Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) (10 page)

The Blue Tang’s engines revved up.

Don’t you dare. Don’t you
dare
!

The Blue Tang moved away from Jane. She ran after it.

You jerk! You’re not leaving without me!

“
Devin
!”

Devin glanced at the section of the Blue Tang’s split viewscreen that showed his sister running after him.

I’m sorry, Pony.

He knew how furious she must be, how betrayed she must feel. In her eyes, he had killed their father. He hated leaving her with that belief, but it wouldn’t take the police long to figure out he’d run to his childhood home. Even if he did have a few minutes to spare, he didn’t know how he could convince her it wasn’t true.

Jane stopped and looked up at the ship with an expression that was so lost, so hurt. Devin tried to ignore her but couldn’t.

Dammit.

He lowered the Blue Tang, brought it to a hover, and pulled a lever. As the door opened, a ramp extended into the field. Devin got up and ran down it.

Jane raced toward him. “I did my best, but they might’ve followed me anyway! Go!
Go
!” She shoved his shoulders, trying to push him back up the ramp.

Shouldn’t she be screaming accusations at me?
Devin didn’t move.

She stopped shoving. “What the hell are you waiting for?”

He looked her in the eye. “I didn’t do it. I swear, Jane—”

“I
know
, you idiot! How
dare
you leave without me? Now, let’s get outta here!”

What?
“You’re not—”

Jane punched him in the arm. “You
swore
, Devin! You
swore
you’d never leave me behind, and that kind of thing doesn’t expire because we’re not kids anymore. Now, let’s
go
!”

“
Goddammit, Jane
!” Devin immediately regretted shouting when he saw Jane’s startled face. He tried to speak in a more measured tone. “Listen, I have to disappear. It would be a mistake for you to—”

“
Don’t
pull any of that fake crap on me!” Her eyes flashed with something between rage and despair. “If you leave me too,
I have nothing
.”

Devin desperately wanted her not to come, but he could tell by her expression he had no choice. He ran back up the ramp. Jane darted past him. He reached the cockpit in time to see her jump into the pilot’s seat.

He caught her hand as she reached for the controls. “You’re not piloting.”

“Aw, all right.” She got up.

Devin returned to the pilot’s seat. He pushed the lever that folded the ramp and closed the door. Jane sat down in the copilot’s seat beside him. He looked at her in disbelief.

She gave him that impish smirk of hers, and he couldn’t help smiling. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. Oh, and don’t worry about Dad. He’s on life support at the hospital, and if anyone can pull a miracle, it’s him. Just watch, he’ll be up and lecturing us in no time.”

Dad survived.
Devin closed his eyes in relief. “Good.”

“How could you think I’d believe them?”

He opened his eyes. “Like you said, I’m an idiot.”

He engaged the engines and pushed the steering bars forward. The Blue Tang blasted off over the violet trees, beyond the faded atmosphere, and into the stars.

Chapter 6

The Target

C
ommander Jihan Vega of the
Megatooth warship
RKSS Granite Flame
had been disappointed at her assignment to the Lyrona zone of Kydera Major. It was the most uneventful zone in the entire system due to the extreme security of the many high-profile organizations headquartered there. But patrolling it was her duty, and she was damn good at it.

She paced before the immense viewscreen at the front of the circular bridge, regarding the darkening side of the planet. Around her, clean-cut subordinates monitored their respective stations, which lined the rounded walls with monitors. Her red uniform was so stiff she sensed every crease as she moved, and her raven hair was in a knot so tight she could feel tugging at the back of her neck. Her long sleeve started riding up. She tugged it down. The golden brown cuff almost blended into her dark skin.

That day had been another quiet one. In the distance, the
Shining Voice
and the
Invictus
, two
other formidable Megas like the one she commanded, hovered above their posts, their long, triangular forms silhouetted against the atmosphere. A rounded Blue Chromis supply ship, which she’d granted permission to enter her zone, drifted across the view. A trio of flamboyantly colored Dragonets zipped out of the atmosphere in the direction of the twin planets Myretta and Keptella.

“Commander Vega!”

Commander Vega snapped her face toward the communications officer. She knew how piercing her gaze was, with her sharp black eyes and prominent cheekbones. The officer would have only dared to call her if he had something important. “Yes?”

“We are receiving a communication from the command center in Kydera City.”

An unmarked junker blasted off in a restricted area.
That must be what the communication’s about. “
Put it through.”

A window appeared on the side of the viewscreen, revealing Admiral Landler’s sternly lined face. “Commander Jihan Vega of the
RKSS
Granite Flame
, you are to pursue an unmarked Blue Tang that recently left the Lyrona continent and detain its pilot.”

“Yes, sir.”

That was all. That was all there ever was. The communication ended.

Commander Vega ordered the weapon’s officer to deploy Betta Unit J, one of the ship’s swarms of small attack drones. Judging by the sorry state of her unarmed target, it was probably another hooligan on a drug run, a mere pest unworthy of the attention of fighter pilots and certainly too inconsequential for the
Granite Flame
itself. “Open a communication with the target.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Attention.” Commander Vega addressed the Blue Tang. “You have entered a restricted area and are being pursued by Betta attack drones. Halt immediately.”

A minute passed without a response. “Set the Bettas on surround. Stop the target, but do not open fire.” She turned to the pilot. “Follow it.”

On the viewscreen, red fan-shaped drones flew toward Jane. Beyond them lay the immeasurable sea of scintillating stars that never failed to fill her with wonder. She should have been scared, but she was eager to see what would happen next.

Devin took one hand off the controls to pull his slate out of his pocket. “Can you give me a hand?”

Jane took the slate, unfolded it, and pressed it into a dock by the controls. “See? Aren’t you glad I’m here?”

Devin said to the slate, “Activate voice controls.”

The slate beeped. “Voice controls activated.”

“Open Net communication. Contact name: Corsair.”

Jane cocked her head. “Why don’t you use the Blue Tang’s communications?”

Devin turned the ship. “They’re broken.”

“Of course they are.” She snickered. “What a piece of crap!” She looked at the slate and saw a typed-out message:

Corsair: Still working on it.

Who’s this Corsair character?
She was about to ask when Devin yanked the steering bars. The Blue Tang flipped over, racing in the opposite direction from the one it had been traveling in.

“
Hey
!” The artificial gravity took a few seconds to compensate. Jane felt as though liquid sloshed in her head.

“They were trying to surround us. That was the only way out.” Devin reached for the control touchscreen in front of him. “I’m engaging lightspeed. Brace yourself.”

He swiped a command. The ship lurched forward, flattening Jane against the back of her seat. The Bettas matched speed and attempted to block the Blue Tang. Devin twisted the steering bars. The ship spiraled.

Jane grabbed the straps of her safety belt. “You’re insane.”

“Drones run on pre-programmed algorithms. ‘Insane’ is the only way to shake them.” As if to highlight his point, he zigzagged his course.

Dalarune’s aquamarine surface glowed in the distance. For a moment, Jane forgot where she was as her thoughts turned to Adam. “Machine logic is no match for human irrationality.”
Has he really only been gone a day?

A drone barreled toward the viewscreen. She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Don’t be afraid.” Devin sounded unfazed. “The Bettas aren’t firing. They’re only trying to slow us down.”

Jane opened her eyes. “I know. I’m not afraid.”
Lies.
Her excitement had given way to anxiety five near-crashes ago. She’d stifled many girly yelps in her attempts to hide her fear.

She concentrated on her breath to keep her stomach in its place. After several minutes of spinning and staggering, she became accustomed to the crazy movements.

Lurch, spin, flip…

“How long can you keep this up?”
Oops. Didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“As long as I have to.” Devin didn’t seem to mind the question. “Won’t be long before we pass through Ibara’s orbit.”

Flip, spin, lurch…

Jane took a moment to appreciate the absurdity of what she witnessed. There was her brother, still looking like a tool in his black suit, flying a junker that should belong to a Fringe smuggler when he looked as if he should be heading to a board meeting. And there she was beside him, in her inappropriately colorful office dress, feeling as though someone had copy-pasted her out of her desk and into a salvaged wreck.
What the hell.

Devin turned from the viewscreen to face her. “It was the internal defenses.”

“Huh?” A Betta flew at the ship. Jane pointed in alarm. “
Look out
!”

Devin flipped the ship in time to avoid collision. “I meant Dad. He was shot by his own internal defenses.”

Jane couldn’t believe the nerve of him. He wanted to tell her what had really happened—while running from attack drones sent by a giant warship and pulling the most crazy-ass maneuvers she’d ever seen. “I don’t think now’s the time! If—”

“Jane, please!”

Although she could only see Devin’s profile, she recognized the desperation in his expression. She shouldn’t fight it. She was also just as anxious to know what he wanted to tell her, so she bit back her protests.

Devin glared at the viewscreen. “I tried to tell Dad that everything you’d said about the machines was true. He started going off at me. I didn’t want to hear it, so I turned away from him. I noticed the internal defenses were online. I tried to warn him, but—”

A drone barreled toward the ship, and he yanked the controls much harder than necessary. “One of the guns fell out of the defense system. It was mine. I don’t know how it got there, but I realized what it looked like, and I ran. Someone must’ve hacked the monitors on the walls and projected a fake video of me. I listened in the conduits when they interviewed witnesses. They were so certain, like they’d expected something like that to happen. They said they always knew there was something wrong with me.”

Jane clenched her fists. “They’re liars.
I
didn’t believe it. I saw you in the conduits. The officers were about to see you too, but I distracted them. Pretended to faint like a ninny and forced them to take care of me.” She smirked. “You’re welcome.”

Devin shot her a rather impressed look. He snapped back to the viewscreen as a drone collided into the Blue Tang from above. “
Shit
.”

A jarring alarm buzzed. The cockpit door slammed shut as the Blue Tang’s emergency protocols engaged. Jane heard the ominous
whoosh
of air leaving the ship and prayed the door would remain sealed. Devin scrambled to engage this-or-that control. The viewscreen filled with red as Bettas surrounded the Blue Tang.

The whooshing ceased, and the alarm stopped. Jane exhaled when she saw the message indicating the hull breach had been sealed off.

The Bettas blocked the Blue Tang in every direction as Devin tried to break their perimeter. “Dammit, Jane! What the hell am I supposed to say when they ask why you’re here?”

Jane watched the drones in nervous silence. An idea struck her. “Hold me hostage. Use me to make them back off.”

Devin looked horrified. “
Hell
no.”

“I’m serious! Tell them you’ll shoot me if they don’t let you go. They’ll have no choice! Here, use my stunner. It’ll look the same from a distance.” She reached into her pocket.

Devin grabbed her arm. “Hell no.”

Before she could ask why the hell not, a new message appeared on the slate from Corsair.

Corsair: We’ve hacked the
Granite Flame
.

“How long?” The slate transposed Devin’s question.

Corsair: Very soon.

Jane reread the previous messages to see if she’d missed something. “What’re you talking about? What’s the
Granite Flame
?”

“The warship controlling these Bettas.” Devin released the steering bars. “Citizen Zero’s been working on getting into the Mega’s central computer.”

“Citizen Zero? Is that like Earth Zero?” The long lost and virtually mythological planet from which humans had originated seemed like an odd name to reference, even for a demon.

Jane realized Devin was allowing the ship to idle in the sphere of Bettas. “Why’re we sitting here?”

He watched the viewscreen. “Just wait.”

The fugitive’s daring antics impressed Commander Vega. The Blue Tang had made it past the orbit of the Kyderan system’s outermost planet. Pity the hooligan was a good-for-nothing criminal. In another life, he or she could have been a decent fighter pilot.
What a waste.

“Broadcast a message to the target.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Commander Vega addressed the Blue Tang. “You are under arrest. You are to—”

The Bettas broke their formation. A gap opened in the perimeter, and the Blue Tang zipped through it.

“
Follow it
!” Commander Vega glared at the weapons officer. “Why did you break the perimeter?”

The officer looked flustered. “It’s not me, Commander. I didn’t—”

“Commander Vega!” the cybernetics officer called. “The
Granite Flame’s
central computer has been hacked, and the command code for the Bettas has been changed. Someone else has control of them now.”

“Get them back!” Commander Vega barked.

“We’re locked out of the system, and it’s going to take several minutes for—”

“Do not waste my time with excuses for your ineptitude.” Commander Vega turned crossly back to the communications officer. “Open a communication with the Shark Team.”

“Yes, Commander!”

“Shark-Three and Shark-Seven,” she said, calling for two of her Barracuda fighter pilots. “Man your ships. Pursue and disable the target.”

Two quick voices responded over the comm, “Yes, Commander!”

Commander Vega pursed her lips in vexation. Why had the command center not informed her that she pursued a demon? She had assumed her target was a lone hooligan. Judging from the cyber attack, he or she was more likely a member of that bothersome Netcrew, the Collective. A similar incident had occurred a few months ago in the Lithran system. The command center should have warned her that hacking was a possibility.

Irritating, but not a serious threat. And still not worthy of direct confrontation with the
Granite Flame
, which would surely result in the junker’s destruction. Commander Vega abhorred waste. No matter what the hooligan had done, it most likely wasn’t worth wasting ammunition and certainly not lives.

“Commander Vega, Shark-Three and Shark-Seven have taken off.”

“Good. Open a communication with them.” In accordance with protocol, Commander Vega gave the two pilots an overview of what they were permitted to do along with a strict warning not to harm any bystanders.

When she was finished, the customary “Yes, Commander!” was missing.

“Shark-Three and Shark-Seven! Did you hear me?”

“I… not… to… you… hear…” Static obscured the voice.

“Commander?” The cybernetics officer sounded nervous. “The hackers tampered with the communications.”