AER (The Elements Series Book 3)

by Tracy Korn

  "It's a lost cause. There's no way to modify the rest of the colony…they don't even want to be modified," Ridley starts to answer, but I'm tired of everyone's yapping.

  "Look, you can have a nice back and forth about ethics and logistics and anything else you think is outer ring later. Right now, we need to get to the Hidden City and neutralize the threat there. Those are my orders, do we all understand?" I ask. Ridley narrows her eyes, but Lieutenant Waverly starts smiling at me. Blood hammers in my ears again, and I don't understand…what is it with that Glyph? I shake it off, then look at the huge orange wall in the distance.

  "Sir, we're about two miles outside the Hostile Zone. That's a mile closer than your team was yesterday when it dropped at our current coordinates. The untreated are moving," Cathcart says, looking at a tablet. I look out on the orange, hazy horizon in the direction he's facing, but only see a heat mirage blurring everything.

  They're coming to us, I think. The words just float into my head, along with the idea that the untreated people apparently need these genetic modifications for their own good…they need to be sedated so we can help them. As soon as I think this, the Script icon appears in the upper corner of my vision again. This time, I reach up and press it. The words Script Approval appear in place of the icon almost immediately, and Greene's voice floods the comms.

  "Sir, we've just confirmed that the Hostile Zone is closing in on the Hidden City. They've moved a mile more, and surveillance suggests they are beyond diplomatic talks now. We've reached last resort measures…if we embed sleeper gas pockets at your current coordinates, we can neutralize the violence and treat them before anyone else gets hurt. Permission to proceed?"

  I just approved that narrative, didn't I? I think. Is that what this clearance does…floats suggested script ideas for approval?

  "Sir!" Ridley shouts over the comms. "This is not our problem!"

  "Authorize, Dr. Greene. Give us an hour to get clear, " I say, then shoot a glare at Ridley. I don't care if she looks like her ten years from now, Jazz would never be this selfish—mollusk programmers. You should have put Grisham in that role, I think.

  "You're going to authorize genetic modifications?" Lieutenant Porter asks, which brings me back into the moment. I blow out a breath.

  "Listen, these two are bent out of shape because we keep losing people to the violence down here," I say, gesturing to Ridley and Cathcart. "Knocking out the untreated will take care of that problem. They're beyond reasoning now, understand? After they're out, we can treat them, and the radiation sickness will stop making them violent, got it?" I say in a hurry to get moving. All the Glyphs gape at me as Porter storms off, but I don't care. We need vehicles…I think, and the Script button appears a second later. Excellent, I'm getting the hang of this storyboarder clearance. I push it, then hear Greene over the comms again.

  "Sir, the sleeper gas pockets are ready for laser insertion on your mark, and crews will then deploy. Your hovercraft are 93% transferred; please stand by," she says.

  "Wait, if the ship is going to knock these people out, what are the crews coming for then?" Carver asks in the same cracking voice as before.

  "Those would be surgeon crews," Cathcart says, as helpful as ever just as air-bikes materialize behind the group.

  ***

  The wall of the Hidden City actually isn't a wall so much as it's a shoulder high circle of sand around exactly nothing.

  "Well, it is called the Hidden City," Richards says, laughing at his own joke. I can't decide if he or Cathcart annoys me more.

  Reveal Register, I think, then scan the air over the top of the encircling sand. Blue, scrolling code flickers into the image for a second, and then…nothing again. What? I saw the box in the Councilman's projection. I know it's here! I think. Enter! Materialize! Reveal Hidden City! I yell in my head again, but nothing happens. Getting in here is the whole reason I have this stupid storyboarder clearance, isn't it?

  "How do we get in there?" Carver asks in her crackling voice, and I almost round on her this time.

  "Cathcart, I'm sure you're dying to enlighten Lieutenant Carver…" I say, taking a deep breath to pull myself together. He raises a bushy eyebrow at me, which makes him look even more like a know-it-all professor.

  "Sir, you just…"

  "Of course I know…by all means, you explain how we get into the Hidden City to Lieutenant Carver," I add, trying to look as indignant as possible.

  "Well…we just have to let them know we're here. The gate can only be opened from the inside," he says to Carver.

  "Exactly!" I say, then push the comms button in my collar, which is the same, now that I think about it, as the one from my Gaia dive suit. "Dr. Greene. Please hail the Council chair and let him know we're at the gate."

  "Yes, sir," she replies. A few seconds later, the ground begins shaking, and one of the other women in the crew starts screaming.

  "Not again! No…No!"

  "What's happening!?" Carver shouts.

  Their fear hits me in the chest, sharp at first, then heavy…it's actual fear, but Glyphs don't project fear. Glyphs don't project anything.

  "Relax! It's just the gate opening!" Cathcart yells over her screams. Ridley tries to restrain the other woman, who is trying to pull off her helmet.

  "Get off! Get off!" the woman yells, then takes a swing at Ridley.

  "Whoa! Are you split!? Dr. Greene, medical emergency for Lieutenant Brisbane! Extract…now!"

  "Locked on, extracting," Greene says over the comms in reply as Brisbane slaps at her legs. What the hell is happening? I think. Glyph malfunction?

  "It's all right! Listen to me, it's gone, OK? It's miles and miles away!" Lieutenant Waverly tries to get Brisbane to focus, but winds up thrown to the ground. Something in me snaps, and I run over to her just as Brisbane disappears, and everything is quiet again.

  I kneel next to her and feel ice flood my veins when she doesn't move. Wake up…wake up…I think. Rip, wake up!

  In that second, Waverly's eyes open. She stares at me through the helmet glass as blood trickles from her eyebrow. Richards rushes in front of me and helps her up, and I stumble backward, out of the way. What just happened…I think, trying to slow everything down.

  "Are you all right? Hey, hey, look at me," Richards says, studying her eyes, which are fixed on me. I can't look away from her until anger rushes over me when I realize Ridley is shaking my shoulder.

  "Hey?" she says.

  "Sir? Do you need medical?" Cathcart asks.

  I don't have time to answer either of them before Greene's voice floods the comms again.

  "We've sedated Lieutenant Brisbane; she won't be returning to the surface. Your liaison should be there any minute, Captain."

  "Dr. Greene, Waverly may also need—" Ridley says over the comms.

  "I'm fine," Waverly interrupts, turning out of Richards's hold to face me again. "I'm not going anywhere except inside that city."

  CHAPTER 44

  Transcendence: Part Two

  Jazz

  "Where are we?" Myra asks. Her voice sounds like it's coming from inside my head until I realize I'm wearing a helmet. I turn to her and see she's wearing one too.

  "We're on…." the captain's voice comes over the comms system, and Myra and I both turn to him. "We're on Halcyon, Carver, and we need to get to the Hidden City before the sun sets."

  Myra raises her eyebrows at me and mouths the words I'm Carver, then tries to stifle a laugh.

  "Do we have an envoy?" Lyden asks, taking a few steps toward the captain just as a bright circle of light appears a few feet away. A dark haired woman steps out wearing the same white uniform and helmet as we are, and she's not happy.

  "Cass? Your medical clearance?" one of the crew asks, surprised.

  She tells him the captain cleared her, but says it with narrowed eyes and a raised chin like she's daring him to contradict her.

  Guess someone didn't want to get out of bed, Vox thinks.

  "Apparentl
y we're supposed to guard this new wall from yet more hostiles. Care to tell this lot what that means, Folger?" she asks, but before the captain can say anything, she immediately gestures to me and says we're all going to be killed. She almost shouts that the planet is doomed anyway, insinuating we should all just leave everyone on it to their fate. I can't even believe what I'm hearing.

  "So we should just let people here die?" I ask. I can't help it; it comes out before I can remind myself that this is just a cine. I roll my eyes at myself when it all catches up with me. None of this matters. None of it's real, I remind myself. She gives me the same dirty look she was giving the captain, obviously thinking I was rolling my eyes at her…great.

  "Do you have any idea how many teams we've lost down here?" she narrows her eyes at me, walking up quickly like she's going to grab me. I feel prickles of heat run down my neck like the Vishan fire starting to light…but I know that's long gone now. "Greene and her team could only genetically modify a hundred people to withstand the radiation down here. We can't save everyone," she adds, then knocks my shoulder back with hers as she passes me.

  "Genetically modified?" Arco asks.

  "We can't get to the rest of the colony, and even if we could, they don't want to be modified," the woman fires back, but the captain cuts her off and says we need to get on with the mission. She looks like she's going to crawl out of her skin, and I smile at him.

  "Sir, we're about two miles outside the Hostile Zone. It's moved a mile closer since yesterday. The untreated are moving," the same crewman—Cathcart, according to his nameplate—says. Are the untreated the same people that were in the last cine? The tanned people who hauled off Arco so he could talk to the Council? A barrage of words pours over the comms, but I don't have time to process everything before I hear Lyden in my head.

  You see what this is all about, right?

  What are you talking about?

  The untreated are the ones without genetic alterations…They've just fictionalized everything in this cine, he adds, and a second later someone is screaming into the comms.

  "This isn't our problem!" the dark-haired woman who was just in my face yells, then rounds on the captain.

  "Authorize, Dr. Greene. Give us an hour to get clear," he answers, then turns to the woman like he's going to grab her.

  "You're going to authorize genetic modifications?" Lyden asks, stopping him in his tracks. The captain says something to him, but I can't hear what it is over the comms. Whatever it is, it makes Lyden walk away from him looking like his hair is on fire. They're going to perform the genetic alterations when these people are unconscious, he thinks, then takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. This storyline is starting to feel like propaganda to me…we're both getting pulled in. Just think about finding the Glyph, he thinks, and I know he's telling himself this as much as he's telling me.

  More instructions about crews deploying come over the comms then, and nauseating panic hits my stomach.

  "Wait, if the ship is going to knock these people out, what are the crews coming for then?" Myra asks. When I turn to her, the nausea gets worse.

  It's just a cine, I mouth to her, but I can't tell if this is what helps, or if it's just the sight of hover bikes suddenly appearing next to us that erases her anxiety.

  It's not a dragon, but I'll take it, Vox thinks, then raises an eyebrow at me and walks to a bike.

  ***

  We aren't riding long before we stop at a big circle of orange sand that seems to be at least a quarter mile around, but there's nothing inside it.

  "Well, it is called the Hidden City," Arco says through a muffled laugh when he rides up next to me.

  "How do we get in there?" Myra asks, and the captain suddenly whips around to face us.

  "Cathcart, explain how we get into the Hidden City to Lieutenant Carver," he says, but something is wrong with him…I can feel his nerves scratching inside my chest like an itch I can't reach.

  What is wrong with him? I think toward Lyden.

  I'm picking up the same…mania? Or maybe it's anxiety? But Glyphs aren't supposed to project emotion.

  Could it be…Liddick? I almost don't let myself think it.

  "Dr. Greene," the captain says over the comms. "Tell the Council chair we're at the gate."

  "Yes, sir," she replies, and a minute later the ground under our feet starts shaking like it did in the Rush when the tunnel sharks attacked us. When I look over at Fraya , I realize this must be her feeling. She immediately starts screaming.

  "No! Not again!"

  "What's happening!?" Myra shouts.

  I'm standing between them, not sure which is my fear and which is theirs, but I am sure that it's all compounding like a weight on my chest. I have to stop this.

  I grab Fraya's shoulders to make her look at me, but she just starts screaming again, this time swinging her arms everywhere like something is attacking her.

  "Get off! Get off!" Fraya slaps at her legs like something is crawling all over them. It's the tunnel shark…she must be seeing the tunnel shark wrapping around her all over again. I think.

  "Fraya! Listen to me, it's gone! It's miles and miles away!" I shout, trying to grab her shoulders again so she'll look at me. She does for just a second, and her eyes are like a trapped, wild animal's. She pushes me as hard as she can, and I see her swatting at her legs again just before everything goes black.

  ***

  There's noise somewhere far in the distance, muffled, but then it gets louder and clearer until it sounds like shouting in my head.

  Wake up…wake up…Rip, wake up!

  I open my eyes and see Liddick leaning over me, but he's blurry. I blink hard to make my eyes focus, then see the captain's unnaturally blue eyes looking down at me. His dark brows are drawn together as I try to sit up, and my head starts pounding. Arco is next to me in seconds helping me up, but I can't tear my eyes away from the captain, who now looks just as shocked as I feel.

  "Are you all right? Hey, hey, look at me," Arco asks, moving in front of my face.

  I nod absently, then swallow hard trying to figure out what just happened. It must have been a flashback…Fraya had a flashback from when the tunnel shark attacked, and that must be what happened to me too just now…when Liddick was kneeling next to me after I fell. That has to be what happened, I think.

  "Lieutenant Brisbane is sedated. Your liaison should be there any minute, Captain." Dr. Greene's voice is loud in my helmet.

  "Dr. Greene, Waverly may also need—"

  "I'm fine," I say the second I hear the dark-haired woman's voice trying to get rid of me. I don't know why I can't stand her, but I suddenly realize that's exactly how I feel about her…she just feels like a lie. Everything she says, everything she does, it's like she's purposely here to sabotage me, even though that doesn't make any sense. Arco's hands are gripping my shoulders, but anger has made me feel steady on my own two feet again. I nod at him, then turn to the captain, ready to find this last Glyph.

  "The only place I'm going is inside that city," I say just as the last of the rumbling stops under my feet.

  CHAPTER 45

  The Hidden City: Part Two

  Liddick

  The ground stops shaking right after Waverly's declaration that she's not going back to the ship for medical attention, despite the blood that's still trickling from her eyebrow. I want to go to her, but she's just a Glyph…watching her getting thrown during that little earthquake was just too close to what happened in the Rush with the tunnel shark…when Jazz fell on the tanglebush branch and I thought she was gone. I squeeze my eyes shut to push a way the thought. I need to push all thoughts of her out of my head before these cine programmers find a way to use them too for the obvious propaganda they're designing with this cine. I'm damn sure not going to help them.

  After another few seconds, another tall, thin, very pale man appears in front of the orange dirt wall, but the edges of him are warping just like the Councilman's in the port-call projection b
ack on the ship. This must be another one, I think, turning to the man.

  "We cannot thank you and your teams enough for coming, Captain Folger. Please follow me," he says, waving his hand over a section of the dirt wall, which doesn't do anything. He turns back to me when I don't follow. "It's all right, you will pass through now," he adds.

  We pass through it just like we did through the wall in the Phase Two Gaia facility. On the other side, tall, thin, pale people with long white hair and light blue eyes like the Vishan's are everywhere. They're all wearing the same kind of long, tan tunics, and when I look more closely at whatever is moving on their necks, I see that they're gills. How did I not notice this in the Councilman's projection? I wonder, then realize I wasn't looking at him…I was trying to find the reset switch, which is exactly what I need to do now. Reset Register, I think, and see exactly nothing change. I blow out a breath and press my teeth together.

  "Where did the Councilman call from?" I finally ask the guide. He doesn't turn around to answer me.

  "This is a call to action in partnership with the Carboderm Corporation and Biotech Global…" he says, the propaganda sending a stab of anger through me. I move to grab his shoulder, which sinks under the pressure of my hand, then moves through my fingers. I pull my hand back.

  "What just happened!?" I blurt, almost jumping out of my skin.

  "Apologies…the port-call smart atoms cannot fully mesh," the guide says as his shoulder reforms. "Our access to the port-cloud is not fully functioning because of the protective ion dome over the city. We will be able to take it down once all those in the Hostile Zone are treated." A shiver runs down my spine, and I try to shake it loose. "Again, to answer your question, thank you for answering our call to action. We value our partnership with your crew, and the entire Global Cloud Fleet…" he starts, but is interrupted when one of the new women in my crew tries to tackle him. He stumbles, but then straightens as she falls right through him. She hits the ground face first, then springs back up, now dripping with pieces of his port-cloud projection.