The Emissary (24 page)

Through countless universes, where the stars, pinholes in the screen of sacred darkness, leaked the light of god through the illusion of nothingness, they rose into the infinite light, and journeyed in the ecstasy of Oneness. Only when they had known it in all its brilliance and glory, did she deliver Jamie to the dolphins. They were there, waiting to greet her on reentry into the deep, bouncing their sounds off her being, healing her with their music. She swam by their side, guided through a dark tunnel in the deepest waters,
their eyes shining the way through. Always moving towards the bright light, Jamie delighted in the beauty of luminous sea spirits: she could see them all. Everywhere around her, their vaporous, glowing light bodies flowed in the current and the gentle sway of the sea. Celestial beings, angels were they—illuminating the fantastic voyage into the brilliance.

Before her, she beheld a city of lights—a civilization of light beings, no less than heaven on earth. There were huge underwater ships, unlike anything she could have ever imagined: translucent worlds unto themselves, and so light, so fluid—like gigantic jellyfish, illuminated from within.

Music abounded. The ocean was filled with celestial sounds—and the melodies of the whales.

“Doctor … we’re losing her.”

“Paddles.”

“We’re flatline.”

“Stand back.”

The doctor placed the defibrillator around Jamie’s heart and hit her with a first bolt. No response
.

A monstrous blast ripped through Jamie’s ocean in that moment, and the music of the great whales turned to screams. Terror. The colony vanished instantaneously, faster than the sound itself.

“Nothing, Doctor.”

“Stand back.” He rubbed the paddles together, waited ten seconds, and then hit her again
.

A second blast ripped through the water. This one hit her in the back and she started sinking to the bottom, while everywhere around her, dolphins and whales lay dying, in agony. Where was
she? Where was the light? What were these enormous microwave towers doing in her dream?

She fell to the ocean floor, landing with a thump—just next to the hydrophone, which was poking out of the sand next to her. Lying there, back in the pain of her body, a voice spoke out.

“This is really happening. It’s not a dream. It’s real. You are the chosen one … only you can help us now.”

She reached out, but saw no one. “Take me with you …”

“Help us silence the great drums … please help us.”

“I want to go with you.”

“It’s not your time. You are needed. Wake up, now …”

“Wake up, Jamie.”

“We’ve got a pulse, Doctor.”

“Jamie? Can you hear me? Open your eyes.”

The attending physician, Dr. Arun Varja, was standing at the foot of the bed, reviewing her chart and discussing her condition with the nurse, when he noticed activity on the brain-wave monitor. “Jamie, can you hear me? Wake up; wake up, Jamie.”

In her unconscious state, trapped between worlds, she saw herself, lying pale and lifeless; she saw the doctor and nurse who watched over her. She didn’t want to be back, but there she was. The great Humpback had delivered her back to life, for the time being. She was still there, by Jamie’s side. The whale’s giant tear fell over her hands like a gentle waterfall, before washing out into the sea. Jamie tried to open her eyes, but could not. The whale slowly faded away and she floated there, somewhere between life and death, unable to move forward or back.

The hours passed, with no progress at all. Jamie was officially in coma, with no response to any attempted stimuli from the doctor. Liz pushed for news, and finally was given word that Jamie was
comatose, and still in ER. She went to the hospital cafeteria to have something to eat, waiting for a chance to speak with the doctor, and then returned to the waiting room, hoping for news. Into the evening, Liz waited, unsure how to move … what to do. In the unnerving setting of the hospital waiting room, she ran over the events that had led to the accident, reminded of the incident she’d had with the dolphins, and tried to put it together in her mind.

The admitting nurse finally came to speak to her. “I’m sorry—there’s no change so far, I’m afraid,” she said. “It might be better for you if you return in the morning. It’s getting late.”

“No, no thanks, I’ve got to be here,” Liz replied.

“There’s a motel just up the street. Why not try to get some rest?”

Liz thanked her again, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

In the ER, meanwhile, the electroencephalograph showed a flurry of brain activity. The doctor was called in immediately.

“Come on, Jamie. Open your eyes,” he said, loudly.

Jamie could hear him, but she couldn’t open her eyes. She simply could not.

“Jamie. Come on, girl, open those eyes.”

Jamie found her way out of the haze of that gray zone she had been in for hours, and she awoke in that moment. She looked curiously at the doctor, disoriented, not realizing where she was or how she had gotten there.

“Welcome back,” he said, patting her on the hand.

“Where am I?” Even with her eyes open, she could barely see. Her vision was cloudy and blurred.

“You’re in the emergency room in Vancouver General Hospital. You gave us quite a good scare.”

“What happened?”

“There was an accident on the ship. You had a severe head trauma—lost a lot of blood. Do you remember?”

Jamie was still trying to bridge back to the body. She had lost almost a full day. She was dazed, and still extremely confused. “I am swimming … the tunnel … the city of lights deep down there. Let me go.”

“Come back to us, now, Jamie. Right here.”

“The whales,” Jamie mumbled.

“You were on the ship and you hit your head. Do you remember?”

Jamie winced from the pain of her wound. “We have to stop the killing drums.” Tears flowed from her eyes. “I am their Emissary.”

Varja turned to the nurse. “I’m going to need that CT scan.”

“Yes, Doctor,” the nurse replied. “I’ll check downstairs and see how backed up they are.”

He spoke in a loud voice, trying to keep Jamie stimulated. “You have a very serious head wound. I need you to calm down now and take it slow. Can you lift your index finger for me?”

Jamie responded.

“That’s good.” He raised three fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Jamie strained to see. “Two.”

“Okay,” he replied, noting on the chart that her vision was impaired.

Jamie became agitated. “You don’t understand! There’s not much time left. We have to stop them.”

“It’s okay … it’s over now. You’re safe.”

“No, it’s not over … only they can stop it.”

Varja whispered to the nurse, “Looks like we’re going to need to sedate.”

“I saw the towers … electrical waves—was it? Nothing lives … no one.”

“Everything is fine, just relax now. We need you to just rest now. You’re in good hands. Quiet your mind.”

“Don’t you understand? We have to help them. Please.” She struggled to get out of bed, and in one sharp movement, ripped the
needle out of her hand. Blood started flowing. The nurse grabbed her hand and held it up, to stop the blood flow, applying pressure on the vein. Once they got her back in bed, the doctor and nurse worked together, testing for another vein to jab, since that one had now collapsed. They had to get her back on the saline drip immediately.

“We need you to cooperate with us. You are not out of the woods here. Do you understand me?” Dr. Varja said, forcefully.

Jamie nodded, too weak to fight. “Let me go,” she muttered. “Take me back with you.” She was beginning to hyperventilate.

He turned to the nurse. “Infuse half a milligram of midazolam.”

She exited the room and returned with a hypodermic needle, which she injected directly into the drip.

“I’ve just administered a sedative to help calm you down. I want you to just breathe slowly and let yourself relax.”

Jamie reacted quickly to the medication. Her eyes got heavy and finally closed.

While the nurse was taping Jamie’s hand to secure the needle, Varja asked, “Do we have family here?”

“No, Doctor. Just a colleague—she’s down the hall.” She looked on the admitting report. “Her name is Elizabeth Bartholomew.”

Varja exited to go look for Liz in the waiting room, but found her, instead, standing right next to the doorway, within ear’s reach. “Are you here for Ms. Hastings?”

“Yes. Is she okay?”

He was wary about giving out information. Hospital policy—only family was privileged to patient diagnosis. “Ms. Bartholomew?”

“Yes, I came in with her.”

“Has her family been contacted?”

“I don’t know, Doctor—it’s been a crazy scene here. We flew in by helicopter. I just accompanied her. I don’t know what else has been put in motion. Please give me some information—we’re all worried sick.”

“She’s just come out of coma.”

“What a relief!” Liz said, interrupting.

“… but she is still incoherent and very disoriented. She doesn’t understand what has happened. Her speech is slurred—she’s delirious, she has hallucinations. These symptoms, I’m afraid, could indicate brain damage.”

“Hallucinations?”

“Well, she is somewhere between here and a ‘city of lights’ at the bottom of the ocean. This could be a transition, or it could mean bleeding in the brain. The experience of lights triggering—that could indicate pressure on the brain tissue. We don’t know at this stage.”

Liz tried to conceal her reaction.

“We had to defibrillate after she went into cardiac arrest. We still don’t know what caused it.”

“Her heart stopped?”

“Yes, we lost her for a few minutes. She’s definitely been through extreme trauma. But for now, she is stable.”

“Oh, man. Poor Jamie.”

“Unfortunately, we did have to sedate her. I would have preferred not to do that—we need to run a series of neurological tests, but she was in a high state of agitation and intense pain, so, for now, I decided that was the safest course of treatment.”

Liz sighed. “What a freak-out.”

“The head of neurology, Dr. Katarov, will be in early tomorrow morning. We will need his expertise.”

“Right.”

He looked at Liz, curiously. “What exactly happened out there?”

“Oh my god! I’m not even sure. The ship was surrounded by whales—we don’t know what caused it. I guess you could say the same thing applies: we just don’t know at this stage.”

Varja was more than skeptical. “When you say the ship was ‘surrounded by whales,’ what do you mean, exactly?”

“We were caught up in some kind of freak situation—there were … god … maybe a hundred whales surrounding the ship. No one knows what could have triggered them to do that. That’s why she fell. Jamie was trying to free one of them, after it got entangled in the cord from the hydrophone. She was standing there one minute, and in the next she was down—soaked in blood.”

The doctor looked at Liz as if she were the one hallucinating.

“I know it sounds insane, but that is what happened.”

“Was she conscious when she hit her head?”

“I’m sorry … I don’t know. It all happened so quickly.”

“Do you know if she suffers from epilepsy?”

“I really don’t. I only just met her a few days ago.”

“Can we check her purse for medication? We need to know what she’s taking.”

Liz felt so foolish—she hadn’t even thought to grab Jamie’s purse on her way to the helipad. “Sorry, in the panic, I guess no one thought of that.”

The doctor finally resigned himself to the fact that Liz was going to be of no help whatsoever. “Well, the next twenty-four hours are going to be crucial. We need to advise next of kin. It’s best if they come to the hospital.”

“I know she’s from San Francisco. They’ll have to fly in.”

“That would be a good idea.”

“But she is going to be all right, isn’t she?”

“We’ll know better once we’ve been able to run more tests. First, we need to get her to a calm, conscious state. Hopefully, in the morning we can do a complete neurological workup.” He started walking towards the nurses’ station. “Can you come with me, please?”

“Our ship doctor has already spoken with your nurse. I was there in the lobby when he called.”

“Good, then. Next step is to get them to phone the family.”

“That sounds pretty ominous, Doctor.”

“It’s normal procedure to call in the family,” he replied.

“It sounds like you think she’s not going to make it.”

“I didn’t say that, but it is a serious trauma. She came in comatose, she flatlined in emergency—we had to bring her back from that. The good news, though, is that she’s out of coma. She is able to speak and she has motor response—those are all good signs.” He handed Jamie’s chart to the nurse. “That’s all I can tell you for now.”

“May I stay with her?”

“I don’t see why not: a few hours anyway. Once we’ve moved her to ICU, you will be able to visit her. For now, though, we’re holding her in ER until we’ve got a bed up there. I’ll be checking on her personally in the morning.”

Liz thanked the doctor and watched as he walked away down the hallway, before dialing her mobile. She spoke furtively. “Sorry to disturb you.”

The male voice on the other end replied, “What’s up?”

“Jamie Hastings took a bad fall and nearly cracked her head open. I’m here in the hospital ER. She just came out of coma.” She didn’t want to get into the insane story of the whales—that could come later.

There was a silent pause. “Who else is with you?”

“Nobody, I flew in with her alone.”

“Good.”

“Doctor said she was talking out of her head. Delirious. She was trying to tell him about the colony.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

“They’re moving her up to intensive care. I don’t know the room yet.”

“Stay with her. I’ll find you.”

As soon as she hung up, Liz overheard the nurse on the phone.

“We need a bed for an ER,” she said into the phone. “Patient name Hastings. 368B? Got it—I’ll get her signed out of ER and then send her up right away, thanks.” She leaned through the partition and said to Liz, “We’re in luck. They’ve got a bed for your friend.”