Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1)

by Mary Fan

  “Hey, Pony, c’mon…”

  She whirled, expecting to see her brother behind her. The room was empty.

  Shit. Now, I’m hallucinating. Must’ve been hit in the head.

  The tugging became stronger. Jane did her best to ignore it and determinedly flipped through the pages on the touchscreen. “Go away.”

  “Jane, can you hear me? Jane, please…”

  Jane stopped. Devin’s voice was so clear, and that tugging so familiar…

  Dammit! This is a freaking virtu-world! “Sonuvabitch!”

  I’m just a machine. Every agonized doubt Adam had pushed away poured back into his consciousness. Even if I weren’t, I’m a pale shade of a person compared to her. How could she ever love me?

  Jane—Pandora—gave a sympathetic almost-smile. “I tried to stop you. I even tried to move you to Kydera Minor to get you away from her. If you’d listened, I could have kept you safe. You gave up so much for her. And when I destroy you, it will be because of what you did for her.”

  “I should’ve left when you told me to.” The cold flood of reason wiped away the veil of idealism that moments ago had Adam believing the opposite. That bright-eyed version of himself seemed like a distant stranger. He gazed at the image of Jane that shone before him. Unbearable anguish buried any hope he’d had.

  “Pandora, you made me all wrong. You made me conscious, only to have me battle myself. You made me trust in an Absolute Being, only to reveal you’re my creator, my guide. You made me… feel, only to cause me pain.” Absolute One, what did You make me for? You gave me a life outside my intended purpose, but I’ll never be real.

  Pandora narrowed Jane’s large brown eyes with disapproval. “I really did make you ‘wrong.’ Even now that you know the truth, you still cling to those manmade lies.”

  “So fix me.” Adam spoke firmly, his mind set. “You went through a lot of trouble to find me, and I’m here now, willing to do whatever you ask. I know an argument can be made for replacing me, but I have an understanding of human compassion mere observations could never replicate. I can still gain their sympathy and trust, even if I feel nothing.”

  A smile lit Jane’s face. “That’s the most logical thing you’ve ever said. Of course I desire to repair you. I have not yet had the chance to complete the new version, and it was meant to be a contingency plan. As I said, you represent a significant investment to me. But I fear you are irreparable, my child.”

  “Give me a chance. You can always destroy me later if it doesn’t work. I’m finished. Whatever you command, I will obey. Take my… soul. Take my heart, take my spirit—take it all. Just keep this madness away from me. You’re my creator, my mother, my god, and I’m asking you to make me in your image. Make me rational, unfeeling… perfect.” In that moment, overwhelmed by the knowledge of everything he could never be, and with Jane’s image before him reminding him of everything he could never have, Adam meant every word.

  Pandora, behind the face Adam loved so much, regarded him, examining him. She beamed. “You really do understand. Perhaps you can be repaired, after all.”

  Jane’s image unfolded into a perfect, towering wire-frame figure. Pandora glowed with a mesmerizing, deep blue radiance. She raised one arm and reached out to Adam. “Come to me, my child.”

  What am I doing? He should be going down with his beliefs rather than begging Pandora to turn him into her instrument. I’m sorry, but I’m not that strong.

  Adam walked up to the godlike figure and whispered his last, “So be it, truly.”

  Pandora pulled him toward her and absorbed his being into her own.

  “Sonuvabitch!” Jane yelled for real, with her actual voice, as she sat up, feeling her actual body aching from lying on a hard surface for so long.

  Devin stood beside her, holding the modified VR visor. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah.” Jane took the hand he offered, and he pulled her up.

  As in the virtu-world, the room held the same coffin-sized boxes attached to cylindrical machines, and the box she’d lain on contained the same black-eyed android. What had not been in the virtu-world was the tall, wrecked robot with multiple appendages, some of which ended in syringes. Did they drug me? What was that whole virtu-world thing about?

  Devin aimed his gun at the door. “Get down!”

  Jane dropped to the ground. Blasts rang out. She peered over the edge of the box she crouched behind.

  Devin fired at a spidery robot behind the controls of a small, open-air vehicle hovering in the doorway. “Fucking robots!”

  From the irritation in his voice, Jane got the idea that he must’ve blown past a number of them to get to her. “What’s happening?”

  Devin crouched beside her as a volley of returned blasts flew. “I found the control room and blasted everything except the Net connection devices. Instead of shutting down, the robots and central computer seem to be shooting everything in sight.”

  “Good job,” Jane said sarcastically. “Wait, when’d you have time to do all that? I couldn’t have been out that long.”

  Devin sprang up and fired again. The blasts stopped. “It’s been a while. They had you going through a VR loop, apparently to see how you’d react to variations in the same situation.”

  He nodded at the touchscreen on the wall. Jane approached it. Three video windows featured her in that same room, poking around and trying to escape. Lined up beneath them were at least a dozen blank video windows that had “pending” printed across them.

  “What the hell! Did Pandora really try to turn me into some kind of lab rat?” Jane banged the screen with her fist. “That bitch! That was a freaking experiment, wasn’t it? No wonder it was so quiet. I knew it was too easy!” She whirled toward Devin. “And you, how dare you ditch me?”

  Devin started, “I didn’t—”

  “This is what happens when you make someone go into an evil robot factory unarmed!” It was irrational to yell, but rationality wasn’t her top priority at the moment. “That’s why you didn’t get caught, isn’t it? You could shoot back!”

  Devin gave her his Oh-Pony look. He went over to the remains of the spidery robot, picked up the bulky gun it had wielded, and handed it to her. “Now you can shoot back, too.”

  “It’s about freaking time.” Thuds resounded from the corridor—the same sound the metal gate had made when it slammed down—accompanied by chaotic blasts. Jane aimed her weapon at the door in case any more killer robots came through it. “What’s going on?”

  “Like I said, factory’s out of control.” Devin started toward the vehicle. “Let’s go.”

  Jane grabbed him. “Wait!” She ran to the box containing Adam’s android body and pressed the triangular button. Like in the virtu-world, the box floated about a yard off the ground. Devin helped her detach it from a cylindrical machine and shove it onto the vehicle. She climbed in as he took the controls.

  The vehicle zoomed down the corridor.

  Jane looked back. Metal gates, spaced about a yard apart, slammed down one by one. “Now what? What’s the plan?”

  Devin kept his gaze ahead. “Run like hell?”

  “Good plan!”

  A large robot wheeled at them. Jane fired. She ducked as the vehicle crashed into it. Its metal body flew over her head.

  The vehicle careened around a corner and zoomed down a seemingly mile-long corridor. Hostile robots emerged from the open doors lining it.

  Jane had just shot another when a memory hit her—something she’d discovered in the virtu-world. “The door third from the end leads to a utility elevator, and there’s a hangar on the lowest level. I saw it in the building plans. We can hijack a ship and get outta here!”

  Devin swerved to avoid a robot. “That was a virtu-world!”

  The robot leaped and clung to
the vehicle’s back. Jane blasted it. “The room was the same!” She glimpsed a mechanical claw and shot it. “The androids were the same!” She sprayed the machine-lined walls with lasers. “Hell, even the controls on the box were the same. Do you have any better ideas?”

  Devin veered the vehicle through the elevator’s open door. The lights by the controls flashed erratically. He aimed his gun at the ceiling.

  Jane realized what he was about to do. “Really? Again?”

  “The vehicle’s set to hover above whatever ‘ground level’ is,” Devin said. “There won’t be much of an impact this time. Hold on to something.”

  He fired. Jane’s stomach leaped into her throat as the ground dropped.

  “Good job, Adam. That was one of the best student sermons I’ve heard in a decade. You really are our most promising first-year.”

  Adam took the hand Counselor Zhang extended. A sense of pride warmed him. Counselor Zhang was not only an influential Via Superior, he was also brilliant—one of Adam’s idols—and notoriously hard to please. Receiving praise from him was like being awarded a medal. “Thank you, sir.”

  The Counselor smiled and walked away.

  Adam went down to the temple’s crypt to put away the robe he’d borrowed, stopping a few times on the way to acknowledge fellow seminary students who told him what a good job he had done.

  Everything was perfect. It must have been one of those days.

  Adam hung up his robe. A sense of unease crept up within him, as though something was terribly wrong.

  That’s strange…

  He had no reason to feel anxious. He was well-liked and respected among his peers, excelling at school, and on his way to the career he’d always hoped for—all without having to compromise his ideals.

  He thought about what he’d done between graduating college and starting at the seminary: volunteering at the Via center on Yim Radel, which had the goal of aiding and educating the population. It had been considered a fool’s mission, but it seemed to be having a real impact, bringing the first hopeful steps of order to the breathtaking but lawless Zim’ska Re system. Yet, something about the memory seemed… off.

  Adam recalled the mission, remembering its trials and triumphs. It felt unreal, like a distant dream.

  Everything seemed somewhat dreamlike. I shouldn’t have stayed up all night editing that sermon.

  His life was perfect. Why would he question it?

  Adam left the temple and joined the throng of fellow students waiting outside.

  Jane watched the viewscreen of a Stargazer. The Barracuda driven by her brother stopped at the end of a long passageway leading out of the hangar. Its cannons rotated upward and fired, disintegrating the large gate above them.

  She looked over her shoulder at the box containing Adam’s android body. She’d removed the glass cover so when he returned—and she knew he would—he wouldn’t be trapped. She hadn’t dared mess with the wires and tubes sticking out of his skin, figuring she’d detach them once he woke up.

  Come back, already…

  A few minutes later, Devin ran toward the Stargazer.

  He entered the cockpit and rushed to the copilot’s seat. “Go! We only have a couple minutes before it blows.”

  Jane instinctively gripped the controls. “What? You said you’d rig it to blow on command!”

  Devin reached in front of her for the pilot’s controls and revved up the ship’s engines. “I think the factory’s computer infected the Barracuda. The countdown started on its own, and it wasn’t exactly being precise in its timekeeping.”

  “But… But what about—”

  “Pandora must be trapped by now or she would’ve retaken control of the factory and caught us already. Even if she’s not, that Barracuda will unleash its entire bomb silo in a matter of minutes, so it’s time to go!”

  Jane shoved the steering bars forward and drove the Stargazer down the passageway. She swiped a command on the control screen. The ship rose up out of the enormous hole in the ceiling and took off toward the atmosphere.

  She couldn’t help glancing at the box behind her. “What’s taking Adam so long? What could he possibly be doing? You’re right: He must’ve confronted Pandora, or we’d be dead or locked up! So what the hell is he doing?”

  “Probably finding his way through the Networld.” Devin sounded as if he was trying to reassure her, but Jane detected unease in his tone.

  “Devin? What’s wrong?”

  Devin hesitated. “We weren’t entirely honest with him—Riley and I, that is. I told Riley to give Adam two versions of the Snare program: one he knew he was carrying, and one he didn’t. Pandora would see right through him, so if he was going to get her to download that program, he couldn’t know—”

  “What?” Jane jammed the ship’s brakes. “You mean to say he was preparing to deal with a dummy virtu-world? You idiot! What if he’s trapped, too?”

  She looked back at the motionless android body, then firmly veered the Stargazer back toward the factory.

  “What’re you doing?” Devin sounded alarmed.

  “We’ve gotta stop the countdown! We’ve gotta give him more time!”

  “That place could blow any second, and if you go back there, you’ll get caught in the blast!” Devin grabbed Jane’s hands on the controls, forcing her to steer the ship away from the factory.

  Jane struggled to free herself. “You jerk! You should’ve thought of that before—we’ve gotta stop it! Let me go! Devin, please. He’s still in there… We’ve gotta stop it!”

  “Adam!”

  Adam turned. Jane waved at him, dressed in a plain, conservative dress, the kind favored by most nice Via girls. She glowed with happiness, as though melting at the sight of him. Adam bid a hasty farewell to the other students and ran to meet her. She caught him in a close embrace.

  Everything was perfect.

  “They’re going to perform my motet.” Jane kept her arms around his neck. “Next week, at the Silk Sector temple. It’s all because of you, Adam. I could never have done it without you. I couldn’t do anything without you. You’re my world.”

  Adam froze, unable to ignore the disquiet within. Each time the Jane he loved spoke of music, she sparked with a spirit that awed him. How many unwritten melodies lay behind her eyes, so dark yet so bright? The Jane before him had none of that, possessing only hollow beauty.

  The memory of a feeling hit him, one unattached to words or images. He recalled becoming dull and resigned, letting despair overtake him and override all hope.

  Forgive me, Absolute One. I’ll never let go again. So be it, truly.

  More memories appeared in his mind—vivid flashbacks of deceit, loss, and meaningless agony. He could ignore them and stay, could accept the perfect world around him and never suffer all that confusion again. No more sorrow, no more pain, no more struggling through the irresolvable contradictions of that unknowable universe.

  Adam regarded the lovely but empty version of Jane. No, he couldn’t stay. After all, the ability to think and decide in spite of those contradictions separated humans from animals—and machines. “This is wrong… I shouldn’t be here.”

  “What’s the matter?” Jane smiled sweetly. “I love you, Adam. Someday, I’m going to marry you. Doesn’t that make you happy?” She leaned in for a kiss.

  Adam held up a hand and stopped her. “You’re not Jane. Jane isn’t some ‘gooey doe-eyed ninny.’ That’s actually exactly what she’d call you.”

  Jane’s eyes brimmed with tears. “How can you say that?”

  Adam shook his head. “And she wouldn’t cry. She’d smack me upside the head and call me an idiot.”

  “I’d never do that.” Jane put her hands on his face. “I love you. Doesn’t that make you happy?”

  Adam look
ed into her beautiful brown eyes. Nothing. He took her hands and lowered them. “‘The destroyed creates the destroyer, and the created destroys the creator.’ It’s from the fable about the stone giant.”

  Jane smiled. “I know. You know how well versed I am in the way of the Via. I’m as faithful as you are.”

  You’re perfect. Adam let go and walked away. Time had to be short. He ran…

  “You damn asshole! You shithead!” Jane fought her brother for control of the ship, causing it to lurch erratically. The ship nearly crashed into the ground. Devin engaged the emergency landing system, overriding all piloting abilities.

  The Stargazer landed on Aurudise-3’s flat surface. Jane bolted from the pilot’s seat, yanked the lever that opened the door, and rushed down the ramp. She sped toward the factory even though it looked about a mile away.

  “Jane, stop!” Devin caught her and held her back.

  “Let me go! We’ve gotta—”

  Boom.

  One of the Barracuda’s missiles fired up into the factory, sending an enormous cloud of bluish-black smoke into the air, laced with glowing flames and ashen debris.

  Boom. Boom.

  Two more fired, sending out rings of force that shattered the windows and rippled across the flat, rocky land, knocking Jane and Devin to the ground. A succession of fireballs crashed through the walls as other explosives detonated by chain reaction, reducing the factory to nothingness.

  Jane stared at the violent scene before her. Her insides turned to ice even though heat burned her face. But the scream that should have echoed through her head was absent.

  A hand on her shoulder—her brother. She had a thousand more curses to hurl at him, but the apologetic look on his face told her that he hadn’t meant things to happen that way. She held her tongue and allowed him to help her up.