Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3

by David Clarkson

  ‘You probably already know why I have called you here,’ the colonel said to him, as Jimmy took a seat opposite.

  The boy did not answer. He had quickly discovered that the colonel was always more easily pleased by his own assumptions than what people actually told him.

  ‘Well, you’ll be glad to know that we’re finally in a position to take action against the individuals who breached our compound,’ the colonel continued. ‘As of 08:00 tomorrow, we will be launching a retaliatory mission. Those Chinamen may think they can come in here and spy on us, but we’re going to shut them down, do you hear? Shut them down for good.’

  The colonel punched the air with all of the bravado the young psychic lacked. Though he was certainly enthusiastic about the mission, the pathos was purely for his audience’s benefit.

  ‘And you think I can help you with this?’ asked Jimmy, already knowing the answer, but not because of his psychic gifts. It was simply that obvious – even for him.

  ‘Hell, son, you can do more than that. You can pretty much guarantee us victory. A lot of people are going to be counting on you tomorrow. The whole of the free world, in fact. Now, do you think you’re up to the task?’

  It was not often Jimmy would come up with a plan independent of his gift, but this time he could feel an idea beginning to germinate somewhere in the back of his brain. If he was right, it may even offer him a way out. The colonel was counting on him to provide psychic guidance, but what if he could find a way to block any foresight from coming through? After all, it had been done before when they placed him in the sensory deprivation cell.

  ‘You know me, sir,’ he replied, easily feigning his trademark optimism. ‘I’m always willing to do my bit.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said the colonel. ‘I know that with you onboard, there is no way we can lose.’

  ***

  Emmy wanted to spend some time alone in the lab before the big mission. She had been trying to come up with a believable excuse to feed Dr Stark in order for her to remain back after the end of the shift, but as it turned out this was not necessary. Everybody was so elated by the result of the day’s trial that protocols were relaxed.

  When Constance saw that Emmy was still logged into her workstation as she was preparing to leave, she simply reminded her to shut everything down before turning in for the night. Then Emmy had the place to herself.

  The operating system was unchanged from when she had developed it with her grandfather. The encryption codes had been altered, but they were actually less advanced and therefore less secure than her original codes. Once she was past the firewall it was not hard for her to find the backdoor. This had been put in by her grandfather for his own nefarious plans, but now she had a much more noble use for it. She programmed Esteban’s chamber so that it was linked directly to hers. Should she for any reason have to abort her journey, he would have no choice but to do the same. There would be no way for him to carry on without her.

  Once done, she hid her handiwork behind a wall of impenetrable code and then moved on to checking the logs from the day’s trial. It did not take long for her to find an anomaly. It confirmed what she had earlier suspected. At the exact time that Esteban had interfered with the electricity source, his projected essence had altered drastically. A significant amount of electrical energy had been transferred directly to his essence.

  Einstein’s equation defining special relativity shows that energy is directly proportional to mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. An increase in energy could mean only one thing. A proportional increase in mass must also have occurred. Not enough to give his astral being substance, but the implications were clear and extremely troubling. Given enough added energy, an astral being could acquire a physical presence. In theory, they could become solid. They could become real. If any being achieved that power, they would be near invincible.

  Chapter 21

  The colonel had the laboratory transformed into a command centre for the supposed retaliation against his perceived enemy. Emmy was past arguing against his assumption that the Chinese had been behind the breach in the first place. She knew the best thing she could do was to co-operate and hope for the best. Whilst the idea of assisting the military was bad enough, the thought of them launching a mission without her involvement was too terrible to even consider.

  Satellite surveillance had highlighted three sites that could potentially house an astral base. Two of these were in the North of the country, and the third was located on the border between Tibet and Nepal. It was decided to systematically search all three of them starting from the top down. Any sign the facility in question was being used as a base for astral research and Emmy’s instructions were to take it offline instantly. Thanks to the lessons learnt during Esteban’s training, she did not expect this to be too difficult. All she had to do was locate the primary power source, and the rest would be taken care of as an act of will. The trickiest part would be reaching the targets in the first place.

  Astral travelling is far from an exact science. The ethereal plain is particularly difficult to navigate at a terrestrial level. Focusing one’s energy on a planet or a star is one thing, but on an acute scale it is all too easy to overshoot a target destination by many miles. Both Emmy and Esteban had spent hours poring over maps and satellite imagery in order to construct as concise and accurate a picture as possible at which to target their thoughts. The planning for this mission had to be perfect as they were relying on the element of surprise. There would not be the luxury of having a second chance to fall back on.

  Once they had taken the initial jump from their physical bodies, they connected their consciousness and made the next, greater leap together. Their metaphysical journey was traversed like they were a single entity. For just a fraction of a moment, they really were as one.

  Although the transition from point to point is to all practicalities instantaneous, time behaves curiously at the quantum level. Like it is with a dream, the subconscious mind can process information at a rate far beyond conscious comprehension. During the brief time Emmy spent connected to Esteban, their thoughts, emotions and memories were also intertwined.

  Flashes of the soldier’s past entered Emmy’s consciousness. She saw more terror and tragedy than she thought possible. She saw many acts of great violence. But she also saw the intent behind those acts. Force was used sparingly and only when it served to mitigate a situation rather than to inflame it. Each life taken was to save a life. At times, Esteban walked a fine line, but he had never crossed it. Without his deeds, a great deal more pain would have been inflicted upon the world.

  She now knew beyond doubt that he was honourable even if his masters were not. If it came down to it, she believed he would do what was right even if it meant disobeying his military chain of command. He had done this before. It had been for a woman, though she could not tell if there was a romantic link involved. She also sensed that whoever this woman had been, Esteban saw a resemblance in her. Whether this would be a help or a hindrance she could only wait and see.

  As the first location came into view, she knew instantly that it was not what they were looking for. There were far too many people on site and she was sensing nothing from below ground. If the Chinese were dealing with the radiation problem in the same way as the Americans, they would have to have a silo at least half a mile beneath the surface in which to channel it. Here, there was nothing.

  She reconnected with Esteban.

  ‘This isn’t the one. We should move on.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we shut it down just in case?’

  ‘Follow me for a moment.’

  She led him to a small annexe at the back of the facility. Though translucent, they could still make out the basic form and structure of the building. There was a strong electrical presence here, running through a wide range of machinery. Once they were past this they could see that the building housed several rows of what appeared to be beds, all of them occupied by the distinctive diamond sparkle o
f living beings.

  ‘What is this place?’ asked Esteban.

  ‘My best guess is a hospital or at least some kind of sick bay. Look at the people in the beds. They don’t glow with the same intensity exhibited by those around them. They’re weak. Do you really want to cut the power here?’

  He thought about the devastation a power cut could cause within a hospital. When the Australian base had suffered a power outage, the emergency generators had taken over instantly. If such a failsafe had not been in place the consequences for the coma patients would have been dire, possibly fatal.

  ‘You have a point,’ he told her. ‘What shall we tell base when we report back?’

  ‘The truth. It was too dangerous, so we got the hell out. You do not want to spend too much time around the sick when you are astral travelling, believe me. If any of them were to die, it could attract interest. Hopefully, it won’t matter anyway. We could still find what we’re looking for in either of the next locations.’

  Esteban nodded. He wanted to get out of there before any of Emmy’s interested parties cared to show themselves. Too many strange and unnatural practices had occurred since he signed up for this mission. He had barely come to terms with what Jimmy was able to do, and what he witnessed in Emmy’s cell also weighed heavily on his mind. What he saw that night went well beyond science or even superstition. It defied all logic. Even the ability to peek inside her mind did little to answer his questions. It just proved that he was not imagining things, which would have been a far more welcome explanation if that were the case.

  The second site they approached was clearer cut. This one was definitely a military facility. Esteban easily identified the munitions compounds and heavy artillery stockpiles. They saw nothing to indicate it may be used for astral travelling.

  ‘What do you think?’ asked Esteban.

  ‘It’s a possibility. I want to be sure though. Let’s get a little closer. They may be on alert for intruders. If this is the place, they’ll have some sort of sensors to detect our presence.’

  They effortlessly floated down and into the structure of the building itself. As they passed through room after room they received no reaction. Nothing changed to indicate that their presence had been noticed.

  ‘Strike two?’ Esteban queried, as they met back up at the centre of the compound.

  ‘I would say so. Let’s just hope it’s a case of third time lucky, or the colonel is going to be pissed when we have nothing to report back.’

  The third facility was a little harder to find. The mountainous terrain was difficult to navigate and they overshot their target by two miles, finding themselves high in the Himalayan mountain range. Isolated pockets of energy were dotted around the lower levels of the mountainsides indicating the local wildlife population. Nestled inside one mountain was what appeared to be a human settlement, but it possessed no telltale signs of technology. The two astral travellers assumed it was a primitive indigenous camp.

  ‘Go high,’ said Emmy, before breaking away from the soldier and rising up above the highest mountain peak.

  Esteban followed the scientist’s lead. By rising higher, they could more easily spot the Chinese base should it be close by. In such a remote locality, the energy signature given off by any form of electricity would be impossible to miss.

  Sure enough, it was not long before a mountain peak gave way to an almost blinding conflagration of energy. A faint thread of light was cast out from the centre of the complex, extending out towards the stars. As soon as she saw this, Emmy re-established direct contact with her partner.

  ‘Do you see it’? she asked. ‘At 11 o’clock, heading skywards. It’s a silver cord. That has to be Charlie, my old lab partner.’

  ‘What happens if we cut the power whilst he is out there?’

  ‘In theory, he wakes up with a really bad headache. I’m not sure I want to take that risk though.’

  ‘Abort or hold back until he returns?’

  ‘We’ll continue. If he is astral travelling it means the sensors will be active. They will almost certainly pick us up too. When that happens they will pull him back instantly.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘And then we can blow this place and go home.’

  They separated once again. Emmy descended on the complex first, with Esteban following closely behind. As she neared her target she realised for the first time the full implications of what they planned to do. Due to the covert nature of the astral programme there was no official record of its existence. Therefore, there were no laws or regulations to govern its application. To use the technology against a foreign nation was unprecedented, but that did not mean it was not an act of war. There would be serious ramifications.

  Emotions are faint and difficult to define when astral travelling. They are connected to physical changes in the body so have no bearing on a disembodied consciousness. Emmy did not feel fear as such, but she knew she needed to be cautious. If either her cord or Esteban’s cord was cut, they would have to find their way back home on their own, without a psychic bond to guide them. They would also be exposed to whatever had taken Sam Carlton.

  ‘I see the primary generators,’ Esteban said.

  ‘Good,’ Emmy replied. ‘I will leave them to you. I am going straight for the lab. I may be able to overload the computers or perhaps even wipe them clean.’

  As they went in different directions, the cord stretching overhead blinked out. The traveller had returned. She now had to assume that their presence was known. They had to act quickly.

  The attack was spontaneous and worked with text book accuracy. Unfortunately, it did not come from either Emmy or Esteban. The Chinese had pre-empted them. Emmy had wondered just how far Charlie would have advanced in her absence and she was about to find out.

  A tremendous flash in the centre of the compound sent a sphere of energy radiating outwards unlike anything she had seen before. It was like an explosion in space. The moment it collided with her essence she felt intense pain. But feeling pain was impossible. Unless, of course, she was back inside her body.

  She opened her eyes, but her other senses overwhelmed her vision. An alarm was sounding, she could taste smoke in the air and feel heat against her skin. All around her the laboratory was in complete chaos.

  Dr Stark pulled her out of the chamber. Her pod was sparking and she could only watch on with bewilderment as Paul let loose with an extinguisher.

  ‘What about Esteban?’ she asked, turning in the direction of the second projection chamber.

  His pod was undamaged. By reprogramming the computer to tie his projection to hers, it had meant that his journey had instantly been cut short at the same time as hers, before the mysterious energy had time to hit him too.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he told her. ‘I am more concerned about you, Emmy. What just happened– was that some sort of weapon?’

  ‘Damn right it was some sort of weapon!’ shouted the colonel, who had been monitoring the mission from his newly constructed command post within the laboratory. ‘Why the Hell didn’t we see that coming?’

  Rather than answer him, those present instead turned their attention to the one person who really had been in a position to see it coming, yet had done nothing to stop it.

  ‘Jimmy, did you foresee this?’ asked Esteban, who had developed a protective, big brotherly affection for the young psychic.

  ‘Does it really matter?’ replied Jimmy. ‘Even if I had, I couldn’t have changed it.’

  ‘You damn well could have tried,’ said the colonel. ‘We almost lost two good men tonight.’

  Emmy coughed, but was ignored by everyone. Jimmy, meanwhile, was wishing his powers extended to granting him invisibility. During the mission he had been standing with his eyes closed whilst singing silently inside his head, creating his own internal sensory deprivation chamber. It had worked. Although it was far from a permanent solution to his problems, it could at least offer him the chance of temporary respite when he sought it th
e most.

  ‘Fortunately, we didn’t lose anybody,’ said Esteban. ‘Jimmy is right, there’s no harm done so it’s pointless to discuss it further. We have much greater concerns right now. I may not have born its brunt, but I have no doubt that what zapped Emmy out of her journey was a weapon. They knew we were coming.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said the colonel. ‘They couldn’t have known. It isn’t possible.’

  ‘Trust me, they knew,’ said Esteban.

  ‘What makes you so sure,’ asked Emmy.

  ‘We’re still alive, that’s what. If they’d been caught by surprise they wouldn’t have acted with such restraint. Tonight was a warning. They wanted us to see what they’re capable of.’

  Chapter 22

  Charlie had never felt such dishonour. Whilst he accepted that the Americans could not be allowed to carry on Jackson Fox’s work, using Emmy in the way they had done weighed heavily on his conscience. She was not only his former partner, but also his best friend. With hindsight, he wondered if he should have warned her about what his masters had planned.

  The set up could not have been easier. Satellite images of the complex along with the two decoys had been deliberately leaked to American spies. It might have taken years for them to be discovered otherwise. During that time their rivals would have continued to work on their own technology and with Emmy Rayne on board there was no telling how quickly they would catch up.

  His only consolation was that nobody was hurt during the confrontation. The energy pulse they emitted was at the exact frequency of the disembodied consciousness of an astral traveller, but at a sufficiently low output that would cause said traveller to wake up, rather than lose their cord and ultimately, therefore, their life. It had also carried a secondary signal embedded within, which followed the target all the way back to its source. Once uploaded into the host computer this parasitic piece of code would get to work rewriting and deleting files upon command.