Authors: David Clarkson
The colonel had the laboratory transformed
into a command centre for the supposed retaliation against his perceived enemy.
Emmy was past arguing against his assumption that the Chinese had been behind
the breach in the first place. She knew the best thing she could do was to
co-operate and hope for the best. Whilst the idea of assisting the military was
bad enough, the thought of them launching a mission without her involvement was
too terrible to even consider.
Satellite surveillance had highlighted
three sites that could potentially house an astral base. Two of these were in
the North of the country, and the third was located on the border between Tibet
and Nepal. It was decided to systematically search all three of them starting
from the top down. Any sign the facility in question was being used as a base
for astral research and Emmy’s instructions were to take it offline instantly.
Thanks to the lessons learnt during Esteban’s training, she did not expect this
to be too difficult. All she had to do was locate the primary power source, and
the rest would be taken care of as an act of will. The trickiest part would be
reaching the targets in the first place.
Astral travelling is far from an exact
science. The ethereal plain is particularly difficult to navigate at a
terrestrial level. Focusing one’s energy on a planet or a star is one thing,
but on an acute scale it is all too easy to overshoot a target destination by
many miles. Both Emmy and Esteban had spent hours poring over maps and
satellite imagery in order to construct as concise and accurate a picture as
possible at which to target their thoughts. The planning for this mission had
to be perfect as they were relying on the element of surprise. There would not
be the luxury of having a second chance to fall back on.
Once they had taken the initial jump from
their physical bodies, they connected their consciousness and made the next,
greater leap together. Their metaphysical journey was traversed like they were
a single entity. For just a fraction of a moment, they really were as one.
Although the transition from point to
point is to all practicalities instantaneous, time behaves curiously at the quantum
level. Like it is with a dream, the subconscious mind can process information
at a rate far beyond conscious comprehension. During the brief time Emmy spent
connected to Esteban, their thoughts, emotions and memories were also
intertwined.
Flashes of the soldier’s past entered
Emmy’s consciousness. She saw more terror and tragedy than she thought
possible. She saw many acts of great violence. But she also saw the intent
behind those acts. Force was used sparingly and only when it served to mitigate
a situation rather than to inflame it. Each life taken was to save a life. At
times, Esteban walked a fine line, but he had never crossed it. Without his
deeds, a great deal more pain would have been inflicted upon the world.
She now knew beyond doubt that he was
honourable even if his masters were not. If it came down to it, she believed he
would do what was right even if it meant disobeying his military chain of
command. He had done this before. It had been for a woman, though she could not
tell if there was a romantic link involved. She also sensed that whoever this
woman had been, Esteban saw a resemblance in her. Whether this would be a help
or a hindrance she could only wait and see.
As the first location came into view, she
knew instantly that it was not what they were looking for. There were far too
many people on site and she was sensing nothing from below ground. If the
Chinese were dealing with the radiation problem in the same way as the
Americans, they would have to have a silo at least half a mile beneath the
surface in which to channel it. Here, there was nothing.
She reconnected with Esteban.
‘This isn’t the one. We should move
on.’
‘Shouldn’t we shut it down just in
case?’
‘Follow me for a moment.’
She led him to a small annexe at the back
of the facility. Though translucent, they could still make out the basic form
and structure of the building. There was a strong electrical presence here,
running through a wide range of machinery. Once they were past this they could
see that the building housed several rows of what appeared to be beds, all of
them occupied by the distinctive diamond sparkle of living beings.
‘What is this place?’
asked Esteban.
‘My best guess is a hospital or at
least some kind of sick bay. Look at the people in the beds. They don’t glow
with the same intensity exhibited by those around them. They’re weak. Do you
really want to cut the power here?’
He thought about the devastation a power
cut could cause within a hospital. When the Australian base had suffered a
power outage, the emergency generators had taken over instantly. If such a
failsafe had not been in place the consequences for the coma patients would
have been dire, possibly fatal.
‘You have a point,’
he told her
. ‘What shall we tell base when we
report back?’
‘The truth. It was too dangerous, so
we got the hell out. You do not want to spend too much time around the sick
when you are astral travelling, believe me. If any of them were to die, it
could attract interest. Hopefully, it won’t matter anyway. We could still find
what we’re looking for in either of the next locations.’
Esteban nodded. He wanted to get out of
there before any of Emmy’s interested parties cared to show themselves. Too
many strange and unnatural practices had occurred since he signed up for this
mission. He had barely come to terms with what Jimmy was able to do, and what
he witnessed in Emmy’s cell also weighed heavily on his mind. What he saw that
night went well beyond science or even superstition. It defied all logic. Even
the ability to peek inside of her mind did little to answer his questions. It
just proved that he was not imagining things, which would have been a far more
welcome explanation if that were the case.
The second site they approached was
clearer cut. This one was definitely a military facility. Esteban easily
identified the munitions compounds and heavy artillery stockpiles. They saw
nothing to indicate it may be used for astral travelling.
‘What do you think?’
asked Esteban.
‘It’s a possibility. I want to be sure
though. Let’s get a little closer. They may be on alert for intruders. If this
is the place, they’ll have some sort of sensors to detect our presence.’
They effortlessly floated down and into
the structure of the building itself. As they passed through room after room
they received no reaction. Nothing changed to indicate that their presence had
been noticed.
‘Strike two?’
Esteban queried, as they met back up at the centre of
the compound.
‘I would say so. Let’s just hope it’s
a case of third time lucky, or the colonel is going to be pissed when we have
nothing to report back.’
The third facility was a little harder to
find. The mountainous terrain was difficult to navigate and they overshot their
target by two miles, finding themselves high in the Himalayan mountain range.
Isolated pockets of energy were dotted around the lower levels of the
mountainsides indicating the local wildlife population. Nestled inside one
mountain was what appeared to be a human settlement, but it possessed no
telltale signs of technology. The two astral travellers assumed it was a
primitive indigenous camp.
‘
Go high
,’ said Emmy, before
breaking away from the soldier and rising up above the highest mountain peak.
Esteban followed the scientist’s lead. By
rising higher, they could more easily spot the Chinese base should it be close
by. In such a remote locality, the energy signature given off by any form of
electricity would be impossible to miss.
Sure enough, it was not long before a
mountain peak gave way to an almost blinding conflagration of energy. A faint
thread of light was cast out from the centre of the complex, extending out
towards the stars. As soon as she saw this, Emmy re-established direct contact
with her partner.
‘Do you see it’?
she asked. ‘
At 11 o’clock, heading skywards. It’s
a silver cord. That has to be Charlie, my old lab partner.’
‘What happens if we cut the power
whilst he is out there?’
‘In theory, he wakes up with a really
bad headache. I’m not sure I want to take that risk though.’
‘Abort or hold back until he returns?’
‘We’ll continue. If he is astral
travelling it means the sensors will be active. They will almost certainly pick
us up too. When that happens they will pull him back instantly.’
‘And then?’
‘And then we can blow this place and
go home.’
They separated once again. Emmy descended
on the complex first, with Esteban following closely behind. As she neared her
target she realised for the first time the full implications of what they
planned to do. Due to the covert nature of the astral programme there was no official
record of its existence. Therefore, there were no laws or regulations to govern
its application. To use the technology against a foreign nation was
unprecedented, but that did not mean it was not an act of war. There would be
serious ramifications.
Emotions are faint and difficult to
define when astral travelling. They are connected to physical changes in the
body so have no bearing on a disembodied consciousness. Emmy did not feel fear
as such, but she knew she needed to be cautious. If either her cord or
Esteban’s cord was cut, they would have to find their way back home on their
own, without a psychic bond to guide them. They would also be exposed to
whatever had taken Sam Carlton.
‘I see the primary generators,’
Esteban said.
‘Good,’
Emmy replied. ‘
I will leave them to you. I am
going straight for the lab. I may be able to overload the computers or perhaps
even wipe them clean.’
As they went in different directions, the
cord stretching overhead blinked out. The traveller had returned. She now had
to assume that their presence was known. They had to act quickly.
The attack was spontaneous and worked
with text book accuracy. Unfortunately, it did not come from either Emmy or
Esteban. The Chinese had pre-empted them. Emmy had wondered just how far
Charlie would have advanced in her absence and she was about to find out.
A tremendous flash in the centre of the
compound sent a sphere of energy radiating outwards unlike anything she had
seen before. It was like an explosion in space. The moment it collided with her
essence she felt intense pain. But feeling pain was impossible. Unless, of
course, she was back inside of her body.
She opened her eyes, but her other senses
overwhelmed her vision. An alarm was sounding, she could taste smoke in the air
and feel heat against her skin. All around her the laboratory was in complete
chaos.
Dr Stark pulled her out of the chamber.
Her pod was sparking and she could only watch on with bewilderment as Paul let
loose with an extinguisher.
‘What about Esteban?’ she asked, turning
in the direction of the second projection chamber.
His pod was undamaged. By reprogramming
the computer to tie his projection to hers, it had meant that his journey had
instantly been cut short at the same time as hers, before the mysterious energy
had time to hit him too.
‘I’m fine,’ he told her. ‘I am more
concerned about you, Emmy. What just happened– was that some sort of weapon?’
‘Damn right it was some sort of weapon!’
shouted the colonel, who had been monitoring the mission from his newly constructed
command post within the laboratory. ‘Why the Hell didn’t we see that coming?’
Rather than answer him, those present
instead turned their attention to the one person who really had been in a
position to see it coming, yet had done nothing to stop it.
‘Jimmy, did you foresee this?’ asked
Esteban, who had developed a protective, big brotherly affection for the young
psychic.
‘Does it really matter?’ replied Jimmy.
‘Even if I had, I couldn’t have changed it.’
‘You damn well could have tried,’ said
the colonel. ‘We almost lost two good men tonight.’
Emmy coughed, but was ignored by
everyone. Jimmy, meanwhile, was wishing his powers extended to granting him
invisibility. During the mission he had been standing with his eyes closed
whilst singing silently inside of his head, creating his own internal sensory
deprivation chamber. It had worked. Although it was far from a permanent
solution to his problems, it could at least offer him the chance of temporary
respite when he sought it the most.
‘Fortunately, we didn’t lose anybody,’
said Esteban. ‘Jimmy is right, there’s no harm done so it’s pointless to
discuss it further. We have much greater concerns right now. I may not have
born its brunt, but I have no doubt that what zapped Emmy out of her journey
was a weapon. They knew we were coming.’