Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (18 page)

‘Thankfully, the fire did not spread any further than the
Sly Fox. You should be happy; you got your wish. That certainly shut the
bar down for the night; if not permanently.’

‘I’m sorry.’

He could see that her apology was genuine. Despite all she
was capable of, she was still only young and it would take time for her to get
over her mistakes.

‘I suppose looking at the positives, this kind of proves you
right,’ he said.

She looked at him, perplexed.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know; about the American guys. This technology is no
longer just about spying; it could be used as a weapon. You were right to try
and keep them out of it.’

She nodded.

‘We cannot keep them in the dark forever, though.’

‘I know. They are expecting another session on the machine
this afternoon. What do you think we should tell them?’

‘As little as possible.
Although, I
do think we should adopt a different tactic with them. I wanted to keep them
grounded, but I now see that they may do less damage the further we let them
travel. The safest place for them is outer space where there is nothing for
them to interact with.’

‘I agree. We can give them a proper lesson on how to use the
device today and when they are ready, we will send them to Venus.’

It was a crude idea, but
Emmy
hoped it would work. If she knew the Americans like she thought she did then
the project would turn into one big race for them to see who could travel the
furthest. In an infinite universe, they could be kept busy for quite some time.

***

Lucas un-holstered his gun, but as he stepped out of his
car, he remembered the damage done to Ned’s
ute
and
wondered if greater firepower may be prudent. He replaced the sidearm and took
a shotgun from the trunk instead. It was a clear morning with high visibility
and he was sure that the animal standing over Lucy was on its own. With extreme
caution, he made his way into the field. When he was ten feet from the fallen
girl, he noticed the animal tense up like it was preparing to pounce.

‘Lucy,’ he called out. ‘Lucy, are you okay? If you can;
answer me.’

The animal began to sway from side to side. It was crouched
low and seemed to be focusing on his weapon. Something told him it was
reluctant to attack. He thought it was a fear of the firearm, but he also had a
hunch that it did not want to leave the girl.

‘Lucy, it’s me; Lucas. If you are able, can you give me some
sort of a sign?’

Rather than move closer, he kept his distance and drew a
broad circle around the animal and its victim. He was wary of taking his eyes
off of it, but he needed to know if the girl was still alive.

‘Lucy?’

This time she did stir. Lucas was not the only one to
notice. The animal became more alert; it’s breathing heavier. The policeman
took this as a warning.

‘Lucas, is that you?’

She dragged out her words, either from a possible brain
injury or maybe due to grogginess from sleep. It was impossible for Lucas to
tell which it was. He took a step closer and the kangaroo reacted by thumping
one of its substantial feet on the ground. The noise startled Lucy. They did
not call these
animals
boomers for nothing. At first,
she seemed surprised by the animal, but then recognition flashed across her
face.

‘Whoa there,’ she said. ‘It’s okay. Lucas is a friend, he
won’t hurt you.’

She pushed herself up onto her feet and placed a hand on the
side of the animal, which she then used to stroke it with. Amazingly, her
nurturing had an effect and the animal did briefly relax only to tense back up
when Lucas took another step forward.

‘I don’t think he likes me,’ the policeman said.

‘Do you blame him?’ replied Lucy. ‘How would you feel if a
stranger pointed a gun at you?’

He remembered the snake and how it had reacted to the gun.
Like any hostage situation, it was not wise to antagonise the hostage taker.
Lucas very slowly crouched down and placed his weapon on the floor. The effect
was immediate. As if some magical spell had been broken, the animal reverted
back to a more natural behaviour. It quickly lost interest in Lucas and even
Lucy as it started to graze on the grass as if neither of them were there at
all.

‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ said Lucy.

Lucas nodded, but he was mostly dumbfounded by the ease at
which the situation had resolved itself. His preconceptions had been wrong. The
animal’s behaviour now made sense to him. It was protecting her. But if the
animals were benign, why was Ned almost killed by them?

He glanced down at the shotgun by his feet. Ned was a hunter
and his prey of choice was kangaroos. They were defending themselves. Of
course, this was still far from explaining how they had suddenly become so
aware.

‘I’ll take you back into town,’ said Lucas. ‘That is if it’s
okay with your new friend here.’

Lucy laughed.

‘That won’t be a problem, but you are right; he
is
my
friend. Last night was the most amazing experience of my life. There were
dozens of them here and each one was the same. It sounds crazy, but I am
starting to believe that this place really has been visited by aliens.’

Now that, Lucas really did find hard to believe.

Chapter 18

Lucas told Lucy about the fire whilst driving her back
into town. She took the news well, considering she might have died had she not
camped out. It even left her wondering if this could be taken as evidence that
her dad was still looking out for his little girl. After the previous night’s
experience, her mind was opening up to all sorts of possibilities.

They called by the pub to collect her stuff, which was
largely undamaged, before driving on to the station.

‘Here is my humble place of employment,’ he said, as they
crossed the threshold leading into his office. ‘I just need to pick up a few
things and then I’ll show you where you’ll be staying. There is a small
apartment annexed out the back. It’s not very big, but it is comfortable. I
consider it to be one of the better perks of the job.’

He then left her for a moment whilst he went into an
adjacent room, where she could hear him hold a muffled conversation with a
woman. When he returned, he seemed to be in higher spirits.

‘Good news,’ he told her. ‘I just heard that we should have
the power back up and running by tomorrow
arvo
. In
the interim, we can run the whole place off portable generators. Karl, our fire
marshal, is picking them up from Alice as I speak.’

Lucy politely nodded. She imagined if it had been the water
supply that was lost, Lucas would have suggested everyone go down to the river
to wash with equal enthusiasm. He seemed to have a knack for always finding the
simplest solution.

‘Tomorrow afternoon,’ she repeated, allowing her
disappointment to show. ‘I was hoping I would be able to have a shower before
then. I did sleep rough last night.’

‘Oh,’ said Lucas, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
He realised that he too had endured a restless night and could do with
freshening up. ‘I suppose I could maybe heat up some water on a gas stove. A
shower is out of the question though.’

‘Thanks.’

He showed her through to the apartment in the back. The
furnishings had come with the place and revealed little, if anything, about the
policeman’s character. The single bed was a different matter. It was clear to
Lucy how isolated and lonely Lucas must have been. She wondered if his inviting
her to stay with him had something to do with this loneliness.

‘Where will you be staying under this arrangement?’ she
asked.

‘My office has a couch, which is very comfortable,’ he lied.
‘I actually slept on it last night. You’re not the only one to have skipped
their usual bedtime routine.’

He smiled at her in a way that did not marry well with his
authoritative position. This was not the first time she had noticed that he
sometimes seemed a little nervous around her.

‘Well, I hope I am not putting you out,’ she replied.

‘Not at all.’

He left her to get comfortable in her new lodgings. She had
a feeling that it would not be long before he was back. She expected she would
be seeing a lot more of the friendly neighbourhood policeman during the
remainder of her stay.

***

Emmy
was content to take a back
seat role while Charlie inducted Mike into their astral club. He did a good job
in her place. He was professional, succinct and most importantly; did not give
too much away. Whilst the soldier struggled to keep control of his
consciousness in the lower stratosphere, she received a call to go and see her
grandfather.

‘I’m just popping out for a few minutes.’

Charlie absentmindedly acknowledged her with a slight tilt
of his head, but Bradley was completely oblivious that she even existed. She
rather liked the idea of being invisible to the Americans.

On her way to the office she passed Sammy in the corridor.
The Aboriginal appeared even more sombre than usual. She had noticed that his cleaning
rounds seemed to be taking longer than they normally did, as if he was
reluctant to leave the building.

‘Is everything okay, Sam?’ she asked, with genuine concern.

‘I’m afraid,’ he replied.

‘What are you afraid of – are you in some sort of trouble?’

He shook his head.

‘Not afraid for me. I’m afraid for you and
them
other white folk. The spirits are restless. A big
change is coming and I do not think it will be good.’

‘How are the spirits restless; have you seen a sign?’

Emmy
was a woman of science and
did not waste her thoughts on religion or superstition, but she did have
respect for the Aboriginal belief system. She viewed the stories and the songs
from the dreamtime as a way of interpreting the natural world rather than
alluding to a genuine period in history. The indigenous culture contained a
wealth of natural history that would make any museum curator envious.

‘When a snake bites its own tail, it will devour itself.
When man can see his future behind him, he will do the same.’

She shook her head in confusion.

‘The future must not take the place of the past,’ he added,
rather unhelpfully.

She held up her hands.

‘I’m sorry, Sam, but my head is not really with it today. I
have to go and see Pops, but perhaps we can catch up later. If I don’t see you
before you finish your shift, just come and see me the next time you are in. Is
that okay?’

The Aboriginal nodded and then went back to mopping the
corridor. For the sake of her sanity,
Emmy
tried to
put their bizarre conversation to the back of her mind and carried on to her
grandfather’s office. She raised her hand to knock on the door, but heard his
voice before she got a chance to complete the action.

‘Come in,’ the professor said.

Her grandfather was sat at his desk when she entered. There
was an open reference book in front of him, which appeared to be on animal
biology and he was holding a syringe.

‘Roll up your sleeve,’ he instructed.

‘You want to take a sample of my blood?’

Although surprised by his request, her response was merely a
question and not an objection. Whilst she waited for him to explain himself,
she rolled up her sleeve as he had asked. Before responding, he inserted the
needle into her forearm and took a small amount of blood. He left it to her to
find some cotton wool to place over the small pin prick he had made.

‘I will be taking a specimen from everyone who has used that
machine of yours. Each of you has had varying levels of exposure and I want to
determine what effects this has had on your bloodstream.’

‘To what ends?
Charlie and I have
taken rigorous precautions and I can assure you that we have not suffered any
ill effects.’

‘That is precisely what I hope to find.’

She took another look down at his desk. Under the book on
animal physiology she could see the corner of a manila file. All that was
visible was part of a word she deduced would have read as “classified” had it
been in its entirety.

‘Is there anything else?’ she asked.

‘That is all.’

He waved her away and as she left, she could not help but
feel he was deliberately withholding something from her. She walked back down
the corridor and with each step her unease increased. When she got to the end,
she looked down at her forearm and ran the fingers of her other hand across the
small pinprick left by the needle. Just what was the old man up to?

***

Lucy called in to see Mindy after lunch. The bar was
closed, so in place of her scheduled shift she helped the landlady clean up the
mess left of the guestroom. It sent a shudder through her body, seeing how differently
things could have worked out had she stayed in her room the previous evening.
There was a very good chance that it would have been her last. Still, the fire
and resulting power cut seemed trivial next to her encounter with the
kangaroos. She felt that her experience was significant, but the reason why was
still a mystery to her.

‘It was fortunate that you were not here when the fire
started,’ said Mindy.

‘Yes,’ replied Lucy. ‘I have Dr Rayne to thank for that.’

Mindy glanced up, but did not pass comment. Lucy sensed that
the landlady knew something, but was holding back.

‘I think that maybe I will go up to the observatory later
and pay her a visit,’ she added.

This time Mindy was unable to hide her curiosity.

‘Is that where you stayed last night; at the observatory?’

‘Oh, no.
When I say that I have Dr
Rayne to thank for last night, I mean that she inspired me. When I was a little
girl, my dad used to take me camping every summer. There is no place I feel
safer than under the stars. I bet the views from the observatory are
incredible, aren’t they?’

Mindy shrugged.

‘I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been up there myself. Dr Rayne
and her grandfather tend to keep to themselves. There are a lot of rumours
going around at the moment about what they do at that place and if I were you,
I would not get involved. This is a small town and you don’t want tongues to
start wagging.’

Was she referring to the alien rumours? Lucy was not so
sure, she wondered if this was more about
Emmy
than
the building.

‘Lucas goes to that place quite often, doesn’t he? I’m sure
if anything untoward was going on then he would know about it.’

Mindy stopped what she was doing to address Lucy directly.

‘Lucas is a good man and people here have a lot of time for
him. Even he, however, cannot sway public opinion with regard to some things. I
am not saying that anything bad happens at the observatory, just that some
people here have a very old fashioned world view and it would make it easier
for you if you did not dwell too much on that place.’

‘I’ll just take your word for that. Just so long as you
don’t try and tell me that they have aliens up there. I mean, you don’t believe
any of that talk, do you?’

‘No, I don’t believe in aliens, but if the rumours were true
it would do wonders for this place. I’ve heard about a town north of Alice that
claims to be the E.T. capital of the Southern Hemisphere. That place gets a lot
of tourists. Of course, it is also on the main highway and cannot be bypassed
when travelling between Adelaide and Darwin, unlike here.’

Lucy smiled.

‘Well, at least I came and I don’t regret it either. When I
get home I will be sure to tell people all about Jackson’s Hill. I’ll even
mention the aliens; if that helps.’

‘It won’t.’

***

The front door opened before Lucas’ hand even connected
with the woodwork. He stared at Jimmy in open-mouthed disbelief, wondering if
this was another of the boy’s apparent premonitions.

‘I saw you coming up the drive,’ said Jimmy, putting the
policeman’s mind at ease. ‘I take it that you have come about last night.’

Lucas nodded. It was a tricky situation. Technically, Jimmy
had done nothing wrong, but something clearly was not right with the boy.

‘Am I in trouble?’ Jimmy asked.

‘No, you’re not in trouble,’ Lucas replied. ‘I am a little
concerned though. You saved a lot of lives last night, but what is puzzling me
is how you knew. The fire marshal ruled out arson and he is also adamant that
there was no electrical fault with any of the generators. There is no logical
explanation as to why the explosion occurred and yet you somehow knew what was
about to happen.’

Jimmy looked down at his feet. Lucas could tell that the boy
was distressed, but he had to ask the question.

‘Jimmy, how did you know? It is important that you tell me, no
matter how strange the answer may be.’

Jimmy looked up at him with innocent eyes.

‘I saw it.’

‘What do you mean, you saw it?’

‘I saw it in my head. Just like you can now see it in your
head too.’

Lucas considered the boy’s answer for a moment.

‘Like I can now see it too,’ he repeated. ‘Do you mean like
a memory? When I think back to last night and picture the fire; that is how you
saw it?’

Jimmy’s face brightened.

‘Yes, that’s how it was,’ he said. ‘I remembered it. I
remembered it before it happened. It seemed so real and that is why I had to
warn you.’

‘Have you had any more of these memories? I
mean,
ones that have not happened yet.’

The boy twisted his face under the sheer weight of the
question. Jimmy was not one of life’s great thinkers and had no concept of
abstract thought.

‘I don’t think so. As far as I know that was the only time
it has happened.’

Lucas believed him. Whatever the boy was, he was not a liar.

‘And exactly how long before the fire did you have this
memory; minutes, hours?’

‘Not long. As soon as I knew, that was when I came to warn
you. Are you sure I’m not in trouble?’

‘I’m certain,’ replied Lucas. ‘If you have any more of these
strange memories, make sure to come to me.’

‘I will,’ said Jimmy.

Lucas returned to the station and began to write up his
report. After several failed drafts, he decided to give it another go in the
morning. No matter how strong the evidence was, he just could not bring himself
to record Jimmy’s actions as being related to some sort of psychic phenomena.
There had to be another explanation. Unfortunately for him, he had no idea what
that explanation may be.