Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

Chapter 19

Lucy woke up feeling refreshed following her night in
Lucas’ bed. The policeman, meanwhile, endured a torrid night on the couch. His
sleep was tortured and erratic; peppered with fear and dread. They ate
breakfast together and then parted to go their separate ways for the day. Lucas
had his job to do and Lucy had an appointment to keep with a new friend. She did
not expect her car to be ready (partial power via portable generators had only
recently been put in place), but that did not stifle her optimism when she
arrived at
Armareth’s
garage.

The door was not locked and Lucy entered without bothering
to knock.
Armareth
was working on the underside of
her car, but he did not notice her enter due to the loud music coming from his
office. It was not the CD player this time, but the radio. She crossed over to
the office and turned the volume down.

‘Mr
Armareth
?’ she queried,
returning to the workshop.

‘Please, call me
Davo
,’ replied
the mechanic, emerging dusty and greasy from beneath the vehicle. ‘You’ve
arrived at the perfect time. I was just about to take my morning
smoko
.’

He grabbed a rag from a worktop and as he rubbed the excess
grime from his hands, he nodded over to where the kettle was kept. Next to it
were two brand new mugs.

‘You really have been busy,’ said Lucy. ‘Why don’t you sit
down and I’ll bring them over when they’re ready.’

Once the kettle boiled, she poured two drinks and then
joined the mechanic in his office.

‘I’ve got so much to tell you,’ she began. ‘I’m no longer
staying at the Fox. The fire cleaned out my room, but it is okay, because I did
not lose anything of value. Last night I stayed at the station with Lucas and
the night before that I had the most incredible experience of my life.’

The mention of the policeman elicited an eyebrow raise from
Armareth
.

‘You spent the night with Lucas? I did not realise you two
had become so close.’

Lucy blushed.

‘Oh, no, it’s not like that. When I say that I stayed with
him, I just mean that he put me up. There’s nothing going on between us.’

The mechanic nodded, but he did not entirely believe her.

‘Anyway, like I said; it is the night before last that I
want to tell you about.’

‘The night of the fire?’

‘That’s right, although I was far away from any danger at
the time. I actually spent the night in one of the fields between here and the
observatory.’

Lucy noticed that her companion twitched slightly at hearing
the observatory mentioned, but she decided not to read anything into it. She
figured that like the rest of the town, he was probably convinced they were
hiding an alien craft up at that place.

‘Forgive my lack of amazement at this news, but how exactly
did you have the best night of your life in some dusty old field?’

‘I was just coming to that. The reason it was so good is
because I was not alone.’

She took a sip from her mug while she let her words sink in.

‘Lucas?’

‘Cut that out! I already told you that nothing is going on
there. Anyway, I never said I was with another person.’

Armareth
sat back in his seat with
a look of dismay on his face. It was a long time since he had a conversation as
irreverent as this and he was enjoying himself. Lucy reminded him of a girl he
had known a long time ago. A girl he could not forget even if he wanted to. He
did not want to.

‘So if not who then what were you with?’

‘One might say that I had an animal encounter. Of course, it
was so much more than that. You would have to have been there to understand,
but it was the most wonderful thing. It was like we made a connection. I could
almost read their minds and they mine.’

Armareth
waved his hand to
interrupt.

‘Slow down, you haven’t even told me what kind of animals
you are talking about. Sometimes dingoes can seem quite tame, just like
ordinary dogs, but I hardly think they can read minds.’

‘These weren’t dingoes - they were kangaroos, silly. The
whole field was full of them. There must have been at least thirty, maybe even
more, and like I said; we had a connection between us.’

‘What sort of connection?’

‘It’s hard to define. It was emotional, but also physical.
Kind of somewhere between the two, if you get my meaning.’

The mechanic shook his head.

‘This is so frustrating,’ continued Lucy. ‘It was all so
clear at the time. It was like when I reached out to stroke them, something
passed between us. I saw into their lives and they saw into mine. I could feel
their hearts beating, but inside my own chest.’

She briefly paused – struggling to find the right words.

‘Go on,’
Armareth
urged.

‘This is the really crazy part, but I believe that dad was
there with me. There was an energy in that field; I felt it, the animals felt it
and I think it was him. I know you won’t believe me, but I just wanted to tell
you all the same.’

Armareth
saw something in the
girl’s eyes. It was not pity or sadness, but genuine hope. She was trying to
reach out to him.

‘You want me to go to the field, don’t you?’

‘Only if you want to.
There was
some kind of magic in that field and if I could find it then so can you. If you
want, I could come with you.’

Armareth
rose from his chair and
walked over to the corner of the office where he stood with his back to Lucy.

‘I know why you are doing this,’ he said, ‘but
believe
me when I tell you that some things are better left
alone. Demons, I can live with, but facing them is a different matter. Whatever
it was that you experienced in that field, it is not for me.’

‘Are you sure, because...’

‘I have no more to say on the matter,’ he interrupted. ‘Now
if you will excuse me, I must be getting back to work. Your car will be ready
for you to leave tomorrow morning.’

Frustrated, Lucy finished the remainder of her drink and got
up to leave.

‘If you change your mind; you know where to find me.’

She walked out of the office and crossed through the
workshop. When she got to the door,
Armareth
called
out to her.

‘There is one more thing.’

She turned to face him.

‘Take care,’ he said.

Lucy relaxed and smiled back at him.

‘You too.’

***

Two thick streaks ran down the centre of the road before
arcing off into the bush. Lucas followed the tracks until he came to the
clearing by the billabong. Shards of broken glass, stained red with blood, lay
on the ground next to one of the wing mirrors from Ned’s
ute
.
Everything was exactly how Lucas was told it would be, although he dared not
believe it until witnessing the carnage with his own eyes. Seeing how Ned was
forced to flee in reverse gear, the policeman turned his own car around to face
the highway before getting out for a proper look around.

He remembered how the animal reacted to him when he found
Lucy in the field and decided to leave his shotgun in the car. He still had his
sidearm, but as long as it remained holstered, he hoped it would not mark him
out as a threat. It was only a short walk from the car to the billabong and he
could see nothing between the two to indicate that he was putting himself in a
dangerous situation.

Jake was not difficult to spot. Fat and bloated, the animal
floated in the water only just out of arm’s reach from the bank. Dismissing any
thought of wading into the billabong, Lucas looked around for something he
could use to fish out the carcass without getting his feet wet. He spotted a
small bush with bare branches that were easy to tear off and made himself a rod
from that.

The stench of death and decay prevailed all around the
carcass of the canine. Lucas went back to his car to pick up some plastic
sheeting to wrap it in. When he returned, something caught his eye just above
the horizon. He placed a hand over his eyes to shield them from the overbearing
sun and was able to make out a large kangaroo silhouetted atop a small mound of
earth. This creature returned his gaze and he had no way of knowing if it had
been watching him the whole time.

After placing Jake’s remains on the backseat he turned to
check if the animal on the mound was still watching him. It was. This time he
did remove his gun belt and placed it in the back of the car next to the dead
dog. He hoped that this gesture would be appreciated. When he turned back, the
animal was gone.

***

He was unable to shake off what the girl had said no
matter how hard he tried. Her words stuck with him as he worked on her car. Why
did she have to bring this up now; on the eve of the anniversary? What she had
told him could not possibly be true. Her story was insane. It was just the
fanciful imaginings of a youthful spirit trying to cope with the emptiness of
loss.

But what if?

He knew it would only lead to more pain even to entertain
such thoughts. The best thing for him to do was to keep working and hope that
eventually he would forget or at least become distracted enough not to let it torture
him so.

There was still a bottle hidden in one of his cupboards. He
wondered if that would help. It had never helped before so it was stupid of him
to think it would this time, yet he craved it no less. He would not drink it
all. Just have one small glass to take the edge off his pain.

No!

He had to remain strong. This time he would not give in. It
was only one day. If he could make it through this one day there would still be
a life for him beyond it. The girl from the city had believed in him. When he
was at his lowest ebb, she found him and gave him a purpose. She would be
returning in the morning to collect her car and when she did, he would greet
her with sobriety and respect. Just one more day and he would be free.

***

A chill ran up Lucas’ spine. Had the beast been waiting
for him to disarm himself? He had closed the car door behind him and now
wondered whether he should reopen it and take the gun. In order to do so he
would have to turn his back on the open bush land, leaving him vulnerable and
exposed. An ambush was how Ned described the beginning of his ordeal. Had Lucas
now fallen into the same trap?

Feeling along the outside of the vehicle, he searched for
the door handle whilst keeping a lookout for any movement around him. He sensed
motion in the bushes and his eyes quickly darted to the left. As if aware that
he was watching, the movement abruptly stopped. A few seconds passed and then
the maniacal laugh of a kookaburra bird explained the source of the
disturbance.

He let out a heavy sigh. This was met by a loud thump just a
few paces to his right.

He did not turn to face the animal immediately. Instead, he
stood frozen as he watched its shadow double in size. At its full height, Lucas
estimated that the beast was close to seven feet tall.

‘Take it easy,’ he said, finally daring to face the animal.

He expected it to pounce, but when it did not he noticed
that it was holding something in its mouth. Instinctively, for reasons he could
not quite comprehend, he reached out and offered his palm to the kangaroo. It
freely gave up its prize to him. Lucas recognized it as Jake’s collar. He
placed the item into his car, laying it down beside the body it had previously
adorned. Once he was done, the kangaroo turned away from him and began to slowly
hop back to its mound.

He walked alongside of it. When they were at the summit, the
animal stopped and stared into the distance. The policeman followed its gaze
and as he did so he noticed they were not alone. He had never seen so many
animals gathered in one place. There were not only kangaroos, but also dingoes,
wombats, wallabies and whatever else lurked in the undergrowth. All of them had
their gaze fixed in exactly the same direction. They were all looking towards
the observatory.

Chapter 20

The professor was just leaving his study when the phone
rang. The caller ID indicated it was Lucas. He decided against taking the call.
Whatever was needed of him would have to wait. The project was entering its
most crucial phase and he wanted to make sure that he observed the afternoon’s
experiment.
Emmy
was already in the lab along with
Charlie and the two soldiers. The equipment was prepped and his granddaughter
was just fastening Mike’s bindings.

‘Is that really necessary?’ he asked, as he entered the
room.

‘It’s one of the safety protocols that you put in place,’
replied
Emmy
. ‘Surely you aren’t suggesting we break
one of your rules?’

‘Precautions are required when one does not know what to
expect. I think that now everybody is familiar with the process, we can forego
unnecessary tasks in a bid to move things ahead more swiftly.’

Emmy
shrugged. Supervising the
Americans was now merely her day job and not important enough for her to
instigate an argument with her grandfather. The experiments she carried out
with Charlie when the soldiers were not around were her real passion. She left
it to Mike to decide whether or not he wanted to wear the bindings. He removed
them without hesitation.

‘Too easy,’ said the professor.

The old man then signalled for Bradley and Charlie to lift
his chair up to the control station. The fact that the console had been erected
on a raised platform was one of the reasons the professor did not attend each
test. The indignity of relying on others was not suffered lightly by the great
man.

‘What happened to taking on an observational role only?’
Emmy
asked her grandfather.

‘If you can show me a place where I can better view the
outcome of today’s experiment, I will gladly take it. Otherwise, you can try and
adopt a more professional attitude and get on with your job.’

‘Yes, sir.’

She could see Mike smiling in the corner of her eye and did
not want to provide the old man with any more fuel with which to burn her. He obviously
had a reason for changing things around so she decided to just let him play it
however he wanted to. At least once Mike’s separation was underway the tension
in the room seemed to relent a little.
Emmy
and
Charlie had seen it all so many times before that they could run practically on
auto-pilot, whilst Bradley was too engrossed in the various technical readouts
to bother them.

The first session lasted for fifty two seconds; a record for
Mike. The professor, however, was unimpressed.

‘We need to work on extending the time he spends under,’ he
said. ‘What’s the maximum that you have achieved, Dr Nguyen?’

‘I’m not sure, ten minutes maybe,’ replied Charlie.

‘And Dr Rayne?’

‘Twenty minutes, but you have to remember that on the other
side time can increase by anything up to tenfold and we have also had a lot
more time spent in training, and to put it bluntly; our minds are...a little
sharper.’

The professor did not take exception to
Emmy’s
jibe at Mike’s intelligence; comparatively speaking it was a huge
understatement. He did, however, think that there was a way to compensate for
the soldier’s inferior mental agility.

‘What if we raise the power output; would that not make the
connection stronger?’

‘It would,’
replied
Emmy
, ‘but it would also make things more difficult to
control at his end. He’ll be like an out of control comet just bouncing from
one star system to the next. We’d do just as well to send him to Disney World
to ride Space Mountain for all the knowledge he would gain.’

‘I’m sure that with a little tweaking we can find a
solution,’ said the professor. ‘We will go again, but this time I will increase
the power to level 5.’

‘That’s too high,’
Emmy
told him,
but her concern was dismissed immediately.

This time Mike regained normal consciousness after just nine
seconds. The professor was undeterred. After making several further
modifications, he instructed the soldier to try again. The results were
instant. Mike managed to stay in his astral form for fifteen minutes; just five
minutes shy of
Emmy’s
record.

‘That is enough for today,’ said the professor, as Mike
returned to his body for the final time. ‘Agent Peters; I want a full report by
morning and then we will go about seeing if you can match my granddaughter’s
mental dexterity and perhaps even surpass her achievements to date.’

‘Not a problem.’

The soldier gave the professor an almost comical salute with
his right hand. His arrogance had now returned to its earlier level. Bradley,
meanwhile, pulled
Emmy
to one side, seeking further
clarification on the experiments.

‘According to the data,’ he began, ‘Mike travelled almost to
the edge of the solar system. How is that possible? Even light would take
months, if not years, to get there.’

Emmy
sighed, normally she would
like nothing more than talking science, but her tolerance of the Americans was
still low.

‘Do you want to field this one, Charlie? Our friend wants to
know how we can travel faster than light.’

Emmy
then left the lab leaving the
others to shut everything down.

‘Well?’ Bradley asked Charlie.

‘Well, it’s really quite simple,’ replied Charlie. ‘You want
to know how we can travel at speeds faster than light and the short answer is
that we can’t. It is true that we have no trouble matching light-speed though.
All of the time that one spends in astral form one can move around by
essentially piggybacking onto photons and neutrinos in the atmosphere. The idea
can be quite intimidating at first, but once you’re under, it becomes second
nature.’

‘I understand that part, but it’s the travelling of such
vast distances that I don’t get. Even the computer cannot keep up with some of
the movements that are being made.’

‘That’s where it gets a little more complicated. We don’t
actually travel between places directly. A process known as quantum tunnelling
allows us to take a shortcut, if you like. Think of it as a form of
teleportation. All you have to do is concentrate your thoughts on where you
want to be and then you will be there – instantly.’

The scientist’s explanation got Bradley thinking about other
applications of the technology.

‘So could this device be adapted into a
teleporter
?’

Charlie laughed.

‘Now that is science fiction. The energy required would be
unimaginable. When a single particle tunnels through matter, it must sacrifice
much of its lifespan to achieve this. The same would apply to a human being.
Basically, if you tried it, you would deplete your entire life energy in one
go
.’

‘You’d be dead?’

‘You’d be obliterated, gone, dematerialised. Believe me -
it’s not even worth considering.’

Charlie stayed to clear up whilst the professor escorted the
soldiers to their quarters. From the old man’s point of view at least, the
afternoon had been a resounding success and he had a very important phone call
to make.

***

Once the hole had been dug the body was placed inside
without ceremony. Lucas stayed only so that Ned would not have to be alone when
laying his best friend to rest. There were no other mourners present. The two
men did not speak as they filled in the grave, which sealed Jake’s final
resting place. When they were done, Lucas was the one to break the silence. As
the town’s law enforcement representative he saw it as his duty to always be
there for his citizens in times of need.

‘He was a good dog.’

They were not the best of words, but it was the gesture that
was important. He hoped it would be enough to get the other man to open up. It
was important not to bottle up emotions in times of grief.

Ned did not respond. The butcher had a faraway look on his
face. It was as if his body was there, but his mind was in a different place.

‘How old was he?’

‘Huh?’ replied Ned, slowly emerging from his trance.

‘Jake; how old was he?’

‘He’d have been eight next month. I had him since he was a
puppy.’

Lucas nodded, solemnly.

‘It’s not right that he went this way,’ added Ned. ‘Those
monsters are
gonna
pay.’

The policeman could see the rage burning behind the other
man’s eyes. He worried that Ned was going to do something rash. Sometimes
vengeance could prove a more potent lure into lawlessness than either envy or
desire.

‘I know how you feel right now, but I would strongly advise
against going back to the billabong. I am monitoring the situation with those
animals and if I think it is required, I will involve animal control or even
the park rangers.’

Ned smirked at Lucas.

‘You do whatever you have to do, officer, but do not expect
me to go along with any of this tree-hugger crap. Once animals go feral they
need to be destroyed. If you haven’t got the guts to do what is necessary,
somebody will do it for you.’

Lucas could have used his authority to give the man a
harsher warning, but he thought Ned had enough to worry about already. Besides,
the man had a history of issuing empty threats and making idle promises. In
small towns, big talk rarely led anywhere. With luck, no more would come of the
unfortunate episode. He promised that he would keep the butcher up to date on
any developments and that he was there if anything was needed. He then got in
his car and started driving back to the station.

The road was clear as he turned onto Main Street, but about
halfway up the road he noticed something in his way ahead. At first, he thought
it was just a plastic carrier bag caught in a draft, but as he neared he could
see that it was, in fact, alive. His uncle Harry had told him about the missing
chickens and he assumed this was one of them. He thought that if he caught it,
he could return it to his uncle and help to cheer the old man up.

The fowl was not startled by the sound of the approaching
engine and did not even look up as the policeman parked his vehicle by the side
of the road and got out. Lucas removed his jacket and slowly crept up on the
animal from behind. He expected it to try to flee when he neared, but it
remained completely oblivious to his presence. It allowed him to come right up
close. Close enough for him to wrap the jacket around it and lift it up from
the ground. There was no struggle, nor any of the aggressive behaviour
displayed by the other animals he had encountered. A small tag on its right
foot indicated that it did indeed belong to his uncle. Its name was Wayne; a
result of
Harry’s
habit of naming all of his animals
after football players.

A mesh divide separated the front and back halves of Lucas’
police car. Once he had safely secured the bird in the back, he climbed into
the front and continued driving up Main Street. As he approached the station,
the chicken somehow managed to get through the mesh and find its way into the
front of the vehicle. It clucked and flapped its wings erratically, distracting
Lucas from the road ahead. It then leapt onto the policeman’s lap causing him
to swerve wildly. He lost control of his steering and slammed his foot down on
the brake in a last ditch attempt to avoid a serious collision. He was too
late.

The car careened into a large tree outside of the station.
The impact was forceful enough to set off the airbag, which muffled and
disorientated Lucas. Fortunately, the cushioning device also prevented him from
losing consciousness or sustaining an injury. Once it began to deflate, he
looked around to determine if the animal had been as fortunate as he had. A
solitary feather was the only evidence that the bird had even been in the car.
No other trace of it remained.

He stepped out of the car, but soon began to stagger and had
to steady himself against a lamppost. The accident had shaken him up more than
he realised.
Enough to make him question his own senses.

The bird was pecking away, almost nonchalantly by the side
of the road. There was no way that it could have escaped the confines of the
vehicle, but Lucas was convinced that this was the same animal.

This time it did react to his approach and he instinctively
performed a full body diving tackle in order to trap it. It struggled to break
free and he had to squeeze it tightly against his chest so that he could get a
look at its foot tag. The tag confirmed what he already knew; this was Wayne.
This was the same bird.

Lucas did not purposefully release his grip on the animal,
but he found himself grasping nothing but air, as once more it managed to break
free of its confinement. This time he did not make an attempt to recapture it.
He turned and hurried on into the police station. When he got there the first
call that he made was to Professor Fox. The line was engaged so he hung up and
called the doctor. Whilst he waited for an answer he glanced out of the window
and briefly scanned around until he saw the chicken. As a voice came on the
line, the bird vanished before his eyes.

***

Lucy considered going back out to the field on her last
night in Jackson’s Hill, but after learning of Lucas’s accident, she decided to
spend the night at the station. Part of her resolution to become a stronger
person required that she see the positives in any given situation. Aside from
the obvious good fortune of Lucas not being hurt, she thought it would be good
for
Davo
to have something to focus his energies on
after she left. Repairing Lucas’ squad car would provide the mechanic with just
that.