Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)

‘This is not good enough,’ he said. ‘I want to see more.
Increase the power to maximum.’

Emmy
refused to follow his order.

‘She is too inexperienced. Nobody can take that kind of
pressure on their first go. This is all I can give you right now.’

The general smirked.

‘Do you take me for a fool? I know that you already tried
this trick on Captain Peters. It did not work then and it will not work now.’

The general waved to one of the American scientists to come
to the control station. Once there, this unqualified scientist turned the
output up to one hundred percent.
Emmy
was
immediately filled with a sense of panic.

‘What are you doing?’ she shrieked. ‘That is too much, you
have to lower it.’

The scientist looked to his superior for clarification, but
the general shook his head.

‘As you were,’ he said. ‘I want to see what this abomination
is capable of.’

Emmy
looked at the monitors and
saw that the girl was accelerating upwards at an incomprehensible speed. She
had to widen the search parameters to their maximum setting in order to keep
track of Lucy’s trajectory.

‘She’s moving too fast,’
Emmy
said. ‘If she continues to accelerate at this speed we will lose her. With this
kind of power, it will be difficult for her to find her way back. I’m going to
try and bring her in manually.’

This time the general had no objections and the military
scientist stepped back to let her do her job. She gradually lowered the power
output down in increments of ten percent until it was finally at level 1. She
then reversed the polarity of the projection filters in order to create a pull
towards, rather than from the point of inception. Slowly, she could see Lucy
begin to return to Earth.

‘I’ve managed to stabilise her trajectory. I’m bringing her
back in toward the observatory. Once she wakes up, I want to take her place. I
have built up countless hours of experience in an astral state. I can give you
all the proof you need that this technology works. As you can see; you can
learn nothing from using a civilian.’

‘Very well,’ agreed the general.

Emmy
continued to manage her
friend’s re-entry, when she noticed a second signature appear on the readout.
She suspected it to be Lucy’s father, but she did not want the Americans to
know about this. Luckily, the scientist next to her was more taken with
watching the girl for signs that she was returning to consciousness than in
checking the computer display. When the girl was within just feet of her body
there was another brief power surge, then the monitors went blank.

‘What just happened?’ asked the general.

Emmy
left her station and quickly
ran towards the matchbox. Lucy was still unconscious.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘She should be waking up.’

She called out for one of the military scientists to hit the
abort button, but nothing happened.

‘I hope you are not playing a game with us, Dr Rayne,’ said
the general.

‘I assure you that I would never jeopardise the life of
anyone, let alone a friend. Did any of your men interfere with this equipment
before I got here?’

‘Everything is as we found it. It seems to me that maybe our
investment has been misplaced. I am shutting all live testing down indefinitely
until I know exactly what is going on here. You will be allowed to carry on
with the theoretical aspects of your research, but under strict supervision. Do
you understand?’

‘Do I have a choice?’

‘I will take that as agreement.’

A soldier approached the general with urgency in his stride.
He handed a mobile phone to his superior.
Emmy
sensed
that the resulting conversation agitated the general. Once he finished the
call, the general briefly conferred with another subordinate and soon all of
the military personnel were moving with greater urgency.

‘What is happening?’ asked
Emmy
.

The general turned to her, but seemed distracted as if she
was no longer worthy of his full attention.

‘Dr Nguyen has finally talked. It seems that the radiation
problem is worse than we originally believed. He tells us that we are not safe
here. You have one hour to gather together whatever you need. I’m placing this
facility under quarantine. Once we leave, nobody gets in or out.’

‘What about Lucy?’

‘That no longer concerns you, Dr Rayne. I suggest you gather
your things as you now have just fifty nine minutes. I have no desire in
exposing myself or my men to any more of the poison this place has created.’

‘No, you have to tell me what you are going to do. Her
consciousness is still out there somewhere. If you remove her from the machine
it will kill her.’

‘Then she stays, but you are coming with us.’

He turned away from her abruptly and
Emmy
was escorted out of the laboratory by a guard. She was allowed into her room in
order to grab her laptop and a few other essentials. The guard did not follow
her inside so she took advantage of the respite by logging on to her system in
order to delete as much as she could without it being noticed. After powering
the device up, she saw a notification that she had new mail in her inbox.

There were two messages; both from Lucas.  She opened
the first.

Em
,

Take a look at the video and let
me know what you think.

I know that it looks crazy, but believe
me that it is 100% real.

Lucas.

There was no attachment with the message.  She
closed the window and then double clicked on the second message.

Em
,

Sorry, I forgot the attachment.
You know me and computers.

This time I have gotten Val to
help me so it should have worked.

Let me know what you think.

Lucas.

She double clicked on the paperclip icon to open the
attachment. The screen filled with a grainy video image of Lucas getting out of
his police car. He looked agitated by something just off screen. A of couple
seconds into the video, she could see that the cause of his annoyance was a
stray chicken that had wandered into the road. She managed to suppress her
tears at seeing her late friend, but she could not contain a giggle when he
comically tried to pick up the bird. She wondered why on Earth he had sent this
to her.

Then she was forced to do a double take, as the chicken
seemed to just vanish into nowhere.

What is this?

She played the video back again, but this time she
paused
it just before the bird vanished, and advanced the
rest of the footage by a single frame at a time. Somewhere between consecutive
frames it just disappeared from where it had been, reappearing at the top of
the screen, which would have equated to at least ten feet behind Lucas.

It had not vanished, it had teleported.

‘Is everything okay in there?’ the guard asked from outside.

‘
It’s
fine,’ she lied. ‘I’ll be
right out; I’ve got what I need.’

The truth was that she was anything but fine. The video was
remarkable, but the occurrence it documented was not necessarily unique. Just
hours earlier she had witnessed the body of Lucas himself disappear before her
very eyes. At the time, she thought it had simply dematerialised, but she was
no longer certain of this. A terrifying thought occurred to her.

***

The soldier raised his arm, indicating for Jimmy to stop
immediately, but the young escapee was already committed to his trajectory.
There was a small break in the barricade, no wider than a foot in width. This
was what he aimed for. The guards, meanwhile, were aiming their sights on him.
He did not hear the weapons
discharge,
he saw only the
recoil and sensed the bullets racing toward him faster than the speed of sound.

Allowing for pure instinct to take over his actions, he
eased his grip on the handlebars and felt the bike swerve and sway wildly,
seemingly of its own accord. The air felt hot against the side of his face as
the bullets passed him by, missing their target by just millimetres. The world
was in slow motion, but just as abruptly as the sensation had begun, everything
returned to its usual pace and he found himself beyond the barricade, which
faded away to nothingness in his rear view mirror.

He had a clear stretch of highway ahead of him, surrounded
on both sides by an endless expanse of nothingness. It would soon be nightfall
and with the combined arsenal of darkness and his psychic early warning system,
he knew it would not be difficult to remain hidden. The soldiers may have taken
his town, but Jimmy, at least, was free.

Chapter 39

Jackson Fox opened his eyes. Actually, he opened Lucas’
eyes, but the distinction no longer mattered. The policeman was gone - he
remained.

There was a breeze against his skin. The sky was black and
he had no idea how much time had passed. The last thing he remembered was being
handcuffed to that Aboriginal oaf and then the irresistible pull of a brilliant
light.

Was this some sort of afterlife?

He looked down at the body that he occupied. He was still
wearing the police uniform. It was dirty and torn. Air still filled his lungs.
To his left was water. In the distance, he could see the familiar lights of
home.

He attempted to get to his feet, but his body was weak. As
weak as the captain’s had been in the end. Soon it would be of no use to him.
For a moment, he just lay there. It was finally over. He was finally beaten. He
closed his eyes and allowed his muscles to relax. Maybe he would have peace,
after all.

Then he sensed a change inside of him; a growing awareness
with his surroundings. The radiation was still strong and it gave him hope. He
had wondered if his and
Emmy’s
machine would have
wiped Lucas’ body clear of the infection, but this body now belonged to him and
he was a dead man. The normal rules no longer applied.

He increased his concentration until he had full control
over his thoughts and his enhanced senses. The fact that the humble townsfolk
could not cope with such power and he could, provided him with a sense of
superiority, which strengthened his resolve. There was no way he was going to
give in after achieving so much. He had come too far. He had become a God.

It did not take long for him to figure out how he had
arrived at his current surrounds. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of
quantum mechanics was aware that particles possessed the ability to
spontaneously alter their location, although never on such a massive scale as
for it to happen to a complete physical entity. In the lab it had only been
witnessed with single particles and even then the energy required for the
exchange was considerable.
Too much power, in fact.
To
achieve the teleportation the particles had to “borrow” extra energy from
somewhere. It was a debt that always had to be repaid. After shifting, the
particles would have an extremely limited lifespan.

He looked around for an energy source that could possibly
buy him more time. Without it, he would surely die. That was when he noticed he
was not alone. The water source was a billabong and there was a kangaroo
drinking at its edge. At first, the creature did not notice Fox, but as if
suddenly aware that it was being watched, it quickly shifted its position,
adopting an aggressive stance. Did it know what he was thinking?

He was not strong enough to take on such an animal.
Kangaroos are lean, muscular and possess talons that can tear a man apart.
There was a rock lying next to him. If he timed his throw perfectly, he could
deliver a mortal blow to the creature’s head. He picked it up and the kangaroo
immediately tensed, aware of what was coming.

Of course it was aware – the radiation! The animal would
know the exact path of the projectile before it left his hand and avoid it
easily.

Stalemate.

He searched for another solution. He closed his eyes and
felt outwards with his new found senses. He could feel the ground, the water,
the plants and the animal. Everything was connected by an invisible energy
field binding all matter together. He could feel these connections in his mind
and even travel along them. He reached out into the ground beneath him and used
it to reach the kangaroo. He felt his mind inside of it. He could feel its
heart beating. He could feel the rise and fall of its breathing lungs. When he
could feel its primitive animal mind he applied the pressure; squeezing with
all of his will until he felt its brain pop inside of its skull.

The animal fell to the floor, dead. He knew its life force
had gone, but there was still a chance the carcass may contain enough energy to
replenish his own dwindling reserve.

However, the psychic attack had weakened him further and he
could not even move. There was no way for him to reach the life saving carcass
that was only metres from him. Then he saw movement and another kangaroo
appeared. He lacked the energy to attack it like he had the other and he sensed
that it knew this.

‘Come on then!’ he screamed.

His cry was met with a loud bang and the beast dropped to
the floor. It too, was dead, but not by his hand. Something else had ended the
life of the animal. That something was a bullet. He heard footsteps approaching
from behind.

‘Lucas, is that you?’ a voice called out.

He was not familiar with the man now addressing him. It was
one of the in-breeds from the town. The stranger was clearly a simpleton, but
there was something else behind the stupidity of his gait. This man was either
drunk or crazy. Although, given the radiation, it was likely to be both.

‘It is you. Lucas, what are you doing here?’

‘I
er
...’

‘It’s okay,’ said the man. ‘You finally believe me about
those kangaroos. We can finish those bastards off together.’

The man reached out to help what he thought was the town
policeman to his feet. The moment their hands touched, Fox was inside of his
head. This time he did not so much squeeze as suck. He sucked the life force
out of the man and absorbed it into himself. The change was instant. He felt
invigorated. He felt strong. Before he realized, he found himself holding onto
the hand of a corpse. Every ounce of living energy had been stolen from his
victim. It was a small sacrifice to make; too small to make a difference.

He knew that Lucas’ body would not last him, just like the
one he had stolen before it had not. No body that he stole would. If the
consciousness inside of the body did not match with the physical, it was merely
an animated corpse and would deteriorate quickly. Sure, he could keep stealing
more energy, but that was beyond impractical. There had to be another way and
he thought he knew just what that way was.