AQUA (The Elements Series Book 1)

by Korn, Tracy

  "What?" the other Arco says to me. "What did I do?"

  "Oh, this is baked," I say, shaking my head. "Come on, let's get out of here."

  "Finally, yes," Jax says.

  "OK, clones, go back to our rooms, get our schedules and go to our classes, don't do anything stupid to get us kicked out," Liddick says. Rip, see if you can talk to yours telepathically, he continues in thought, and I nod.

  Uh, hey, me? Can you hear what I'm saying? I think, focusing on my clone. To my complete surprise, she actually looks at me.

  I can hear you. Don't worry, I'll handle things here.

  "Crite!" I say out loud.

  "What's wrong?" Arco asks, alarmed.

  "I—we— can talk telepathically, like I can with Liddick and Vox," I stammer, and Arco looks at Liddick.

  "Can you talk to yours?" he asks. Liddick looks at his clone, who then answers Arco with a wink, and makes a clicking sound with his mouth as he flashes a thumbs up. Arco rolls his eyes.

  "Can we go now, please?" Jax asks, adamantly waving us on.

  "Go," Liddick says to the clones, and they all head up the stairs, mine taking Arco's clone's hand.

  "Did you see—?" I look up at Arco, who raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth in a wide smile, then looks back at me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.

  "Let's go get our friends."

  CHAPTER 47

  Boarding

  We put on the line tethers and divers that are all stacked on the deck of the last checkpoint gate to the Leviathans.

  "Are you sure about this? These will work out in the open water?" Tieg asks.

  "They'll work, and the Stingrays are just around the corner. You can see them from here," Pitt answers.

  "When we get these on, I'm going to send a signal to the relay. The chamber in here will flood through those colored holes, and when the light turns green, I'll open the gate. We need to be completely suited before that ever happens because the water will come in like a hundred giant buckets of ice water getting thrown in our faces," Ellis says.

  "Why does the water come through the smaller holes first if it's still going to rush us?" Myra asks.

  "Because if some of the pressure isn't relieved in advance, it wouldn't hit us like a hundred buckets of ice water in the face, it would hit us like a shuttle in the face," Ellis replies, and Myra raises her eyebrows, then bites her bottom lip and nods.

  "Avis and I showed Jax and Pitt how to navigate these things, so they can go together. Someone who's not NAV will have to come with me, and someone else can go with Tieg, Joss, Avis, or with Arco," Ellis says.

  "Dez will go with me," Tieg says, which makes Liddick give her a knowing smirk before turning to Ellis.

  "Guess it's you and me, Ellie," he says.

  "Don't call me that," Ellis says as his helmet comes down over his face.

  "Make sure your comms are on," Arco says while everyone starts sealing their helmets, and before he seals his, he leans in and kisses me. I suddenly notice his lip is healed, and his bruising is almost gone—he did call the medi-droid. Knowing this makes me smile stupidly. "Stay close to me, OK?" he says, and I nod. We seal our helmets and push our comms buttons. "Everyone sound off—make sure you can all hear each other," Arco says, and a barrage of voices floods our helmets until everyone is sure they're connected before we all turn to Ellis.

  "OK, roll up your suit bags and secure them to your belts. I'm going to count to three, and the colored circles will open. Hang onto something on the wall. When the water hits the threshold line, I'm going to count to three again and release the gate. If you're not holding on, you'll be jerked against your tether, so hang on, and make sure you're secured to the railing. Everybody copy that?" Ellis asks, and we all answer that we do. "All right, one…" he says, and I look over at Arco. He grabs my free hand and guides it to the railing that my other hand is holding, then stands behind me and gets a grip next to mine, pressing his forearms against my ribs. "Two…!" Ellis continues, and the colored circles slide open all across the front of the clear gate. "Three!" Water rushes in and begins pooling immediately in the reservoir just beyond the guard rail walkway where we're standing. After only a few minutes, the water is nearly to our necks, and Ellis starts talking again. "There's the green light. I'm going to release the gate!" he says, his voice raised over the roaring water, which now envelops us. "Make sure you're all holding on!" Ellis yells. "One! TWO…Hold on! THREE!"

  He releases the gate, and a deluge of water pours in, almost immediately filling the compartment. We're all swept off our feet, and for a second, everything is upside down. I lose my grip and start to panic, but Arco is right behind me.

  "I've got you," he says, and I find the railing again.

  "All right—" Ellis says once the rush of the water settles, "unhook from the railing and buddy clip to two people, those on the end hooking to each other so we're in a circle, then follow me out the gate and down to the Stingrays. When we hit the floor, we can unclip and board. Copy?" he asks, and we all reply. "OK, let's go then. Clip in."

  Arco unclips our tethers from the railing and secures mine to his. Jax clips his to me too, and everyone starts maneuvering. When we're all secure, Liddick is left to close the circle by clipping to Arco, and when they realize this, I feel nauseous.

  Liddick—Ellis—Joss—Myra—Pitt—Dez—Tieg—Avis—Jax—me—Arco. I say everyone's names in my head as I scan each person's lineup trying to figure out how this happened, there has to be another way, I think.

  Oh, there is, but not without looking like a giant sally about it. But I appreciate your concern, Riptide, Liddick replies in my mind, even though that particular thought of mine wasn't exactly meant for him.

  Just come on, I think, and shake my head at him.

  Take a deep breath, or five so you don't start roarfing in your helmet, OK? And relax, I'm not going to start anything with Hart—crite, he's clipped to you. He says, and this actually does make me feel better about the situation as we swim with our heel thrusters aiming us toward the Stingrays.

  The open sea floor is a hazy white. I look down, and my suit looks puffy in the small lights coming from somewhere on my shoulder. I lift up my hand and can feel the pressure of the water around us—almost viscous. Once we're all on the sea floor, Ellis has us group together in between two of the Stingrays, then starts giving more instructions.

  "The current isn't as bad as it normally is, but it's still there. Do not unclip entirely for any reason, and make sure you brace yourself against the hull of one of these Rays whenever you can as you get around to the bottom hatch. They're already open so you don't have to mess with the doors, but it's going to be a tight squeeze because the cockpits are sealed off from the water. When you get inside, you may have to maneuver to close the hatch, but when you do, you can eject the water into the reservoir chamber underneath the vessel, and then you can open the seal. OK?" Ellis asks, and we all affirm. "All right, Liddick, after we detach, we're on the end," he says, unclipping from Joss as Arco unclips Liddick's tether like he's been waiting all day to do it. "Next set, go! Strongest swimmers take the farthest Ray," Ellis says as he and Liddick swim toward the outermost ship.

  Pitt unhooks from Dez, then motions for Myra to unhook from Joss, but there's no one on Joss's other side, so she can't.

  "We'll all have to go in one ship," Myra says over our helmet comms, which sends Pitt scanning. "Come on, we'll make it work," she says. Pitt finally nods to Joss, and they both swim toward the next farthest ship out on either side of Myra. This leaves everyone else tethered to their vessel partner, so Jax and Avis swim to the other side of the next farthest Stingray, while Arco and I board the one directly in front of us, and Tieg and Dez board the one we're all leaning against.

  I'm first to crawl through the hatch into the half-flooded Stingray, and try to make as much room as I can so Arco can crawl up. He's lean, but he's so tall and broad that there's not a lot of space once he's in, and in order to shut the hatch, he has to
step toward me and close the door behind him with his foot. He puts his hands on my waist and presses in against me, our helmets knocking until he cranes his neck to the side, which causes his body to shift and lean in even more. His shoulder lamp catches me in the eyes, and I squeeze them shut against the glare. Instinctively, I raise my hand to shield them, and inadvertently knock Arco's elbow, which causes his hand to land right on my chest. He can't feel anything with the suit glove, apparently, because he doesn't move it as he kicks back with his foot to close the hatch. I start laughing hysterically as I think of the others in this situation, especially Liddick and Ellis, and how much Liddick must be cursing Tieg for partnering with Dez.

  You… stow it, I imagine hearing him in my head and laugh even harder.

  Arco finally shuts the door and turns to me, realizes where his hand is, and jerks it back immediately. He steps on the release button on the floor, and the water starts to drain. We retract our helmets, and I can't stop laughing picturing Jax pinned up against Avis like this, or how mortified Tieg might be pinned against Dez, let alone Pitt and Joss crammed in like sardines while Myra sings a happy song or something. I laugh so hard at this that I start crying, then coughing, and don't even realize the twelve shades of red I'm causing Arco to turn.

  "I'm so sorry," he says, clearing his throat and obviously wanting to die. I can't even catch my breath long enough to explain why I'm laughing, so I just sputter and cough more.

  "No… it's not….that…" I manage after a second, and he swallows hard before turning to release the cockpit seal.

  "Don't take your suit off when we dock. We still need to get through the moon pool, and then come right back through it once we anchor," he says without looking at me. I feel a suffocating heaviness wash over me, which douses my hysterics, and I pull myself together.

  "Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you, I promise. I was picturing Liddick and Ellis in that same position, then Jax and Avis, Dez and Tieg…oh, but Joss and Pitt crammed together with Myra trying to stay positive—that was just too much," I say, feeling giggles percolating again. He starts to chuckle at this, and I feel the blanket of his guilt lifting.

  "Good. But just so you know, I couldn't feel anything. I wasn't even aware of—or I'd have—" he stumbles.

  "It's OK, Arco."

  "I'm just…I'm really sorry," he says again, the color crawling back up his neck and blotching his cheeks. "If I were going to do that, it wouldn't be like that, and I don't want you to think—"

  "Stop, it's OK," I say again, trying to echo the same compassion he showed me earlier today. "It wasn't your fault." This brings a knowing smile to his face as he nods, then turns on the green light for the comms system.

  "Everyone make it?" he asks, and each of the Stingrays answers in turn.

  "We're heading down, then. Stay together," Ellis says as I notice the colored circles appearing again on the gate behind us.

  "That closed fast," I say. "How long will it take for the water to drain?"

  "Just a few minutes. The reservoir underneath is big. It won't take us long either—the trench where they left the Leviathan is only about half a league away," Arco says, and he's right. In minutes I see the top of the Leviathan nestled in the ravine ahead of us, and we all jet in and make our way underneath it. "You'll need your helmet again. We have to swim up through the moon pool, and the water is freezing." Arco says, and we both deploy the helmets as we pull into the Leviathan docking bay and propel up the ramp. Arco stations the Stingray alongside the right wall behind the other vessels as Dez and Tieg swim up through the moon pool, and then we seal the cockpit and make our way through the hatch.

  The light reflecting off of the milky white disinfectant is obnoxiously bright when we surface, and I have to squint until it dissolves into the water. We climb out of the moon pool, and I press the retraction button for my helmet. The air in here is thick and cool like it was on the other Leviathan, and I remind myself to take a deep breath before we pass through the corridor this time.

  "Hold your breath before you go through there!" I say loudly to everyone, and realize in this moment that I never did get my nanites upgraded like Dame Mahgi said I should. I try to stamp out an ember of fear that threatens to catch if I think about that too long, and hope Dez and Myra will be able to take care of it.

  We pass through the core room where Jax, Ellis, and Pitt move right into their places behind that little spinning dark planet thing, a thousand knobs, screens, and little wheels strewn all over the back wall there. Dez and Myra make their way to the med-bay, and the rest of us walk up the short set of stairs to the cabin, where Joss and Avis move into the Navigator seats. Tieg and Arco look at each other, apparently not having anticipated there can be only one pilot, but seem to make a decision as Arco takes the seat, and Tieg walks to the far wall and keys something into a panel. In seconds, another seat comes out of the wall facing the front window, and a console folds down in front of it, wrapping halfway around the seat.

  "Whoa, what station is that?" I ask.

  "Archangel roost," Tieg says without looking away from the screens he's pulling up one after another on the console as a steering wheel like Arco's rises up from the middle.

  "Which means…?" I ask, trying to keep the impatience out of my voice.

  "When the pilot can't do his job, I step in," Tieg says, looking directly at me now, confidently, and without any hint of the edge he's been carrying around all day.

  Arco looks up from programming his controls, and tension flares in the air between them, but neither says anything else. I nod at Tieg, who attempts a smile, then returns to his instrument panel. This leaves Liddick and me to run the back wall, and we start pulling up our screens. I look over at him and take a deep breath.

  We're doing this, I think. Can you believe we're really doing this?

  Riptide, this is only the beginning.

  CHAPTER 48

  Termites

  "We have two solid routes coming back from this ping instead of the four we started with—one is the cave, two are otherwise improbable because the terrain is too confining, so it looks like our only option is a vent about two leagues past that crag opening," Arco says, tracing a line on the digital grid projected in front of him after we start moving through the water. "

  "That's a total of about three leagues out," Avis says, pulling up the same screen.

  Arco nods. "That's it, then. Scan for a camouflaging structure near the vent where we can dock."

  "Aye," Avis responds.

  Everything feels electric on board now, a palpable vibration in the air like the energy in a busy hallway, but without the jostle.

  "Do you feel that?" I ask Liddick, who nods.

  "Ms. Reynolt called it the thrum…everyone's feelings all at once. Makes my teeth itch, but the equipment helps to dissipate it."

  "It wasn't this strong back at Gaia," I reply.

  "It's because everything is amplified on these ships. Turn on your screens and you'll see."

  "I'm not really sure what to do with them," I say.

  "Didn't Reynolt show you?"

  "Not really. I mean, we got an overview, but spent most of it talking about Vox's adventures with carnivorous plants."

  Liddick raises his eyebrows and chuffs a laugh. "All right then." He turns to his console and pulls up his main screen along with two other grids, both backlit in green. One looks like a sonar, and the other like a graph of undulating waves. "So, first, we pull up the Distance Grid and the Emotive Resonance Mapper, then set them both for the standard scan, which is three leagues—there, the two buttons left of the main grid," he points to my console. "You have pilot's lock, I have core, OK?"

  I look at him like he's not finished yet, but apparently he is.

  "Um…" I say.

  He blinks, then looks at the floor and scratches his head, braces his forearms on his knees and clasps his hands before looking up at me again.

  The Pilot's lock—you monitor Hart and his three chuckle-wads u
p there to make sure they don't fry and/or kill each other, and I monitor Pitt, your brother, Avis, and Dez downstairs. Dez monitors Myra, he says in my head.

  Who monitors us? I ask, and he smirks at me.

  Myra, he answers, and then laughs out loud at what must be the look of terror registering on my face. And Dez too; they're a team. I've got your back anyway. Pull up your screens.

  I push the buttons Liddick pointed out, and two screens appear: a main screen in the middle, which is larger than the other, and displays the words Emotive Resonance Mapper at the top. The other has four glowing 3-D cylinders, each enclosing several wavy lines. The bottom of the cylinder on the far left reads Left Rig, and the next over reads AR, which must be Tieg's Archangel Roost. The next one over reads Pilot, and the one on the far right reads Right Rig.

  "What am I supposed to monitor here?" I ask, but almost as soon as I do, I start to understand the moving lines. I feel pulled to trace the ones inside of the Left Rig with my fingertips, which are vibrating steadily, and I even hear a warm sound like a low cello note. It's strange, and makes me feel…

  "Assured," Liddick says, suddenly picking up on my thoughts like he's been doing far too often lately. "These enhancement nanites choke for port-carnate, but they do make getting a read on people easier. Kind of split to be able to filter feelings through a bunch of frequency lines, right?"

  "I can't believe we can read these almost like words on a page. It's not just this abstract sense I've been getting from people lately—I can actually tell that Avis is focused and that he specifically trusts Arco, not so much Tieg, but also that he's still a little bit wary about the overall plan. How can I get all that from these lines?" I ask, running my fingers over them from left to right again, amazed.