Seven Point Eight (48 page)

Adam ran out, heading straight for Tahra, for some reason. Max flinched as the chimpanzee jumped up to her, but she caught hold of him and let him put his arms around her. From that point on, Adam became very attached to Tahra.

Before he departed, Max gave everything the seal of approval. He and Paul chatted in the farmhouse, discussing how extraordinary the whole thing was: the technical genius of the machine, the professional set up, and so on. Paul noticed him looking around the main living area of the farmhouse, as if seeking evidence of Tahra being more than professionally involved. However, they’d carefully removed any intimate possessions of hers from the main house, and placed them in one of the bedroom conversions in the guest barn. It was best no one at The Institute knew, most of all Max.

Adam and his sister, Eve, were subjected to further testing for the next two weeks, as Paul wanted to be certain there were no ill effects. They were both closely monitored, and all their medicals checked out. If anything, they performed more efficiently in cognitive tests.

More importantly, the status of Adam and Eve meant one thing.

After finishing the final sentence in his report, Paul turned to Tahra.

“You know something?” he asked her.

“What? I’m wonderful?” she joked.

“Well, you are truly wonderful, but I have some news for you. It’s your turn to step into the machine.”

On hearing this announcement, Tahra’s eyes opened wide. Now she had to follow in Adam and Eve’s footsteps. What would she see, and where would she go?

***

Paul sat in the kitchen of their new farmhouse on the morning of her first journey in the machine, reading the newspaper. A pot of tea, along with several slices of toast and jam sat on the table, awaiting Tahra, who showered upstairs. Not long after he finished his breakfast, she joined him at the table, trying to glance at the front page of his paper.

“What’s the story?” she enquired.

“The Moors Murders…Ian Brady and Myra Hindley got life in prison for the horrific killings of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey, and John Kilbride. I can’t understand how people can be so sadistic, torturing and killing kids.”

“I can’t imagine murdering anyone,” Tahra commented, feeling genuine sadness for their demise. “I don’t think I could do it.”

Folding up the paper and putting the world’s misery aside, he leaned over and gave her a morning kiss.

“Help yourself to breakfast, you’ll need the energy today.”

She seemed to have the jitters, which Paul considered entirely normal, as no human had used the machine yet.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured her. “I’m only running the field at thirty percent.”

Tahra sighed, like a child who realised she wasn’t going to get everything she wanted for Christmas.

“Only thirty percent? Why? We know Adam and Eve are perfectly fine. I’m nervous for no good reason now.”

“Impatience is my vice,” Paul replied, “not yours. You must respect my decision.”

She relented and didn’t press further. No point in arguing with the project manager.
         

The hatch awaited her and she stepped inside, taking a seat and feeling a sense of awe at the journey she’d make. Paul hooked her up to the ECG and EEG, and gave her a kiss for luck. After the hatch had closed, she heard Paul’s voice over the intercom, confirming he could see and hear her. Inside the machine, it fell silent, eerily so.

What had she let herself in for?

“Okay, Tahra,” Paul began, “I’m going to bring everything online, one frequency at a time and the field will run at thirty percent.”

She nodded to indicate she understood. After a few moments, she heard a hum emanating from the machine, then heard the harmonics come on line one at a time. The overall frequency became lower and lower, until it became inaudible. She became aware of the reverberation of the shell of the machine, although it didn’t intimidate her.

A peculiar vibration began to creep through her body, something she’d never experienced before during any of the remote viewing sessions, however, she didn’t resist. The vibration pulsed through her body and she felt a sense of paralysis, which alarmed her, but she reminded herself it would only last five minutes, so no need to panic. She wanted this more than anything.

In the control booth, Paul watched her intently. While she didn’t appear to be totally relaxed, she didn’t look distressed. Her heart rate was elevated but nowhere near maximal. Her brain waves synchronised with the resonance, operating smoothly at 7.8.

Once again, the weather looked good in there.

Meanwhile, inside the machine, Tahra willed her consciousness to move and she felt an immense surge. The visuals were different to anything she’d previously experienced, and she didn’t find herself in Earth orbit or anywhere in the solar system…this was something else.

She saw a net in her field of vision, composed of shimmering hexagons, hundreds of them which were orange in colour. They appeared to hum, or was it just the machine? Before she could progress any further, they faded and she became aware of her body once more. The paralysis and vibration released her and dissolved, making the experience hardly mind-blowing. Paul had powered down the machine.

“Please confirm you’re all right,” he said, over the intercom.

Tahra gave him the thumbs up. He popped the hatch and met her at the opening, finding her somewhat disappointed though.

“That was the shortest trip ever,” she complained.

Paul lifted her chin and gave her a smile, which encouraged her to return one of her own.

“You know we’re dealing with something completely different here,” he explained. “I need to ensure your safety.”

She nodded. “I know, I can’t help but want more, we’ve come so far already.”

“Soon…soon enough.”

“Now I need to know what the grid is,” she informed him.

“The grid?”

She described the grid to him but could offer no opinion on what it was, Paul had no idea either. He found it intriguing, and neither Oscar nor George had ever mentioned one. It would wait until another time. A medical followed the experiment, in which everything checked out so he saw no reason to prevent further exposure in the machine. Forty eight hours elapsed before the next trip and during that time period, Paul made her stay over so he could observe her closely. She took advantage of this opportunity to share his bed, and Paul discovered that in no way did exposure to the machine dull the sex drive.

The duration of the next trip lasted ten minutes, with a field intensity of forty percent, to give her a better chance of exploration. Identical to the first trip, the machine reverberated, and she felt the same tingling vibration, lost awareness of her body, and the grid appeared in her vision again. The hexagons shimmered and almost burnt an impression into her consciousness.

Tahra sensed the same surge as before, when she became detached from her body. This time, however, she rushed towards something. Paul checked her ECG and EEG throughout, finding the same results and synchronisation with the base frequency of 7.8 hertz.

She seemed to hurtle beyond the grid now, as the field continued to exert its influence on her mind. Tahra sensed a point of light in the distance, the focal point against a background of deepest black. She felt a presence, nothing like the spirit of Jupiter, and she couldn’t ascertain its origin. Just as the point of light began to take meaning in an abstract kind of way, the field powered down and she returned to her body. This time, she hid her disappointment from Paul and discussed the point of light. Next time, she’d learn more.

Forty eight hours later, Paul exposed her to the field in the machine for the third time. So far, she’d experienced no side effects and all the medicals checked out. Paul couldn’t justify stalling the next stage any longer.

“I’d like to increase the duration of these trips,” he told her.

“I want twenty minutes this time,” she declared.

“Okay, but I’m not going to take the field intensity beyond fifty percent though.”

“Take it to sixty-five,” Tahra said, with conviction. “Adam and Eve took sixty five, therefore, so can I.”

Paul considered her request. It was a big jump, forty to sixty five. They were getting results at forty and Paul deemed fifty percent satisfactory, but Tahra wouldn’t accept half measures anymore, he knew that. He told himself he’d discovered no evidence to suggest sixty five percent was unsafe. Therefore, Tahra would have her way this time.

She didn’t admit she felt nervous, although once Paul connected her to the ECG, it became apparent that her heart rate accelerated even before they’d begun.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Paul asked her, over the intercom.

She took a deep breath.

“I didn’t come this far to chicken out,” she responded.

Tahra dispelled any niggling doubts from her mind. The different frequencies came online one at a time, and her body began to paralyse. The sound became deeper and lower, then it turned inaudible. From that point, the magnetic field activated and powered up to sixty five percent in the space of two minutes.

“Here we go,” she said.

***

I felt myself become forcibly extracted from my body, as if a muscle bound man had physically thrown me. Briefly, I saw the grid again but burned through it in the space of seconds. The point of light came into view and I became aware of a presence but this time, it took hold of me and pulled me in.

If I wanted to resist, I couldn’t fight what happened next. I was committed all the way, until twenty minutes had elapsed so it was a case of hang on for dear life. Normally, during remote viewing I felt completely in control, but that was one thing the machine took away and this frightened me. However, without the machine, life denied me this experience. At infinite speed, something pulled me through the point of light, and I emerged in another location.

Beneath me, I saw land and above me, I viewed stars, a whole sky full of iridescent stars and each had presence, as if they were all alive. In the sky, I saw other worlds, spheres of light, and orbs like planets. White, blue and orange clouds lived in the sky, but looked more like nebulae, giving me a feeling of connection to the cosmos.

No turning back now.

My fears subsided to give way to a sense of awe. Hopefully, the machine wouldn’t power down. I felt as if the stars and planets were communicating with each other, but I couldn’t tap into their consciousness.

I travelled above the land, flying like an eagle at an immense height, with great expedience. When I studied the land, it looked unlike anything on Earth. The water was iridescent like the stars and the land didn’t appear to be composed of dense matter, it cycled through different colours and appeared conscious. Before long, I felt a sensation of putting on the brakes and my consciousness re-focused on a point at ground level.

The land felt stable under my feet, but I became aware it wasn’t solid like on Earth. The air around me shimmered, as if there were some field permanently powered up. On closer examination, it looked like white noise and I picked out what appeared to be molecules vibrating, or dancing. Within this sea of life, one of the molecules became aware of me and locked onto my consciousness. Because I was an outsider, the molecule took on a form to facilitate communication.

A being came into focus, taking a humanoid shape. It had no real eyes, nose or mouth, but where the eyes should have been, an impression burned brightly. Its skin appeared white but again, gleamed iridescently and cycled through different colours. I also noticed it seemed to have wings, which were folded up on its back and when I gazed at it, I felt as if its eyes bored through me and peered into my soul.