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

Alex dreamt of a fast-moving pod that twisted and turned through the udder blackness of the speedway tubes deep below the ocean. It zipped at blinding speeds. She braced herself as the pod grew ever stronger around her. Her stomach churned and roiled bringing her to life in the real world with real nausea. She wiggled herself free of Lexi and Jimmy, pulled herself to the edge of the bouncing cart, and somersaulted out. She ran to the edge of the road and wretched, then heaved, then wretched some more. Someone came up behind her and patted her on the back.


"Are you okay?" A deep voice asked. It had that familiar ring of Jack's voice in it, but not quite the same tone.


"I will be," she answered in a hoarse whisper.


Jimmy pulled a canteen over his shoulder from the strap then opened it and handed it to her.


She accepted and drank in little sips. "Pods used to make me sick when I was little."


"It's not like they're going very fast, but they are pretty bumpy."


Chapter 176: Nighttime Raid/Shots Fired