Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [105]
They are one and the same, Maudi.
‘Technically they are but…’
Nell’s not quite so fierce?
‘With me? Yes, that’s one reason.’ She pulled the plug, letting the water drain towards the filter system and the crops below. ‘But I’m fine now. The feeling’s past.’
Swim?
‘Lead the way.’
Drayco shook again and loped towards the palm-shaded bathing pool, Rosette waddling behind. They dove in together, both making a big splash. The water was warm, almost too hot in the midday sun. Plumes of black smoke still rose from the distant mountains, the peaks of the Sierras, but Temple Los Loma remained clear, pristine under the protection spell, save for the slivers of ash filtering down from the sky like tiny black threads.
‘How long can it last?’ An’ Lawrence said.
He sat by the edge of the pool as she floated on her back. Drayco dog-paddled to the edge and climbed out, giving Scylla a nose touch before shaking the water from his coat and lying on the hot tiles. He began licking his fur.
‘Not long if we can’t get Jarrod back,’ Rosette answered. ‘How are they going in there? Ready for me yet?’
‘They sent me to find you, but that’s not what I meant.’
She tilted her head, taking his hand as she climbed the steps.
‘I meant, how long is your pregnancy going to last?’
‘Good question!’ She swiped water from her arms. ‘I’ll need to have a good look at those images too.’ She reached for his book.
He held it back. ‘Come. Dry off first. You can study on the way.’ He looked at her belly and frowned. ‘You feeling all right?’
‘Fine,’ she said, taking the towel he offered. ‘Never better.’ When they got to the library she had a clear picture in her mind of the images and what they needed to amplify. Grayson would do the rest. If he could see the embedded message codes, he could translate them. All she and the others had to do was enlarge the image of her DNA and project it onto a wall.
‘There you are. What have you two been doing? Raiding the kitchen?’ Kreshkali asked.
‘Washing enemy blood from Drayco’s hide,’ Rosette said, pushing damp hair out of her eyes. ‘But food’s a good idea. Can we…’
‘Later. Grayson needs to see this now.’
See what I mean, Drayco? She’s cranky with me.
You’re right, Maudi. Nellion would have let us make lunch.
‘Teg!’ Kreshkali motioned him to her. ‘Help me clear this wall.’
There was one corner of the library free of books and covered with a tapestry. They took it down, leaving the smooth white wall for their projection. Kali, Hotha, Teg, An’ Lawrence and Rosette, with the temple cats on either side, sat in a semicircle facing it. Grayson was behind them, ready with his sketchpad. Fynn was asleep under the table.
‘I’d rather enter the data directly into the computer. It would be faster that way.’
‘It wouldn’t,’ Kreshkali said.
‘Electrical power supplies disrupt the streams,’ Rosette said to explain what the High Priestess had not.
‘The streams?’
‘Of consciousness. We need a one-way path from the amplified image of my DNA to that wall. Having the computer on is like throwing out a sand bar in the middle of a smooth-bottomed bay. It would put waves where we don’t want them.’
Grayson nodded. ‘I’ll record by hand then. I’m ready.’
Kreshkali began. She chanted in a deep tone, calling in the Elementals, Fire, Earth, Air and Water. Her voice was joined by the men’s as Rosette visualised the structure of her DNA, amplified one billion times. She imagined the right-handed double helical twist with its upper and lower grooves, following it further by tracing the skeletal-like structure. Each adenine and guanine base, the energy-carrying molecules, took shape as she focused on the bonds to the complementary nitrogenous opposites, the thymine and cytosine bases. She pictured it as she’d been taught, as the image in the text portrayed, each base and phosphate group individually amplified larger and larger.
When Kreshkali’s chanting shifted, Rosette drew her image up from her body and, linking to the minds of everyone around her,