AQUA (The Elements Series Book 1)

by Korn, Tracy

  "Jazz? Jazz, open your eyes. Can you hear me? We need to get off this ship. Jazz…" I hear Dez's voice, but I can't see her. I hear rushing water, feel a wet, icy sensation touch my fingertips, and blink. "She's awake! Jazz, can you hear me?" Dez asks again.

  "Yeah," I say, but my voice comes out small and raspy. "Liddick was…"

  "He's here. Myra, is he awake?"

  "Not yet. I can't get the bleeding to stop. Aren't the nanites supposed to prevent this?" Myra's voice is desperate, and I try to get to my feet.

  "You stay right there a minute," Dez's hands press my shoulders down. "Give him an accelerator—in the emergency kit in the wall. And keep the water out of that wound. What hit him?"

  Liddick? I think over the roaring, a distant, sharp toned alarm, and a series of beeps and bells that all seem muffled.

  Jazz! When you didn't answer me I thought…are you all right?

  I think so, but water is rushing in. We have to get out of here. You're hurt? Can you move?

  "It's working!" I hear Myra's voice, then see her blonde hair flash in a blur as she turns to face us. "He's awake, and the bleeding is stopping!"

  "Good, seal it and launch a disinfectant series just in case—they're in the kit too. Keep him stable until the nanites can do baseline repairs to the gashes and whatever might be bleeding inside, then we can move him. Jazz seems all right."

  "Where's my brother?" I ask Dez, feeling like I've swallowed a bucket of gravel.

  "He's OK. He's in the core room with Pitt and Ellis trying to slow the self-destruct sequence long enough to get us to the vent opening, but that's all I know right now."

  "Dez!" I hear Arco's voice and see another blur in the distance, realizing for the first time that I'm lying on the floor.

  "She's awake and talking—she'll be fine. How much farther?" Dez replies, but Arco doesn't answer. "Arco? How much farther?"

  "About half a league," he finally says, sounding hollow.

  "We can't make that—not at this rate of breach acceleration," Tieg's voice comes from somewhere beyond the hazy blues and flashing lights. I blink my eyes several more times trying to clear my vision, and see that water is now pouring in all around the room.

  They knew we'd do this, Riptide. They knew, and they wanted us to try. I hear Liddick in my head again and look around to find him. He's sitting up against the wall about 15 feet away with Myra at his side holding a blood stained cloth to his head. I blink a few more times, and both the fog in my vision and in my understanding of what's happened up to this point start to clear.

  "Let me up," I say to Dez. She moves back, and I get to my hands and knees before pulling myself to my feet. I feel like I'm watching myself count the breaks in the walls, the numbers and symbols stacking on top of each other as I focus on the force of water gushing in from everywhere, which turns into flashing clips of different ways this could end in the corners of my vision—an implosion, everyone swimming against a current, or rushing through the moon pool and loading into the Stingrays, all overlaid by the scrolling numbers. This is what I felt Arco doing earlier, I realize, and let my eyes close. The numbers turn into water that begins flooding from under two clear bowls turned upside down, one completely sealed, and one with a small hole in the top. The water rushes in force from the bottom of the first bowl and causes bubbles, many of which are crushed against the clear walls once it fills, and the others are pushed down to the bottom before escaping, but all the bubbles are pushed through the small hole at the top of the other bowl, and spiral upward until they disappear from view. As soon as I see this, I open my eyes and know what to do. "We have to get to the Stingrays," I say, although the voice I hear doesn't even sound like my own.

  "We won't be able to get them out of dock safely without stopping, and we have to keep moving or the hull will implode—autopilot is fried, so we have to hold it manually," Arco says, his hands and Tieg's white-knuckling their steering columns.

  "We don't have to launch, we just have to get inside the Stingrays."

  "Jazz, there's not enough time," Tieg says, straining to maintain forward pressure.

  "There is. Angle the ship so the mouth of the moon pool dock faces the vent. The implosion will spit us out—we'll be launched," I say, and Avis shakes his head violently.

  "Do you know what that geometry will do to our speed? The ramp will turn into a brake rudder!"

  "We aren't going to have enough speed to make it anyway. Our only resource right now is pressure!" I insist.

  "Last time I checked you weren't a Nav—" Avis starts, but Arco cuts him off.

  "No, but she's a coder too. That will work!" he says, nodding his head. "Where's Wright? Dez, how is he?"

  "Good," Liddick says, getting to his feet and tossing away the bloodied cloth he'd been holding to his head.

  "OK, Avis, Spaulding, prime the Stingrays and make sure that ramp locks out. Tether, Wright, take the girls downstairs and get everyone reloaded—tell Ellis to rig Jazz's Ray for manual controls and remind her how to drive…stay close to her until I catch up, do you understand?" Arco says, "Everyone go!"

  Joss and Avis take Dez and Myra quickly down the stairs while Tieg and Liddick look at me, then exchange glances.

  "You're split! We need to hold this speed—you can't do that on your own," Tieg protests.

  "Hart, there won't be time to—"

  "Crite, I swear I will beat one of you senseless with the other one if you don't move right now! Go!"

  Tieg violently unclips from his station and glares at Arco as Liddick takes my shoulder, shaking his head. I struggle against him, and then manage to jerk away.

  "Arco! We have enough time, come on!" I yell, but he turns his back to me.

  "Get her out of here!" he yells again, and Liddick's arm wraps around my waist as he forces me backward toward the stairs. I slip out of his hold again and push back to Arco, but Tieg intercepts me, his arms closing like a vice around my hips so tightly that I can't even move my legs. I try to lever myself away from him by pushing off his shoulders with my hands, but it's no use.

  Stop fighting! Can't you feel how much he hates that it's us who have to take you? Stop making it harder for him! I hear Liddick yelling in my head all the way down to the moon pool where Tieg puts me down and deploys my helmet, then, tosses me into the water. He and Liddick jump in after me.

  "Stop! He'll come!" Liddick says through our helmets as Tieg pulls my arm in the direction of the Stingray that Ellis is waving us toward.

  "Jazz! Get in so I can lock out the ramp before this whole ocean comes down on us!" he says, and this finally halts my flailing.

  "But how can he get out of there? How is the implosion not going to crush him up there?" I yell as we move to the little ship.

  "His suit will deploy its impact kit when it registers the impending negative force, now get in the—" Ellis starts, but a loud scream comes through our helmet comms and cuts him off. We look around wildly for the source, and see Pitt at the mouth of the ramp engulfed in a cloud of red as he struggles to pull free from the ramp's hydraulic deployment arm.

  "Pitt!" Dez yells, trying to scramble out of her Stingray.

  "Dezzie, stay there!" Tieg shouts to her and pushes me against Liddick, then shoots like a bullet through the water to the ramp.

  "Jazz, come on!" Ellis says, crawling up through the hatch as he sees Avis swimming over to help Tieg with Pitt, followed seconds later by Joss once he secures Myra in a Stingray. "There's no room for anyone else to help over there; we have to set up!"

  "I'm almost in! Tether, hold the release and do not let go. Pitt, on three—on three, OK? Bite down!" Tieg yells.

  "What's happening!" I look to Liddick as the cloud of blood surrounding Pitt gets darker and everything spins out with Myra's sobs flooding in the background, her fear and anxiety pressing down on top of my own.

  "ONE!" Tieg shouts over the helmet comms.

  "What's happening!" I repeat.

  "His hand is stuck—Jazz, don't l
ook, just get in the Ray!" Liddick squares my shoulders in front of him so that I face Ellis as he ducks my head through the hatch. I crawl through, and he follows me up, which makes the squeeze impossibly tight with Ellis already inside. Once the hatch is closed, Ellis trips the drain, and when the barrier field comes down, he moves to the front and enters a series of button combinations on the left side of the console.

  "TWO!"

  "All right, I just programmed the basic controls for manual, so the right side will do what you do—remember the pedals and steering with Arco? Just push down to accelerate, push forward here," he says, pointing to buttons on the console and gripping the steering column, "Are you OK?" he asks, looking hard at me, and I nod.

  "THREE!"

  Pitt's scream immediately rips through the helmet comms, and through the window, a sudden gush of red spills into the water as the stab of his pain cuts straight through my chest.

  "Jazz, turn around!" Liddick yells, his face strained with the same feeling.

  "SELF-DESTRUCT COMPLETION IN THREE MINUTES," the ship's announcement warns.

  "OK, he's free—get in your Ray, we have to go!" Ellis shouts to Liddick, but Liddick doesn't move. "Wright! Come on!"

  "She won't be able to pull him in on her own," Liddick says after a beat, and Ellis's hard expression softens. He exhales and nods. "All right, we should only have a few hundred yards to go if this actually works. You already know how to stop, start, and steer—that's all the same, and these are the thrusters," he says, pointing the two yellow buttons in the center of the console out to Liddick. "I set everything else to manual, OK? So both of you just drive and it will sync you." He looks from me to Liddick, who nods. Ellis scrambles to the other side of the barrier and deploys it, then slips out of the hatch and seals it behind him.

  I look out the window and see the red cloud dissipating in the water as Tieg puts Pitt aboard Myra's craft with Joss and moves back to his own Stingray with Dez. Avis and Ellis are just loading up.

  "SELF-DESTRUCT COMPLETION IN ONE MINUTE," the ship says, and I look around wildly to make sure I can see everyone inside a Stingray.

  "They're all loaded, come on," Liddick says, turning our steering column and angling us toward the ramp.

  "What happened? What happened to his hand?" I ask, afraid that I already know.

  "It almost got him killed," Liddick says, then hits our comms button.

  "—up Line up!" Ellis is already yelling for the Stingrays to move into position in front of the ramp opening, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice Liddick's head starting to bleed again.

  "Crite, what hit you?" I say, finally seeing the extent of his gash.

  "I don't know. The last thing I remember was pushing the code, then a cracking sound. Things went black after that," he says, just before we topple into the side wall as the Leviathan begins to angle upward.

  Everything jerks abruptly like we've been grabbed back from a full sprint as our momentum drops, and through the front window cap, I see the outer ramp straining in its locked position, then breaking off and sliding away beneath us with the force of the water pushing against it. Seconds later, a deafening crash sounds, and then we're shooting through the water end over end for several more seconds. I don't know which way is up or down as we jolt against the seat restraints over and over again until the tumbling finally begins to slow enough for me to see metallic pieces of the Leviathan shimmering everywhere, but I still don't see Arco.

  "Where is he!" I shout as soon as we get our bearings. "Ellis, where is he? You said his suit would deploy!"

  "It did—it had to. Hang on, we're coming!"

  "There's no register on the scan," Avis says over the comms.

  "What does that mean? What does that mean there's no register?" I yell.

  "There's not one yet, hang on!" Ellis replies.

  "There he is!" Avis says and shines a spotlight at something that looks like a parachute floating in the water. "Crite, the deployment broke!"

  "Let's go!" Liddick says, engaging his pedal.

  My heart hammers in my chest as we speed over with the others to the material that hovers like a ghost in the water.

  "Is he all right?" Ellis asks over the comms.

  "He's not moving. Dez, Myra, what's your location?" Liddick asks.

  "We're at…the vent," Pitt answers, coughing.

  "Jax and Dez are here too," Joss follows.

  "All right, it should be big enough for you to drive right in—set down and find a place to work. We'll be there soon with Hart in tow," Avis says as we pull up next to the parachute, which slips back enough for me to see Arco's face. His helmet is intact, but his eyes are closed. We anchor the Stingray, raise the seal, and open the hatch, then move toward him.

  "Arco? Can you hear me?" I ask through the helmet comms as we crawl through the hatch, but he doesn't respond. Liddick and I each grab his wrists and pull him toward the Stingray, tearing away the rest of the fabric that bellows behind him like a sail. Liddick crawls back through the hatch first, then reaches down to grab Arco under the arms and hoist him up. He pulls him aboard, and I crawl up after him, helping to prop him up against the wall and fold his knees in so I can close the hatch. Liddick activates the drain and retracts the seal, and I remove Arco's helmet after mine and lift his face in my hands. "Arco? Arco!"

  Liddick pushes a series of buttons at the helm, steers the Stingray into a sharp turn, straightens, and then we start to accelerate. In a few seconds Avis and Ellis pull alongside us as Ellis's voice comes over the comms.

  "You have him? Is he OK?"

  "We have him, but he's out. We need to get him to Dez and Myra. You heard they're at the vent with Pitt and Ripley—wait. Where's Tieg?"

  "After he loaded Pitt, he moved Dez in with Jax and got into the Ray by himself," Ellis says.

  "Where is he now?" Liddick asks as I try to hold Arco's head steady in my lap.

  "We thought he came to help you," Avis answers just before he and Ellis pull up at the vent opening behind a descending Stingray.

  "Jax!" I yell when I see him through the window with Dez. "He's breathing—Dez! Arco's breathing!"

  "We're anchored—everyone is here. There's a short drop, and then…wow," Joss says, trailing off.

  "Hang on, Rip!" Liddick says as we maneuver into the groove, and I hold onto Arco tightly as everything around us closes in.

  ***

  The Stingray jostles hard in the narrow passageway, and I try to brace against the side wall to keep Arco as still as possible.

  "Hang on! We're almost there!" Liddick says, silhouetted by the green glow of the console screen.

  "Wright! Stay on my six—Tieg found an air bell with a crag ledge!" Ellis calls through the comms as two Stingrays race forward in front of us, then, look like they disappear into the ceiling of the cave we've just entered. We follow their trajectory and break the surface of the water, the walls in here glowing an eerie blue as opposed to the white and yellow from the other cave. The refraction of the light from our Stingrays bounces off the dark water and sends dancing lines over everything as Liddick docks on the wide, glistening ledge, then helps me get Arco through the hatch. We stumble out and see Tieg and Joss kneeling with Pitt, who is sitting with his back against the rock wall as Myra finishes bandaging his left hand. Jax rushes over to help carry Arco over to Dez.

  "I got him," Jax says, taking my place under Arco's arm with Liddick on the other side.

  "Here, set him down," Dez says, slipping off her bag. She pulls the release cord behind Arco's shoulder and loosens the top of his dive suit, then checks his pulse as she brings a white, rounded stick about the size of her finger from the bag and waves it over his stomach, chest, neck, and finally, his head, where it turns from white to red at his eyes. She retracts it immediately to read, then exhales audibly. "He's OK, but we need to wake him up," she continues, and fishes for his bracelet cuff. When she finds it, she presses the inside of it at the same time she presses into his forearm, about s
ix inches farther up than where Dame Maghi had pressed my arm in the moon pool bay. A pocket of air sounds, and in a few seconds, Arco sucks in a desperate, deep breath, then coughs.

  "Dez!" I shout.

  "It's OK. It's just epinephrine…adrenaline to wake him up. He has—Arco, hey, look at me…you're all right— it's Dez," she says, turning his shoulders so he faces her. "Jazz is here. You have a concussion, so just try to be still while your technics work, otherwise you'll—" Arco's eyes light around the room, and after a few darting movements, he closes them tightly and brings his hands to either side of his head just before lunging to the edge of the crag ledge. "You'll get nauseous," Dez continues. "All right, you won't be able to vomit because of the suppressor in the epinephrine, so just try to be still. Sorry, I know it's awful, but it will pass. It'll help to sit up and breathe through your nose," she adds.

  Arco tries to push up to his hands and knees, but can't seem to get his bearings. Liddick and Jax help him move to the wall, and I position myself behind him so that he's leaning against me, then wrap my arms around his neck and chest.

  "He'll be all right. He just needs a few minutes," Dez says through a tense smile, then rushes back to help Myra.

  "You're OK…you're OK," I say into his ear, feeling my throat close up. His hand reaches up and curls around mine, and I feel tears start down my face.

  "I'm OK," he echoes reassuringly, his voice low and rough. I lower my forehead to his and close my eyes, trying to will the world to stop for a second. "Pitt…was screaming?" he asks, and my eyes fly open, remembering the sound—the sight of the blood in the water. I look up wildly and see him sitting with Myra and Joss against the opposite wall holding his left hand to his chest and bleeding from his forehead. Dez moves in quickly and presses his bracelet and forearm in various places as Tieg kneels a few feet from them, then catches my eye.

  "Is he all right?" I ask, my voice sounding shallow and cracked in my ears. Almost immediately, his brows draw in with worry before he catches himself, but for just an instant, his eyes soften into the same unreal blue as the glowing rivulets in the walls, and I finally see him—I finally feel something from him. It's the kind of pain that gnaws like hunger in the bottom of my stomach, then reaches up through my chest and pulls everything down…helplessness. "Tieg…" I trail off as he presses his lips into a hard line and sets his jaw, trying to fight the fear pressing down. When he can't, he looks away.