Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Synthetic Illusions

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  ARTIFICIAL ABSOLUTES

  Mary Fan

  Artificial Absolutes

  A Red Adept Publishing Book

  Red Adept Publishing, LLC

  104 Bugenfield Court

  Garner, NC 27529

  http://RedAdeptPublishing.com/

  Copyright © 2012 by Mary Fan. All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2013940243

  Second Kindle Edition: May 2013

  Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

  All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the original purchaser only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  All the More Perfect

  “Story older than the skies,

  “It’s been told ten thousand times,

  “Not the first, won’t be the last,

  “Same old tale in different rhymes.”

  As Devin entered Sarah’s apartment, he noticed she’d left her demo song playing on her digimech. She must’ve left in a rush.

  “Still, there’s something to be said,

  “Maybe something to be heard,

  “Faiths adrift in falsehoods found,

  “Meanings lost within a word.”

  Sarah’s voice shimmered in the air, rich as emeralds, glowing softly like a distant star—perfect. Devin was certain she would make it as a singer.

  The door closed behind him. Outside the window, airtrains on ribbon-thin rails and flying transports swam around Kydera City’s gleaming skyscrapers.

  A Moray spacecraft soared across the atmosphere, its serpentine form heading toward the resplendent headquarters of the Interstellar Confederation in the heart of the Silk Sector. Gray diplomatic markings. Probably the delegation from the Wiosper system.

  Devin pulled his black slate out of his pocket, unfolded it from its triangle shape, and snapped it flat. The silvery touchscreen glowed. He checked the time at the top, then realized he had no idea when Sarah would be home. He considered calling her, but he didn’t want to risk disturbing her in the middle of something important. The workday hadn’t ended yet.

  All he could do was wait. He might be there for hours, or she might walk through the door the moment he looked up. Either way, the thought of seeing the woman he loved terrified him. He had stared down laser guns and betrayed warlords, knowing how deadly the consequences could be, and yet a mere question had him pacing and almost shaking in fear.

  Sarah DeHaven, will you marry me?

  Every rational instinct within him had warned him not to come, but for once, he’d allowed himself to follow the siren’s song of impulse instead.

  Less than an hour ago, that afternoon had been an ordinary, monotonous workday at Quasar Bank Corporation. Devin had waited idly at his desk for his manager’s approval before moving forward with his project. Although the company was armed with more money than the entire Republic of Kydera, it was still bogged down by bureaucracy.

  The weekend was only a day away. Devin thought about how he and Sarah would spend it. Then he remembered she’d scheduled back-to-back auditions, meetings, and singing gigs. Ever since her career had taken off, he’d seen less and less of her, and he was beginning to feel left behind.

  It hit him.

  Sarah was a rising idol, poised to become a pop culture icon. Her perfectly sculpted face and luminous black eyes were made to splash across the stars. Soon, her mesmerizing voice would reach into the souls of trillions. Every person in the galaxy who was touched by her songs would adore her, revere her. Ordinary citizens and exalted celebrities, workers and bosses, wage slaves and royalty—all would want her, and all would love her. Perhaps even as much as Devin loved her.

  And there he was, just another Silk Sector drone, a “tool” like any other.

  Why is she with me?

  She elegantly wove her way through a perilous thicket, never living the same day twice, while he’d walked the straight and narrow path to normality for more than six years. Sarah embraced life’s passions with a daring élan, whereas Devin had done his best not to care, not to think, in an attempt to simply… be.

  It wasn’t because he was afraid of the unknown. No, he’d been down that path, following his passions straight to hell. Although many would call his current situation dull or meaningless, he found it infinitely preferable to his turbulent teenage years and the white hole of chaos his life became after that. Those days were behind him, and he wanted nothing more than a normal, peaceful existence.

  And Sarah.

  Sarah, who melted his self-imposed prison bars in a haze of light, who showed him that life could have meaning beyond the frozen ideal he’d tried to become.

  A second realization struck Devin:

  I want to spend the rest of my life with her.

  It was irrational. He had known her less than half a year. It was insane—and stupid—but he’d never been more certain of anything. Perhaps he would get shot down, but he had to ask, and soon. That day.

  Right now.

  Devin had abruptly locked his computer and left. As he passed his coworkers, ignoring their odd looks and indignant questions, he contacted his bank via slate.

  After retrieving the engagement ring bequeathed to him by his mother, he’d found himself on his way to Sarah’s apartment, hardly knowing what he was doing.

  The holographic calendar on the wall indicated that Sarah had a meeting with a producer, but neglected to mention the time. Not very helpful.

  Outside, the serene logo of Ocean Sky Corporation lit up as the golden Kyderan sun faded behind the twisting tower of the company’s headquarters. Sarah was in that building or maybe one of its chiseled satellites. Whichever housed the music division.

  Devin couldn’t remember the last time he’d been scared. Whether he’d had a gun to his temple or an arsenal exploding around him, he’d always managed to keep his head straight. But waiting for Sarah to come home, he practically panicked as the lunacy of what he intended spun through his head.

  Yet
if everything else were cast into doubt, he would still hold on to the one absolute truth that brought him there:

  I love you, Sarah DeHaven. Will you marry me?

  Their first encounter had been like a scene from one of those hackneyed holodramas for teen girls and lonely women. Devin had waited in the reception area of Ocean Sky’s headquarters with the rest of his Quasar team, preparing to pitch the old tech corporation a new financial product to increase investment. Even an institution as large and established as Ocean Sky wasn’t immune to the dangers of time. Although it produced headline-grabbing machines that pushed the limits of the Interstellar Confederation’s restrictions on AI technology, consumers responded more to the company’s rival, Blue Diamond Technology Corporation.

  The double doors opened. Sarah’s loose sapphire dress flowed behind her as she approached the reception screen. She glowed with an ethereal aura that was otherworldly and enticing, a radiance beyond mere beauty.

  “Sarah DeHaven. I have a meeting with Ocean Sky Talent at two.”

  The computer responded with mechanical crispness, “Have a seat, Miss DeHaven.”

  Sarah glided into a seat across from Devin and crossed her shapely legs. She carried her neck long like a swan queen, betraying no emotion. She glanced around the room. Her full ruby lips became a thin line as she fiddled with a strand of long, black hair.

  Knowing he shouldn’t stare, Devin forced his gaze away. He wasn’t alone in his fascination. All eyes in the room fixed on Sarah with longing expressions that seemed to say, “Look my way.” There was something magnetic about her delicate face, slender wrists, and perfectly curved figure.

  Sarah’s alluring onyx gaze met his. Her face warmed into a demure, inviting smile. She lowered her eyelids.

  Against his better judgment and almost against his will, Devin got up and approached. Her gaze followed him.

  He didn’t know what else to do, so he smiled and tried to make conversation. “I couldn’t help overhearing that you’re meeting with the talent division. Are you an actress?”

  “Singer, actually.” Sarah extended a hand. “I’m Sarah DeHaven. And you are?”

  Devin took it. “Devin Colt.”

  Sarah glanced around the room again. “Everyone’s staring at me. Is there something caught in my hair?”

  “No. You’re perfect.” He meant it as an offhand comment, but Sarah looked down as though embarrassed. It must have come out more expressive than intended.

  Silence. Now what?

  “You could have smiled at anyone here.” Too late, Devin realized he was saying aloud the question he should have kept to himself. “Why me?”

  Sarah regarded him with slight confusion. “I don’t know. It’s like something was telling me I should get to know you.”

  “I’d like to know you too. Are you doing anything later?”

  Her face brightened. “No. Not anymore.”

  Previously, Devin had preferred the company of shallow beauties he barely knew and had no intention of knowing. Sarah wasn’t one of them. She avoided the hollow flirting and meaningless banter he’d grown accustomed to, navigating around his shield of artificiality, the façade he presented to the world. She even confessed the reason she’d agreed to go out with him. Her career-driven life left her craving any kind of human connection outside her industry, and so she had chosen to take a chance on him.

  The night had ended with a promise for another, which ended with a promise for yet another—and by then, Devin had allowed his walls to crumble.

  It hadn’t taken long for his father, who insisted upon knowing every detail of his grown children’s lives, to learn that Devin finally had a steady girlfriend.

  Dad had pulled him into his office, closed the door, and lowered the shades. He crossed his arms and expressed his displeasure at having learned of his son’s social life from a third party, then probed Devin for every detail. “It’s about time you got your act together. Is she intelligent? Is she ambitious? Are you sure she’s not using you, that she’s not simply better than the others at hiding it?”

  Devin had been sure. He’d been equally sure that nothing he did—short of, perhaps, being elected President of Kydera—would be good enough for the illustrious Victor Colt. Even then, his father would probably ask why he hadn’t reached higher and aimed for Chancellor of the Interstellar Confederation. Although Devin did everything he could to become the person his parents wanted him to be, he knew he lacked the ambitious desire that had driven Victor Colt and the late Elizabeth Lin-Colt to become two of the most influential people in Kydera. He sometimes wondered if he’d inherited anything from them other than his mother’s dark eyes and hair and his father’s height and angular bone structure.

  He also knew that, at twenty-eight, he should choose his own future, but after the hell his decisions had caused seven years ago, he had silenced any notions of “Could I?” or “Should I?” and surrendered to “I will.” He would do as his father commanded—and remain indifferent to what it was. Yet he still wasn’t good enough.

  “Come on, baby,” Sarah had said once. “Don’t let your father bother you. He loves you, Devin. He wouldn’t care so much if he didn’t.”

  She was so perceptive, willing to listen patiently and always ready with the right kind of counsel. She was also as busy as he was. Rather than being irritated or saddened by his lack of spare time, she’d said she preferred it that way so she could advance her own career without neglecting him. At the same time, Sarah had told him many times how much she appreciated having him there to save her from isolation.

  So she would be happy if he proposed, right?

  What the hell am I doing?

  The thought crossed Devin’s mind for the hundredth time. But asking was the only way to quiet the chaos in his mind. Besides, he fit the criteria for a good husband—good family, promising future…

  And stupid.

  What kind of blockhead randomly decides to propose and rushes to ask immediately? Sarah deserved better. She deserved something thoughtful, something that had taken effort.

  Devin took the ring box out of his pocket and opened it, then looked around the apartment. How she kept everything so pristine was beyond him. Other than the digimech she’d left on, everything was where it ought to be. Sarah was like that in every aspect, flawless except for some quirk that made her all the more perfect in his eyes. Every hair in place, except for the one lock falling beside her face. Always precisely four minutes late. Her apartment decorated so crisply it might have been done by a computer but for a bizarre painting that appeared to represent some form of bird.

  There was nothing out of which he could fashion a romantic scene. Sarah had professed many times that, in spite of the cynicism of modern times, she was still an idealistic dreamer who loved the sweet formulae of yesteryear. So what the hell was he doing with nothing but a ring and a question?

  I should leave. Go home and plan something that spoke to how well he knew her. Write a speech about why she was the One and ask her properly. All right, I’m leaving.

  The elevator dinged outside, followed by the precise clackity-clack of high-heeled shoes approaching.

  Shit.

  Devin stood, devoid of any semblance of a clue, as the bolts of Sarah’s computerized door retracted. The door slid open. Upon seeing her, he instinctively did exactly what he’d come to do. “Sarah DeHaven, will you marry me?”

  Fuck!

  He expected shock. He expected mockery, or horror, or even disgust, but nothing could have prepared him for what she did.

  She froze.

  “Sarah?”

  Sarah stood halfway through the door, her hand inches from the security scanner, motionless.

  “Sarah!” Devin rushed to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “C’mon, baby. I’m sorry I scared yo
u.”

  Sarah didn’t move. She was cold, stone cold. She didn’t even blink when he looked into the voids of her eyes.

  Devin probably had about as much medical knowledge as a repair bot, but even he knew people weren’t supposed to seize up like that. He grabbed his slate and pressed the emergency icon.

  After a second that seemed to stretch into hours, a response: “Kydera City Emergency Response Center.”

  A willowy arm reached around him and took the slate from his hand. “I’m sorry. There is no emergency. It was a false alarm.”

  Devin whirled. Sarah stood beside him, calmly folding his slate.

  “Sarah! Are you all right?”

  Sarah reached into his pocket and dropped the slate, standing close enough that he could feel her breath. “Of course I am. I’m ecstatic. You proposed.” She picked up the ring, which had fallen out of its box when he’d dropped it in alarm. “It’s beautiful, Devin.”

  Devin opened his mouth, but couldn’t respond. The anguish of waiting followed by the horror of seeing the love of his life seize up robbed him of the ability to communicate.

  Sarah knit her mildly arched eyebrows. “Baby, why do you look so scared?”

  Devin tried again to speak. “I-I thought you were… you seized up. I thought—”

  Sarah laughed. Something about that once-mellifluous sound chilled him. “I was shocked. That’s all. The apartment was supposed to be empty. We never talked about the future. I didn’t think you were the marrying kind. Baby, your proposal was the most unexpected, irrational act of randomness. Can you blame me for being surprised?”