Louise the Star Has No Return Date

Start Reading

Summary:

At twenty, I disguised myself as an android and spent five years beside the heir of the New York elite circle.

All because that heir suffered from a severe psychological illness that left him unable to bear human contact.

Austin Kingsley's mother promised me that if I kept my identity hidden for those five years, I would walk away with five million dollars.

Everyone in the New York elite circle knew Austin kept his distance from women, yet every single night he fell asleep holding a "robot."

He treasured me like something precious. Every time he got drunk he would sprawl against my waist and murmur like a spoiled child:

"Louise Hughes, whether you're human or not, I like you."

I believed it. For five years, I cared for Austin with everything I had, and drew him out of his darkness.

Until the day before our contract ended, when Austin appeared with kiss marks all over him, leading a girl by the hand:

"Louise, Zara Matthews wants your intelligence chip. Give it to her to play with for a couple of days."

The moment Austin finished speaking, the pool party fell silent.

Eyes rushed at me from every direction. My hand, mid-pour with the champagne, went still. I lifted my head, my throat dry and rough.

"You'd take out my intelligence chip, for her?"

Austin couldn't not know that the intelligence chip was an android's "heart," the thing that held all its core data, memory and awareness included.

An android that lost its chip would become nothing but a dull, sluggish machine.

Murmurs broke out all around.

"Isn't that robot Austin's precious little thing? Untouchable, off-limits. What's going on today?"

"Guess Austin's finally caught a human feeling, huh. No matter how pretty Louise is, she's still a robot, only good to look at, can't sleep with her. Look at Austin's neck, last night must've been wild, hahaha."

"Tsk, tsk, I wouldn't be so sure. Once Austin's done with that robot, let me give her a try. Maybe I could actually..."

The talk got filthier by the second, and my fingers went stiff listening to it.

Austin rested his hand at Zara's waist and frowned, impatient.

"You can't even understand plain speech. Louise, it's only been five years. Has your program gotten this outdated already?"

He stepped up, snatched the glass out of my hand, and set it on the table.

"Zara's a graduate researcher in AI. She just wants to borrow your chip for her research. I'll have Dr. Whitney take you to the lab and remove it."

Austin paused after that, then reached up and ruffled my hair, the same as he had every time these five years.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure it hurts less."

The chip was supposed to give an android pain perception no different from a human's, but I wasn't an android. My so-called intelligence chip was only a piece of metal ornament set into the back of my neck.

Even taken out, it would do nothing to me.

But when two assistants in white coats laid hands on my shoulders, I still tore free with everything I had, gripped Austin's arm, and stared hard at him.

"Austin, once the chip is taken out, all my memories vanish. I won't remember you anymore. Even so, you still want it removed?"

I had been at Austin's side for five years, even if it was as an android.

At his worst, when the illness took him, he would lash out and beat anything that came near him without distinction. Every time I would hold him down tight and never let go, no matter how he bit and clawed at me.

When he came back to himself, he would sprawl against my waist and cry like a little dog, saying I was all he had left.

Five years with Austin, packed with memories too many and too fine to count.

Austin hesitated, his gaze settling on my face.

He was just about to speak when Zara sprang out beside him, poked my cheek with one finger, and cried out in a syrupy voice:

"Austin, your robot pet is so lifelike, just like a real person! I'm the best with little animals, and robots must be the same. Let's feed her a treat, she'll definitely want to help me then!"

Zara shook my chin with her hand as she spoke, setting off a wave of laughter around us.

Her teasing made me furious, and I knocked her hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

I'm not particularly strong, but Zara shrieked and lurched backward, one step short of tumbling into the pool.

Austin's face darkened in an instant. He rushed over and pulled Zara into his arms.

"Zara! Are you hurt?"

Eyes brimming with tears, Zara threw herself against his chest.

"Austin, it was terrifying. My advisor says android programs overload and lose control very easily and turn violent. We really should pull her chip and have her inspected! I'm afraid she'll hurt you!"

I stood there helpless, with no way to defend myself.

How could I ever hurt Austin?

"Austin, I didn't"

"That's enough!"

Austin's furious voice cut me off. He gathered Zara closer and patted her head.

"Don't worry. I won't let you suffer this for nothing."

He signaled the white-coated assistants behind him, his voice terrifyingly cold.

"Forget the lab. Forget disconnecting the pain link. Right here. Pull out Louise's intelligence chip for me!"

Shock hit me. I stumbled back in a panic, shaking my head, trying to explain.

"I didn't push her on purpose! I'll go to the lab, just not here!"

Five years ago, to make Austin truly believe I was an android, his mother had hired the finest surgeon to disguise a shard of metal as an intelligence chip and stitch it into the back of my neck.

If it were torn out now, by force, Austin would surely discover I was human.

I turned to run, knocking over a cluster of young gentlemen who'd been enjoying the show, and in the end I was still forced down at the edge of the pool.

My face scraped hard against the ground, and reflexive tears welled from the corners of my eyes.

Austin stood over me, then crouched halfway down. Beside him were the assistants in their coats and an array of instruments.

"Louise, I spoiled you too much these five years. That's why your program went haywire and put you in the wrong place. You're only a robot I bought. You have no right to tell me no."

His eyes were cold and strange, foreign to me. I stopped struggling, my heart gone to ash.

In that moment, I even thought: how good it would be, if I really were nothing but a machine.

My hair was swept aside, and a cold instrument pressed against the back of my neck.

Zara smiled, sweet and harmless.

"Austin, the way she looks right now, she's just like my dumb dog at home! So cute!"

I clenched my fists, wrenched free of the restraint all at once, and dove into the pool.

The water was deep, closing over my nose and mouth in a smothering rush. The party dissolved into chaos in an instant, and Zara dropped to the ground in fright.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard the panic in Austin's voice.

"Louise!"

......

When I opened my eyes again, Austin was standing at the side of the bed, his face dark, staring at me.

"Louise, you know perfectly well you have no underwater functionality, so why did you jump into the pool! Are you trying to scrap yourself completely!"

I gave a bitter smile.

"Are you worried about me, Austin?"

"What else would it be!" Austin flew into a sudden rage, planting a hand on either side of my body. "You're my robot. You have to stay with me forever!"

I felt myself drift a little. Ever since Austin's psychological trauma healed, I'd rarely heard this stubborn, childish tone from him anymore.

And after Zara appeared, Austin stopped being close to me at all.

Yet the Austin of before had loved nothing more than to lie across my lap and nuzzle at me, like a big dog leaning on its owner.

"Louise, you're my robot. You can only be with me, for your whole life."

I pushed down the ache in my chest and looked at Austin.

"Then what about Zara? You want me to stay with you forever, so what happens to her?"

Austin froze for a moment, then gripped my face hard.

"What gives you the right to compare yourself to her? She's the woman I love, the woman I can marry and have children with! What, are you jealous of her? Louise, you're just a robot. What right do you have!"

Those words cut me to the core.

Austin had probably forgotten that once, with his own mouth, he'd promised he would love me whether or not I was human.

I turned my face away, and his fingers caught my chin and dragged it back.

"Stop going after Zara. I'll arrange for Dr. Whitney to come take the chip tomorrow. Whatever Zara wants, I'll give it to her. As for your memories, once her experiment is finished, I'll give them back to you."

He paused, and his voice softened.

"Be good, Louise. It's only two weeks. Two weeks, and everything will be the way it used to be."

I closed my eyes and said nothing.

How could Austin know that I wouldn't be here in two weeks.

Today was the final day of the five-year contract.

When I opened my eyes again, Austin was gone.

An elegant, richly dressed woman appeared in the doorway.

"Miss Hughes. It's been a long time."

Her name was Vivian Abbott, Austin's mother, and the one who had signed that secret contract with me five years ago.

We went down to the caf. Vivian lifted her coffee, her face worn.

"I'm sorry, Miss Hughes. I've been buried in a research project in California these past days and only just rushed back. I've heard about everything between you and Austin. I think I need to ask you once more. Do you still hold to what you decided three months ago, to give up the five million and stay by Austin's side?"

I traced the pattern on the side of the cup and shook my head lightly.

"No. Let's keep to what the contract says. Give me the five million, I'll fly to California, and I'll never appear in front of Austin again as long as I live."

I let out a soft sigh.

Yes. I had once meant to give up the five million and simply stay by Austin's side.

His illness couldn't take any shock, and I'd have been glad to live out my whole life as a robot for his sake.

But nothing stays the same. In the span of three months, Zara Matthews appeared, Austin became a different person, and there was no longer any reason for me to stay.

Vivian sighed too.

"All right. I'll apologize to you on Austin's behalf. I'd thought you would be the crutch he leaned on for life..."

I stood, and smiled.

"But the moment a patient can stand on his own, the first thing he throws away is the crutch."

Vivian had booked me a flight for early the next morning, so I went back to Austin's place to pack.

The moment I stepped through the door, a white porcelain vase shattered at my feet, shards flying everywhere.

I looked up and saw Austin on the stairs, shaking with rage, and Zara tucked prettily behind him.

"Louise! Where did you go? Who gave you permission to leave? Haven't I told you that without my order, you are never to leave my sight?"

I hid the hand the shards had cut.

"Mrs. Abbott asked me to the lab to calibrate some parameters."

My calm seemed to set him off. He came at me in long strides, seized my wrist hard, his face dark.

"Louise, are you asking to be scrapped? Aren't you supposed to receive and simulate human emotion at a hundred percent? Don't you know you're supposed to apologize when I'm angry? Or is your program broken and you need me to reinput it for you?"

I watched him, worked up like this, and on instinct I wanted to hold him, to soothe him.

My hand had barely lifted when Zara stepped over.

She reached out and gave a light tug at the hem of Austin's shirt, carelessly baring a row of suggestive kiss marks along her neck.

"Austin, she's just a robot. I've said it before, the programming in these bionic androids is very unstable. Give her a lesson, force her to remember the order, that's all it takes."

The grip on my wrist loosened. He stared at me and gave a mocking little laugh.

"Right. Just a robot. Doesn't even have a heart."

His eyes held something I couldn't read, and before I could catch it, he flung me down onto the couch.

"Today is my hundred-day anniversary with Zara. You have a bartending function, don't you? Then mix Zara nine hundred and ninety-nine Eternal Heartbeats. Not one short."

I froze.

In my second year as Austin's robot, his illness had turned erratic.

To ease his suffering, I'd spent a week working out the Eternal Heartbeat, whiskey and maple, set alight so it looked like a beating heart.

Austin had been overjoyed, spinning me around in his arms, then dragging me to Dr. Whitney, saying he wanted my program changed, a new command added:

the bartending function could only be started for Austin.

By now he had surely long forgotten that command.

I forced down the ache in my chest, stood, and looked him in the eye.

"Fine, Austin. Nine hundred and ninety-nine. Call it the last gift I'll give you."

He sneered, unmoved.

"Last? Louise, is your brain really that broken? As long as you're by my side, whatever I want, you give me."

I laughed softly and didn't argue.

By tomorrow at the latest, Austin would get the news that his "robot" had been permanently scrapped and gone.

These last few hours by his side, all I wanted was a little dignity.

I stepped around the porcelain shards on the floor, meaning to head down to the villa's underground wine cellar.

I'd reached the door when Austin called out again.

"Wait!"

His emotions turned violent all at once. He slammed me against the wall, his cold eyes fixed on me.

He lifted his blood-smeared left hand in front of my eyes, the same hand that, moments ago, had gripped the wrist the porcelain had cut open.

"Louise, you're a robot. Why are you bleeding?"