting down the corridor outside the Senate room. It was packed with surprised and shocked Senators and Representatives, and security drones were streaming through the air toward the Senate room. Jane could also see security guards darting their way from the other end of the corridor.

It was a huge hall, and even considering how many people were in it and how many security drones were buzzing around above, there was still enough space for Element 52 to continue springing forward. He flung himself onto the wall, then somehow defied gravity to take several steps along it, before flipping back down to the ground. No matter what happened, he always kept her steady in his tail, always dodged the fire from above.

As they made it closer to the end of the corridor, and Jane could see the security forces in their black bio armor, she couldn’t help but find herself hoping that at least one of them was Lucas Stone.

He was meant to be here – he’d promised that he would be here. He’d said that he would find some way to follow her into the Senate, and he would not take his eyes off her.

Yet he hadn’t been there when Senator Cooper had attacked, and it had been Element 52 and not him that had saved her from the Senate room.

Still, as all the security forces approached, Jane searched through them, looking for those distinct white and blue stripes. She knew he couldn’t be wearing his command insignia, but she looked anyway.

As she approached them, all of a sudden, they all stopped moving. They paused, their limbs frozen in whatever position they’d been in a moment before.

A cold dread spread through Jane’s chest as she remembered something important. She had seen somebody else in bio armor freeze like that before. Lucas. On Planet Gold, he had stopped dead before Jane’s implant had thrown her headlong into the water.

Was it happening again? Was their armor being hacked?

With all of the Senators of various races running around screaming, the pitches and tones of their voices melding together to create a great and desperate clamor, there was so much confusion that she wondered whether anyone else noticed the security guards weren’t moving anymore.

After all, the drones were still buzzing around, some of them trying to catch Element 52, others surging into the Senate room. Yet the Security Officers hadn’t moved a muscle.

Hurry up, Element 52, hurry up, Jane pleaded with him. I think their armor is being hacked, hurry up.

He kept on running, and in his way, he was hurrying up.

I have to do something. Jane realized as she spoke to herself, her voice still strangled as the grip of Element 52’s tail around her stomach impacted on her diaphragm. I have to warn them. They are trying to hack the bio armor. She tried to scream as loudly as she could. But her voice could not compete with the screams and shouts around her. Plus, the buzz and whir of the security drones above were too deafening, and the blare of the red alert siren was so loud that she would need an entire choir to help her be heard above it. Element 52, we have to do something, we have to stop them before they are hacked. Who knows what they’ll do?

Jane, no time, Element 52 responded, his voice even as he didn’t need to draw a single breath. All he had to do was run.

But we have to do something, she pleaded again. If only there were someone she could call. If only there was something she could do…. There was something she could do. She still had access to all of her other Guards. Granted, three of them were fighting the Darq, but that left six. She didn’t know where the other boxes were, but they couldn’t be with her other Guards, because they had streamed into the Senate room, guns blazing. So where were her remaining boxes?

No, we have to stop! Jane shrieked. I need to find the other boxes – I need to activate my other Guards!

Perhaps it was the insistence in her voice. Perhaps it was because Element 52 could appreciate how important it was for Jane to get her hands on her other deactivated Guards before somebody else did. But now he reversed direction, flipping and twisting in the air, landing easily, and scooting back toward the Senate room door.

As he did, Jane heard something behind her: the sound of plasma shots.

She had to act, and she had to act quickly.

She just hoped the little black boxes of her deactivated Guards would be sitting by the Senate doors. If they weren’t… then all would be lost.

Chapter 2

Lucas Stone

Though he didn’t set his helmet to opaque, and though he no longer cared which security lines or sensors scanned him, Lucas managed to get into the Senate building. People were running everywhere, Senators, Representatives, even the staff. Security drones were buzzing and zipping all over the place. Lucas even saw the occasional security officer sprinting their way toward the Senate building too.

Lucas had his plasma rifle in his hand, and he gave it his all to run as fast as his armor would let him. With the modifications that the Paran database had made, he found that his agility and speed had increased. He was outpacing his previous self, and what was more, his stamina had increased too. While he wasn’t willing to put any bets on it, he assumed he could keep up a level of activity like this for at least an hour. And an hour would have to do, and it was a blessing he had it anyway – before his upgrades, bursts of speed like this and moments of frantic action would have taxed his energy stores, leaving him at maximum operating level for fifteen minutes at most.

There was a Darq in the Senate Room, and unless he could get to Jane in time, it wouldn’t matter how sophisticated his armor was. The thing would hunt her relentlessly.

If that wasn’t bad enough, another thought pounded in Lucas’ mind as he ran: Senator Cooper had been a Darq. For how long? Lucas had time to think about it as he ran toward Jane. He could appreciate that maybe there had been something to his loyalty for the man. Maybe Lucas had been right about Senator Cooper all along, and yet Jane had been right too – they had simply been right about the wrong entities. Somehow the Darq had replaced the Good Senator, using its ability to change forms in order to mimic him perfectly. Then it had used his power to… well… Lucas had no idea how much damage the Darq had managed to do. It didn’t bear imagining.

It would be nothing compared to what the Darq could do in its true and original form. Without the information stored in the tenth Paran database, Lucas doubted they could find any way to defeat it too. And if they couldn’t defeat it, what did that mean? Would it wear down all of the forces on Spica One, laying waste to the entire planet? How long would it take? What if there were more Darq out there? What if they crawled up from the cracks in the pavement, wound their way out of the shadows, and poured like thick poison all over the Senate building? They would be everywhere, and if the entire Galaxy couldn’t hope to defeat one – how could it hope to defeat an army?

This was happening too quickly. If only they’d been given a chance to go to the Paran homeworlds, to find out more information about who the Darq were before they had attacked. Yet that luxury had not been afforded to Lucas, and even if everything looked hopeless, he had to try his hardest to stop the Darq in its tracks. He had to do everything to keep Jane out of its way, to protect her.

He pounded up the stairs, right next to a group of security guards, but then he stopped, because they stopped. In a frightful moment, he realized that they weren’t pausing to get some kind of communication, or to set their sensors, or to recalibrate their plasma guns. They had physically stopped. Every one of them appeared frozen as if they couldn’t move. In an instant, Lucas knew exactly what was going on. They were being hacked.

Prack, he screamed bitterly. Then he paused for an awful moment, looking at them, wondering desperately whether there was anything he could do to help, whether there was anything he could do to stop the hack. Yet he didn’t have the time – he had to get to Jane before the Darq did.

That didn’t mean he was going to abandon them, though. He made a call to the Chief Engineer. Before waiting for her to answer, he sent a message, detailing what was going on, and then he sent the same message to Carla. He didn’t care what Carla would do with it, as long as she let the rest of the Galaxy know. Lucas was starting to appreciate how important it was to inform everyone of what was going on. He couldn’t keep any of this to himself anymore. He couldn’t protect any more secrets, because the fewer people knew, the easier it was for them to be manipulated by the Darq and Krill.

When Lucas had done all he had to, he reached the corridor that led down to the Senate building.

It was a war zone.

…

Jane

They weren’t there, dear god, they weren’t there. Jane was crying from the surprise of it. Her deactivated Guards were not by the edge of the door that led into the Senate room. Had they been moved? Had they been stolen?

As soon as Jane thought it, she closed her eyes and knew that it was true. This had always been about getting her technology, hadn’t it? After Senator Cooper had received unanimous support from the Senate to strip Jane of her sovereign rights, the conversation had quickly turned into a passionate debate about who would get their hands on her Paran technology.

Now they were missing. All six of her deactivated Guards were missing….

What was more, now that she’d demanded that Element 52 take her all the way back to the Senate room, instead of whisking her away to safety, it looked as if they were pinned down.

Jane had been right about the other security guards – they had been hacked into. After they’d stood there motionless for several minutes, they’d started moving in one direction alone: toward her. All of their plasma rifles, all of their weapons were directed her way. Even though Element 52 was damn good at dodging, he wasn’t omnipotent. Yet he managed to take her back into the Senate room, and they were hiding behind several smashed-up platforms. Every time one of the security guards got too close to her, Element 52 would make some acrobatic move and manage to get her behind yet another platform, but Jane knew he couldn’t keep it up forever.

All of the Senators and Representatives had left long ago, and the Senate room was a charred, broken mess. Nearly all of the platforms had