Dark Matter

by Luke Donegan

  He turned and bid farewell to the others. “Goodbye Xia,” he said finally, holding the Curator of Nature. “Until we meet again.”

  “Goodbye Paris,” she said.

  They boarded the zeppelin. Ground crew freed the tie-ropes. The solar batteries fired, the engine growled and the beast lifted slowly into the sky. Desert wind pushed the beast towards the ocean. As it gained altitude it met higher winds coming off the ocean. It swung in a wide circle over the city and swept towards the distant desert.

  Erys watched the zeppelin until it disappeared. The hot wind blasted his eyes. The desert wind tugged at his robes and tried to bare him up. He closed his eyes, and the great wind blew through his body as if this form were without substance. It lifted his Spirit free and up he flew like a silver, flying creature ...

  ... up until he saw the zeppelin suspended over the distant horizon.

  His spirit form called after the zeppelin. Flames dripped from his lips and silver tears pooled in his eyes.

  Erys moved back into the Teacher’s office. While Jay recovered in the Doctor’s rooms, Erys had these chambers to himself. He wanted things the way they were. He tried to visualise Ariel sitting on the tatami. But she was gone. Soon Jay would return and he would have to share this space.

  It was quiet up here. He had become used to the constant chatter of the Builder’s children, the hammering of tools and the hiss of the furnaces. He was lonely here, without them, without Ariel. Without Sian.

  He sat on the tatami and tried to clear his mind. Despite his attempts to meditate, thoughts intruded.

  He had told the boy everything he knew about the Taxidermist and about the Ark. Jay had sucked this information from him until he was exhausted and empty.

  It was a betrayal. But also, in a strange way, he felt liberated. A great secret was revealed. He felt excited, and fearful, for he could not predict what the Teacher would do with this knowledge.

  “What have I done?” he whispered, lowering his forehead to the cool weave of the tatami. Xia! Gregor! Sian! Builder! He is my master. What else could I have done?

  Jaime and Erys led fifty soldier cadets across a sky bridge in the History Dome. At the head of the group marched their commanding officer. The Sergeant barked orders in a battle language unintelligible to Jaime and Erys. The cadets moved effortlessly into formation and waited for Jaime and Erys to continue the tour.

  Although they carried no weapons, the army cadets intimidated Jaime. The blond-haired boy was thankful to have Erys’ company.

  Their cadet uniforms were black and rigid like an insect’s exoskeleton. Each had a shoulder guard painted red to identify their company. Helmets that looked like the heads of giant ants covered head and neck. Eyeholes were covered with smoked glass. The soldiers breathed and spoke through tightly woven wire mesh. No part of their faces were visible. Jaime could not even guess their genders. But they were young. Not one of the cadets was taller than five feet.

  “This gallery tells the story of global warfare,” said Jaime. “Originally, warfare was characterised by local conflicts. However, during the Third Roman Empire, warfare changed fundamentally and became global. Why was this? Can anyone tell me what precipitated this transformation?”

  Twenty hands shot up. “Red Seventeen!” grunted the Sergeant.

  One of the cadets stepped sideways in formation. “Technology!” cried a small, hard voice from behind its mesh.

  Jaime nodded. “Yes, technology. Observe.” He pressed a sequence of buttons on the control panel that, one by one, illuminated images of weaponry across the gallery wall. “The sword used for hand to hand conflict. The bow and arrow enabled people to kill from a distance. The invention of gunpowder again increased the distance by which one could kill, depersonalizing combat. The missile enabled one to kill from across the globe. The laser enabled one to kill from a satellite orbiting the planet. Each technological advance overcame the challenges of distance. Now, this technological advance led to the Quark Wars and the near destruction of our planet. Can someone tell me what fundamental Law of History was broken by the development of military technology?”

  No cadets offered a response.

  Erys stepped forward. “The curator asked a simple question,” he said, eyeing the cadets. “I am certain you all know this answer.”

  He walked up and down the line of cadets, pausing before each..

  “I know you study the Laws of History at the Barracks,” he said. “These laws are the foundation of learning.”

  Erys turned and illuminated all the panels in the gallery. Images of warfare and suffering surrounded the group, weapons, the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb, internment camps, open graves, destroyed cities, melted landscapes coated with the yellow sludge of quark residue.

  “Evil is the absence of empathy!” he stated. “This is the starting point for all the Laws of History. What is the first? Someone must know.”

  No-one replied.

  The Scion-Teacher looked down at his white robes. “Perhaps your Sergeant can answer for you.”

  The Sergeant stood motionless beside his cadets. The black mask betrayed no response. After a few moments it was apparent he would not answer.

  Erys approached the Sergeant. He stood before the impervious black mask. Irresistibly, a small smile flickered at the corners of his lips.

  “Sergeant. I believe you know the first Law of History. Will you not provide the answer for your cadets?”

  The Sergeant did not move. The man towered above Erys. Slowly he tilted his head forward, the smoked eyes boring like a bug’s eyes into Erys’.

  The Scion-Teacher was unintimidated. He relished the contest, knowing that a Sergeant of the army would not dare touch a Teacher.

  Jaime and the cadets waited nervously to see who would break first. None thought it would be the Sergeant.

  “Red Twenty-four!” he said finally. “You will answer the Scion-Teacher! Bilarj dark!”

  One of the cadets stepped reluctantly to the side. Erys grinned at the Sergeant then walked along the line towards the cadet. But his grin fell away as he faced the cadet identified as Red Twenty-four. This cadet was thin and barely four feet tall. The child could not have been eight years old. The cadet was visibly shaking.

  Erys regretted his game. His cockiness would get this child in trouble.

  “Red Twenty-four! Answer the question,” ordered the Sergeant.

  The child’s legs were trembling. Erys could not see the child’s eyes, but he knew they were misting with tears.

  I’m sorry, thought Erys.

  He moved forward to reassure the child. Immediately the Sergeant barked: “Do not touch the cadets.”

  He watched with growing pity as the child spoke in an almost silent whisper. “The first law: one shall not kill another,” stammered the voice of a scared little boy.

  Good. Good boy. Erys nodded and smiled gently.

  He turned to face the Sergeant. Erys could sense no humanity in him. Evil is the lack of empathy, he thought. Where is your empathy? He was not sure to whom he referred his thoughts.

  The Builder was yet to appoint a scion. While Lucien recovered in the Doctor’s rooms from a trauma more spiritual than physical, it fell to Erys to manage the workshop children. Erys gave each of the eldest four a field of duty – Josiah monitored the galleries for wear and tear, Nazreth led a team for on-site maintenance, Felicity ran the workshop and Simon supervised the children, managing their training and monitoring their safety. Between his duties as Scion-Teacher, Erys spent what time he could in the workshops, supporting the four children who were not ready for these responsibilities.

  Erys worried about the Museum. The Teacher’s Passage had effected everyone. The Builder was a broken man. The History Curator had left for the desert and Jaime struggled with his new responsibilities. Jack Gaunt was barely visible. The new Teacher was inexperienced and immobilized. Without their support, Erys shouldered the unwieldy weight of responsibility. He slept only a few hours
each night, worked hours long and hard. He could not find the time to reconcile with Sian, and he avoided thinking about and preparing for the moment when the Teacher would act on his new-found knowledge.

  As Erys helped Felicity fix a broken steam piston from the History Dome, he looked up to see the Teacher standing in the workshop doorway and realised he had run out of time.

  Erys wiped sweat from his brow. The boy wore the white robes of the Teacher. In contrast to the heat and grime of the workshop, the white robes shone brightly with power and authority.

  The workshop children bowed as Jay approached. Jay and Erys faced each other. Although Erys towered over the Teacher, it was apparent to the children who had the power.

  “Teacher, I did not expect you to rise for another week.”

  “I am well enough,” said Jay. “Take me to the Taxidermist.”

  Erys hesitated. “I have not prepared them,” said Erys. “They are unaware you know about the Ark.”

  “No arguments. It is time.” Jay gestured towards the back of the workshop. “This way?”

  He strode off towards the Taxidermist’s rooms. Erys turned to Felicity. “Look after the workshop.”

  He caught up with the Teacher at the door to the Taxidermist’s laboratory.

  “Teacher! Please reconsider!”

  Jay pushed the door and entered the laboratory. The Taxidermist and his scion looked up in surprise at the intrusion.

  “Scion-Teacher,” said the Taxidermist to Jay. “I do not like interruptions.”

  “Taxidermist, he is now Teacher,” Erys reminded him quickly.

  “Of course, I apologise. Teacher, we can organise a more appropriate time. My scion and I are currently busy.”

  “Forgive my intrusion,” said Jay. He scanned the room. “I have interrupted you before, but not here.”

  “I am not sure I understand.”

  “Yes you do. The day I spied on you from the vent. You were working on the kangaroo. I saw you, but it was not here.”

  The Taxidermist looked at Jay carefully. He lay down his tools and pulled his work gloves from each hand.

  “Clara, will you finish here then clean up?” The thin man walked around the workbench to face the Teacher. “With respect, I am happy to meet with you, but not today.”

  From the corner of his eye the Taxidermist could see Erys shaking his head in warning.

  The Teacher seemed to grow in stature as he faced the Taxidermist. “When we last spoke I apologised for my intrusion. I was a boy then. Do not mistake me for one now. I have seen Passage and it nearly killed me. I followed my Teacher to a place you could not imagine. I saw many things, and Erys told me the rest. I know what you are doing. I know about the Ark. I want to see it. Now!”

  The Taxidermist turned to Erys. “You told him? Why?”

  “He asked me,” Erys said simply. “I cannot lie to my master.”

  The Taxidermist shook his head. “No, I insist. I am too busy. You have no right to be here.”

  Jay pointed to a doorway across the room. “Is it this way?”

  “No,” said the Taxidermist, moving to bar the door. “Stop! I insist!”

  The Teacher lifted his hand and held it before the Taxidermist. “You have broken the Laws of Nature. How dare you!”

  The Teacher’s eyes darkened as a black liquid seemed to pour into his eye sockets. Power emanated from the Teacher – beneath his white robes a haze of golden light glowed from his chest. A dark vapor crept along his arm and coiled around his upheld hand. The Teacher clenched his teeth, fighting to suppress the power within him.

  The Taxidermist, angry and frightened held his hands to his face. He was fighting something also, struggling to avoid his own violent reaction to the Teacher’s intrusion.

  “No! I will not let you through,” he insisted.

  Jay closed his eyes. His power magnified. The floor began to vibrate. Objects on nearby shelves shifted and fell to the floor.

  “Peace, Teacher,” said Erys. He placed his hands on the Teacher’s upraised arms and slowly pushed them down. But as he touched the Teacher the black mist pooled around his own hands. The sensation was like a numbness, dead and cold. As if something inside him had died.

  The Teacher opened his eyes and breathed deeply. He brought his hands to his chest and the mist dissipated.

  “There is something wrong with you,” said the Taxidermist. “You are unnatural.”

  Jay breathed deeply. “You are right. You would be wise not to test me again.”

  Neither man moved. Erys hesitated by the Teacher, frightened to experience that ill-feeling again.

  “Come with me,” he said eventually. “I will show you.”

  He motioned the Teacher through the doorway into the chamber beyond. As the Teacher passed through the Taxidermist protested: “Erys!”

  “What can I do?” argued the Scion-Teacher. “I cannot stop him.”

  “You risk the planet’s salvation,” implored the Taxidermist. Then Erys stepped back as ripples of grey, scaly skin washed up and down the Taxidermist’s face. Before he could register what he had seen, he followed the Teacher into the Taxidermist’s quarters.

  “Teacher. What happened back there?” asked Erys.

  The Teacher faced him, his eyes amber once again. “I seem to have brought something back with me. I have an idea what it is.” He shook his head. “For now, show me what we are here to see.”

  They passed through the Taxidermist’s living quarters into the laboratory Jay had seen months earlier from his hiding place in the air vent.

  This laboratory was larger than the first. The Teacher stood in awe at what faced him. From their hiding space in the vent above he and Ismet had only seen a small portion of the room.

  Erys waited by the entrance as the Teacher walked slowly into the laboratory. The Taxidermist hurried behind them. Erys held the thin man back, motioning for calm.

  “He could ruin everything,” complained the Taxidermist.

  “All is not lost. There is a possibility we can convince him to support the project.”

  They watched as the Teacher explored the room.

  Ten workbenches occupied the space in two rows of five. At the end of each bench sat two vessels of liquid, one red, one a murky brown, linked by pipes and pumps. Animals lay on the benches. One workbench was devoted entirely to a massive rhinoceros, the beast lying on its side, its legs hanging over the side. Pipes ran from the vats of liquid and punctured the skin of the beast at points along its underside. Red liquid pumped slowly into the beast. Yellow-brown liquid returned along a second series of pipes to the other vat.

  The Teacher approached the creature and lay his head against its chest to check for breathing. He looked back at Erys and the Taxidermist before exploring further.

  The following table contained small mammals. Each of the animals had similar pipes attached with red and brown fluids pumping to and from.

  All of the animals represented extinct species.

  “Are they alive?” the Teacher asked the two men behind him.

  When there was no answer he turned to face them.

  “Are they alive?”

  Erys and the Taxidermist exchanged glances.

  “I want to hear the truth.”

  The Taxidermist nodded.

  Jay turned back to the tables. “How did you achieve this? Through genetics?”

  “Yes.”

  “And these machines pump nutrients to the creatures?”

  “Yes.” The Taxidermist joined the Teacher. “Every few months the animals need to be cleansed of dead cells, bacteria and toxins.”

  Jay moved beyond the tables. Lining the walls around the perimeter of the laboratory were dozens of vats of pink liquid. In many were suspended animal fetuses, wrinkled pink creatures.

  “And you breed them here, in these vats?”

  Erys could see that the Teacher was fascinated. The future of the project depended on Jay’s support. Honesty was the best tactic.
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  “Most of the embryos are housed in the animals in the Nature Dome. They grow to term in the wombs of those animals. If there is a problem, they are brought down here.”

  “Like the kangaroo?” asked Jay.

  “Yes,” replied the Taxidermist.

  “New species that have no parent are grown here,” continued Erys.

  The Teacher tapped the glass of a vat. The embryo inside did not stir. Its eyes were closed. Partly formed front legs and paws curled up under its chin as if it were praying.

  “And when they are born, what happens?” asked the Teacher. “They are put in the Nature Dome?”

  “No,” said Erys. “They are stored elsewhere.”

  The Taxidermist buried his head in his hands. “You are telling him too much.”

  “Show me,” commanded the Teacher. “Show me everything.”

  A stairwell led into a basement level far below the Museum. The Taxidermist followed reluctantly and silently behind.

  “It was a cistern long ago, during the Third Roman Empire,” explained Erys. “Here.”

  They stood on a landing that overlooked a vast cavern hewn from bedrock. An old watermark ran around the walls. Row after row of capsules lined the floor space, running into the shadows across the cistern. Blue light emanated from the capsules, illuminating the cistern with a ghostly pall.

  Each capsule was a refrigeration unit, enclosed within glass. The inner surfaces of the glass lids were frosted with ice.

  Jay gasped as he took in the enormity of the project. The units numbered in the thousands and he could see that most were occupied.

  Jay descended a set of stairs and walked out into the cistern.

  “Do you understand now our need for secrecy?” asked the Taxidermist. “The Museum is an ark. An ark full of life. Our intention is to return life to the planet.”

  The Teacher walked along the row examining the contents of the capsules. Young animals occupied each unit. The row they followed was devoted to reptiles. Each capsule contained hundreds of animals; crocodiles, alligators, lizards and skinks, geckos, iguanas and chameleons. The Teacher leaned over a glass cover and peered inside. Blue light glanced off his face.