The trailer for the film of the novel 'Darkmatters' has been completed and will be hitting the web shortly...
If you're looking for a taste of the book itself (currently under publishing negotiation) try this exclusive exert from the Prologue:
Prologue – death from the past
The image ‘echoes’ from deep space were being streamed in real time across the systems of the L2 Galactic Infestations Research and Early Warning Group (GIREWG). What was being recorded were basically starlight ‘projections’, those whose light had once ‘bounced’ off earth and then rebounded again from nearer planets, dust fields or gas clusters. Once in possession of these echoed waves of light - the mammoth analytical A.I. brains were able to fragment, magnify and display such reflections so that actual events on our little planet from various times past could be watched – in much the same way that satellite footage had been viewed for several hundred years.
In the main viewing hall an image of somewhere on earth, from some time ago stabilises on the high definition banks of multi-angle plasma screens, it shows a mass of armoured warriors marching through sandy desert terrain. It is night, maybe just before dawn and a harsh sandstorm appears to be obscuring much of the detail but even from this high overhead vantage point it is obvious that this army is prepared for battle. From within the dust cloud savagely fashioned swords glint in the last of the moonlight, the armour is black and barbarically impressively – a lot to do with the twisted sharp edges of dark metal. The full extent of the army is difficult to gage but it must run into tens of thousands, there are cavalry forming a wide column of mounted riders running along one edge of a steep sided valley. The main bulk is made up of foot soldiers, some with banners that have various emblems on them – the feed computer is cross-referencing the ancient symbols and languages against the inter-global directory of knowledge and displaying footnotes about the images presented which includes translations of some of banners, one apparently reads ‘death bringers’.
“Can we pan out or track ahead of them? I am keen to see what force this army is moving to meet…” L2’s Ministry for Information is the best funded on the planet and it should come as little surprise that it is they who have set up the technology to view our human distant past from the aging reflection of light bounced from the stars themselves. It appears that Grand Information Controller Manu Doyyle has taken a keen interest in the footage coming in through the GIREWG. He is a man of average height and little hair but a hugely compelling presence. His Social Rating™ is blinking “****excited by technology” and it is mirrored on his face – a schoolboy in a toyshop staring at the latest plaything which his parents have just promised him for Christmas…
“This stuff is fantastic, maybe we should get some GOV tactical military advisers to have a look at this?” he drools.
“Do we have a confirmed date for this feed?”
“Negative on both of those Sir I’m afraid, this is fresh footage that has not been analysed or even archived yet, I just thought you’d like to see the quality of this new feed – it really is far superior to anything we’ve managed to track to date.”
Doyyle and Senior Research Technician M’diitch are standing in front of the main plasma screen which stands 50 meters in height and some 80 across, it dwarves the watchers and awes those not accustomed to its monstrous dimensions. The image is sectioned into the main feed in a large central window with subsidiary information windows around the edges. This Tech Lab is a converted ancient Cathedral – moved brick by brick from the abandoned Underworld beneath L2 and rebuilt into the foot of a new GOV research laboratory. The massive pillars now support billions of global dollars worth of the latest tech – this place may no longer be a shrine of worship to a ‘God’, but for the many who have come to bow before technology as their divinity it is the antechamber to heaven itself.
“How old is this footage?” asks Doyyle, staring transfixed at the thousands of long dead warriors up on the screen. He has a reputation for his energetic enthusiasm for progress and movement on anything that L2 leads the world in and this new generation of Starlight Historical Records (SHR) are just one of his current pet projects.
“Sir, this feed is from hundreds of years BC – the location is being predicted to be the Middle East, possibly near to the ancient land of Canaan.”
On screen the camera has tracked ahead of the massive army now and in what must be the first light of dawn there is a temporary looking encampment clearly in the path of the military advance. A zoom in on the people in the camp show them to be collecting some kind of foodstuff from the sand around there tents. Suddenly what must be warning shout goes out (SHR’s don’t come with soundtracks) and a scout can be see running into the camp, within minutes there is much activity, soldiers suiting up for battle, women and children gathering their possessions and breaking camp as fast as they can. A small group leaves the camp and head towards a large dune that is in the path of the oncoming army, which are not yet visible to the main body of the camp but cannot be more than a few miles away now. It appears to be two elderly men with six guards, who between them are carrying a huge chest that has poles running along its length and some kind of ornate figures carved onto it. In the first rays of sunlight it reflects as if made of gold or some other burnished metal.
Doyyle is transfixed, “K, please clear my immediate diary, I am in an important meeting and it looks like running on – no calls at all, thank you,” he turns to a quizzical looking M’diitch, “I want to see what happens when the army arrives!” he grins. “Do you suppose that those guys are going to try and plead terms of surrender, or buy off the army?”
M’diitch brings up a window showing the advancing wave of black suited soldiers, and shakes his head. “I don’t think they look like they could be talked to, let alone bargained with… I think we’re about to witness an absolute massacre.”
