Emerald Sky (11 page)

In an instant, Dr Stark was back in the
curved horizontal chamber of the projection unit. The metal felt cold against
her skin, but it was also reassuring. She had made it back safely. She was also
now a member of the science community’s most exclusive club. She was an astral
traveller.

‘Did it work?’ asked Paul, opening the
door and entering the decontamination vault, carrying with him the eagerness of
a child waking on Christmas morning.

‘Better than ever,’ replied Emmy, whose
recovery was instant, unlike Dr Stark, who felt weak and groggy as if waking
from a long and deep sleep. ‘I think it’s now time to move on to phase two.’

Chapter 17

The test subject was a stranger to her. He
was a twenty three year old male, selected for his gender and youth. It was
hoped he would be strong enough to deal with the stress the procedure would
undoubtedly place him under. If the experiment proved a success, he would be
the first of the one hundred and thirty seven to be repatriated into the land
of the living.

‘What’s his name?’ Emmy asked.

Dr Stark read the tag on the man’s wrist.

‘Samuel Carlton. Did you know him?’

‘No, I don’t even recognise his face. It
doesn’t seem right that he’s placing his life in my hands and yet we’re
complete strangers.’

‘
Our
hands,’ corrected Dr Stark.
‘We’re in this together. So long as we work as a team, we’ll get through this.’

Emmy smiled, wryly, to herself. Whether
her colleague was being genuine or not, her optimism was greatly misplaced. She
knew from personal experience that the margin for error with this technology
was miniscule. When things went wrong, it produced not just setbacks but all
out catastrophes.

‘Thanks, but I still think we’re going to
need a lot of luck for this to work,’ Emmy told her, trying not to come across as
too pessimistic.

Paul had come to attach the biometric
monitors to the comatose subject’s body and when he heard Emmy mention they
would be needing luck, he thought he had the perfect solution.

‘If it’s luck you’re after, why don’t we
bring in the psychic kid? From what I’ve heard, he’s the luckiest human being
alive.’

‘It isn’t luck that Jimmy has,’ replied
Emmy. ‘Besides, I think it best if we don’t involve him in this. The whole
purpose of what we’re trying to achieve is to find a cure for the radiation
sickness. I don’t think having him here would be useful.’

‘What if he doesn’t stay the whole time?
Surely it wouldn’t hurt to pick his brain a little. He could tell us if the
experiment will be a success before we even start it.’

‘And what if it isn’t a success?’ she replied,
somewhat flustered this time. ‘What if he sees something go wrong – what do we
do then? We don’t yet know if the future as he sees it is fixed or not. If it
is, then any attempt to change it could have any manner of repercussions. It’s far
too risky.’

‘Well, you’re in charge.’

She allowed herself to display a small,
but knowing smirk.

‘Power is a delusion held by those who
underestimate their own limitations. The moment you think you’re in control is
usually the moment everything begins to fall apart. The truth is that none of
us really knows what we are doing. Science is about making every mistake
possible until the only path left is the right one.’

‘Nice pep talk,’ Paul replied,
sarcastically. ‘That one’s really got me all fired up.’

‘Enough,’ Dr Stark interrupted. ‘It’s
time to begin.’

Emmy nodded and then climbed into one of
the astral pods. Sam Carlton was placed into the other. He was already in a
chemically induced state of hibernation and by increasing the projection field
to full power they hoped to effectively hack into his dreams and force a
separation of his mind and body, just like jump starting a flat battery in a
car.

Emmy relaxed and separated from her body
first. An attempt to send Sam after her was started a moment later. She saw energy
radiate outwards from his body in short, staccato bursts before the shockwave
was finally enough to release his consciousness into the ether.

She had to act quickly. When first
affected by the radiation, Sam, like all the others, had experienced visions
similar to Jimmy’s, but without any comprehensibility whatsoever. His phantoms
surrounded him constantly and did not follow any logical temporal separation.
He could see images of many points in both the future and the past all meshed
into one indecipherable mess into which the present moment could no more be
distinguished from any other. The resulting confusion forced upon his senses
had only one inevitable conclusion – madness.

It had taken Emmy a dozen trips and help
from an unexpected spirit guide to learn how to shape her consciousness into a
semblance of the human form. Sam did it instantly. He did not, however, share
the same exquisite beauty as evidenced in her spirit form. Whereas Emmy’s
ethereal presence shone and shimmered like a perfect diamond, his colour was a
pallid green, like an uncut emerald. Anguish and torment manipulated him like
an invisible puppeteer, bending and distorting his form like an out of focus
hologram.

Emmy reached out, but as her translucent
fingertips touched his, an intense burning took hold of her. The pain was so
excruciating that she almost woke from the dreamlike state that was fast
turning into a nightmare.

Shock forced her away from him. Without
the ability to feel true emotion, she was quick to regain concentration.
Determined to see the experiment through, she steeled herself to the pain and
took a hold of Sam Carlton a second time.

‘Look at me
,’ she told him. ‘
Everything is going to be okay
.’

The young man did as instructed, but his
fear and confusion remained. He contemplated Emmy only briefly before his panic
sent him spiralling out of control, taking her with him. The two of them soared
further and further out into the void. They were like two rocket ships tethered
in the middle, but attempting to travel in different directions.

‘Sam, you have to look at me,’
she told him once more. ‘
I can help you, I promise
.’

This time her words had more of an effect
and she began to feel that they were slowing down. As the young man looked into
her eyes, his sense of self started to return. As did his colour. The green
light melted away, being replaced by the kaleidoscopic beauty that Emmy was
more familiar with. The cure was working. She could actually see the radiation
draining out of him.

Then something changed. Reality shifted.
It was as if a vortex was opening up around them. Emmy looked again at Sam and
realised that he was no longer tethered as she was. The cure had restored his
spirit, but taken away his lifeline. His cord. To all intents and purposes,
this was a death sentence. Unless, of course, she could find the strength to
guide him back.

Once again, her thoughts returned to the
mysterious portal that opened when two spirits had touched at Jackson’s Hill.
This did not happen when she touched Dr Stark’s spirit and she now knew why.
The doorway was not intended for the living. Only those spirits that had become
cut off from their corporeal bodies could open it. It was the untethered
spirits that made it appear. The only way to close it was to let go.

Without touch, she could no longer
communicate with Sam. He was drifting away from her and any attempt to pull him
back would risk opening up the doorway. She had to think quickly, but time was
not on her side. It was no longer just the two of them. A third spirit had entered
their space and it too was untethered. It had come to claim Sam and take him
across to the other side.

***

Back at the base, Jimmy was experiencing
his most troubling vision yet. Whilst attending to his mother’s bedside he had
witnessed a shadowy future image of himself reaching out and pulling the plug
on her life support.

The portentous vision did not extend to
the consequences of the action. If he followed through with it he had no way of
knowing what would happen. There was a serious risk that she would die.

He thought back to the train wreck that
never was and how for the first time a vision had not come to pass.

Could he resist this?

In his heart he knew the answer was no.
It was Esteban who had averted the supposedly preordained disaster and not him.
He was a slave to his psychic instinct.

Before he was even aware he was doing it,
his hand was on the plug. Just like the knife attack in Townville, he never
really had a choice.

The change was instant. Her body was
under such heavy sedation that it could not function without artificial help.
As soon as this help was removed her vitals flat-lined on the monitor situated
by her bed. She had gone into cardiac arrest.

He wanted nothing more than to undo what
he had done, but replacing the plug had no effect. The high pitched squeal
signalling a still heart remained. However much he tried to convince himself it
had been against his will, he knew that he was still responsible. He had
committed matricide.

Within moments a man in a white coat
entered and he was followed almost immediately by two assistants who quickly
began working on the apparently lifeless body of Jimmy’s mother.

The medics were not the only ones to
arrive on the scene.

A spirit appeared as if from nowhere in
the space above his mother’s bed. So far as he could tell, the others could not
see it, or they were too distracted to notice it. At first, it was like a ball
of mist. It then expanded and swirled, unfolding into a more recognisable
shape. It was a woman. Though a stranger to him, he could still appreciate her
almost divine beauty. Jimmy knew in his heart what he was seeing, but he did
not want to believe it.

The ghostly figure was focused only on
the lifeless form on the bed. It looked down, almost expectantly and reached
out with its arms, but then froze abruptly. Something had stopped it and Jimmy
thought he knew what.

At the exact moment the change in the
spirit’s demeanour occurred, his mother’s life support had returned to the
staccato blips of life. The doctors had brought her back.

She was still in coma, but that was
better than the alternative. At least there was still hope that she could be
saved. As for the phantom, it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared
only moments earlier. It took the lights with it.

***

Emmy regained consciousness with a start.
The power outage had put an abrupt end to her journey and she returned alone.
Sam had not made it. She knew that without her there by his side, the other
spirit would pull him through the opening. He was now as good as dead. The
experiment was without doubt, a failure.

‘What happened?’ she called out, as the
emergency back-up generators kicked in, adding a pale luminescence to her
surrounds.

‘We lost him,’ replied Dr Stark. ‘One
minute his vitals were fine, the next he flat-lined. It happened at the same instant
his cord vanished. We’ve yet to determine which event triggered the other.’

‘The stress must’ve been too much,’ said
Emmy. ‘The cure worked, but it killed him. That’s not all. There’s something
else - something I can’t explain.’

Before she could tell them about the
third apparition, she was interrupted by a call on the laboratory’s emergency
line. That was when she learned about what Jimmy had seen.

They were no longer alone.

Someone or something had discovered them
and she did not expect this would be a random one time occurrence. Whoever or
whatever it was, would be back. The project had taken on a new level of danger
and it was one even she was unsure how to overcome.

Chapter 18

The debriefing did not go well. Colonel
Rodman was livid and with nobody to blame, there was little chance of his ire
subsiding quickly. As far as he was concerned, the only rational explanation
was that a rival Government had located the base using a replication of the
astral technology, but Emmy refused to even entertain the idea. She was adamant
that what she and Jimmy had seen were not living in the conventional sense of
the word.

‘How can you even be certain of a
connection?’ the colonel asked. ‘You were deep in space. Whatever phenomena you
encountered need not have any relation to the intruder in the base.’

‘I don’t believe in coincidence, Colonel,
and neither should you. In the early stages of my research I encountered an
untethered spirit whose mere presence in the lab caused the machinery to
overload. We weren’t able to pursue the matter further, but I think that
whatever I encountered then has found me again.’

This time he at least appeared to be
taking her concerns seriously. Rather than dismiss her suggestion outright, he
took time to consider the options.

‘Is it hostile?’ he finally asked,
showing his interests were entirely from a military rather than a scientific
standpoint.

‘I don’t think so. If I can make contact
again, I may be able to communicate with it.’

‘That is too dangerous. What if it takes
you like it took the patient? It would be wiser to send somebody else. Somebody
who is more...’

‘...expendable,’ she finished for him.

His eyes narrowed. He did not like it
when somebody tried to put words into his mouth.

‘Somebody who is more equipped to deal
with hostility is what I was going to say.’

‘Like who – Agent Cruz? At least I would
have a fighting chance. A soldier would be no more use out there than I would
be on a battlefield. If anybody goes, it has to be me.’

‘The answer is still no. From now on, all
astral journeys are to remain terrestrial. We will establish a perimeter within
the confines of the laboratory. You will not venture any further. Do you
understand?’

‘Perfectly.’

She may have understood, but that did not
mean she intended to obey. This was bigger than one army colonel or an entire
army for that matter. Her previous research into astral projection had taken
her to the very edge of human experience. It was now time she found out what
was waiting beyond that boundary.

When she returned to the lab the tech’s
had already left for the evening. The fact she was trusted to access the
facilities without supervision gave her cause to entertain a small amount of
optimism.

Or maybe not.

Shortly after she entered the lab, Dr
Stark showed up.

Emmy watched the older scientist as she
entered, studying her body language for any clue as to her intentions. Thus
far, she had no idea if the other woman could be trusted or not. All she could
sense was a niggling feeling of déjà vu. Whatever the case turned out to be,
she wanted to find out sooner rather than later, and therefore decided to probe
her colleague for clues.

‘Dr Stark,’ she began, ‘what brings you
to the office at this late hour?’

Constance looked at Emmy, but did not
respond. All of her earlier aloofness was no longer evident. Her demeanour
seemed softer. Less guarded.

‘Is something wrong?’ asked Emmy.

Dr Stark took the seat next to the one
Emmy occupied.

‘I wanted to talk to you about what happened
earlier. About what you saw.’

‘You have no idea what I saw.’

‘Don’t be so sure,’ replied Constance.
‘The colonel may not believe you, but I do. I want to help.’

‘How could you possibly help?’

‘Send me in your place. Let me bear the
risk. You’re much too important to this project. And besides, you said that you
encountered a being such as this once before. What if it’s not a coincidence?
What if it is after you?’

Emmy had not even considered that the
encounters could be personal. Nor had she expected Dr Stark to show such
concern for her wellbeing – if that is what this was.

‘I, er...’ She struggled to find an
adequate response.

Constance placed a finger over Emmy’s
lips.

‘Don’t say anymore. I already know what
you’re thinking. You and I – we have a...connection.’

She moved her finger from Emmy’s lips and
used it to delicately rub away a small blemish from the younger woman’s cheek.
The action was performed tenderly, but also confidently. Emmy could not help
but feel a flutter in the pit of her stomach. Constance then did something that
Emmy had certainly not expected. She leaned in to kiss her.

Much to her surprise, Emmy found herself
wanting to reciprocate. It had been a long time since she had felt the
reassuring lips of a lover’s kiss, but just before they made contact, she
pulled away.

‘Something isn’t right,’ she said.

‘What do you mean?’ replied Constance.
‘Of course everything is right. It’s perfect. You and I both know it.’

Emmy studied the other woman’s face,
intently. She had to be sure. When one experiences déjà vu, it triggers a
response in the brain. The subconscious gets to work at solving the riddle that
the conscious mind could not.

‘Superstring theory,’ Emmy said. ‘Mapping
the cosmos in ten dimensions.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘That was the title of the lecture you
gave the first time I saw you. You were a guest speaker at my university. It
took me a while to place you because you had a different name back then.’

Dr Stark’s face paled as if she had seen
another of Emmy’s ghosts.

‘I don’t know what you mean. My name is
Constance – you know that.’

‘Yes, but it has not always been attached
to Stark. Dr Constance Merryweather – that’s what you were known as back then.
Tell me, Constance, why did you change it?’

When she received no reply, Emmy decided
to take matters into her own hands. She stood and walked over to Dr Stark’s
desk.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Constance,
but Emmy ignored the question.

The younger scientist pulled out the top
drawer of the desk and began rifling through the contents. After a few moments,
she found a picture of a man.

‘Who is this?’ she asked.

‘That’s none of your business,’ replied
Constance.

When the older woman reached out to claim
the photograph, Emmy grabbed her by the wrist. Her hand was tanned with just a
small band of pale skin on the ring finger.

‘You’re married,’ said Emmy. ‘You’re
married to a man and yet you come in here and try to seduce me. Why would you
do that?’

Constance did not answer. She averted her
gaze to the floor, unwilling to make eye contact.

‘Jesus,’ said Emmy. ‘You actually thought
that would work. You assumed that because I’m gay I’ll instantly fall for the
first woman to show me attention. Did the colonel put you up to this?’

Dr Stark continued to avoid eye contact.

‘You’re pathetic,’ said Emmy. She then
walked across the lab, stopping when she was directly in the field of one of
the security cameras. ‘Nice try, Colonel, but I’m just not that sort of girl.
You need me more than I need you, and for that reason – I call the shots when
it comes to who does and who doesn’t use my machine. Do you understand?’

She threw the photograph of Dr Stark’s
husband down onto the table and gave the other woman one last, sharp stare,
before walking out of the lab. There was now one less conundrum for her to
worry about.