by Luke Donegan
DARK MATTER
It’s too late to save the world
Luke Donegan
Copyright © 2019 Luke Donegan
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-0-6485005-1-3
in memory of Isla,
who never got to grow up, but who remains with us, every day
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
PROLOGUE
Part 1 – Phoenix
Chapter 1 - INTERVIEW
Chapter 2 - OCEAN-HEARTH
Chapter 3 - FIRST DAY
Chapter 4 - NATURE DOME
Chapter 5 - RESPONSIBILITY
Chapter 6 - BELONG
Chapter 7 - DECISION
Chapter 8 - RESTORATION DAY
Part 2- Dragon
Chapter 9 - SCION-TEACHER
Chapter 10 - ARK
Chapter 11 - LAW
Chapter 12 - HOPE
Chapter 13 - BETRAYAL
Chapter 15 - ABERRATION
Chapter 16 - SORROW
Chapter 16 - ESCAPE
Chapter 17 - IMMORTAL
Part 3 – Ascendant
Chapter 18 - ARRIVAL
Chapter 19 - LAST DAY
Chapter 20 - BECOME
Chapter 21 - THE GREAT WIND
Chapter 22 - PASSAGE
Chapter 23 - SPIRIT
EPILOGUE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
OCEAN-HEARTH
Hearth-Father
Jay, Teacher
Rhada, Scion-Teacher
Jayda, Kumi, Samuel, Grace, Ayodhya, Mai, children
THE MUSEUM
Ismet, museum attendant, later Scion-Attendant
Ariel, Teacher
Erys, Scion Teacher
Paris Aristotle, Curator of History
Jaime, Scion-Curator of History
Xia Tsang, Curator of Nature
Sian, Scion-Curator of Nature
Jack Gaunt, Curator of Science
Masodi, Scion-Curator of Science
Doctor
Scion Doctor
Lucien, Builder
Gregor, Taxidermist
Clara, Scion Taxidermist
Felicity, Simon, Josiah, Nazreth, children of the Workshops
OTHERS
Jaresh, Teacher of Desert-Hearth
Hearth Administrator
City Administrator – scion to the Ascendant
Counsellor
Saskareth, Emu Animist of the Umawari
Gilmagesh, Emu Animist of the Umawari
The Captain of Green Company
The Commander
ASCENDENCY
Ascendant: head of the eight member Ascendency, the ruling council of Pars
Director: head of the Museum
Instructor: head of Teachers
Mother: responsible for Hearths and Reproduction Centres
Supervisor: responsible for Builders and works
Treasurer: head of commerce
General: head of the army
Judge: head of law and justice
CHARACTERS FROM STORIES
Shih Huang-ti, a peasant boy who grows to become Emperor of Chin
Dao, Tiger Animist
Sui-lin, the silk princess of Shu Pa, later Empress
Lui Pang, a devoted general of Shih Huang-ti, known as the Dragon of Sichuan
Kafka Yellis, scientist of the Third Roman Empire who discovered quark energy
Jasmin Jared, biologist who unleashed Aberration upon the world
Digby Mue, an Emu Animist, Jasmin Jared’s assistant
Wang Nu, Panda Animist, a mystic from Xiqing Shan
Captain Baran, pilot of a battle satellite
Franco, Captain Baran’s robot assistant
Mitanni and Gargga, primeval and celestial beings which created the animists
Lanyard of the Pellpenar, Penguin Animist, Captain of the Eudyptes
GLOSSARY
PLACES
Ascendancy: seat of the Ascendant and the eight member ruling council of Pars
Barracks: seat of the General and containing the army
Courthouse: seat of the Judge
Museum: seat of the Director, preserves knowledge of nature, science and history
Ocean-Hearth: home for children on the coast
Treasury: seat of the Treasurer
Pars: city on the western seaboard of the continent
Sydon: city on the eastern seaboard of the continent
Merub: city on the south eastern seaboard of the continent
Nature Dome: gallery that displays life in all its forms
Science Dome: gallery that displays all realms of reality from the sub-atomic to the universe
History Dome: gallery that displays ancient civilisations
Tarc: land of the Penguin People
Islands of Death: barren islands north of the continent
Ch’in: vast, empty land north of the Islands of Death
TERMS
Aberration: the breaking of Law, for example, the breaking of the First Law of Nature resulted in the mutation of species
Animist: ancient shape-shifter species, humanoids with sometimes human, sometimes animal heads
Dark Matter: the opposite of matter (the physical substance of the universe). Dark Matter feeds off the energy of Spirit
First Law of Science: one shall not explore the subatomic
First Law of Nature: one shall not create unnatural life
First Law of History: one shall not take another’s life
Loss and Decline: major cataclysm that led to the near destruction of the earth
Passage: the passing of the Spirit from the body to the Spirit Realm
Restoration Day: celebration of rebirth
Spirit: the life energy of all living beings
Spirit Realm: place outside of the universe where life energy coalesces and exists
Triumvirate: ruling body of the Museum composed of the three Curators
Scions: apprentices to the Masters
Quark Wars: wars of nuclear fire that caused the downfall of the Third Roman Empire
PROLOGUE
He remembered Sian, and the shameful way he had said goodbye. I will return, he had told her. But things will not stay the same. You are better off without me.
Beyond the window the sky drifted, bright, empty and dry. The red desert plain slid far below. The bowl of earth curved away to the circular horizon. The rim of the world.
Not a drop of rain will ever fall, he thought.
The shadow of the zeppelin darted across the landscape, a tiny shadow zipping like a bug towards the east. He tried to stifle feelings of regret.
A child giggled. He turned towards the sound. Fifty-two passengers sat in rows of four along the gondola. He was at the back, his view mostly of the backs of heads. Fifty-two passengers sailing five thousand feet above the desert, commuting between lonely cities separated by an empty land.
He felt something wrong. An almost imperceptible change in vibration from the engine! He could sense it in his arms against the armrests. The type of change that made the most sensitive heart pause and the mind cry out; That doesn’t feel right!
He looked around. The other passengers seemed unaware ... all but one. A young woman across the aisle and a row behind him. Their eyes met. She felt it too. A question suspended in her eyes.
The gondola lurched and people were thrown from their seats. The zeppelin tipped. Through his window the landscape swung upwards. Desert filled the window.
He gripped the seat in front. The gondola righted itself then lurched again, lifting up. His stomach sank with the motion.
Passengers screamed. We are rising, he
realised. He understood clearly the danger faced by a zeppelin that rose too fast.
Two flight stewards descended from the flight deck. “We’re caught in a thermal,” one informed the passengers. “It will be rough until the Captain can ride through its ceiling. Under your seats you will find a parachute pack. As a precaution we ask that you strap the parachutes on. Rachel will demonstrate.”
Whimpers of fear escaped some of the passengers.
“There’s no need to be afraid,” insisted the steward.
Passengers scrambled to retrieve the parachutes but there was no time. The zeppelin heaved violently. Passengers and parachute packs were flung across the cabin.
As the zeppelin continued to rise, escaping gas hissed from the massive balloon under which the gondola hung. To prevent the balloon from exploding, the Captain released hydrogen as they gained altitude.
The two stewards attempted to retrieve the scattered packs. The young woman across the aisle tugged at a parachute pack beneath her seat, without effect. One of its arm straps was caught around the seat leg. Without thinking he climbed from his seat to help. Immediately the gondola pitched forward, throwing him to the floor. The gondola filled with screams.
It had slipped out of the thermal. But now they were too high, with too little gas. The zeppelin half sank, half fell. Its huge balloon rippled with a lack of pressure. As the gondola tipped forwards, he clutched the seat leg to stop himself sliding.
With terrific force, the zeppelin began shaking from side to side. The woman he had tried to help was screaming. He lost his grip and was flung back and forth across the aisle. Bones snapped as he smashed against seat legs.
And then, the side of the gondola stripped away. The shuddering stopped and the screaming stopped and he watched as row after row of seats fell away quietly into the sky. The passengers rose and fell and disappeared as if they were in boats on a rough sea.
He clung to a seat leg, his body and legs flailing in the wind. He saw the earth far below. Passengers and seats sailed away towards the red landscape. The young woman was hanging from her seat. He raised a hand. She slipped and dropped past him, her outstretched hands waving wildly.
He pitched forward and gripped her wrist. She swung in the air, the red earth tipping behind. Other bodies flowed past her into the sky.
Wind roared about him but everything was quiet. The woman’s wide, unbelieving eyes clung desperately to his. “Don’t struggle!” he cried. “I have you!”
Her hand slipped in his grip.
The wind caught her body, shaking her like a wild creature. He tried to hold on …
Her fingers peeled away and she fell into the sky.
Sparks burst from the generator room as the fuselage broke open. Red sparks sprayed against the sheathing of the balloon. Embers melted through the oiled linen – only a few moments remained.
The wind wrenched his grip from the seat. Wrist bones snapped. The great balloon of hydrogen burst into a cloud of flame, flinging him into space. Half the sky erupted. Red fire roared across his body and face.
He plummeted through the sky. Burning wreckage fell with him. It was a strange dance of fire and metal and wood, hovering in space.
His mind swirled with terror. In this pause there was time to understand his fate.
My death has come, he thought. But what of my Spirit if I die this way?
Pain bleached his thoughts. Searing pain in his face and body and wrist. The great wind rushed past him as he closed his eyes. He was riding the wind, riding towards the ocean of souls.
No! No! He opened his eyes.
Dancing fire, and the world hurtling closer.
And then a strange sight! A bundle before him, straps flapping in the wind. It hovered at arm’s reach. Without thought he reached for the bundle and passed his arms through the straps.
He was given another chance to live.
Wind and fire and tears in his eyes, he pulled the cord lashed across his chest. The sheathing opened, yanking him back and away.
Part 1 – Phoenix
Red flames burst across the phoenix’s body and wings. It became a creature of fire, roaring like a furnace and as it flapped its great wings, flames leapt upwards. It soared through the empty sky and into the ether beyond, leaving a trail of smoke behind.
Teacher
Chapter 1 INTERVIEW
Jay could not remember his parents. Passage came for his mother when he was a baby. It claimed his father when Jay was two. His first memory was of the woman who had then been Hearth-Mother of Ocean-Hearth. He remembered being comforted in her arms, but only briefly. She had many children to care for. She too was gone now, her Spirit flying freely on the great wind.
His next memory was of the day he learnt how his parents had died. Hearth-Father had replaced Hearth-Mother. He was a young man, too young to be responsible for so many children. Hearth-Father explained to Jay that his parents had passed to the spirit realm. Jay decided to follow. During the middle day sleep, he stole from the hearth and climbed down the rocks to the ocean shore. The ocean stretched for eternity, and he confused this ocean with the ocean of souls.
The water was cool after the harsh heat of middle day. He waded until the water lapped at his chest, then pulled forward with thin arms and kicking legs. Like all children at Ocean-Hearth he could swim well. He swam and swam until his small body tired. Although the horizon had been far away, he arrived at the border of the other world. Slowly the tendrils of that world slipped around his legs and drew him down.
His body touched gently to the sandy floor. Lifeless, hazel eyes gazed into the depths. The hair about his face pitched with the eddying current from waves above.
Stillness.
A bubble perched on his lips, then popped free and wobbled upwards.
And colour blossomed as feathers of red and yellow and blue burst from his face and arms and chest, as his arms became wings ...
Hearth-Father dove from the balcony of Ocean-Hearth ninety feet above the ocean. He surfaced, and a few swift strokes drew him to where Jay had sunk. Underwater he searched with blurred, stinging eyes for his drowning ward. He found Jay lying on the sandy sea floor, brown hair swishing in the ocean current, hazel eyes peering beyond this world.
A dozen years later Jay walked along Ocean Road, making his way to the Museum from his home at Ocean-Hearth. It was midafternoon and most citizens of Pars had woken from their middle day sleep. A hot wind blew in from the desert and swept out to sea. It whipped his brown hair around his face, tugged at his clothes and whined through the broken and roofless buildings across the road.
At fifteen years Jay was small for his age. Yet the mistakes of a generation long dead had forced adulthood upon him. Here, on the edge of the world, childhood was over by the age of twelve. As Teacher of Ocean-Hearth Jay was the moral guide for its orphans. And because he loved the children, he walked with short steps sullied by guilt towards the Museum and the alternative future it offered.
Waves crashed on the beach. Before him rose the Museum, and knots in his stomach tugged and tightened as he approached the towering structure.
The Museum dominated the horizon and he saw it every morning from his bedroom window. Its belly rested on the earth. The unrelenting sun scorched its back. Its entrance foyer yawned towards the city, desperate for a tongue moistening rain that would never fall.
He arrived and stood in the shadow of its massive domes. Far above him the Museum’s tower scratched at the sky. The Director of the Museum lived in its uppermost apartment. It was said that the Director had so far avoided Passage, although he was more than forty years old. Perhaps he was the oldest person in the city.
The desert wind whipped about him as he stood on the front steps. The hot air hurt his eyes, and he closed them as he faced the wind. Its heat passed through him. The great wind, on which flew the Spirits of this world, racing above the earth. He enjoyed the hot air on his face and tried to still the nervousness within his heart.
Domin
ating the foyer of the Museum a mighty statue towered halfway to the ceiling. The three-legged man held the globe of the world in his up-stretched hands. Each leg represented one of the three great disciplines. History - a bare human leg. Nature - the trunk of a tree, rooted in the tiled floor. And Science – a mechanical framework of metal rods and plates, gyros and steel mesh. The statue conveyed strength. Its resolute eyes glared down at those who entered the Museum.
Jay paused and met the statue’s eyes. What would it take to make it fall? he wondered. He felt intimidated by the gaze of this inanimate thing and puzzled at the effect. For the briefest of moments, his eyes stared through the statue’s eyes and he saw himself. A small boy with the world on his shoulders.
Most of the staff who worked at the Museum lived there also. As children they were taken from the reproduction programs sponsored by the city to fill the roles of attendants, curatorial assistants and exhibition workers. Some like Jay came from Hearths, orphans left behind as their parents came to Passage. In the Museum they rose up through the ranks to become scions and some eventually became masters of their craft.
It was unusual for someone his age to be interviewed by the Museum. The previous Scion-Teacher had died and no replacement within the Museum could be found. The hearths of Pars had been searched and Jay, the Teacher of Ocean-Hearth invited to an interview.
Beyond the statue stretched a wide desk at the rear of the foyer. Red-suited Museum attendants staffed it - none was more than twelve years old.
“Can I help you?” The girl was small and thin. She had blond hair tied up beneath a red cap. Large green eyes opened wider as she waited for his response.
“My name is Jay. I am here for an interview with the Triumvirate.”
“You are here for Erys’ position,” she noted. “I will take you to the Teacher’s rooms where the Teacher and the Triumvirate are waiting. Please follow me.”
They crossed the foyer and entered a corridor leading them deeper into the Museum. The attendant’s step was brisk and efficient.