AQUA (The Elements Series Book 1)

by Korn, Tracy

  "Where's Liddick?" Arco asks, looking around.

  "He's in the Boundaries room. He fixed his channel, so his friend is in there with him," I say. Arco raises a curious eyebrow at me, and I know he's wondering how I know this if I've been sleeping all this time. "He just told me right now," I add, hoping that will assuage his concerns. His face relaxes, but only a little.

  "He has a Badlander in there right now?" Myra asks, moving closer to Pitt, and I feel her panic rising.

  "Yeah, but he's not what you'd think. I mean he looks like what you'd think, but he's Liddick's friend, so there's nothing to worry about," I add. "He just needs your code," I say to Arco. "He has something called a Trojan that he's already hooked in for the port-call that brought his friend here."

  "He wrote a Trojan?" Arco's eyes widen in surprise.

  "I don't know, he said it was a housekeeping code or something."

  "Oh," Arco's face relaxes into a laugh. "So he just repurposed it. He didn't write anything."

  "I don't know how all that works, but his friend is in there now. What about the decoy ship?" I ask, looking at Jax and his crew.

  "We only synthesized the skin after getting a scrape off one of the hulls, and Liddick helped with the cloning. Talk about running like hell before the layers could replicate right there in the classroom. We barely carried it to the dock in time for it to start fleshing out."

  "How did the monitors not see you down there?" I ask.

  "I replicated the Lincoln field code and uploaded it to their cuff mainframes. I'll upload it to the rest of our cuffs when we make the clones and copy our profiles to them." Arco says.

  "When we do that, the real ship is outside just beyond the trench. We anchored its Stingrays outside the dock and brought in the suits," Jax says.

  "So, we have to dive to the Stingrays?" Tieg asks, alarm in his voice.

  "It's the only way. We had nowhere to dock after the cloned skin was in, and couldn't risk a ship that big anchored just outside the gate. The skin is in the far back corner, so, way down the queue. As long as no one tries to actually go inside, we should be good."

  "But we're diving in open water. What about currents? What if we get blown out?" Myra asks.

  "The Stingrays are anchored just outside the gate. We won't need to swim far, don't worry," Pitt says, pulling her into him.

  "The plates won't be volatile for another few days, so the currents won't be as bad if we can get through before that window closes," Avis adds, rubbing the back of his neck.

  "All right, let's go deliver the piggy back. I'll extend the field," Arco says, turning to the panel.

  "It's already OK to talk in the Boundaries room—Liddick rerouted the monitoring," I say, but Arco just nods and continues punching keys until the blue field around us turns green.

  CHAPTER 46

  Opening the Channel

  It's 11:27 p.m. when I check my bracelet cuff on the way to the Boundaries room with the others. Azeris is laughing when we all walk in, but stops as soon as he sees us, his hand moving quickly to his holster.

  "It's OK, these are the people I was telling you about," Liddick says, then turns to us. "This is Azeris, he's going to help us expedite the piggy back connection."

  "He's going to help us?" Tieg asks, and Pitt knocks a shoulder into him. Azeris narrows his eyes at Tieg.

  "You're from the hill, aren't you?" Azeris asks, letting his arm relax.

  "How did you know that?" Tieg asks, some of the wind taken out of his sails. Azeris's mouth opens in what seems will be a wide grin, but instead, he taps a long finger on his top row of teeth, which he then snaps down several times over the bottom row. Dez gasps and takes a step back into Pitt.

  "He's not going to eat you, Dezzie," Pitt whispers, chuckling and putting a hand on her shoulder.

  "Hart, do you have it?" Liddick asks.

  Arco raises his cuff. "In here. I already loaded it with the signatures," he says.

  "Good, bring it," Liddick replies, then looks again at Azeris. "The mainframe is on one grid, so you can probably just access his profile and dig it out," he says as Arco keys something into his bracelet and extends his wrist.

  "The soonest I can get it to populate without drawing attention is 48 hours."

  "This might take 48 seconds," Azeris says, looking off of Arco's cuff, then punching something into the station panel he's standing in front of. "Still have the package?" he asks Liddick.

  "Right here," he replies, then takes one of the little cylinders and swallows it just as Azeris begins to smack the side of the station.

  "Bollocks! This is why virtuo is dead. Key in the Trojan, will you? Sim fingers are too cold to register," he says, opening and closing his hand in a fist. Liddick starts hitting keys, and the screen becomes filled with slow moving columns of code that I don't understand. "All right, now put your palm over that scrolling to launch the automator for the Trojan, and get your feet under you," he says, then looks right at me. "You—come stand next to him and think happy thoughts." I raise my eyebrows and freeze in place until Azeris waves his hand at me several times. "Come on, come on!"

  "I don't know what I'm supposed to—" I start, but am cut off by the sudden pulling feeling in my stomach as Liddick puts his hand over the code, then doubles over a second later.

  "Don't let him move his hand from that code until the G-force stops,"Azeris says, raising his eyebrows and then darting them inward when his eyes move to Liddick, who is trying his best to stay upright.

  "You…weren't kidding about…these…" he says through clenched teeth. I wrap my arms around my stomach and try to think of something happy, but I can't get past the nausea building up in the base of my skull as my skin starts to feel clammy.

  "What's happening? Automators aren't supposed to feel like that," Arco says, taking several steps toward us, but Azeris holds out a huge forearm that connects with his chest and abruptly stops his progression.

  "You're going to contaminate the field, stretch. Back up so I don't have to put you on your butt," he says cheerfully, fluttering his eyelashes. Arco starts to say something, but then just shakes it off and looks at me.

  "Are you all right?" he asks in a low voice, his brows drawing together. I nod quickly.

  "It's just…pressure," I say, feeling like my insides are being flung against the back of my spine until the sensation of Liddick's arm around me on the dune the night before we left comes over me, then the image of us laughing about the South American villages. I look at Liddick, whose face is much less pained than it was a minute ago.

  You're remembering that? This is you? I ask him silently as the nausea recedes.

  Happy thoughts. It's working, isn't it? he replies. I smile at him, then look back at Arco and Azeris.

  "It's getting better," I say, and Arco's face relaxes.

  "That means the automator is launched. You can pull out now," Azeris says. Liddick removes his hand and takes a deep breath.

  "What was that?" Dez asks, rushing over to us.

  "High speed port-tech. It'll bang your drum, though. Just wait until the next one," Azeris says, clapping Liddick on the shoulder.

  "So it's in there now?" Liddick asks.

  "Just waiting for the cargo. Let's have the piggy back,"Azeris says to Arco and holds his hand out for his bracelet. Arco tacks up an eyebrow at an angle, then swipes and taps at his cuff before extending his arm.

  "Does she have to stand there?" Arco asks, but Azeris ignores him.

  "Round two. Bottoms up," Azeris says to Liddick, who exhales, then pops the other automator into his mouth and raises his eyebrows at me with a bracing smile. Azeris painstakingly enters something into the panel, which appears to be working for him this time. "It's away," Azeris says. "As soon as you see the new code generate, you know what to do. Once your guts stop spinning, you'll know your automator is launched on the outer layer of the port-call transmission in the Trojan pathway. As soon as we lift these hop anchors, the port-call will close, and you'll be m
obile within the Trojan's camouflage. Got somewhere to dump the data sweep once it starts bloodhounding?" Azeris asks, and Pitt steps forward with a narrow, flat rectangle about the length of his palm.

  "Is there somewhere to put this in that thing?" Pitt asks. "It's the navigation relay from the Leviathan. Usually these are loaded on the dock."

  "There's no receiver port for that on these stations. The maps will have to be routed to the dock system and downloaded onto the card from there. Hart, can you get into that from your mainframe and reroute the data sweep?" Liddick asks, drumming his fingers against the side of his leg, and I can feel the same adrenaline rush doing laps in my chest as we get ready to feel like we're being pulled inside-out all over again.

  "I can try," Arco answers.

  "Try fast. This window is pulling a lot of juice," Azeris says as Arco starts entering something into the panel, and my stomach clutches.

  "How long after we get the maps until we can leave?" Ellis asks.

  "We need to put the clones in place, then get into the dive suits to take the Stingrays back to the Leviathan. Clones should be almost instantaneous since I loaded the DNA an hour ago—you saw the teachers walk in and walk out. The dive may take a little longer, though," he says as his eye catches the screen. "The codes are generating."

  "And that's my cue…" Azeris says.

  Liddick turns to him and shakes his hand. "Thanks for all your help, man."

  "Someone has to watch your back, and I still owe you, so…"

  "You don't owe me anything," Liddick says.

  "Be careful," Azeris adds, glancing at the monitor. "If this goes how you gathered, those coordinates could come back deep. Deeper than this," he says, raising his free hand to his side and looking around the room.

  "I will," Liddick says as the edges of the port-call image start to dissipate.

  Azeris lifts two fingers to his forehead and nods. "You remember how to set up that hop we talked about?" he asks.

  "I got it."

  "I'll see you soon then." Azeris takes a few steps back while Liddick moves the palm of his hand over the scrolling code on the monitor, which starts to speed up almost immediately. The image of Azeris starts to break apart like a tissue set on fire, holes appearing in places until the whole thing fades into wisps and is gone. A single bright green line zips from the bottom of where Azeris was standing to the ceiling, and then also disappears.

  "All right, our hop anchor is up," Liddick says, "and the one topside should pull any min—there it is…" he says, suddenly gritting his teeth, and I feel the heavy pull in my stomach again. "OK…piggy back automator…launching."

  "Confirmed anchors up at both hops. The Trojan is falling in over the piggy back, camouflage deployed; it's looking good—picking up speed," Arco says, his eyes darting back and forth quickly over the code that's racing under Liddick's hand.

  The stretching feeling in my stomach is much heavier this time, pulling at the small of my back like my center of gravity is somewhere around my knees. Liddick's eyes have drilled shut, and his jaw is clenched so tightly he's starting to shake.

  Happy thoughts…I remember, and try to summon up the night before we left for Gaia again. Liddick, remember the South American villages? I ask, and the hard edge of his mouth breaks with a smile. In the next breath, the feeling of his hands on my face when he kissed me earlier in his room returns from nowhere—the rush of jumping in and not knowing where we might land…that grip on the one solid thing in the middle of all the fear and instability. Him.

  "It starting to route—hang onto it, Wright," Arco says, looking up from the monitor to me with a question in his eyes. I nod to him to let him know everything is fine, but his face only relaxes a little as he returns his attention to the monitor.

  Liddick grips my hand, and the crushing feeling in my chest lessens as flecks of heat and ice intermix and prick my skin like a million tiny pins. The spinning pressure forces my eyes closed, but soon I can feel Liddick's hands pushing through my hair again, then holding me there so tightly against his mouth—my fingers gripping the collar of his shirt in slow motion. Then I feel the sudden, sharp pain of the scratches I didn't know I'd left burning into my own skin, which causes a jolt of electricity to radiate through my stomach, and in this instant, I feel like I can't get close enough to him. I gasp in the realization like I've been held underwater, then hear Arco's voice muffled from far away as I open my eyes.

  "Jazz? Jazz? It's launched, let go. We're getting steady pings back now," Arco says, and Liddick's hand falls from the spooling code on the monitor. He leans into me for a second before getting his bearings, then lets go of my hand and braces against his knees.

  "Are you OK?" Arco asks, and I nod, then look down at Liddick.

  That's how you felt? What was that? I ask him silently as I catch my breath, my head still trying to slow the spin of the room.

  You saving me again, he thinks, which causes another quickening in my stomach. He looks up at me and smiles, then pushes off his knees and turns back to Arco. "How many paths are coming back?" he asks out loud, and I look around for a chair.

  "Looks like it could deliver four. Sweeping the data now," Arco says, and holds a hand out to me. I walk over to him feeling like everything inside me is bouncing off itself. He wraps his arm around my waist and shifts my weight to his leg as he sits in front of the monitor.

  "Are you really OK?" he asks, looking up from the screen to scan my face. I nod again, then see Dez crossing to Liddick and bringing her hands to his face, and this puts me on my feet again. "It's done," Arco continues, glancing back at the monitor. "I'm routing now if you want to load the dock receiver."

  "OK, Pitt, can you get that stick plugged in to receive? When you come back, we'll meet in the Interface room so we can run the clones," Liddick says, scrubbing his hand over his face and moving the other to Dez's shoulder.

  "Wait, the Coders are untagged now, but I need everyone else's bracelets so I can take you off the grid too—we'll have to be invisible to the monitoring if we're all going to walk in there like this," Arco says, first programming my bracelet, then Dez's, Tieg's, and finally, Liddick's. Pitt returns completely out of breath with the navigation relay and holds it up as he crosses the threshold of the Boundaries room again.

  "Loaded…looks like we have four routes for now, but that might change once we plug them into the Leviathan and run probabilities," he says, pushing a hand through his dark hair.

  "Then let's get the clones and go," Liddick says, and we all head out the door.

  ***

  When we get to the Interface classroom, everyone is gathered around the place on the floor where our teachers walked, and were then quadrupled.

  "There's nothing here," Ellis says, walking back and forth over the spot.

  "Not over there. Look out." Liddick trots down the steps and then climbs the next small set that leads to the lecture floor. He walks about halfway to the back wall and steps on something. A green circle of light appears in the floor, and in minutes, a thin, barely visible wavy pattern appears from the lighted area. "I put the hairs in earlier so the computer had time to process our DNA. We don't have a banked file here like the teachers, but we should still be able to walk in like they did with that sample. Go ahead," Liddick says, but no one moves. After a second, Jax takes the first steps toward the shimmering circle.

  "Come on, let's just get this done. We still need to dive and get to the ship," he says, and enters the circle. Instantly, just like the teachers, another Jax follows him out the other side. I feel my mouth fall open as Arco waves them over to us.

  "Give me your cuff and…uh, his," he says, extending his hand. He enters something into Jax's bracelet, then angles both Jax's and the clone's elbows upward so their bracelets touch. I walk over to the clone and raise my hand to its face.

  "Jax, it even has the exact amount of stubble you do right now," I say, fascinated.

  "That's great, Jazz, but we need to go," the clone says to me,
and I nearly swallow my tongue as I stumble backward into Arco. Both Jaxes double over with laughter.

  "I was just about to say that!" the real Jax says, laughing like a sea lion. Even Arco chuckles a little, and I shoot him a glare. He presses his lips into a hard line and swallows, smirking despite his efforts.

  Let's go, Riptide. The only thing better than one of you is two, Liddick says in my head, and I roll my eyes for what has to be the tenth time at him, and that's just tonight.

  "Come on," Arco says, gripping my shoulder in a half-hug. We walk toward the green circle and watch Tieg, Pitt, Ellis, Dez, and Liddick come through the other side. Arco punches whatever he punched into Jax's bracelet into theirs, then shows them how to transfer to their clones' bracelets. "Go ahead. I'm right behind you," Arco says to me.

  We walk into the circle, and I hear a low frequency buzzing that I can actually feel tingling my scalp, which makes its way down over my eyes and nose, and even feels like it's resonating through the lining of my cheeks. The sensation travels the length of my body before I make it through to the other side of the circle and walk out, and I'm afraid to turn around.

  "Arco," I call out, but I don't call out alone. My heart kickstarts at the doubled sound of my own voice. "Arco!"

  "I'm here," he says in stereo. Ice shoots up the back of my legs and straight through to my teeth. I whip around, and see not only two of Arco, but another me as well. I hold up my hand, and she holds up hers in a perfect reflection. Our hands touch, and hers is ice cold. Our fingers interlace, and when I angle my head sideways, she does too.

  "She's doing everything I do," we say in unison, and chills run up my arms. "Ok, make this stop," we say together again, and both Arcos chuckle.

  "Give me your wrist," they say, and I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin. He enters the coding into my bracelet, my clone's arm extended stupidly in the air, and then he angles my elbow up like he did the others' so that our cuffs touch like they would in a reflection. He does the same to his own bracelet and his clone's, then turns to me. "There, now they won't do everything at the same time we do. They're running on the sim-corp data now like the reanimates in the Records room interview stations, so they'll just do what we'd likely do," Arco says and smiles. I look quickly over to his clone, who doesn't smile, but raises his eyebrows instead.