Betrothed Episode One (25 page)

Jane sat on the window ledge, gazing
up towards the night sky. She watched the stars high above as they
punctuated the darkness. She saw them twinkle and light up the land
below.

She did not shift her gaze once.
Though she had work to do, she didn't move. She simply sat there
starring up at those stars. She often did so, almost every single
night. The stars never changed, and neither did she.

They called her plain Jane. From her
appearance, to her job, to her leisure time, the name suited her
well. There was no excitement in her life, there was no growth,
there wasn't stimulation or challenge; just the same old thing day
in and day out.

Yet there was a contradiction in Jane:
while every night she did nothing but sit there quite fixedly
gazing at the heavens, her mind moved. In her fantasies, as she sat
on that window ledge facing the night sky above, she would travel
the Galaxy. She would do the things she never did in real
life.

Every single night her imagination
moved, it grew. It created the most fantastic, wondrous adventures.
So plain Jane closed her eyes, a small smile spreading across her
lips, as she opened up the doors of her imagination.

…

Jane sat at her desk, staring down at
the console in front of her. Blue and green holographic images
moved around just above the console display panel. She stared at
them glumly, her head propped up on one hand. She had been staring
at the same damn images for the past hour, and now her eyes were
losing focus.

Around Jane her co-workers chatted,
laughed, and socialized. Mandy – a beautiful blue-skinned Hoya who
sat alongside Jane – kept chortling as she talked loudly about
everything other than work.

“
You should have seen what
he said to those new recruits,” she laughed, her lips spreading
wide as her very large eyes sparkled.

“
Well, I suppose the
rookies weren't expecting a lesson from a professional,” noted
Tarta. He came from an insect-like race, and spread his pincers as
he chuckled wildly.

Jane knew who they were talking about,
because there was only one person they ever talked about: Lucas
Stone. The shining star of the Security Division of the Galactic
Force. When he’d been a student, a rookie, he’d once thwarted an
attack on the Galactic Union Senate. That same rookie had once
single-handedly saved an entire battle cruiser, by heroically
plugging an engine leak with his own armor. He was also the man who
had practically rewritten the book on security procedures
throughout the Galactic Force. Most importantly, he was the guy
everybody knew would be picked to lead the new expedition to the
outer rim. In fact, it felt like when it came to the Galactic
Force, he was the only one anybody ever talked about or
acknowledged. The legendary Lucas Stone.

As for
Jane – she was just plain. She was
also getting seriously bored; the strain of focusing so hard was
giving her a headache.

“
I heard from one of the
med students that they are just going to give the new expedition to
him. They're going to let him pick whatever ship he wants, and
whatever crew he wants too,” Mandy continued, her long tail
flicking around as she gesticulated with it.

Tarta nodded soberly. “Of course, that
makes perfect sense. Lucas is the best we’ve got. He will know how
to make that mission a success.”

Jane fought against the urge to close
her eyes, but couldn't quite manage it. Everything was just so
terribly boring. People always accused her of being boring. Fair
enough, she hadn’t gone out last night to see Lucas Stone give an
impromptu lesson to a couple of first-year security students on how
to save the Galaxy. She’d stayed at home. Yet while she had, her
mind had not. Jane had traveled the Galaxy, she’d pretended she was
an ambassador, someone special, someone unique, someone with
incredible power, someone who a crafty and malevolent ancient race
had wanted to kidnap. Then, in the nick of time, a daring hero had
come to her rescue. Last night her hero had been a xeno biologist;
capable, kind, willing to go up against an entire squadron of
robots in order to save her and the Galaxy.

But n
ow she was here again – back at work.
While she was fighting it, her mind was starting to wander. She’d
heard about the dreams that humans had. She’d even learned about
something called day-dreaming. Well Jane now knew she was a
day-dreamer. A serious, serious day-dreamer. It was no doubt a
quirk of her alien DNA.

Again she valiantly tried to open her
eyes but found herself closing them languidly.

She could feel her cheek bunch up
against her hand, her mouth being pulled open in a probably highly
unattractive manner as her head nodded forward again, her muscles
relaxing as her body succumbed to the boredom and transported her
to dreamland.

 
....

Just as her head nodded forward again,
someone jabbed her hard in the back.

She spluttered, making a choking,
startled noise halfway between a hiccup and a yelp.

“
Wake up, Plain Jane,”
Mandy whipped her tail in front of Jane's face, probably the very
same tail that had poked Jane in the first place. “We've got
company.”

Jane blinked as her eyes looked up to
the door on the other side of the room. It was still hard to focus
but ....

Wow.

Talk of the devil.

It was Lucas Stone.

He was standing just inside the
doorway, one of his trademark smiles on his trademark face. The
head of the Administrative Division was standing next to
him.

It was such a surreal scene that Jane
thought she had accidentally wandered off into a daydream after
all. All of her colleagues were on their feet, eyes sparkling. How
absolutely wonderful it was for a living legend to pop in before
morning break to parley with them.

But why exactly was Mr. Universe
taking time off from saving the Galaxy to come see the admin
staff?

Was he just walking into the room so
he could get a glass of water from the sustenance terminal on the
other side? Or did he perhaps like to play this kind of game all
over the city? Occasionally pop into random offices, workstations,
schools even, flash that amazing smile of his then wait for his
adoring fans to cheer?

Jane blinked heavily but remained
seated, even though most of her colleagues had been standing from
the moment he appeared in the doorway. It was a peculiar thing, but
usually she wasn't all that cynical. Plain, yes, boring, yes, but
cynical, no. She was the kind of person who preferred to see the
better side of somebody, and who didn't like to say anything unless
what she had to say was positive. Which was another thing her
colleagues, especially Mandy, liked to point out: Jane was too
innocent. She wasn't interesting in any way and didn't appear to
have any depth to her opinions or beliefs because she hadn't been
anywhere or done anything or been challenged by anyone or any
event.

Then there was Lucas Stone. When it
came to Jane, he was different – he got on her nerves. Perhaps it
was the fact that whenever anybody concluded she was boring, they
would always contrast her with Lucas. Look at Lucas Stone, they
would say, how interesting, how handsome, how accomplished. He
saves the world on Tuesday, teaches the next generation on
Wednesday, and woos the daughter of Senator Cooper on Thursday. A
busy boy, a perfect boy, an immensely interesting boy. Then there
was Jane. Who went home every single night and stared up at exactly
the same night sky and dreamed about adventures but never of course
had one.

So while it went against most of her
personality, she had a bone to pick with Mr. Stone. Though she’d
only technically met him once and was sure he wouldn’t remember it.
She’d run into him on his very first day at the Galactic Force. It
had been her first day as well, but unlike Lucas, she had not gone
on to rule the universe. Now how had they met again? Had she done
something clumsy, stupid, and incredibly embarrassing in front of
him? Had she fallen from one of the transports only to be caught by
Lucas at the last moment? Had she tripped over one of the cleaning
robots only to smack right into his chest? Had she slipped in the
mud? Nope, because she was plain Jane. Those were the types of
amusing, if not embarrassing, things that happened to interesting
people. He’d simply asked for directions.

Nothing amazing, nothing spectacularly
klutzy.

They had crossed paths several times
in the corridors over the years, and each time Lucas would have a
different colored stripe down the arms of his armor or uniform,
indicating that once again he’d been promoted or had acquired some
new, incredible skill. A couple of times he’d asked what the time
was, or perhaps where the nearest sustenance receptacle was. On
another occasion, he’d even asked her where the bathroom was. That
was the total sum of their interactions. Jane had absolutely no
question in her mind that Lucas did not even know who she was. Yet
she didn't mind one bit. She was sick of being compared to the very
best the Galaxy had to offer.

“
Don't do anything
embarrassing,” Mandy hissed from her side.

While her colleague's tone was curt,
Jane didn't pay any attention to it; when it came to rationalizing
or making excuses for other people's behavior, she was well
trained. Unless it came to Lucas Stone, that was.

Jane waited silently for whatever
would happen to hurry up so she could return to her task – trying
not to daydream at her desk while avoiding work.

The general manager of the division
suddenly clapped his hands together, his green scaly flesh glinting
under the light. “I have some very exciting news,” he smiled
broadly. Though he was from a race who did not usually show emotion
through facial movements – preferring instead to communicate solely
with their hands – apparently even he had to crack a grin around
Lucas Stone. “Now, Lucas here needs no introduction.”

There was a smattering of almost
overjoyed laughter in the room, a smattering that Jane did not join
in with.

“
I have some incredible
news,” the general manager continued, his green skin now turning
purple indicating just how excited he was about it, “but perhaps I
should now step aside to let the man of the moment fill you
in.”

The general manager actually bowed out
as he gestured for Lucas to step forward.

Lucas stood there for a moment,
smiling heartily, his teeth practically glittering. He didn’t have
his armor on today, he was in his dress uniform. As with everything
he wore, he looked damn near perfect in it. Or at least some
version of perfect, a version of perfect that Jane did not quite
share. While she did go home every single night and dream up little
romantic fantasies for herself, the likes of Lucas Stone were never
included in them. Her romantic leads weren't anything like Lucas;
they were kind, bashful,
capable but dignified. They had flaws, fears and
limitations, with a great sense of humor. And most importantly,
they always displayed modesty
and humility. In other words, they were light
years away from Mr. Universe, Lucas Stone.

Still smiling, Jane could see that
Lucas took a big breath, his chest puffing out against the white,
black, and gold of his dress uniform. “I am sure you have all heard
about the upcoming mission to the outer rim,” he kept on smiling,
but now there was a glint in his eye, a glint that appeared to
suggest that there was nothing more important in the world to him.
“I do not need to tell you that no Galactic ship has traveled
through Hell's Gate for almost one hundred years. The scientific
and technological discoveries to be made could redefine our
generation, and pave the way for a brighter future for all of the
races of the Galaxy.”

Everyone in the room gave a smattering
of applause, even a mumbling of approval. Of course they’d all
heard about the mission, and everyone knew that nobody had passed
through Hell's Gate in over one hundred years.

“
If we pull this mission off, we
will be the first people to cross beyond the Pillars and to come
back again. The scientific data we can gather by studying the
unique singularities throughout Hell's Gate could advance our
current understanding of quantum field theory by
decades ...”

Jane started to tune out. She could
still hear Lucas speaking of course, but she began to pay less and
less attention to him. Instead she let her gaze wander to her left,
until it settled on the view outside of the huge flex windows. She
could see the other buildings of the Galactic Force, even see the
rest of the city stretching out behind, and especially the sky
above. She did like the sky; it was always so big and inviting, and
quite frankly non-judgmental. The sky didn't seem to care that Jane
was boring. The sky had not once called her plain.

As always happened when Jane started
to get distracted by the view, her mind began to wander. She liked
to plan her little night-time fantasies in advance. Right now, she
imagined a dignified, capable, handsome, accomplished galactic
adventurer, someone a little bit like Lucas Stone but without that
personality. Someone who didn't command the limelight, but shunned
it instead. Someone who wouldn't ever consider her plain, because
they wouldn't ever consider anyone plain. They would look beyond
the appearances – they would see the beautiful dynamism and
creativity inherent in everything. Perhaps he would have sandy
blond hair, perhaps he would be half human and half Elurian, his
eyes a glowing electric blue. But most of all, he would not judge
her.