42

Description

Doyle was assigned to go on a recon mission to investigate an ancient satellite who's crew died centuries ago from a radiation leak. Now that it's safe for people to go, Doyle is expected to scope it out, and see what happened. After triggering some kind of start-up sequence, he sees a monitor light up with the image of a strange, yet somewhat familiar humanoid. This being gives him directions to continue turning on the systems, and sees that he is surrounded my monitors, control boards, and locker-like file cabinets. Not by his own accord, Doyle hits a button marked P.R. Prisoner Release - and the being on the monitor teleports to his location. When Doyle sees them, he realizes that he is in the presence of 42, a master criminal who was fabled to be caught despite their time travel and authority-deception skills...

Chapter 1

Tik-Tok.

I stared blankly at the unyielding darkness that surrounded me.

Tik-Tok.

"Can you let me out?"

I got no answer.

Tik-Tok.

"It's been a long time."

Tik-Tok.

"I want my stuff back."

Tik-Tok.

"How long has it been?"

Tik-Tok.

Tik-Tok.

Tik-Tok.

"Hello?"

"Hello?" Came back an unfamiliar echo in the darkness.

"Who's that?" I asked spinning in my place.

"Me." Came the obscure response.

"Who's 'Me'?" I called out, swirling around in the interior of the padded, gravity-free, spherical room that was my prison.

"Doyle," came an answer.

"Well then, Doyle. Are you here to get me out?" I asked.

"Depends," he said. I heard some things shuffling around. "Where are you?"

"I'm not sure, but I've been here a while." I thought for a minute. "Is there a control panel where you are?"

A pause, then "yes."

"Is there a reeeeeeally big yellow button with a power symbol?" I asked.

"Yeah," came his response.

"Press it."

Hesitation, then a mechanical whirr accompanied by hydraulics.

"I-I pressed it." Doyle's voice had become shaky.

"You should be able to see me." I responded. "Can you?"

"I-I t-think so."

I rolled my eyes at his stuttering.

"You should be able to find a purple button labeled P.R." I said.

"I see it."

"Press it." I commanded.

"N-no."

"Y-yes." I insisted, mocking him.

"N-" his action of hitting the necessary button was devoid of free will.

I felt a slight tingling feeling as my molecules separated, then joined back together as I rematerialized outside of my cell, and into a large glass cylinder. I pressed a button on the interior, and a door-shaped panel slid back to the side.

I stepped out of the teleport capsule, and saw a young humanoid man in what looked a little like military wear. He was relatively unarmed, and had a block of white cloth on his jacket with black lettering which revealed him to be "Doyle O."

He didn't view himself as being "unarmed" as he did have a small machine gun, which was pointed directly at me.

I cocked my head to the side, and pouted exaggeratedly. "Put the gun away."

He dropped it.

I looked around the room. It was square-shaped, and half-filled with control panels, which rested underneath a wall of monitors.

One of the monitors caught my attention. It showed my little prison. A round, nearly inescapable room. Luckily, the original prison guards had been stupid enough to put a teleport relay in there.

I looked to the wall across from the monitors. It was covered with a variety of lockers. I went back over to one of the panels. I tried to hit one of the buttons, but then remembered my straight jacket. I looked around the room for something to remove it, but found nothing.

"Would you happen to have a knife?"

He shook his head.

I rolled my eyes, and looked around at the button-covered control panels. I shifted my weight onto my right foot, and lifted my left one to hit a power button. Still balancing on my right foot, I moved my left one to slide down a lever. The lights flickered slightly as a burst of energy surged into the room.

I put my leg down, and rested my forehead against a panel. I felt electrical energy surge through my body. I forced my arms forward, throwing the heavy straight jacket across the room.

I looked over at the solider. He looked absolutely terrified. I smiled, and walked over to one of the control panels, and hit a couple buttons.

There was a soft hydraulic click of mechanics as one of the little square lockers across the room unlocked. I walked over to the box, and removed a thick black device that commonly resembled a large old-earth wristwatch.

I immediately sighed in relief as the device locked itself around my wrist. I tilted my head back, so it was facing the ceiling, and closed my eyes. Blue and green symbols filled my vision as I went back online.

>After about a minute, I looked back at Doyle. He was staring at my eyes. Before, my right eye had been solid black, and the left one had been a more natural with a light green iris. Now, the right one had changed to white with a ring of artificial red circling a tiny - yet powerful camera - that was only visible to him as an oversized pupil.

Noticing his surprise, I pressed a button on the side of my 'watch', and the shiny silver panel on the top irised open. Using my interface I looked though my inventory, and within seconds, a little ray of pale blue light shot out of the device. I grabbed at it, and the compartment closed.

I opened my hand to reveal an eyepatch. I showed this to Doyle, then secured it around my head so that it covered my real eye, leaving the artificial red one exposed.

"Better?" I asked.

"Are you 42?" He demanded.

"What would give you that idea?" I asked.

"W-well. This b-base is r-rumored to m-monitor the prison of a being named 42." He was sweating. "Also-" he pointed to the monitor that he'd originally seen me through.

"If that was true, then where are the prison guards?" I was still logging on and syncing - and was not yet able to hack the security cameras.

"R-radiation l-leak. About a c-century ago." He further explained.

"A century?" I raised an eyebrow. "Do you know how long I was in there?" I didn't wait for an answer. "Eight tik-toks."

"E-eight tik-toks?" he repeated. "How long is a tik-tok?"

"Half a million years." I focused my attention back on my watch inventory.

"HALF A MILLION YEARS???" his stutter seemed to vanish as he became more confused than scared.

"Yep." I looked around the room, and sat down in one of the abandoned swivel chairs. I pulled out some PoverPacks, a fully-charged electromagnetic shoe, and a gun.

"You were in that prison for HALF A MILLION YEARS???" he stupidly repeated himself.

"No. I said 8 tik-toks. That's 4 million years." I said casually while rescanning the hologrammatic layers that covered my body.

"YOU WERE IN THERE FOR FOUR MILLION YEARS???" his eyes had gotten so big by now I thought they might pop off.

"I am very good at pissing people off." I pulled the shoe onto my left foot. Then, I flipped open a panel in my right foot, and inserted the PoverPacks.

I stood up, and jumped once. I sighed. I wouldn't be able to test my foot in such an enclosed space. Oh well. I'll just have to get it working when I need it to.

As I walked over to the door Doyle'd left open, I heard "come in soldier Doyle - over" accompanied by scratchy radio static.

I whirled around to see Doyle holding a walkie-talkie.

"this is Doyle - over"

"where are you? you were not supposed to be taking that long - over"

"I-"

I tucked the gun into the waistband of my tight, black, prison-issued pants, and grabbed the radio. "well maybe you shouldn't have sent him in all by himself - over"

"who is this - over"

"42 - over"

I tossed the black rectangular communications device back to Doyle. I stalked out of the room, and pulled my left wrist up to my face. With my right hand, I hit a few buttons, adjusting the settings. A shiny black screen slid over the silver panel that led to the compartment containing my belongings. The screen lit up with a variety of illuminated symbols.

Using my interface, I input a set of coordinates.

Within seconds, I was surrounded by a curtain of blue-gold tinted energy, and teleported.

Chapter 2

When the energy dissipated, I found myself staring into a large mirror. I looked around at my surroundings, and decided that I was in a public bathroom. I leaned forward, my hands gripping the counter, and stared at the reflection before me.

The person in the mirror was tall, with shaggy white-grey hair that was circled with the black elastic that was my eyepatch. They wore only a pair of tight black pants, a tight black bra, and a large black watch on their left hand. The left eye was red, and unnatural. It glowed slightly, and the iris looked a bit gear-like.

I shook my head, and the mirror person did the same. I reached up, and moved the eye patch to cover my artificial eye. I used the dark background to psychically go on the internet via the right eye.

My vision expanded. Through my real eye, I could see the mirror in front of me. Through my fake eye, my field of view was immensely bigger, and filled with information. It told me my location and all my current vitals. Part of it was like a spreadsheet of internet pages including the local news, and a few likely scenarios for the next span of roughly 24 hours in my future.

I ignored most of this, and went to my SLPU (Soft Light Projection Unit). My true identity was concealed with multiple layers of Hard Light. There was probably at least a dozen. I did this to make it as hard as possible for anyone or see what I really look like.

I edited my appearance through my SLPU, watching the changes in the mirror. My hair retracted to become short and spiked. It darkened into a deep purple. My pale skin darkened slightly into a lavender tint.

The leggings I wore morphed into a pair of shorts that barely reached the middle of my thighs. The bra lengthened into a crop top, and I was now no longer barefoot as a pair of black sneakers had appeared on my feet. After a golden earring appeared in my left ear, I saved the changes, and set the program to convert the soft light to hard light.

I heard a noise, and turned my head to see a humanoid walked in. Ignoring me, she went into one of the stalls behind me. I left the bathroom, and scoped out my surroundings. I was at a large bar. There was a stage with live music, and a lot of drunk people. My artificial eye gave me overly detailed information on everyone there.

I headed straight to the bar, and sat down at a stool. I swiveled around, and watched the scene in front of me. It wasn't that bad of a place to end up, seeing as how I'd just input a random set of coordinates. I did that a lot. Most of the time, I ended up in deep space. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing.

I was sitting there for a while when I was approached by a human man.

"What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

I rolled my eyes. It didn't matter the year, planet, or species, they always said this. "What do you want?"

"I was about to ask you, but it seems I wouldn't've gotten an answer anyway." He continued.

"No, probably not."

He ordered me a drink anyways.

I took it, and downed it in one gulp. Dan seemed impressed.

"That was fast," he commented.

I shrugged. "Its been a while. I thought, why not?"

"What?"

"Look, Dan." I looked over at him - he was sitting at the seat next to me. "You don't want to-"

"How did you know my name?" He interrupted.

"That's not important. What is important is-"

"Yes, it is important. How do you know that name?" He interrupted again.

I didn't bother explaining the little information blurb my interface provided me with, and instead just said, "there's a lot about me that you don't want to know."

He retaliated by buying me another drink.

I picked it up, and sarcastically said, "Is this your plan? Get me drunk? Great idea," then downed the liquid.

-TWO HOURS LATER-

"... and then, they decided the best course of action would be to build a fucking planet around me. A whole planet. You know which planet that became? Earth. I couldn't even have escaped if I wanted to, because I spent a lot of time in almost every time period there, and if I got to the surface, there would've been TWO of me, which would've caused a major paradox. But, they were stupid, and put a monitoring system in there to make sure I'd stay. But guess what? Those bitches are dead now. I don't know how - I didn't do it - but they're DEEEEEAAAAAD." I finished.

Dan, who'd been listening quietly (for the most part) said, "yes, but how do you know my name?"

I lifted my eyepatch, revealing my fake eye, then flipped it back down. "I get everyone's info."

"Are you really 42?" He asked.

"Am I 42?" I scoffed. "Course I am."

"Prove it." He dared me.

"I have a tattoo on the back of my neck that says 42," I pointed out, showing him.

"That's not proof," he said. "Anyone can just get a tattoo. Also, 42 would never get captured."

"I let them do it." I defended myself.

"Well then, if you really are 42, then you aren't really the famous criminal I've heard about." He crossed his arms.

"You've heard about me?"

"Are you kidding? 42's a legend."

"Really?" I was almost crying.

"Yeah. And I've figured out a way for you to prove it. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but that form you've taken is of a wanted criminal in this galaxy. I've called the police, and depending on what you do, that will tell me wether or not you really are 42." He smirked.

"When did you call the cops?" Suddenly, I noticed the neon warnings that filled my vision. Within seconds, police were bursting into the place. All the other patrons, who were minding their own business, were being thrown against walls, and freaking out. I picked up the latest drink Dan had gotten me, and calmly drank it, and several guns were shoved in my face.

"Roylan, you are charged with-"

"Nahhh." I shook my head. "I'm not. Well, maybe. I dunno. What I do know is... bye!" I hit EMERGENCY TELEPORT, and vanished to somewhere else, yet again.

Chapter 3

I rematerialized in deep space. Of course. From the 'watch', I pulled out a thick bracelet, and a belt. I secured the belt around my waist, and the bracelet around my left wrist.

Using my interface, I turned on the force field that would act as my space suit. Using technology in my left leg, right shoe, the 'watch', the bracelet, the belt, and half of my brain, the force field took on the shape of my body, and I was effectively protected from the vacuum of space.

I looked for any nearby planets or space stations, and came up with the planet Shyne. It was the closest planet, and I didn't feel like going to the second-closet one, which was further. I punched a few buttons on the watch, and pulled out a jet pack.

After securing it on my back, I logged it on, and was suddenly propelled across space towards my eventual destination. I didn't say anything and simply enjoyed the freedom after spending so long in the prison cell.

Eventually, I was close enough to Shyne to be within its gravitational pull. I turned the jet pack off, and slowly floated towards the massive domed city that housed the only civilization on Shyne. It was a massive dome with 20 layers of force fields. These served as airlocks to protect the city's inhabitants. As I neared the entrance, I noticed a ship was heading in.

I headed towards it, and grabbed onto the side. I remained there for a while as it slowly entered the city. I scanned it, and discovered that the ship would be remaining on Shyne for about an universal week. Once the ship landed on the planet, I turned off the force field. I jumped down, using a few bursts of jet pack energy to land safely. I realized that I still had the appearance of a known fugitive, and looked around the are I'd ended up. It was a large shipping bay, and I couldn't see anyone nearby.

I searched for an identity that would be most beneficial to me, and looked down at myself as my appearance melted into another. My skin was now pale, and I wore a dark worker's jumpsuit, and my hands were covered with darker gloves.