Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3

by David Clarkson

  ‘Whatever you say, boss.’

  Emmy knew she was now firmly in control of the mission. Charlie clung to her like a limpet as they made their way further into this strange organic structure. The biggest question in her mind was if this really was a new kind of technology or merely an odd quirk of evolution. The answer would define whether they were dealing with intelligent life or mere exotic animals.

  They progressed deeper and deeper into the belly of the inanimate beast all the while waiting to confront their first true alien being. When the inevitable encounter finally came, Emmy hoped against all odds that it would be a true first contact. That the alien would be just as aware of her as she was of it. Alas, due to the constraints of her astral form, this was not to be.

  The alien was positioned directly in front of them. There was no alteration in its form in response to Emmy or Charlie’s movements. If it were human, her experience within the astral realm would allow her to decode its energy signature to reveal a greater approximation of its true form. Instead, she saw only a beacon of light roughly seven feet tall.

  ‘What are you thinking right now?’ she asked Charlie.

  ‘I’m not,’ he replied. ‘I think my brain has shut down.’

  ‘Who needs a brain? Mine is a quadrillion miles away. I think we should say hello – see what happens.’

  ‘That’s not possible. I wish it were, but we are invisible as far as ET is concerned.’

  ‘Trust me; I picked up a neat little trick from the ghost of some crazy old romantic pom I once met. If we talk through the being it may be able to hear our thoughts.’

  ‘That’s crazy.’

  ‘Not really. Crazy is having a year-long relationship with a figment of your own imagination that then turns into the abominable snowman. This is quite rational by my standards.’

  ‘So what do I do?’

  ‘Just follow my lead and see what happens.’

  She led Charlie closer to the alien being before discontinuing the contact between them. Then she spread her arm so that it mingled with the energy of the alien. She invited Charlie to do the same. He was reluctant at first, but realising that fear was actually an illusion, nothing but a chemical imbalance; it had no bearing in relation to his ethereal form.

  He slowly pushed his consciousness forward until he too was in contact with the alien being.

  ‘Can you hear me?’ Emmy asked.

  ‘Yes, I can. What worries me is - can he?’

  ‘What makes you think it is a he?’

  ‘I, er...’

  ‘I’m just messing with you. If what John told me is correct, we should be detected any moment now?’

  ‘You named your ghost John?’

  ‘He wasn’t my ghost and I didn’t name him. He told me it or I heard it from his wife. Anyway, that’s not important right now. We just need to keep talking and...’

  Emmy was cut off by a sudden pulse from the alien energy. For the briefest of moments it appeared to take on mass as it repelled the two scientists away from it.

  ‘What was that?’ asked Charlie, quick to re-establish direct communication with Emmy.

  ‘I can’t be certain, but my best guess is some sort of psychic reflex. Think about it. If this is an advanced race we are dealing with and their technology is all organic based then it figures that the way they communicate will be very different to the way we do. Instead of smart phones and radio waves they could use some sort of telepathic alternative. God, I would kill to get up close to one of these in the real world and see what it is made of.’

  ‘Can it harm us?’

  ‘I doubt it. Do you think we should be cautious just in case?’

  ‘I think we should always be cautious regardless. Maybe we should leave this guy for a while and widen the search perimeter.’

  ‘Sounds like a good idea to me,’

  They left the living structure and floated high above the organic super city. It stretched out beyond the boundary of their perception on all sides. It was a true metropolis. The energy it contained produced a glow far brighter than anything encountered on Earth. Emmy wondered just how comparable or even superior this race’s technology was. She wondered if they too could navigate the astral plane.

  In Tibet she had learned to control the tulpa by way of meditation. It was a conscious uncoupling of her mind and body without the aid of advanced computer technology. Had she not achieved this breakthrough herself she would never have believed it possible. If this alien race possessed psychic ability then they may also be capable of such feats. Emmy continued to lead Charlie over the never before explored landscape, all the while searching for any sign of astral consciousness.

  ***

  Constance slipped back into the lab without drawing any suspicion. As far as the technicians were aware, she had simply popped out to retrieve some mislaid files. They had no idea or reason to expect she had really been to the hospital. When Emmy and Charlie returned, their assistants would not even see fit to think it worthy of mentioning it to them.

  ‘Have you detected any anomalies?’ she asked the tech in charge of monitoring the live link-up to the travelling scientists.

  ‘Apart from a brief energy spike, their readings have remained fairly even,’ the tech replied. ‘Do you think we will know if they make contact?’

  ‘With extra-terrestrials? I guess we’ll have to wait until they return to find out. If they do encounter an alien, I would expect that to be sooner rather than later. Dr Rayne is too impulsive and Professor Nguyen can be overly cautious. She’ll do something rash and he’ll react by terminating the mission. That pair are so predictable.’

  ‘Predictable is the last word I would use to describe them,’ the tech told her. ‘Who could even have imagined that we would be here today without Emmy and Charlie? They’re geniuses.’

  ‘Point taken,’ said Dr Stark, wishing she had not said anything in the first place.

  She could not stand the way the staff practically hero worshipped her younger colleagues. Such admiration was completely undeserved. These kids had gotten lucky by piggybacking onto the work of Jackson Fox, who was the real genius. They wasted their time on flights of whimsy in space when they should have been concentrating on the good that could be done on Earth.

  The only thing that made working in the shadow of smaller minded people bearable was her secret knowledge that the job of bringing Professor Fox’s true legacy to fruition rested on her shoulders. The future of mankind did not lie among the stars, it lay within the species itself. Whereas Dr Rayne sought to peek behind the curtain of human mortality, she, Dr Constance Stark, would tear it down completely, to merge life and death, thereby allowing the human race to reach its full potential.

  ***

  ‘Why did you stop here?’ asked Charlie

  ‘That energy source,’ replied Emmy, pointing with her ghostly approximation of an arm, ‘look at the way it fluctuates. Only living energy can do that and it only occurs under the right conditions.’

  ‘And what conditions are those?’

  ‘I think you already know the answer to that,’ she told him. ‘You’re just afraid to admit it. The reason they fluctuate is because their life-energy is fading. They are about to die.’

  Realising what Emmy was planning, Charlie had little option than to end the mission and take her back with him. The human dead were dangerous enough, so to attempt an interaction with the alien dead was just about the most reckless thing either of them could do.

  He willed his consciousness to return to his body and because their projection pods were linked this caused her to return too.

  As soon as her eyes opened she hit the quick release on her safety restraints and slid out of the pod to confront him.

  ‘What the Hell do you think you are playing at?’ she shouted, as Charlie climbed out of his pod to meet her anger head on.

  ‘I was doing my job,’ he told her.

  ‘Your job is to help me to advance humanity’s understanding of the p
lace life holds in this universe. Opportunities like this don’t come around every day.’

  ‘They do here.’ He placed his right hand on her shoulder to offer reassurance. ‘I’m not trying to stifle your work, Emmy. It is, after all, my work too. What you have to understand is that what we’re doing extends far beyond either of us. A lot of people are watching what we do and we have to make sure we get it right.’

  Seeing the genuine concern etched on his face, she realised she may have reacted a tad impulsively.

  ‘I know. I just got carried away, that’s all. I mean, what if we can interact with their memories the same as with the others? We would be able to see how they live – what they really look like.’

  ‘And what if you got trapped?’

  ‘You’re right. You’re always right.’ She turned away from him. ‘I was reckless. I could have gotten into trouble.’

  ‘Well, there was no harm done this time. Come on, let’s take a look at the data and see if we can’t tweak things for our next trip. The faster we learn, the sooner we’ll be able to cross that threshold again.’

  Chapter 25

  They had planned not to see one another until the following morning due to Lucy’s irregular sleep patterns. After the day she had experienced, Emmy could not wait that long, she simply had to share her recent discovery with her lover. Her news was not met with the giddy excitement she had been expecting.

  ‘Aliens?’ asked Lucy, adopting her usual look when hearing about Emmy’s work, which consisted of a mix between incredulity and terror. ‘You’re now telling me that there are aliens.’

  ‘When did I ever tell you there weren’t aliens?’ replied Emmy.

  ‘When we first met, I asked you outright if you were involved with aliens and you denied it. You said there were no aliens.’

  ‘I was telling the truth. These are different aliens.’

  Lucy furrowed her brow and fixed Emmy with a suspicious stare.

  ‘Different implies two types of aliens, which in turn implies there were aliens before. I don’t know why you can’t just admit it.’

  ‘There is nothing to admit. Why would I lie about this?’

  ‘You tell me. You’re the one who is covering for these aliens of yours. For all I know, you may even be one yourself.’

  ‘I...I...what?’

  Lucy burst into a fit of giggles.

  ‘For the smartest person in the world you really can be gullible at times,’ she said.

  ‘I’ve never claimed to be the smartest person in the world,’ replied Emmy.

  ‘I never said you did. It was merely an observation.’

  ‘In that case, with your looks and my brains we make for a formidable team. It’s a pity we can’t have children. They’d be incredible.’

  Lucy’s smile subsided and Emmy instantly wished she had taken more care before speaking. Now she considered it, it was unlikely that Lucy had even thought about the wider implications of their relationship. Her lover was a school teacher, which meant she obviously liked children. Did it matter if she would never conceive any of her own?

  Sure, there were always ways, but with so many children in need of adoptive parents, Emmy had never been in favour of using surrogates and as an orphan, she did not think it right to deliberately deny a child a father. There were so many conversations they needed to have.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Emmy said, placing her arm around her lover. ‘I didn’t mean anything by that. Who knows what the future holds?’

  ‘I know what it doesn’t hold,’ replied Lucy. ‘I guess I always have. For so long my life was taken up by caring for Dad. I didn’t think I’d ever be lucky enough to meet anybody – to fall in love. Not having children of my own was a foregone conclusion, I just never thought it would be a choice, you know?’

  ‘Is it your choice?’

  ‘You’re my choice.’

  Emmy smiled awkwardly. She was glad to be given this opportunity to sidestep the topic, but she knew it would be raised again and most certainly under less playful circumstances. As it was, she had a different reason to now change the tone of the conversation.

  ‘There was a reason I wanted to tell you about the aliens we came across,’ she said. ‘I think it may ultimately offer us a new way to treat the coma patients.’

  ‘You mean a way to bring them back – like me?’

  ‘It’s little more than a hunch at the moment, but yes – I think we may be able to bring them back. The aliens have technology that is based entirely around organic living structures. If they have ways to communicate over vast distances as we do but using organic technology it suggests enhanced brain function. Possibly even psychic abilities.’

  ‘That’s brilliant news.’ Lucy sensed Emmy was holding something back. ‘It is good news, isn’t it?’

  Emmy stood and walked over to look out of the window. The evening was in the later stages of dusk and the first stars were beginning to shine through the sun’s fading light.

  ‘Like I said, at the moment it’s only a hunch. There may be some element of risk involved. Charlie and I will spend the next few days coming up with a strategy for overcoming this.’

  ‘What sort of risk, exactly?’

  Emmy turned around and leaned back against the bottom of the window frame.

  ‘At the moment we have only monitored the aliens from an astral viewpoint. The information we can obtain from this is limited and any interpretations are highly subjective. If we want a clearer picture of how these beings live and what they are capable of, we need to see them for what they really are. We need to follow one when it dies.’

  The dread in the pit of Lucy’s stomach broke from its cocoon and began to unfurl its wings.

  ‘Follow it to where?’

  ‘We still don’t know. I cannot be certain that it will be the same place, but I’m expecting the outcome to be the same. It is the place where our memories go when we die.’

  Lucy searched desperately for any doubt in the other woman’s eyes that she could seize upon and use to dissuade Emmy from risking everything they were building together.

  ‘From what you’ve previously told me this is too dangerous. You’ve been lucky up until now, but luck will only take you so far. My dad used to say that. You took his advice once before so maybe you can take it now.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I have to do this. For as long as there is a way to help those people, I am duty bound to follow it. I caused all of this and someday I’m going to put it right.’

  This time Lucy let her anxiety subside and she looked fondly upon Emmy. Deep down, she knew that Emmy’s work was much too important to walk away from.

  ‘I know,’ she said. ‘That’s why I love you.’

  Chapter 26

  Over the following fortnight the scientists continued to explore the alien planet - its core, its atmosphere, its local solar system, but not its dead. Charlie insisted they first gather as much information as they could before attempting to take their research to the next level. He also used the data gathered to filter the vast list of tens of thousands of planetary systems they were working through in their search for further extraterrestrial life.

  The two scientists only ever travelled as a pair when on these missions. Dr Stark continued to remain at ground control, content to take a supporting role. Emmy questioned the older woman’s motives for this, but kept her suspicions to herself. She was actually relieved not to have to share any astral trips with her rival.

  Then, when he was confident it was safe to do so, Charlie finally gave Emmy the green light to initiate post mortality contact with an alien being. All of the evidence they had gathered showed the mechanics of death to be no different to that on Earth and it was therefore considered an acceptable risk to move the experiment forward in this way.

  The astral travellers chose the most populous region they had yet come across to await the opportunity they required. As on Earth, simply by maintaining a prolonged presence amongst a large population base they soon
attracted the attention of a recently deceased entity.

  ‘3 o’clock,’ said Emmy.

  ‘How can you be sure?’ replied Charlie. ‘Didn’t we calculate they have thirty-six hour days here?’

  ‘3 o’clock,’ she repeated, this time pointing in the direction of an advancing alien ghost.

  ‘Of course, 3 o’clock,’ Charlie said. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking.’

  ‘You weren’t thinking. You’re scared. Except fear is the result of a chemical reaction in the brain and is therefore impossible when we are travelling outside of our bodies, so you cannot really be scared. You’re pretending.’

  ‘Are you serious? Why on Earth do you think I would pretend to be scared?’

  ‘For the same reason I am distracting you. We are procrastinating and I am going to put a stop to that right now.’

  She moved directly into the path of the dying alien and braced herself for contact, but nothing happened.

  ‘Where did it go? asked Charlie.

  ‘I don’t know. This makes no sense. It cannot have failed to have spotted us so it must...shit! Of course - look at us. For one very brief moment following death the deceased being can see us as it is compelled towards the light.’

  ‘That has never been a problem before. In fact, I think it helps them to find us.’

  ‘No –I mean, look at us! In this place we are the aliens. If we want to attract one of those things the first thing we must do is lose our human appearance.’

  The scientists willed away the ghostly bodies they had formed with their minds until they were nothing but an undefined essence of consciousness. This made it harder for them to communicate with one another, but they did retain some awareness of the other’s position relative to their own.

  Moments later, the alien ghost, or another just like it, came back and this time it was drawn towards the light. The light being Emmy and Charlie. At that moment, three minds, not all of them from the same world, mingled as one and as they did so, a wormhole opened.