AER (The Elements Series Book 3)

by Tracy Korn

  "What do you mean the neural thread is evolving?" Eco asks. Arwyn brushes her long, light brown hair from her face as she looks at Liam, then at Lyden before getting to her feet.

  "It's…complicated," she sighs.

  "We'll listen slow." Eco cocks his head to one side. Blue and white lights blip on and off along the wire network running from his temples into his cheekbones, just under the sharp edge of his dark hair. Does that mean he's registering an emotional response right now like he would if he were inside an alpha channel? I think. Does he ever get to turn that off?

  "OK, I tried. Been trying. Done trying now. I can't figure it out…what's a neural thread?" Vox asks.

  "You're kidding me?" Eco blanches.

  "Well, I'm sorry very much, Sparkles, but not all of us are half computer."

  I fight to keep the smile off my face, and Jax thins his lips into a hard line to keep his expression neutral too.

  "A neural thread is programmable organic matter made from DNA…it helps people have more realistic virtuo-cine experiences," Arwyn answers.

  "How did you get mixed up in this? Is that why they put you in biodesign in the first place?" Arco asks his sister.

  "Sort of. Lyden and I found out what Gaia was doing our last year there…we didn't even get to graduate with our class before they sent us to Phase Two…the underground volcano facility. We thought we were getting promoted, until we realized that's not what was happening—they just wanted us to help with the experiments on people. They threatened to hurt you and Lyden's brothers if we didn't cooperate, so we tried to build the neural thread to weave into the virtuo-cine network…that way, we could get a message to Liam before he went to Gaia, but we couldn't get it to work. When Ms. Rheen and Mr. Styx brought Jack Ripley on board, we asked him if he would help us."

  "That's when they faked the plant explosion and told us he died," Jax says to no one in particular. Arwyn nods.

  "But by then, Ms. Rheen and Mr. Styx had already tried to promote Liam—to bring him into the fold and have him help advance their genetic engineering cause. He wouldn't do it, so they moved him to Phase Two against his will with us and sent a long term clone to be the biodesigner on the Skyboard Hill that everyone was expecting."

  Liam blows out a breath. "Phase Two is where I saw Jack, but I thought he was dead," he says. "The newsfeeds told everyone he was killed in the plant explosion. I knew Gaia was dirty then. No way I was going to let Liddick get pulled in too, so, we went to work. Jack figured out the only reason the neural thread fell apart under coding was because the original sample of Lyden's DNA chain wasn't strong enough—nobody's would be strong enough to carry the whole message we were trying to program—so we accessed one that had been enhanced from the Gaia mainframe archives and laced it into Lyden's sample. It worked like a backbone, but because of the splice, Liddick could only see parts of the warning messages in different virtuo-cines. It must have made him think he was going crazy," Liam says, lowering his eyes to the ground and shaking his head. I feel the wave of guilt start to drag him down.

  "He didn't go crazy. He just became obsessed…shut everyone out to find the answers. He knew you were trying to tell him something. He knew your clone wasn't you," I say, trying to lift the heaviness settling in my own chest from Liam's reaction to his memories. He absently rubs the scar in his left eyebrow…the same scar Liddick has from the night he fell down the dune as a kid, and Liam tried to stop him from panicking by cutting his own eyebrow with a rock.

  "Yeah, well, a lot of good it did. He wound up there anyway, and now he's stuck somewhere six miles deep into the planet," Liam adds, crossing his arms over his chest and turning to the wall, which becomes a window as he approaches it.

  "That's not your fault. It's no one's fault," Arwyn says.

  "All right!" Eco scrubs his hands over his face, then takes a deep breath. "Enough with the history lesson…someone tell me what any of this has to do with the neural thread evolving? You know, the problem at hand here?" Eco raises his dark eyebrows and scans the room for answers.

  "It must be evolving because of the archived DNA we used as the base," Arwyn starts to explain. "We didn't think anything of it at the time because all we needed it to do was stabilize Lyden's DNA sample so we could code the message onto it, then thread it into the virtuo-cine mainframe and get it into the storyboards for Liddick."

  "And? Get on with it," Eco says through his teeth.

  Arco glares at him. "She's saying that now people with even a secondary Empath classification can hear and see the neural thread that was used as a foundation for the code they embedded for Liddick…right?" he asks, looking back at Arwyn.

  "Right. It must be extra sensitive to stimulus, and when you got your Gaia bracelets, the heightened awareness all at once must have been enough to trigger the viral component of the message we wrote—I mean…" she says, glancing again at Calyx as she trails off.

  "The other Empaths out there will begin to see and hear the message, it will just take longer like it did for Arco and the other Empath Receivers and Projectors," Liam finishes.

  Eco leans toward them and pinches the air with one hand.

  "I will literally kill you if you don't stop tap dancing right now—get to the point," he says in a quiet voice. "Why does it matter that the code is evolving to the point that all Empaths can see images in the scripts?"

  "It's human instinct to want to communicate—this neural thread is trying to do exactly that, with as many people as it can. It could even evolve to the point that it tries to reach people who only have recessive Empath traits," Arwyn adds. "And maybe by then, it won't need the Empath platform at all anymore. It could eventually learn how to talk to anyone, regardless of their neural structure."

  "Should I stab you or just liquify you? Never mind, too much white furniture…where's my neural rod…Rosie! Where's my neural rod?" Eco says, rifling through the drawers near him.

  "Locating…" the computer voice says. "Bedroom, side table shelf." Eco raises his eyebrows and nods at us, then starts to head for the wall behind the red Grid lines.

  "Eco, listen…" Arwyn says, glancing desperately at Calyx again, who is still focused on searching for something on the Grid. She doesn't look up, and Arwyn turns to Lyden.

  "Wait…" I say, putting the pieces together. "The message you coded for Liddick is still fragmented, right? Like when the marlin talked to us, and then we heard some random phrases when we were under stress in the Stingray vessels?" I ask, feeling my pulse jump with the implications.

  "Yes, but that's not exactly why this evolution is so dangerous…" Lyden says, looking over to Calyx, who is still engrossed in the Grid. "Cally…" he starts.

  "Finally…here it is…" Calyx says, blowing out a breath as she taps another holographic key, but then covers her mouth with her hand. "Crite…we really do need to stop the replication. Right now," she adds, then pushes the floating red keyboard toward Eco. "Tell your gatekeeper to get me an open line to Skull. It locked me out, and I don't have time to hack it again."

  "Why did you—never mind," Eco closes his eyes and shakes his head. "He's not going to be there at this hour," he adds.

  "Just get the line open."

  Eco moves back to the couch and starts typing, but then stops after a second and narrows his eyes at Liam.

  "Wait a minute…how did you even get access to those archives? You're not a hacker, and Lyden was in a tank the whole time you were anywhere near those databases. Not to mention, those DNA samples were archived for a reason. They're volatile—self-destructive if they're hit with infrared light. You thought using them as baseline organics would be a good idea? More than that, how did you even know about them in the first place? And how did you—"

  "Enough," Calyx sighs, pushing her hands through her hair. "It wasn't him."

  CHAPTER 9

  Eyes Wide Open

  Liddick

  I expect searing pain the second I try to move, and I'm surprised I didn't wake up sooner with
out that root Vita gave us the first time we had the Vishan treatments. How long have I been out? I think, trying to brace myself to blink.

  I open my eyes fast, wide, but the pain never comes. I should feel it shooting down my temples and drilling into my teeth like it did back in the Vishan tunnels the first time they treated us, but there's nothing. I push my luck and take a deep breath, expecting my ribs to feel like 10,000 needles pushing into my skin from the inside, but that feeling never comes either. Why doesn't this hurt? I think, finally taking notice of the milky blue ice crystal walls that bend and warm in an arc high over my head. I don't know where the leaves I'm lying on top of came from, but they crack and break into pieces when I roll onto my side.

  We're still next to the ice cave opening, but the light outside has turned to a smoky, dark haze—it must be night, or what passes for night six miles into the earth. There's just enough light to see Dez sleeping next to Zoe across from me, with Tieg not too far away. He's snoring with his mouth wide open so I can see his solid wedge of polished white teeth reflecting the hazy glow from the cave opening. Dez looks like a marble statue in this light; that's what I thought when I first saw her too, standing there in line for a tray at lunch that first day at Gaia Sur. She didn't move even to breathe. I'd never seen anyone be so calm and still, especially not in the middle of all the foreign happenings that first day--strange food, strange clothes, strange people, not enough information…and I thought I'd seen it all. I think the only time Dez could ever be still like this again is when she's asleep. She's not the cool, ethereal thing I thought she was then, and maybe that's my fault for giving her mixed signals…maybe Jazz was right about me all along. Maybe I am reckless.

  I push these thoughts out of my head for what must be the tenth time, if not the hundredth. I can't get sucked into thinking like this again; it just slows me down. Cal, Del, Jack, and Azeris are all asleep about 10 feet deeper into the cave, and I start to push up to see if I can go take a leak without waking up everyone in here.

  "Liddick?" Dez whispers from the shadows across from me. "I think the treatment worked…I can see, but it's blurry."

  I nearly hit my head on one of the ice crystals in the sudden startle of her voice breaking through the silence. I blow out a breath, mainly in thanks for not bashing my skull, but it sounds like exasperation, and I feel the twinge in my gut when it registers for her too.

  "Give it a little while," I say, trying to sound consoling to make up for the misunderstood frustration that I don't have the energy to explain. "I don't think we've been out that long. Not like before."

  "And it doesn't hurt like before," she says after a second…always so quick to forgive me. "Do you think we can still make fire?"

  I hold out my palm and try to focus on making it itch. I didn't have to do that the first time I pulled up fire after the Vishan treatment…it was automatic. Nothing happens, and my heart starts pounding with the initial panic.

  "I can't do it," I say, then narrow my eyes to focus harder.

  "Maybe that takes time too," Dez says, a smile in her voice as Zoe starts to stir.

  "You're awake already?" Zoe says, slurring all the words together as she stretches her arms beyond her head and yawns. "Can't have been more than a handful of hours."

  "Did it work? Can you see?" Tieg asks, suddenly sitting up like something jabbed him.

  "I think so. Everything is still blurry, but I couldn't even see that before."

  "Come into the light here," Cal says, now awake behind me and holding a small red flame in the center of his palm. Show off.

  "I tried that—it didn't work. Not even the itch," I say to Cal.

  "I don't know why that would be. We've never had to re-treat anyone, so there's no telling what may still work and what won't…or what may be new," he says without looking at me. Dez moves into the light. Her eyes are still dark, shadowed like she hasn't slept in weeks, but also dark inside…marbled navy blue and a charred gray around the iris.

  "They're clearing. The treatment worked, but it's slower. Maybe that's what's happening with the fire too. We'll just have to keep watching it," Cal adds, then turns to Jack for confirmation.

  "That would be my guess as well. Since the first treatment and then the reversal at the Phase Two port-carnate hub, you've probably developed a bit of resistance to the DNA fuse. We'll know more with a little time," Jack says. "We should get moving again."

  Cal takes a square of bread from his satchel and throws it into his mouth. The Vishan packed some rations for us too when we set out into the Rush, but I suddenly can't eat. The pain of the treatment didn't register this time, and I'm wondering if it just made the nausea worse…more abrupt. I try to take a deep breath to push down the swimming feeling, and when that doesn't work, I just try to think about getting into the Sand biome tunnels.

  "Once we get into the tunnels, how long is the hike to your hub?" I ask Azeris, leaning my head back against the cold wall.

  "No idea—we'll have to scope it when we get there. I can't get a read on anything in this ice," he answers, tapping the mapping unit on his arm as he swings it through the strap of his satchel.

  "It will take at least a complete cycle stone spectrum to climb to the surface once we get clear of the ice, and that's if we don't have to scrap with tunnel sharks," Cal answers. "Don't count on that."

  "A spectrum?" Jack asks, cocking an eyebrow. Cal takes his cycle stone from his satchel and hands it to Jack. It's oval and smooth with bright, thin bands of yellow streaking the length of it.

  "It keeps track of the days…when the red is gone, it should be light again," Cal says with a quick nod. Jack rubs the stone between his fingers and holds it up to the flame in Cal's other hand.

  "Fascinating…is it connected to your ability to produce fire?" Jack says, gesturing to Cal's flame as he moves closer. "May I see your hand?"

  Cal extends his arm. "I don't know if they're connected to the fire. The stones have always been with us—they don't come from the tunnels, or anywhere else we've seen. And the fire is just one of our gifts," he rolls his eyes. "Crite, I'm starting to sound like Veece."

  "You're starting to sound like a topsider," Dell says, clicking his teeth as a grin tacks to one side of his face. "Only took a year to convert you."

  Jack studies Cal's still burning palm, turning it sideways and looking at it from the underside knuckles facing the dirt mottled ice on the ground.

  "Fascinating…truly fascinating that you can summon these flames," Jack says, looking from Cal to Del and Zoe. "And you can as well?" They all nod.

  "So can everyone who was just treated…well, they're supposed to be able to do it, anyhow," Zoe says, glancing at me.

  "Let's just get moving. Obviously, we're not going back to sleep. All the head games are turned off out there, right? Is there anything we need to worry about in the dark?" I ask, impatiently because it's freezing in here, and I need to be in motion.

  "Nothing programmable should be functioning so long as the neural freeze is still holding at the Phase Two facility. Unfortunately, we won't know if it is or not until it's obvious that it's not. Listen for a low grade buzz—it will seem like it's not really there. If you hear that, the neural freeze has been hacked and terminated. Phase Two will be back online…along with the head games," Jack explains, pressing his lips into a flat line.

  "There's enough light to get by," Azeris says, nodding to the corridor behind us. "If we're lucky, by the time we make it to the Sand, there will be more."

  "And you can fix us when we get to your hub? You can reverse these treatments?" Tieg asks, slinging his satchel strap over his shoulder.

  "Not exactly…" Azeris answers.

  "What?" I hear myself almost shout, my attention ripped back to the present moment from wherever I'd let this fog in my head carry it. "What do you mean you can't reverse it? We can't port with these mutations, and we can't get to Phase Three without port-carnate transferring. We can't—"

  "Relax, chief…Calyx
is still working on access to Phase Three. We can't get there yet," Azeris says, holding up a hand and shaking his head at me like I'm some kind of tweaking child. I try to protest, but he just starts talking again. "And I don't have the parent gene for the Vishan DNA at my hab, so I can't reverse anything made from it. We're gonna have to get the genetic components for the program from Calyx. Then, I can fix you up," Azeris says, looking from me to Zoe. She gives him a small smile as she shifts her weight and adjusts the satchel on her shoulder.

  "It shouldn't take long once we get there. We missed the first transfer, so Calyx will know something went wrong," Jack says. "She'll look for my signature on the Grid, and will find me launching the neural freeze code. That will tell her we're on the run and will have to find another hub…she'll be waiting to hear something from us. Once we make contact, she'll help us get the archive for the DNA. We just need time," he adds, drawing his absurdly thick dark eyebrows together and nodding like he's trying to convince himself too.

  "We don't have time! Aren't these treatments permanent after so long? What was it, a week?" Tieg nearly shouts. "Is that how long we've got before your freak DNA keeps us stuck underground for good?!" he actually does shout this time as he grips Cal's shirt. Cal grabs the base of Tieg's thumb and pulls it back and down, which makes Tieg drop to his knees before Cal finally lets him go.

  "I don't know how long it takes to become permanent this time. Like I said, we've never re-treated anyone!"

  "Tieg!" Dez rushes to her brother, stumbling into him.

  "I'm fine!" he says, pushing to his feet and glaring down at Cal.

  "If you're all finished now, maybe we should just find out what can and can't be done. Ain't a thing that's gonna be accomplished scrapping in here," Zoe says, shoving impatiently past Tieg and down the tunnel, where she suddenly stops, then comes back just to hook Dez's arm . She glares at me.

  "What did I do?!" I shout after her, but she doesn't turn around.