AER (The Elements Series Book 3)

by Tracy Korn

  "I'll be right there," I say. "Captain out."

  "Aye, sir."

  I push the heels of my palms against my eyes, bringing back the encrypted code. This cine is laced…I think. Just like Liam laced the other virtuo-cines with messages. How do they know he did it…did he show them how? The thoughts come like a crashing wave and pull me under. I have to stop this…Gaia wouldn't lace messages like this for me; they don't even know I'm in the network. They must have laced this for everyone…I could rewrite it…I could—"Stop!" I shout out loud to myself and take a deep breath. Zone, Wright…one thing at a time. Get in, reset the server, get out…that's what Grisham said to do. "Reveal Reset Register," I say out loud, then open my eyes and look around the room again. There's nothing but the same moulded white desk, white military style bed, the chrome finish kitchen like the galley on the sub to Gaia Sur…nothing that looks even remotely like a reset button, or lever, or whatever. "Crite…" I swallow hard and close my eyes, letting the scrolling code babble swallow me again.

  "Sir," the same female voice comes through my sleeve cuff intercom. "I'm sorry, sir, the Transcendent Council leader is insisting on projecting aboard right now to speak with you in person. Authorize?"

  I wait before answering, listening to the faint, high-pitched hum of the open frequency.

  "Authorize."

  CHAPTER 40

  Never Saw It Coming

  Jazz

  The white light seems to fade faster coming out of this virtuo-cine, but maybe I'm just getting used to the process. After a second, the metal balls at the end of rods near my temples retract, and I sit up.

  "That's three; we've patched three of the Glyphs now, right?" Myra asks.

  "That's right, Ms. Toll. Clever maneuver getting the Glyph to escort you out, Mr. Hart," Tark says with an approving nod, but Arco doesn't look like he's just been praised.

  "I thought you said these Glyphs weren't going to try to fight us anymore? That they were going to be drawn to us. That's not what happened in there," he says.

  "It tried to use your interview for Gaia against you, didn't it?" I ask. He looks at me hard like he's been looking at Tark, but then his eyes soften.

  "It tried. I might have been pulled in more if you hadn't reminded me it was the Glyph," Arco says with a small smile.

  "The bioprint masks are showing as functional, so your neural signatures are concealed on the Grid. No one knows you're in the cines," Tark says.

  "But the tech is old, so the Glyphs might still be able to access your personal memories to build the custom firewalls. At least now we know those are only as strong as you'll let them be, though," Arwyn adds.

  "And I personally saw you trying to tackle an alligator bigger than ten of you. Firewall ain't got nothin'," Zoe says, wearing a white jumpsuit like ours as she leans on the doorframe at the far end of the room.

  "Zoe!" Myra shouts, bolting out of her virtuo-cine chair. She throws her arms around Zoe's neck, making her tumble back against the wall. She laughs, and so do the rest of us.

  "My dad…" I whisper when Azeris walks in behind Zoe. I almost don't recognize him in his white jumpsuit. His dark, curly hair is pulled away from his face in a ponytail, and he looks like a totally different person without the scruff on his face. My chest tightens when I don't see my dad following him in. I lock eyes with Jax, and we both head for the door.

  "Wait!" a technician calls after us, but we don't slow down. We're halfway to Zoe, Myra, and Azeris when Calyx and Eco come through the door…with my father.

  "Dad!" Jax yells.

  "Finally…finally…" he says, and we both run into his arms.

  "I knew you'd make it. We all came too far for you not to make it," I hear my voice saying, suddenly feeling outside myself somehow. My dad pulls me in tighter, and everyone behind us starts clapping.

  When we pull back from my father his black, curly hair is all out of place. He pushes his hands through it and takes a deep breath.

  "Good to finally meet you, Mr. Ripley," Tark says from several feet behind us. "Welcome to the Boneyard."

  "I appreciate the ride. This is Azeris Frank and his daughter Zoe. They were both invaluable in getting out of Phase Two."

  "We're all in your debt," Tark says.

  "Skull, we need to borrow Jax, Liam and Arwyn. There was…an issue in the transport," Calyx says, putting an arm around Zoe, but it's not out of affection. She's holding her up, I think.

  "We know—Mr. Wright has…" Tark starts, then notices Zoe's fatigue.

  "What happened? What's wrong with her?" I ask, stepping over and grabbing her hand. It's ice cold like Liddick's was after his port-carnate disaster back at Gaia. Liam and Arwyn rush up behind me.

  "They couldn't strip the Vishan treatment," Zoe answers with a smirk and a quiet voice. All over again I feel my chest constrict. "You see the sparkles in that one's face?" she tries to smile as she gestures to Eco.

  "She needs another dose of Vishan DNA, right?" I ask, spinning around to face my dad. "They said you used it to stabilize Lyden's DNA to make the neural thread for Liddick's virtuo-cines. Can you—"

  "We already did that," Eco says. "Splicing the parent DNA from our archive database stabilized her through the port-carnate transfer, but something else is out of sync now," he rolls his eyes, and I want to punch him in the mouth.

  "She insisted on seeing you before we took her to the med bay to figure out what it was," Calyx says.

  "I'm fine," Zoe insists. "Just feels like I've been scrapping a little. Nothing some sleep won't fix…" she trails off, then slides into Azeris and laughs again. He lifts her up and fixes Calyx to the wall with his dark eyes. "Where's the med bay?"

  Calyx leads him out of the room with Jax, Arwyn, and Liam, but before my dad can follow, Tark calls over to him.

  "Ripley! We have a situation here too."

  ***

  My dad moves behind Tark's console and starts reading the display. He scrubs his hands over his face, then folds his arms over his chest.

  "How long has the sleeper code been active?"

  "Best guess, four, maybe five months from the echoes we've picked up. That corresponds with the trigger we suspect: Gaia activating the parmide bracelets," Tark answers, nodding in my direction, then to Vox and Arco.

  "You heard the messages as soon as they put the bracelet on you?" my dad asks, raising his eyebrows.

  "We didn't know it at first, but yes. Vox and I heard what Liddick heard at the port-festival," I answer. "And then Arco started to hear part of the message later. Now, those of us with any kind of Empath tendency can hear it too."

  My dad nods. "The bracelets were the catalyst then. Your sudden, heightened reception, for lack of a better word, must have worked like a remote control for the sleeper code."

  "That's the conclusion we came to as well," Tark says. "We couldn't stop it, but we've been trying to patch it until you got here so at least the complete message hits the public."

  My dad blows out a breath. "I should have fully disclosed the nuances of that code to you before I handed it over. I just assumed I'd be the one launching it, so there was nothing to disclose."

  "Not your fault, Ripley," Tark nods to my dad. "Let's just get the last missing piece of the code updated. The message has only reached Nascent Empaths of varying abilities so far, but it's manifesting as pro-Gaia propaganda. We've managed to patch three of the holes so far."

  "You've patched them internally? How? With biochips?" my dad asks. Tark nods, but my dad just closes his eyes in a long blink.

  "That's a problem?" Arco asks, taking a step forward.

  "If the defense sequence has activated, yes." My dad moves behind a console and starts scrolling for something he doesn't seem to be finding.

  "The Glyph firewalls have been getting progressively more disturbing," Tark adds, raising an eyebrow.

  "Then at least something worked right," my dad answers, typing faster than I've ever seen anyone type into the console. After a second, his
brows draw together, and he types even faster. "Crite…" he says, pulling back from the console. "The propagation is too far gone…it's embedded itself into the narrative fabric of the virtuo-cine network."

  Tark turns his back to the console and puts his hands on his hips as he studies the floor. He walks a few steps, then turns back to the console.

  "What does that mean?" Avis asks. "You can't fill in the message?"

  "Can you mask it from the outside?" Tark asks, and my dad shakes his head.

  "No, it will just attack your system with randomly generated viruses if I try. I built that failsafe in case Gaia or any of their affiliates got wind of the message and tried to erase it from the network. This is all painfully ironic."

  "But we can still patch it by accessing the code like we have been, right?" I ask.

  "Theoretically, yes. The Glyphs will sense that we're trying to alter the code they're housing, but the only thing they can do is try to scare you off by accessing fragments from your neural threads. They can't infect people with viruses."

  "Then this means we just finish what we started," Tark decides. "Oriah, Get Plume on the line and tell her to alert the neighbors."

  "Yes, sir," a technician in white replies. My eyes flash to Arco's.

  "He said Plume; she's in The Seam, Arco."

  "I knew she didn't belong with Styx and Rheen at our interviews. There must be other teachers from Gaia too…maybe Reynolt or Stryker."

  "What's happening?" Myra whispers, but not quietly enough.

  "They're starting a war," Ellis says, almost to himself, but then looks up at Tark. "The neighbors are actually your contacts, aren't they? You're going to run the whole campaign right now?"

  "We don't have much of a choice, Mr. Raj. The code launched prematurely, and now it's evolving to reach everyone with or without our input. Our original plans will just need to be expedited once we make the message it delivers accurate," Tark answers.

  Everyone is silent, and I'm not sure why. What did we think we were doing in these virtuo-cines so far? We've been patching the code so the truth goes out instead of the chopped up version that makes Gaia look good. We've been part of making this happen…but I guess we haven't thought about what comes afterward. What will happen if the port-cloud really does come down? I think.

  "I guess we always thought the coded message could be stopped when you got here, Mr. Ripley," Fraya says, holding Jax's hand, and it's the truest thing anyone could say.

  "It's really going to happen…" Avis adds.

  "I'm sorry," my dad says. "It shouldn't have happened this way. When we launched the code, we wanted to have an infrastructure in place that would help people adjust to living without a port-cloud. Public service announcements advocating the safety and ease of port-carnate tech, free demo hub stations and a new uplink to the Grid that would give real time reports on the air quality improvements…we were going to do so much more than just pull the curtain back."

  "Are you sure we can't stop it? Can't we just—" Myra starts to say, but Vox cuts her off.

  "What a bunch of jellies…" she says, hopping into her virtuo-cine chair. Everyone turns to her.

  "What?" Avis asks, narrowing his eyes at her.

  "I said you're a bunch of jellies! What do you think we've been doing all this time?" she asks, widening her eyes at Lyden. "Liddick's brother, do you have gills or not?" He looks at her like she's suddenly just screamed at the top of her lungs.

  "Uh, I…well, yes, but I—"

  "OK," Vox holds up her hand, then fixes her cat eyes on mine and angles her head like she's just given me my queue…and maybe she has.

  "She's right," I say as it all finally starts to make sense to me. "We didn't know we would need to escape from Gaia until we got there, right? And we never saw the Vishan coming when we were chasing that message through the tunnels. We never would have guessed a place like the Rush even existed, let alone that we'd have to go through it…but we made it because we stuck together. We figured out what to do. Now we're here, and even though we never saw it coming that we'd be part of directly fixing the world, that's exactly what we're doing now. We have to go in and patch the last Glyph, and whatever comes next, we'll figure that out too."

  CHAPTER 41

  The Council

  Liddick

  I pull up the map widget again by thinking about where the bridge of this ship might be, and bam, there it is, just like that. At least something about this storyboarder clearance makes sense.

  I make my way down the corridor and onto the main deck thinking about how much this ship looks like a Leviathan with the wide console stations and metal finish everything. The window at the front of the bridge bows out, but all I see is a black star field.

  "Captain on deck!" someone shouts, and everyone snaps to attention. Crite, I'm already exhausted by this make believe.

  "Sir, the Transcendent Council leader is on standby—privacy field will be activated on your mark," a woman near the front of the bridge says as she taps something into her console.

  "Oh, I imagine there are no secrets here. Open the channel," I say, scanning for anything that might look like it could be a reset switch. Reset Register, I think, but nothing suddenly stands out. "Crite."

  "What is Crite?" a tall, lanky man—who may actually be the palest person I've ever seen in my life—says, suddenly standing in front of me.

  "Sorry," I say, straightening. "Just an expression. What can I do for you, Councilman?" I add, noticing that his image is actually warping around the edges. Port-call tech…and bad reception port-call tech at that.

  "Our outer wall was breached by explosives just several hours ago," the tall, thin man says, flattening his hands over his long white tunic. "I know you have already provided many of your crews to guard my people, Captain Folger, but the threat continues. We are not able to hold back the untreated on our own."

  "I wasn't aware the explosion compromised your outer wall. I was on the ground with one of my crews when the explosions went off," I say just as Greene walks onto the bridge and takes a seat at one of the consoles to my left. She clears her throat.

  "Captain…we know it is much to ask of you, but we simply have no other choice. Please, will you send more crews to help safeguard our city from the untreated. The situation is urgent," the man says, staring like he's trying to look through me with icy eyes just like the Vishan's.

  "Let me work on it…" I say, just as it occurs to me I need to get off this stupid ship if I'm going to find that reset button. "We'll get you the help you need somehow even if I have to go back down there myself, Councilman."

  He exhales, and for a second, I think he might collapse. Greene inhales sharply like she just caught whatever was about to fly out of her mouth.

  "We can't thank you and The Global Cloud Fleet enough, Captain Folger. When…if I may be so bold…do you think you might be able to send help?" the man asks as the images behind him begin to flicker in and out of blue scrolling code.

  What is this…I focus on trying to see it, and it appears; I forget all about it, and it appears…how do I control anything in here? Where's the damn reset register!? I yell in my head, and half-a-second later an entire wall of blurred widgets appears in the upper left corner of my vision. "What…?"

  "I said, if I may be so bold as to ask, when might—"

  "No, sorry. I didn't mean to ask that…I, um, let me start working on it now. Give me an hour," I say, trying not to run down the list of blinking, blurring icons floating to the left of the Councilman's head from where I'm standing. He presses his palms together like a closed book, then moves one of his flattened palms toward him until his thumb touches his chest. He bows toward me, and then I see it behind him…the box on the wall with the words Reset Register glowing above it.

  "Our deepest gratitude, Captain. I will inform my fellow Council leaders, and then will hail again in an hour."

  "Where are you now, Councilman?" I say abruptly to the last of his head and shoulders, the o
nly remaining images in the sheets of blue scrolling code in front of me now. "I mean…to guarantee your safety," I add. His image reappears.

  "Inside the Hidden City, of course…where the Cloud Fleet has relocated the Transcendents," he says, raising a wispy white eyebrow at me like I should know this.

  "Right…of course, I must still be a little foggy from the explosion down there earlier."

  The man nods, then repositions his hands like a book and bows to me again before he fades out completely this time, and the black star field appears. I blow out a breath. That's it. I need to go to the Hidden City and find that box.

  "Folger, you're making the right choice," Greene says from behind me, but I'm only half paying attention as I try to focus on all the blinking widgets for this storyboarder clearance, but the only ones I can bring into focus are a circular button that says Maps, a rectangular one that says Grid Display, and a square one that says Graphics Display.

  "Come on!"

  "Folger?" Greene jumps out of her seat and rushes over to me. "What is it? Your head? Lieutenant, escort the Captain back to the med bay."

  "No! I'm fine. I need to go down to the Hidden City."

  "Sir, you're still injured…the explosion. You should rest. We can assemble a team."

  "I need to go myself. Put a team together and have them meet me on the transport deck."

  "But sir—"

  "Am I the captain of this ship or not, Dr. Greene?" I glare at her. She presses her thin red lips into a line, and I see Rheen in her face more than ever. She takes a step back and nods.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Then do as I ask."

  Greene nods again, then gestures to the Lieutenant she had ordered to take me to the med bay. Now, where is the transport deck? I think, and the Maps widget appears again.

  ***

  I don't remember coming through this part of the ship when Ridley and I first came back from the surface of Halcyon, but I chalk it up to not knowing anything about anything that was happening just then. This deck looks just like the other one, only in place of the huge window that showed the star field, this one has a wide space with four large, circular disks that look like port-carnate hubs. In fact, they look exactly like port-carnate hubs. I look around for the technicians, but only see another long stretch of metallic consoles. Where the hell is everyone?