Chapter 18
Jane
Fear seized Jane’s mind as water lapped into her mouth. She started to choke, thrashing as she tried to move to one of the pillars that held up the path she’d just jumped off. But she couldn’t gain enough control over her body, couldn’t will her arms and legs to move quick enough. She didn’t seem to have control over them.
Through it all, the buzzing in her mind grew in strength.
Jane started to swallow water; the waves lapping up and into her mouth as she slipped below the surface.
As she started to sink, she saw something.
It was on the other side of the city, near the slingshot transport.
It was black. It had a thick body with six legs extending from its torso like a spider, and a single, pointed tail whipping up around it. It looked like an Earth scorpion, except jet-black and huge.
It glanced her way.
Before her eyes sunk below the waves, she saw it move. It launched itself off the opposite platform.
Then she started to drown, her mind filling with static as she swallowed water in her frantic attempts to breathe.
The static built and built, and Jane got the distinct impression it was trying to fight something.
Her whole body shook from the electrifying effect of that ringing.
It grew and grew and grew until suddenly a pulse shivered through her.
Jane regained control over her body; the insidious pain that had forced her into the water now gone.
Yet it was too late, though.
Jane’s body was shutting down.
Yet at the last instant, as her eyes closed, her senses dimming, she felt her limbs kick into gear. As she moved, something reached her, wrapped around her middle, and pulled her out of the water.
Jane’s body shot from the water so quickly that her wet hair slapped against her face.
Whatever had a hold of her twisted her around until it dumped her on the path, her body hitting the ground with a violent, wet, resounding smack.
Then she saw it. The assassin robot. It was standing barely a yard from her, its small head tilted to the side, its large, intelligent, electronic eyes locked down on her.
It twisted its tail around, the point of it glinting in the sun.
It was about to strike.
She tried not to move but shook forward as she coughed and spluttered. Her mind began to whirl; the buzzing that had overcome the urge to drown returning with a surge.
It filled her brain. There was nothing but the buzzing. It resonated down her arms and legs, shaking her body as she lay there on the ground.
Lucas still stood there, his back turned to her, his body stiff and unmoving. Either he was having one hell of a fabulous conversation, or he couldn’t move at all.
So she waited, the buzzing still shaking through her limbs, the assassin robot still poised to attack.
Yet time wound on, and it didn’t strike.
It seemed frozen there, poised but unmoving.
The buzzing in her mind built to a point until there was a clicking sound that echoed through her thoughts.
The assassin robot finally did something, but it didn’t attack. It leaned down to her, its eyes coming so close to her own, that she could see each of the concentric, blue, electronic lenses turn around as it focused its attention on her.
It didn’t attack; it just looked.
A whole minute went past, Jane choking as quietly as she could, her shoulders shaking, her body soaked, but her face always angled up to the robot right in front of her.
“What do you want?” she finally asked, her voice such a choking mess that her words were almost indiscernible.
It didn’t answer, but it did keep on looking at her, its eyes, and more accurately the little electronic lenses that kept on twisting and circling around as its computer controlled its attention, now moved frantically. It was such a strange sight, and though an assassin robot was right before her, its intentions clear, Jane did nothing but stare.
Suddenly she heard Lucas speak: “Jane,” Lucas managed, his voice sounding strained, almost distant.
He didn’t move, though. He obviously couldn’t.
The assassin robot still didn’t attack. It still simply looked on at Jane, those little lenses in its eyes moving faster and faster. Perhaps it could shoot lasers from them, and it was standing there while the ability charged.
So she just sat there, still shaking, still frozen, still staring out at it, the buzzing in her mind never leaving her.
“Jane,” Lucas repeated, his voice still as strangled as before.
Though Lucas’ voice punctuated the silence, the assassin robot still didn’t attack. What was more, nothing else did, either. None of the planet security fields suddenly whizzed into place, and no security officers suddenly appeared around the corner in spaceships, telling Jane that it was illegal to jump into the ocean, and telling the assassin robot that was also quite illegal to be, well, an assassin robot.
The more the assassin robot just stood there, kneeling down toward her, staring right at her, the less intimidated she felt. In fact, the more she started at it, the more she was sucked into the strange concentration that seemed to be expressed over the assassin robot’s rather plain and simple face. Most importantly the eyes, the eyes were incredible.
“Jane,” Lucas tried again, his voice finally starting to become stronger. Yet he still wasn’t moving.
“Jane,” the assassin robot said. At first, it completely mimicked Lucas’ tone, perfectly matching the swaying motion that was rippling through the word. Then it repeated her name again, and this time it sounded electronic and bland. It went on to repeat her name three more times, as if it were a child learning how to speak.
The effect was electrifying on Jane, and she started to recede, her body still shaking, but her breath now slowing down, even stopping at the incredible sight before her.
“You are Jane,” the assassin robot now said.
“Jane,” Lucas managed, and this time his voice was filled with complete and obvious fear.
Yet the assassin robot still wasn’t attacking.
Finally, Jane made a decision, and it was probably an incredibly stupid one. She stood up, her body still shaking, and a curious thing happened – the assassin robot’s tail flipped around, and it didn’t suddenly slice through her chest in an easy and incredibly vicious movement. Rather it pressed easily into her back and seemed to hover there. It didn’t latch hold of her in any obviously violent way; it simply provided her with something to lean against. Then the assassin robot stood, bringing its torso and head down until it was facing Jane again. “Jane,” it repeated.
Jane took a shaky breath and kept on coughing, the effect of her near drowning still playing havoc with her throat and lungs. “What’s your name?” she asked.
… She asked the assassin robot what its name was. Though Jane hadn’t known what an assassin robot was only several days ago, she’d taken the chance to do some reading on them. She’d confirmed what she’d already suspected: they were meant to be among the most vicious, trained, efficient killers this side of Hell’s Gate. They were a form of biosynthetic life: a creature that employed the equal use of technology and biology; each cell a happy synthesis of the two. Yet that was as far as the happy analogy stretched: an assassin robot used its unique physiology to accomplish one simple task – It killed people. It killed aliens. It destroyed things. So it was much banned.
Yet Jane was now facing one and asking what its name was. She almost expected a reply, a reply that wasn’t a tail through the heart, that was.
“Element 52,” the assassin robot answered.
“… Nice to meet you,” Jane responded after a moment.
Yep, she’d just told the assassin robot that it was nice to meet him.
The static that had picked up in Jane’s mind when she’d started to drown was finally abating. Even though Jane was paying little attention to it, and far more attention to the univ
ersal-class killer in front of her, she still noted how strange it was. She’d never experienced such a symptom in her life: a full, heavy static that seemed to engulf her mind like an electrical storm. It felt as if something, her brain maybe, it more likely, had been running at absolute full force. Yet now it was abating, and now she was talking to the assassin robot instead. But she couldn’t deny one simple fact: she didn’t feel at all frightened. Perhaps it was calming her, because, quite possibly, it had done something to the assassin robot to ensure it wouldn’t get any assassination done today after all.
“Jane,” Lucas said, and now his voice was louder. “Jane,” he said again, and the note of insistence was so obvious that she twisted her head from the assassin robot and looked at him.
She saw him shift. He stumbled forward, his body so stiff that the move looked like some kind of caricature. Then, after a few steps, the move became more fluid until finally he turned around.
Though he was still stumbling, he immediately reached for his gun.
Then Jane found herself on her feet, her body moving incredibly fast until she planted herself exactly between Lucas and the assassin robot. She held her arms out wide, trying to make herself as large as she could, trying to make it as hard as possible for Lucas to manage to shoot past her and kill the assassin robot.
“Jane, what the prack are you doing?” Lucas shouted as he tried to stumble to the left and get a shot off from her side.
Jane found herself following his move, and she was quicker than Lucas, easily managing to keep herself in front of Element 52 at all times.
“Jane, get the hell out of the way,” Lucas spat, his voice finally sounding clearer. In fact, with every second he seemed to be looking more confident, more capable, less like a broken robot that was stumbling from step to step. “Jane,” he snapped one final time.
“Don’t interfere,” she found herself saying, the same firm, confident tone that she’d used on him in the reconnaissance ship suddenly taking hold.
“Jane?” Lucas didn’t drop his gun, but finally he stopped trying to dart around her to get a safe shot off at the assassin robot.
“Don’t interfere,” she said again, “we need it. I have completed the hack; it is no danger. We need it,” she repeated.
It was so surreal to hear herself speaking, to feel her mouth moving and forming words perfectly and clearly without any desire to do so. She’d completed her hack? What was she talking about?
It was speaking, wasn’t it? It had taken control of her again, it was using her, using her body, doing whatever it had to do.
Lucas shook his head. It was clear he was having trouble believing her, and fair enough. There was a real live assassin robot behind her, granted, one that had a name, Element 52, but still, it was an assassin robot. Of course Lucas didn’t believe her. In fact, she didn’t believe herself, but she didn’t have the luxury of pointing that out to him. “I need it,” she said one final time, and as she finished, she realized that she now had control over her throat, and instantly took a spluttering breath. “What…” she mumbled, wanting to put a hand up to her mouth, to her lips, to her neck, to inspect it all, to find out if they were hers after all. She couldn’t move the rest of her body, though, and it seemed clear it had no intention of moving Jane out from in front of the assassin robot until Lucas put his firearm down. Unfortunately, it appeared that Lucas had no intention of lowering his gun in the presence of one of the most illegal and vicious creatures in the Galaxy, though.
“Jane,” Element 52 repeated, “Jane,” it said again.
She wasn’t sure whether it was trying to get her attention or whether it just liked repeating her name. Honestly, even though this situation was incredible, peculiar, and frantic, Element 52 was starting to remind her of a kid, a dangerous kid, a kid that was shaped like a scorpion and that had a challenged and nasty past.
“Jane, you have to step out of the way,” Lucas tried to step to his left to get around her again.
“Lucas,” she said his name, and it was her speaking, and her voice wavered up and down as she sucked in another breath, choking on it as she still tried to dislodge all the water she’d swallowed from before.
“Get out of the way. You can’t trust it; I’ve seen what these things can do,” he pleaded.
So Jane closed her eyes. Apparently she couldn’t control her body, and apparently Lucas had no intention of heeding Jane’s wishes, even if they weren’t exactly her own.
She didn’t want to see what would happen next.