Ava Altair grew up reading fantasy and science fiction novels. She graduated from Florida Tech with a BS in Science Education – Physics and a minor in Computational Mathematics. She taught as an AP Physics teacher for five years in Florida. She now lives in Oregon, teaching horseback riding lessons and managing the stables with her mom. She enjoys hanging out and talking about science concepts and story ideas with her dad.

What it is to be human doesn't apply anymore. The surface of the Earth has been poisoned by years of abuse and now most life lives beneath the waves of the ocean. Over the last 500 years, humans have become fragmented and specialized by genetic manipulation, but two main factions exist in the Undersea. The hybrids, a race that continues to genetically modify themselves to climb the social ladder, and the humans, the unmodified organic race that makes up the lowest tier of society. 

Alex, a Delta Six hybrid, finds an unlikely companion in a human man, Jack, while on a mission to steal the Athena file. Alex withholds the file to elicit help from Jack and they set out on an adventure across the Surface. Their relationship is tenuous until a device mysteriously links them together. Now, running from Alphas, an elite group of hybrid assassins, Alex and Jack must weather the hostile surface of the planet to reach their common goal. They soon find they can't both have the thing they want most, but also can't seem to let each other go.

FLUX

It was mid-morning by the time Jack reached the building. The Link practically screamed at him now, pulling him forward towards it. He?crouched down behind a crumbling concrete wall. Two painted men stood outside the front entrance of an old office building holding some pathetic looking stone-age weapons. The flash of ceiling tiles suddenly made sense. The Link was much stronger than he thought it would be.


He checked his options. He could take out the two guards and go in the front door, but who knew what kind of security they had inside the building. They could be the last two Vestarians left or there could be a whole army housed in there. He could create a distraction and then run in from the front door or maybe a side door. The building was surrounded by a rusted and broken chain link fence. Most of the surrounding buildings were rubble. Most of the office building he was looking at was rubble. Or he could-


Chapter 23: Hero, Part 1