Emerald Sky

by David Clarkson

  ‘What’re you doing?’ Jimmy asked in astonishment, but not with any real concern.

  ‘Could you see what I was about to do?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I saw what I was about to do and then I did it.’

  ‘It worked!’ she exclaimed with joy.

  ‘What worked?’

  ‘This is brilliant,’ she said, ignoring his question. ‘I think I’ve found your trigger. There’s only one way to be certain and for that we need to make a little trip outside.’

  ‘I don’t understand what you mean. What is a trigger – are you talking about a gun?’

  ‘Of course I’m not talking about a gun. A trigger is what makes the visions manifest themselves. When I threw the first apple it caught you by surprise, but when I aimed the second one directly at you, you saw it coming. The only difference was the element of danger or threat. I think that if you’re placed in danger the visions will activate as a form of survival instinct. If we can confirm this hypothesis then we may be able to come up with a predictive theory.’

  ‘Okay, but why are you taking me outside – are you looking for rocks to throw at me?’

  ‘No, not rocks. I’m hoping to find a snake.’

  Even after what followed, the boy had been unfazed and she hoped he retained that same spirit in the present. The Americans may have thought they had him under control, but she knew differently. With Jimmy, everything happened for a reason. His visions always served a greater purpose. With each passing day they were getting closer to discovering what that purpose would ultimately be.

  Chapter 16

  The laboratory was designed to mirror the one she had used at the observatory in Jackson’s Hill. In fact, much of the technological parts of the new machine had been taken directly from the original. It did, however, come complete with a vastly superior computing setup. No expense had been spared in providing her with the tools she needed to recreate a fully functioning astral projection unit.

  To aid in her work she had been assigned two lab technicians and a senior scientist named Dr Constance Stark. The newcomers had all been prepped and she was impressed with the knowledge they displayed of her previous research. She saw no reason why they could not have a prototype up and running by the end of the week. Provided that was, that there were no clashes of personality.

  Dr Stark was twenty years older than Emmy and attractive with it. She had shoulder length blonde hair (not unlike Lucy’s), a trim healthy figure and exuded the kind of sexual confidence that only comes with maturity. There was also a strange familiarity about her, which gave Emmy an unshakable feeling of déjà vu. Her new lab partner may have met the academic requirements for the job, but Emmy wondered if she had been recruited with an altogether different selection criteria in mind.

  ‘We’re really very excited to have you here,’ said one of the lab rats, a geeky English kid named Paul. ‘I can’t believe that I’ve finally gotten to meet the granddaughter of the famous Jackson Fox.’

  Emmy scowled at her subordinate.

  ‘Infamous would be a better word to describe him,’ she told the tech. ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t mention his name again. Do you understand?’

  ‘Sorry,’ the tech replied.

  The other technician, Peter, let out an amused giggle, which was quickly cut off by a stern look of disapproval from Dr Stark.

  ‘Please forgive the impropriety of youth,’ she said. ‘I assure you that what they lack in discipline, they more than make up for with their abilities.’

  ‘If youth were to blame, then I would be just as guilty,’ Emmy replied. ‘However, I am well aware of the damage that gossip and rumour mongering can do. If I cannot trust my team, I will request another one. Is that clear, Dr Stark?’

  ‘Please, call me Connie.’ Her tone was over confident and condescending, or maybe it was just Emmy’s paranoia making it appear that way. ‘I assure you there will be no problems with our working together,’ she continued, before then directing her attention toward Peter and Paul. ‘With any of us working together.’

  The two of them looked down at their feet like a pair of naughty schoolboys. Emmy did not think they would pose any real trouble, but it was vital that she ensured her authority was felt from the beginning. Her influence had already been compromised by the fact she was essentially a prisoner, whilst her team were free to come and go as they saw fit. Establishing her seniority was the key to retaining what little power she still had. If anything, being mentored by her grandfather had taught her the importance of discipline – a lesson she expected to call upon often in the coming weeks.

  ‘In that case, as long as you all do as I instruct (she made a point of looking at Dr Stark when saying this), we should get along just fine. I’ll need a volunteer for the early stage testing. I’ve never done a dual trip before so there’re bound to be a few kinks to iron out.’

  ‘I’ll go with you,’ offered Dr Stark. ‘I’m well versed in the art of yoga and believe my experience in meditation will be of service.’

  ‘I wouldn’t count on that,’ Emmy replied. ‘Meditation only helps with getting the process started. Once you achieve separation, there’s nothing that can prepare you for what follows. It’s also important that you don’t get carried away. The only reason I’m co-operating on this project is to help those coma patients. Therefore, there’s no reason for the cord to be extended beyond the confines of this laboratory.’

  ‘That’s fine with me,’ replied Dr Stark.

  Although she was yet to be given any cause, Emmy still did not trust the sincerity of her new lab partner. After agreeing to take part in the project, she had decided it would be safest to assume everybody was lying to her all of the time. For that reason, she did not plan on taking Constance into her confidence anytime soon.

  ***

  With Emmy now in custody, Jimmy was no longer under any pressure and was therefore able to devote more time to his mother. He stayed at her bedside day and night, ever hopeful that his gift would show him what had to be done, but the result was always the same.

  Nothing.

  No matter how much he tried to visualise his goal, the visions did not come. He received no guidance. No prompts. There was no way for him to help her or any of the others. It was as if he had been rendered completely powerless.

  As a small amount of consolation, this lack of psychic activity did at least make him feel human again. It also implied that nothing or nobody in the compound posed a threat to him. He was safe.

  For the time being, at least.

  If it had taught him one lesson, his ability to see the future had highlighted the impermanence of everything. All things were subject to change and the greater the change, the quicker it would come about.

  He hoped he would soon see a change in his mother’s condition. That one day he would arrive at her room to find her awake and talking. When he had thought her dead he was at least able to grieve. Now there was only pain and uncertainty. Something had to change. But sadly for him, Jimmy had no way to make this happen.

  Esteban, meanwhile, was growing increasingly restless with each passing day. He had completed his mission in delivering first Jimmy and then the scientist. The integrity of the base remained uncompromised and he could see little point in his being there. Yet no new orders had been handed down. The powers that be wanted him to remain where he was.

  They had to be planning something, but he was at a loss to think what this could be. He could do nothing but bide his time and wait for them to make their play. Until they did, he would make sure he was prepared. Whilst everybody else seemed to have lost interest in young Jimmy, Estoban continued to keep a careful eye on the boy. When the time came for him to return to action, he wanted to make sure he was the first to know.

  ***

  Emmy and Dr Stark were ready for their first dual trip ahead of schedule. She would have preferred a solo test of the equipment, but any pretence that she was in charge would easily be broken by her lab p
artner placing a call through to the colonel. Either they went together or not at all.

  The reason for the dual trips was simple. Emmy’s mission was to attempt to cure the infected townspeople of the psychic radiation by subjecting each of them in turn to an astral journey. It was a risky proposition, but by being alongside them, to guide them on their journey, she hoped to minimise the risk and bring them home. There was no other way.

  ‘Are you sure the casing will contain the radiation?’ she asked the techs, who would be monitoring the experiment from a bank of computer monitors, which displayed everything from the pair’s biometric readings to a simulated path of their astral trajectory.

  ‘The walls are made from six inches of titanium reinforced with another inch-thick layer of lead in the middle. You’ll be sealed off tighter than the crown jewels,’ replied Peter. ‘When we flush the containment area, any residual radiation produced by the machine will be channelled to a storage tank deep underground. If even the slightest trace amount of radiation escapes into the atmosphere, the mission will be aborted.’

  Emmy nodded.

  ‘In that case - let’s do this.’

  They climbed into the astral unit, which afforded little more space than a pair of Tokyo hotel pods. Once Paul sealed them inside of the lead lined vault, they could only communicate via a speaker system built into the walls of the machine.

  ‘Are you ready to begin the countdown?’ asked Peter, through the speakers.

  ‘I’m ready,’ replied Constance, with such nervousness in her voice it made Emmy laugh.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Emmy assured them all. ‘This is only dangerous if we have a saboteur among us. So long as nobody is planning on turning traitor, we’ll be fine.’

  Despite all of her earlier apprehension, she felt excited to be back doing what she was born to do. The euphoria she used to experience had returned. She almost dared to dream that her work could mean something once again. That she had returned to the cutting edge of human and scientific endeavour. She dared to dream her life actually mattered.

  Emmy achieved the separation with ease. For Dr Stark, it was a much bumpier transition. The moment when consciousness leaves the body is when the urge to wake is at its strongest. Just the slightest mental twitch can interrupt the process. Three times Constance broke her trance and each time the equipment had to be reset and recalibrated costing valuable time. At the fourth try, she finally managed to allow her conscious mind to break free and found herself hovering two feet above her body.

  Her first instinct was to try and gasp for air in the way that a drowning swimmer might as they sink ever deeper into a murky abyss. There was no physical response to her instructive thoughts. She could no longer feel lungs rising and falling in her chest. She could no longer feel her chest or anything else for that matter. Then slowly, a gradual awareness began to insinuate itself into her thoughts. She sensed something in front of her like a blind person senses movement in the air. A light seemed to be growing and spiralling toward her like a kaleidoscope.

  Finally, her mind began to make sense of what was happening. Just as one of those magic eye pictures eventually reveals its secret, so too did the intrinsic energy of the doctor’s surrounds. It reminded her of early virtual reality simulations with their simplistic geometric shapes, but in some way it was...beautiful. She had finally made it to OZ and now she was peeking behind the wizard’s curtain.

  The two resting bodies of Constance and Emmy were at the centre of the space. Two small slithers of energy ran between their disembodied essences and their physical beings below. Just as Emmy had told her earlier, this was the link that kept the two parts of her being working together in harmony. It appeared smaller and less substantial than she had imagined it would. She wanted to reach out and take hold of it for extra security, but in her shapeless, limbless form this was impossible. Besides, she did not even think she could touch it even if she had hands. It was not composed of the same energy as the rest of her being. It was something beyond her understanding entirely; a telepathic connection that seemed to exist separately from the normal rules of time and space.

  So absorbed by her own essence had she become that she failed to even notice her colleague and fellow traveller. Unlike Constance, Emmy was familiar to this experience. She could exert an element of control over her disembodied form and mould and shape her essence to her will. Her greatest trick was the ability to replicate her appearance from the material world, though this hollow, ghostly image could only be seen by other astral beings.

  Now she had Dr Stark’s attention. The other scientist was completely absorbed by her beauty and radiance. In fact, she was so transfixed she did not even notice that Emmy was reaching out with her hand to connect with her spirit directly.

  ‘Are you impressed?’

  The voice was unmistakeably Emmy, but it felt different. Not so much quiet, but distant. It was more like an echo than a direct sound and it seemed to originate inside of her mind.

  ‘Have we woken?’

  Constance’s own words also seemed strange yet familiar at the same time. With no vocal chords or lips through which to speak, she was not even sure how she had given voice to them at all.

  ‘We are still travelling, but our consciousness has become entwined,’ Emmy explained to her. ‘I did not mention this before, because I was not sure if it was a fundamental property of astral travelling or a product of the radiation. Whenever two separate energies touch, they are able to communicate with one another.’

  During the experiments of three years earlier, the coming together of astral beings had heralded the opening of a portal. It was a wormhole in space and time, down which Emmy had feared to pass. No such anomaly occurred this time. The questions this posed were outweighed only by relief. It may have been one more puzzle to solve, but it was also one less danger for her to worry about.

  ‘So where do we go from here?’ asked Constance

  ‘We go back. It’s no different to waking from a dream. All you have to do is focus on what your body is doing right now. Find the rhythm of your breathing and then concentrate on nothing else but opening your eyes. As soon as I let go, you will wake.’

  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, tryin
g 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.