The Crucible: Leap of Faith (22 page)

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Sci-Fi Adventures by Odette C. Bell:

A Plain Jane

Betrothed

The Betwixt

Ghost of Mind

Ouroboros Series (Miniseries #1 of the Galactic Coalition
Academy Series)

Broken
(Miniseries #2 of the Galactic Coalition Academy
Series)

Axira
(Miniseries #3 of the Galactic Coalition Academy
Series)

Read on for an excerpt from A Plain Jane

A sci-fi space opera with
a dash of romance, action, and mystery, A Plain Jane follows Jane
as she travels the galaxy desperately trying to find out who she
is, where she's from, and what she's really capable of.

…

What if you had lived your
whole life thinking you were normal? No, worse than normal – plain?
What would happen if one of the most highly-trained and vicious
assassins in the galaxy attacked you one warm summer's night? What
would happen if you were thrust into an adventure with the galaxy's
greatest heroic heart-throb? What would happen if a mysterious and
ancient race appeared with one desire – to kill you? What would you
do?
Jane grew up knowing one thing: she's nothing but normal. But then
one little run-in with an assassin robot threatens to destroy
everything she thought she knew about herself. Soon she finds
herself with none other than Lucas Stone, the galaxy's number one
pin up and hero. And together the two of them have to find out
exactly who Jane is and what's after her before the galaxy is
plunged into war.

…

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 now 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.