It was immediately wrested from out of his hands as she sat bolt upright - life having inexplicably returned to her body. A collective gasp passed over the room.
Emmy’s heart stumbled.
Was this really happening? Could this really be...
‘Lucy?’ she called out, now oblivious to the other people present.
‘Dr Rayne?’
Lucy’s expression was one of confusion. It was certainly not the look of a lover, which did not go unnoticed to those watching. To protect both women, Charlie quickly took control of the situation. He grabbed Emmy’s arm and led her out of the room, requesting all but the doctor to follow. Once outside, he turned toward his partner and placed his hands on her shoulders.
‘I know a million different questions must be running through your head right now, but it’s important that you take a step back until we know more.’
‘What more is there to know?’ replied Emmy. ‘Lucy is in there right now. I should be in there with her.’
She made to try and sidestep Charlie, but he shuffled to his left, preventing her from going anywhere.
‘You will get to see her, but not until the doctor says it’s safe to do so.’
‘Safe – are you kidding me?’
‘I would never kid about this. The fact is that she’s just woken from a three year coma. Up until thirty seconds ago we thought she was all but clinically dead. It makes sense that she’ll be disoriented.’
‘All the more reason why I should be in there with her. She needs a familiar face right now.’
Charlie took a prolonged breath.
‘From what I saw, yours didn’t seem all that familiar,’ he said.
Emmy was taken aback. His words struck her hard, like a hockey stick to the ribs, except this time she was not representing the university team or even playing hockey, for that matter.
‘What do you mean? Of course I’m familiar to her. As soon as she regained consciousness she called my name. What more proof do you need?’
‘She called you Dr Rayne and even then she didn’t sound too sure of herself.’
Emmy shook her head in disbelief.
‘We were lovers,’ she told him.
‘How many times?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘It’s a simple enough question. How many times did you make love?’
She barely wanted to dignify his question with a response. To do so seemed pointless and petty. Lucy was the love of her life. They had shared many intimate moments together.
Except when she thought about it, few of those moments had been with Lucy. Though she had not known it at the time, the vast majority of the time she perceived they had spent together was actually with the tulpa. She had really been in a relationship with herself. Talking to herself. Arguing with herself. Making love to herself.
‘Once,’ she replied. ‘We made love only once.’
Saying it did not make it any easier for her to comprehend. Charlie had raised a valid point. There was a distinct possibility that in having Lucy come back into her life, she would lose her forever.
Chapter 15
Was this Hell?
It was certainly not Heaven.
The last thing she remembered was being forcibly strapped into that terrible machine by those soldiers. When the lights had gone out it felt like she was drowning. It was as if all of her sensory organs had been taped shut. Her eyes, her mouth, her ears, her nostrils – she had been stripped of everything as the never ending ocean dragged her ever deeper into its depths.
Then a light came on in the distance. Her eyes were closed; it was as if the light shone so brightly that it burned its way through her lids and lit up her mind. She welcomed it. The light was familiar. Standing (or was it floating?) in the centre of it, she could see her father.
He looked healthy. He looked like he was at peace. The disease that had pinned him to the brink of despair for so long had been purged from his being. As soon as Lucy saw him her confusion lifted. She was home. She was with family. Most important of all, she was safe.
Her father reached out to her, and in turn, she had reached out to him. It was as if her hand had emerged from the longing to feel his secure embrace once more. She felt a tingle as her luminescent form sprung into being from the singularity of her consciousness like the beginnings of an expanding universe. Then they touched...
This time the light shining in front of her stung her eyes. It lit up pain receptors not only in her head, but all over her body. Her aching muscles squeezed agonisingly on her hollow bones. If not for her stomach being empty she would have thrown up. She now realised this was not Hell; it was a hospital. Although after what she had been through with her father, the two were not altogether different.
Her father!
Normally just thinking about him would bring her comfort. Not this time, however. Her father was no longer with her. Instead she found herself surrounded by strangers. No – there were two that she recognised. For a moment she struggled to find their names in the foggy avenues of her memory. She had been with them that same day, but somehow the events of hours earlier seemed distant and vague.
The woman called out her name. Lucy searched her confused mind for one to offer back in return.
‘Dr Rayne?’ she ventured.
Almost immediately, the other that she recognised stepped in and led away both the friendly female scientist and the various lab coats and suits that were also present. Only one remained behind. It was a middle aged man. He was stern of face and looked at Lucy like he was contemplating some sort of a puzzle. A stethoscope hung from his neck suggesting he was a doctor of the medical rather than scientific kind.
Without asking any questions, he proceeded straight into a physical examination. A light was shone directly into her eyes, and her ears and mouth were probed with clinical detachment. After taking her pulse, first from the wrist and then the neck, the doctor finally asked her name. Well, in a roundabout sort of a way.
‘Do you know who you are?’
‘Of course,’ she replied. ‘My name is Lucy.’
‘And where are you from?’
‘Adelaide, but surely you know that.’
‘And do you know what year it is?’
‘What year? What kind of question is that? Of course I know what year it is.’
She shook her head with incredulity, but before answering the obvious, her eyes caught sight of a clock hanging on the wall. It was a standard analogue with a white face and black digits in Roman Numerals. It contained a small rectangular bar just off centre that had the month and the year, which was set completely wrong. If it had simply stopped working it should have displayed an older date. Instead, it was set more than three years ahead.
Before Lucy could say anymore, a door opened and the two scientists she was familiar with returned. Except this time she noticed something decidedly different about them.
‘You’ve changed your hair,’ she said to the female. ‘It’s shorter. I like it.’
Rather than smile, Dr Rayne looked away. She was either ashamed or...guilty? Lucy’s heart quickened. It felt like insects were swarming inside her chest.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘What aren’t you people telling me?’
‘Give us a moment,’ Dr Rayne said, not to Lucy, but to her lab partner.
It slowly started to come back to Lucy. The Asian man was called Charlie and she knew Dr Rayne as Emmy, though her real name was something different.
Charlie shook his head, but Emmy widened her eyes with silent insistence and he finally relented, signalling for the medical doctor to follow him out of the door. Once it was just the two of them, Emmy walked toward the bed before sitting down and affectionately taking hold of Lucy’s right hand.
‘This may be a little difficult for you to comprehend, but some time has passed since we were last together,’ said Emmy.
Lucy looked again at the clock, the action exaggerated, inviting Emmy to follow her gaze.
‘Is that clock accurate?’ she asked.
‘It’s actually five minutes slow,’ replied Emmy. ‘I’ve been meaning to have it adjusted.’
‘I meant the year,’ said Lucy. ‘Has it really been that long?’
Emmy took a deep breath.
‘Yes. Yes it has. I’m so sorry.’
Neither of them said anything for the next minute. Emmy was unsure what to say and Lucy was finding it difficult not to dwell on all the things she had missed. Three years of her life had been taken away. So many things could have happened in that time. So many memories that would never be created. It also meant that she was just months away from turning thirty.
‘Do you have a mirror?’ she asked.
‘No, but you needn’t worry in that respect,’ replied Emmy. ‘You haven’t changed one bit. You’re still as beautiful as ever.’
The scientist reached out to run her fingers down Lucy’s cheek, but her one time lover recoiled from the touch. It was too soon for that level of intimacy. The way the women perceived whatever relationship they may share was separated by those three lost years. To Emmy they were old lovers becoming reacquainted after a long time apart, but to Lucy they were still getting to know one another after having only recently met.
‘I’m crowding you, aren’t I?’ said Emmy, finally picking up on Lucy’s apprehension.
‘It’s not your fault,’ replied Lucy. ‘I just think that I need more time. This is all so...’
‘I know,’ Emmy interrupted, keen to change the tone. ‘It’s probably best if I give you some space to come to terms with everything before we talk any more. Do you want me to send the doctor straight back in or should I ask him to wait a little longer?’
‘Send him straight in. It’ll put my mind at ease the sooner I can get the all clear on that radiation thing. How is everyone else, by the way?’
Emmy paused before deciding not to divulge the fate of Jackson’s Hill’s residents for the time being. At least until Lucy had more time to adjust to her new situation – the risk of suffering from a form of dysphoria due to the time gap had not escaped the scientist’s attention.
‘We’ll talk about that later,’ Emmy said. ‘For now, you should concentrate on rebuilding your strength. You haven’t moved your muscles in more than three years, just getting back on your feet will be a challenge in itself.’
Lucy nodded. She also smiled as Emmy left. It was not a lover’s smile, but it was not a stranger’s smile either. They had a long way to go, but Emmy was hopeful they would get there eventually.
***
As soon as the door opened Constance looked up from her desk. She had been waiting all morning for news. Eager to see how Emmy would be affected by the turning off of her lover’s life support. More importantly, she wanted to know if it would change Emmy’s mind about recommending Constance for future astral operations.
It was not Emmy who came through the door. Instead, Charlie was returning to work alone. To avoid appearing too eager for information, Constance waited until her boss had settled down at his desk before going over with the pretence of asking him to review some files she had been working on.
‘Unless it’s urgent it’ll have to wait,’ he told her, seeing the bunched papers in her hands.
‘Rough morning?’ she asked, hoping his guard was down sufficiently to indulge her curiosity.
‘You could say that, but not for me. I’m concerned about Emmy after this morning.’
‘She didn’t take it too well, I gather. I can’t say that I blame her. It’s never easy losing a loved one.’
Charlie looked at her, confused. Then he remembered that the information regarding Lucy was unlikely to have been relayed yet and Emmy would certainly not have called to tell Dr Stark about what had happened.
‘Of course, you don’t know, do you?’
‘Know what?’
Charlie rolled back his bottom lip whilst deciding how much he should tell her. On the one hand it could be seen as a betrayal of Emmy, but on the other he was not sure if it really mattered as Constance was sure to find out anyway. Unlike his friend, he had no reason to distrust or even dislike Dr Stark. Her reputation was highly regarded among his peers and despite being his subordinate he felt reassured having a scientist more senior in age around. Even he could not deny that he was too close to Emmy to see her flaws objectively and since the disaster at Jackson’s Hill, Emmy’s flaws had become many. She was reckless. Unstable even. With Lucy back on the scene, she would only become more unpredictable and harder to control.
‘They didn’t turn Lucy’s machine off,’ he said. ‘Actually, that isn’t true. They did turn off Lucy’s machine. It didn’t turn out how we expected though. She’s back.’
Constance felt a chill run through her body. She thought back to the astral visit to that other place and how she had seen the ghostly echo of Lucy’s life replayed before her. Had Lucy returned from that place too?
Impossible.
Both she and Emmy had verified that the phantoms they encountered on the other side of the wormhole had no consciousness. They were not people, merely echoes – like the afterglow of an extinguished candle. There was nothing living on that distant star.
‘She’s back?’ asked Constance. This completely flipped all of her worries on their head. This was no longer about the frame of mind Emmy was likely to be in. There was absolutely no way of predicting the young scientist’s behaviour in light of such a life changing event. ‘How is Emmy reacting to this?’ she asked. ‘I’m guessing she is thrilled, of course?’
Charlie shrugged.
‘I don’t know. I mean, it’s a lot to take in – for everybody. Lucy included.’
Constance finally saw it from the angle that Emmy herself had never considered.
‘Lucy isn’t sure how she feels, is she? That must be difficult for Emmy. How’s she taking it?’
‘As I would expect her to take it, but that is not any of your concern.’
‘I know you think I don’t care, but I can help.’
Charlie considered her offer. Whilst he did not see how she could help Emmy directly, he thought there may be a way for her to help indirectly.
‘Emmy is going to need our support over the coming weeks and depending on how things go with Lucy, she may not be spending quite so much time at work. If you really want to help her, you can help me to make sure the research doesn’t slip during that time and that we make solid progress for when she returns.’
‘What do you have in mind? I thought all expeditions through the wormhole were off limits.’
‘They are.’ He reached into his drawer and pulled out a file, the cover of which contained writing in both English and Chinese script. ‘I received this from the office in Beijing. They want us to start conducting searches of selected star systems for traces of life.’
He handed her the file. She took a moment to leaf through its contents. The mission’s romantic lure was not duplicated in the pages of technical data on the numerous planets known to inhabit the ‘goldilocks zone’ of faraway stars. It read more like a major conglomerate’s bank statement than a map to the heavens.
‘Why Beijing and not our other partners?’ she asked. ‘Surely this has NASA written all over it.’
‘America’s economy is still recovering. They’ll be co-financing the project, but given the current financial climate it would be a tough sell for the voters so they’re keeping their involvement under wraps. Although I’m sure that when we start coming up with genuine results they’ll take their share of the credit.’
‘Of course. When do we begin?’
‘Is this afternoon too soon?’
‘Not at all. I’ll start on the file right this minute.’
Chapter 16
The results came back clear. Lucy had zero trace of the astral radiation in her system. This was the first positive news she had received since her unprecedented reawakening. The world can change so much in three years and it was comforting to know
that at the biological level at least, she was still the same woman she had always been.
She wondered if the infection had missed her completely or if it had been Emmy’s cure that ridded her of the poison. The former was more appealing at the personal level, but the latter offered hope for countless others. Nobody had yet told her what had become of the residents of Jackson’s Hill. She hoped they were okay. Despite spending just over a week in the town, she had made a lot of friends.
Lucy wished some of those friends could still be with her. The doctor treating her was completely lacking in bedside manner and after talking her through the results of the blood tests he switched his attention to his computer, ignoring her completely.
‘Can I go now?’ she asked.
The doctor continued to ignore her.
‘Can I go?’ she repeated, this time raising her voice, not much, but enough to garner his attention.
‘Somebody will come for you shortly,’ he told her.
‘I mean - can I go home?’
She attempted to stare him down, but he was a master at avoiding eye contact. All she could do was sit there and wait for this somebody to turn up. Eight minutes later (the clock was the only thing in the room not to induce her ire) somebody did indeed come for her. It was a security guard.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she demanded.
The guard paid no heed to Lucy’s questions as he led her to the building’s reception area, which seemed disproportionately small for what she had so far seen of the complex. A man and a woman, both in smart suits, were waiting for her at the door. These new chaperones led her to a car waiting outside. It was black with tinted windows and she guessed it belonged to the Government.
As she climbed into the back, she caught sight of the building she was leaving and instantly understood why the reception had been so disproportionately small. Ninety percent of the facility was located beneath ground. It reminded her of Coober Pedy; Australia’s most unusual town and the central hub of the opal mining industry where many residents and businesses went sub terra to guard from the punishing heat of the desert it was located within. It was also a tourist hotspot, unlike this place, which Lucy was almost certain would not appear on a map should she ever get the chance to look for it.
Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 72
