Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

‘It’s okay. Things happen for a reason. At least, that’s
what dad always used to say. If those two had been more courteous drivers, I
wouldn’t be here now, would I?’

‘I could still arrest them if you want me to.’

‘That won’t be necessary. I’ll be back on my way tomorrow
and I’ve enjoyed my day here. It’s good to know that town’s like this still
exist.’

‘Okay, but if you change your mind, let me know.’

She left Lucas and crossed along the bar on her way to the
stairs when she encountered yet another familiar face. This really was a tiny
town. At least the mechanic was not in the bar, although after the state she
had seen him in earlier, it did not necessarily mean that he would still be
sober.

‘Hello,
it’s
Ned, isn’t it? The
barmaid said that the drinks were from you. Thank you for that.’

‘It was my pleasure,’ slurred Ned. ‘Don’t forget to call by
the shop before you leave. My kangaroo steaks are the best in Australia and
I’ll be having another fresh batch delivered any day now.’

‘I look forward to it.’

She waved him goodbye and then made her way up the stairs to
her room. It was the first time she had stayed in a “penthouse suite”. Unless
she was ever to win the lottery, she expected it would also be the last.

***

Mike and Bradley staggered out of the pub. As the night
progressed, they actually received back most of the drinks they had bought for
the bar. People were queuing up to share a beer
with the two
Namby-Pamby’s
from across the pond. This left them
both extremely intoxicated.

Mike took out his car keys and tried to line them up with
the lock. It required all of the concentration of a fairground side show. No
matter how hard he tried, he could not quite get the two to meet.

‘I hope you aren’t thinking of driving that road hazard all
the way to the observatory,’ said a voice from over his shoulder.

It was the cop from earlier. There is nothing worse than
small town policemen with too much time on their hands.

‘Actually, I was just making sure that it was locked. I
don’t want to come back in the morning and find some tramp has used my backseat
as a toilet.’

‘There are no tramps in this town and you can take my word
that your vehicle will be safe on these streets. Unless, of course, it has not
been moved before nine tomorrow morning in which case it will get a parking
ticket.’

‘You don’t have to worry about that, officer. I can
guarantee that it will not be here when you come back in the morning.’

He waited for the cop to move on. When the policeman did not
meet with his expectations, he and Bradley were forced to begin the long
journey back to the observatory on foot. Every so often Mike would glance back
over his shoulder, but each time the cop remained defiantly by the car. At the
bottom of Main Street the pair came to an intersection. Neither was sure which
turning to take.

‘What now?’ asked
Bradley.

‘What do you think?’ replied Mike. ‘We flip a coin and go
with it. If we don’t sight the observatory within an hour, we’ll know we made
the wrong choice and can turn around.’

Bradley seemed uneasy with the idea.

‘I
dunno
, Mike. There are a lot of
strange things out there. Last night I heard wolves howling. Maybe we should
call a taxi.’

‘I don’t think they have taxis here and I know for sure they
don’t have wolves. What the heck are you talking about saying you heard them
howling last night?’

‘I hear them all the time. They had them back at the base
too.’

‘That’s not wolves, you fool; they’re dingoes. They’re
nothing more than wild dogs.’

‘I bet they still got a nasty bite.’

Mike shook his head, disdainfully. He knew it was the drink
talking, but he still could not believe that his friend was being such a
wuss
.

‘I thought you did a tour of Iraq. There were a lot more
nasties
in that desert than a few stray pooches.’

‘Maybe there was, but I wouldn’t know because I was stoned
the whole damn time. The only time I got to let off any rounds was at New
Year.’

Mike laughed. He also had some fond memories of that war.

‘So let’s just wait. Give it an hour and we’ll be able to
take the Hummer, no problem.’

The pair sat down cross-legged on the corner of the
junction. Whilst they idly waited, a car pulled up alongside. Lucas wound down
his window and called out to the drunken soldiers.

‘Get in.’

The Americans were not quite sure if it was an offer, an
order or a threat.

‘Are we under arrest?’ asked Mike.

‘I am tempted,’ the policeman replied. ‘If I’m going to haul
you guys back to the station, I figure it would be just as easy to take you to
the observatory. The professor is a good friend of mine and I wouldn’t want him
to suffer the embarrassment of his house guests having to spend a night in the
cells. If you’re not quick, though, I may change my mind.’

The pair quickly got up off the ground and climbed into the
back of Lucas’ squad car. They were smart enough to keep their mouths shut for
the duration of the drive. When he reached the observatory, Lucas saw that a
light was still on. The professor and his two young protégés often worked late
into the night and he did not think they were waiting up solely for their
visitors. He dropped the soldiers off at the door and then returned to town.

In the morning, he planned on coming back to ask his
friend’s advice regarding the snake he caught. If it was not prying, he
intended on finding out the story behind the Americans too.

Chapter 10

The world is a small place; particularly when one lives
in Jackson’s Hill. A tiny town surrounded by a great big expanse of nothingness
on every side. The observatory was able to take that nothingness and stretch it
to infinity. It was this void where
Emmy
now found
herself; thousands of miles away from her body, which lay in a state of perfect
hibernation in the centre of the laboratory.

She dismissed the idea of taking her search into deep space.
There were a hundred billion galaxies; each with a hundred billion stars. Even
if she concentrated on the solar system it would be like sitting in the middle
of a desert and painstakingly examining the nearest half a dozen grains of sand
for the one she was looking for. Such an act was beyond futility. If she was to
have any hope of success at all, she would have to stay close to the source.
Planet Earth was the only rock in the universe known to contain life with one
hundred percent certainty. This also meant it was the only place in the
universe guaranteed to contain death. If she waited, they would come. How could
it be any other way?

The whole world was spread out before her and she soon began
to see that as part of her problem. It contained so much energy that hoping to
spot and track an individual entity at this distance would be like searching
for fireflies as they flew in front of the sun. She needed to be closer.

In an instant, her will took her through the atmosphere and
below the clouds. Now she could make out a city in its entirety. So much life,
but that was not what she was looking for. She needed to move closer still.

Now she was at street level. Living phantasms passed all
around, as oblivious to her as they were to their own true form. She could pass
through solid rock and move from building to building with ease. Nothing could
keep her out or shield itself from her gaze. Was this the power that Captain
Peters and his superiors sought to wield? She was like air, but in the wrong
hands this kind of freedom would become nothing more than a toxic gas;
destroying all it touched. If her theory was correct, she could avert any such
disaster from occurring. As she floated into the hospital, she could feel that
she was close.

Her mind was very much active, but her resting body was
still being watched over by Charlie. He tracked her astral movements as best he
could and whenever he deduced that she had visited a location, he quickly went
online to extrapolate as much info he could find on that location. At the
moment he could see that she was in downtown Sydney. They had previously
discussed several possible avenues of exploration and he figured that she was
going with the hospital idea. It was not his preferred choice and with good
reason. People generally do not like change. It makes them grumpy. Is there any
greater change than the transition from life to death? Charlie feared that
Emmy
was setting herself up to meet some very ill tempered
entities indeed.

Her position remained static for thirty seconds. This may
not seem like a great deal of time; about half the time a skydiver may take
before pulling his cord. However, due to the mind’s natural tendency to drift,
it was a significant period for an astral traveller. In
Emmy’s
state of heightened awareness, it would also seem considerably longer from her
unique perspective. She must have found what she was looking for. This made
Charlie extremely nervous. So nervous, in fact, that when he heard the sound of
a car engine and looked out of the window to see a police car approaching, he
decided to pull the cord himself.

Emmy
, meanwhile, was transfixed.
She presumed to be on an intensive care ward or some other unit for critically
ill patients. When her parents died, she was too young to record any
significant memory of the event. Pops told her that the accident did not kill
them instantly, but that they passed on days later in hospital; in a place much
like this. She figured it was better to view the ward from the spirit side.
Like a photographic negative of reality, death became rebirth and the end was
now the beginning.

Directly in front of her was a bed. On that bed she could make
out the energy signature of a very sick human being. Their light was fading,
but at the same time getting brighter. It was as if a bulb was contained within
a shroud that dimmed it, but would burst free at any moment to blind all around
it.

Emmy
floated closer to the dying
person and that was when the impossible happened. A new energy signature
appeared directly above the bed. She felt a power far greater than anything she
had previously witnessed. It seemed to draw in the energy of the sick person as
easily a living person draws air into their lungs when they breathe. As the two
energies made contact everything else seemed to shrink away into nothingness
and then in a flash, both energies disappeared.

She tried to figure out what had happened, but before any
thoughts could form, another energy source appeared. She felt no fear, but she
was drawn to it. It, however, was the one that started to move towards her. As
it did so, it began to change shape. It continued towards her whilst reshaping
itself into humanoid form. Features were starting to become apparent, but
whilst it gained clarity, it retained its weightlessness and luminescence. A
single word formed in her mind; ghost.

And then it spoke to her.

‘The police are here.’

‘What?

She was shocked to feel a sensation as the words left her
lips.

‘The police are here. Lucas has just pulled up and he has
the Americans with him.’

Realisation dawned. It was Charlie. He had pulled her out
too soon.

‘Send me back, quickly!’

She closed her eyes and recited her mantra, willing her
consciousness to separate once more, but to no avail. She climbed out of the
matchbox and followed her partner to the control station.

‘
Emmy
, relax; you’re okay,’ he
told her. ‘You’re probably just in shock from being pulled back so abruptly.’

‘You don’t understand. I found what we have been looking
for. I was about to make contact and you ruined it.’

He rolled his eyes, not quite believing her.

‘Contact; are you sure? You can’t even communicate with me
when you’re...’

The colour drained from his face as abruptly as his voice
had cut out.

‘Charlie, what’s wrong? You’re starting to scare me.’

He remained motionless; paralysed by fear. She followed his
gaze until it stopped at a bare wall. This had to be some sort of joke, except
neither of them was laughing. Then she lowered her eyes and saw what he did.
The observation monitor was still turned on and it clearly displayed the energy
signatures of three individuals. She and Charlie were not alone. For once, she
would be glad for her grandfather to make an unscheduled appearance. Looking
around the room, this was clearly not the case.

The anomaly displayed almost identical characteristics to
their own digital doppelgangers. It was roughly the same size and intensity of
light and it was within three feet of them. At first, it was static, but as it
began to move, the lights flickered before power to the entire lab went out. It
took just moments for the back-up generator to restore electricity, but by then
the readings had returned to normal. Just two figures were displayed on the
screen.

‘She followed me. I cannot believe that she actually
followed me. Don’t you see what this means?’

She shook Charlie until he became responsive.

‘This is getting dangerous,’ he said. ‘We should suspend any
further trips until we can figure out what we are dealing with.’

‘I already know what we are dealing with,’ she replied.
‘Like I already said; I was about to make contact. I saw her.’

‘How do you know it was a she?’

‘I just told you; I saw her. I saw what she would have
looked like when she was human. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen
in my whole life. Believe me, coming from someone who has looked at our galaxy
from the outside in; that is not a claim I make lightly.’

‘It was able to transmogrify into a past form; how is that
possible? This implies that it retains all of its life’s memories after death.’

‘Less of the “it”; I already told you, I saw a woman. She
was beautiful too. It was impossible to place an accurate age on how she
looked. It was like she was in perfect health and suffered no emotional worry
or care whatsoever. If we can find her, she may be able to tell us who she is.’

‘Was,’ corrected Charlie. ‘Do not forget that whatever you
encountered it was not human in any sense that we understand.’

‘She,’
Emmy
added, a little
testily.

‘Okay; she, but I stand by my word. Just because
she
can take on human form does not make her human. How could she even be capable
of sentience without a body?’

‘We can think outside of our bodies. It takes a lot of effort
and our thoughts do not always make sense, but they are thoughts nonetheless.
We retain our sense of self.’

‘That’s different; we’re still connected to our bodies via
an ethereal cord. Memories are stored in our synapses. It is a physical system
that is intrinsically dependent on the material world.’

A door slamming at the end of an outside corridor signalled
the impending arrival of others.

‘That could be Lucas,’ said Charlie. ‘His car pulled up just
a moment ago.’

‘Shut everything down and do not breathe a word of what
happened tonight,’ said
Emmy
.

‘Do you think I’m stupid? If I mentioned half the things we
have talked about I could end up getting committed. I’m beginning to wish that
we’d never started these experiments. I mean, what are you going to do if our
two friends see this ghost of yours?’

‘We’ll worry about that later. Right now, we have to try and
get them back on side.’

She left the lab and intercepted Mike and Bradley in the
corridor.
Neither man was particularly steady on his feet and
she could smell alcohol in the air.

‘Where’s Lucas?’ she asked.

‘He didn’t stick around,’ replied Mike.
‘Told
us he didn’t want to disturb the professor.’

‘So what did you guys do to warrant a police escort?’

‘It was just small town hospitality. Some folks around here
do have that, you know. The guy just did us a favour, that’s all.’

She did not believe them. She knew Lucas much better than to
think he would not have sussed these two out as trouble the moment he met them.

‘It sounds to me that he was more likely doing the town a
favour by getting you two out of it. You should try and sleep off the effects
of the grog, because I cannot allow you anywhere near my equipment if you are
under the influence.’

‘We were just on our way to bed.’

He staggered a few steps closer and
Emmy
side stepped out of his way before placing her hand on his shoulder to spin him
back around. It was like having a pair of teenagers staying over.

‘Your rooms are the other way.’

He gave her a brief wave-come-salute and then staggered back
the way he had come, taking his friend with him. Charlie joined
Emmy
in the corridor and she locked the laboratory door
behind him. Then when she was absolutely sure that the Americans would not be
coming back, she retired to her bed for the night. With the excitement of her
discovery still not abated, sleep did not come easily.