Dark Forces: The Dream Corporation, #1

By Michael TT Williams

Dark Forces is the winner of the 2021 Titan Book Awards and the first in the Dream Corporation Trilogy.

Life in the Earth and the Lunar colony is complicated enough when the next generation of AI allows people to control their own dreams and share them with others in real time. People can be in paradise when they sleep. But things start going very wrong. We were not designed to control our unconscious minds and a door is opened to an entity that threatens reality as we know it. Everybody needs to stay awake. But, also, instruments are registering a planet size body heading to collide with Earth but it can't be seen through telescopes with the naked eye. Is it real? Is anyone really awake? 

An original science fiction mystery and fast-paced action thriller about a group with psychic abilities in a struggle to uncover the truth of our existence and keep our universe intact. 

Try to catch your breath but you won't be able to sleep!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael TT Williams
• Release date: Sep 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215013168

Book preview

About the Author

MICHAEL TT WILLIAMS was born in South London, United Kingdom.

He is an award winning author, specializing in Science Fiction and Fantasy, but also writes other fiction, and non-fiction.

He has lived, and managed businesses, in a number of Countries, and travelled extensively in more than one hundred others including Africa, South America and Asia. He holds post-graduate degrees in economics and law, and is a sociologist and historian.

He is passionate about animals, music, and film, and promoting compassion for all living things.

Books by Michael TT Williams:-

The Dream Corporation Trilogy:

Dark Forces

Shadow of Omega

Reality Rebooted

Other fiction

Stories in Three Short Minutes for the Short on Time

Alone on the Island with Professor Williams

1984: Big Brother is Watching You

Global #1 Bestseller: Star Trek, James T Kirk

Non-fiction

The Happiness Index

Acknowledgements

WITH SINCERE THANKS to Fiona and Howard, for all their patience, guidance, and assistance in the production of this book and well beyond.

Dark Forces is the winner of the 2021 Titan Books Awards

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The human experience is engineered by energy waves, but we live a story.

This is not a horror story, but it is part chiller, and a thriller. Although this book moves along traditional lines in many ways, it also breaks with tradition in some key areas. Rather than having a central character featured everywhere, it follows the journeys of several lead characters, men and women, as they weave through dream-worlds, and what we believe is the real world. Although, it might seem, initially, that the characters and their stories are not connected directly, in fact, they are, and this connection is pivotal to the story. A list of characters is provided. 

Another way in which this book is not entirely traditional, is that it includes technologies that, although predicted, have not yet been invented. Accordingly, in addition to the explanations given in the course of the narrative, a glossary is provided for ease of reference.

Further, since the subject matter of the book rests on a mattress of dreams, the reader will journey through a variety of landscapes, and seemingly different timelines. At times, it will seem surreal; that is, after all, the nature of dreams. And if the reader’s experience is sometimes similar to that of being in a dream, then that was precisely the intention. But nothing in this book is impossible or even implausible. The background intention was to encourage all of us to think about our lives and our dreams, and to relish what unites us, rather than what we allow to divide us. It behoves us to treasure what we have, while it lasts, and to share our dreams with open hearts and minds. Otherwise, we squander the time we have, pursuing the pointless, and trying to answer the time worn question: What is the point?

LEAD CHARACTERS

Tarot:-    Genius inventor of the technology that allows dreaming.

Karen:-   Girlfriend/wife of Tarot

Mark:-   Dreamer looking for Vanessa

Freddy:-     A Seeker, and guardian to Millie

Millie:-   Freddy’s ward

Donna:-   Friend to Millie

Geoff:-   Technician at Dreamcorp

Gladstone:-    Chief Operations Officer, Dreamcorp

Vanessa & Rio:-   Twin blondes, with Ultra-wave minds  

Martin:-   African citizen of Dystopia, and friend of Rio

Roy:-    Millie’s lost Irish father

Rhea:- Gypsy girl in appearance, but, in fact, the artificial intelligence that runs the entire dream-world architecture.

Lucia:-   Daughter of Varus, Emperor of Rome (Regent)

Lucius :-   Twin brother of Lucia

Marcellus:-   Vanessa’s friend;  Lucius’ lover

Clovis:-    Leader of the Jeebers in Dystopia

Muna:-   White Tigress, Tarot’s first AI creation

Yusi and Lenta:-  Twin brothers at Castle Vlad, sons of the Count

GLOSSARY

Dreamer:   A person who is dreaming within the architecture

Architecture: The system run by artificial intelligence that enables people to control their own dreams.

Figs: Figments of our imaginations, that manifest as characters in dreams.

Seeker: A private detective who seeks out dreamers, lost, or trapped, in their own dreams.

Dream-ware: Software in the bloodstream that links the unconscious mind with the architecture.

Dream-world:  The environment in which dreams take place.

Dream-path: The path a Dreamer takes in a dream, and the most defined part of the dream-scape.

Dream-scape: The immediate area surrounding the dreamer who is generating the dream.

Random-elasticity: Describes how time and distances expand and contract in the course of a dream.

Bringing up:  Waking up a dreamer without their consent.

Going dark:  When safeguards fail, and dreams pose a danger to dreamers.

Ultra-waves:  The smallest and most powerful waves in creation.

Alpha-waves:  Brain waves associated with high intelligence.

Theta-waves:  Brain waves associated with dreaming and meditation.

The mind: Distinct from the brain, comprised of waves that are responsible for consciousness, but not understood, except by Tarot.

P.s.i: Denoting the strength of will-power enhanced within the dream-architecture.

PREVIEW

Geoff held the armrests of his seat like a vice, as the spacecraft hurtled towards the lunar surface for a crash landing. The captain’s announcement that their retro-thrusters were faulty, but that emergency services were standing by, had sounded confident and assured. But the captain and his crew were artificial intelligence apps, not human. They had no lives to lose; whereas Geoff was just twenty-four years old, and wanted to survive and realize his dreams. He looked at Donna, gripping the seat next to him, and ached for them both to live. Just eighteen, with beautiful dark Italian-Scottish looks, a fiery spirit, and such an unusual mind, why would the universe want to lose her?

Geoff could just make out a hint of the moon’s gravitational pull.  The craft was manoeuvring to make an approach to a runway that had no air to slow them down.  Without the retro-thrusters, things did not look good. Brakes would not be enough. And there was so much to live for, and so much to do. For example, they needed to reach Millie at the Verne facility on the moon. If Donna was right, then her comatose friend was about to have her eyes surgically removed and sold!

She had been right that Millie had been moved to the Moon from a hospital along the Hudson, suddenly and secretly. And she had been right, that a new planet had entered the solar system, and was heading inwards. How she could possibly have known, was a complete mystery. Donna had claimed that she had received a stark warning in a dream, from ancient minds that had existed before time was recorded!  Apparently all life was eternal. He hoped that was true, because he wanted to know how the human story would unfold. It was unfair to be part of a story, and not be allowed to know the ending.

Chapter 1:

Dream-world. Babylonia

TAROT WAS STANDING waist-deep in a man-made water feature. There were smooth blue tiles beneath his feet and the centrepiece was a fountain, comprising dolphins, spewing water. The sun was low in the pale blue sky, but it was half eclipsed by a turquoise planet that looked three times the size of the sun, and that dominated the skyline.

Immediately in front of him was an emerald expanse, stretching far back, to two pyramids. The scene brought to mind Ancient Babylon, albeit that there was not a grain of sand to be seen.

As he stepped over a small wall to get out of the water, he lost his footing, and a strong arm reached out to steady him.  The timely help came from a bronzed young woman wearing a necklace of semi-precious stones.  She was evidently speaking, but it just sounded like a series of clicks. Nevertheless, Tarot found, to his surprise, that he understood.  It was clear that she thought that he looked strange, and wondered whether he had made his offering to the gods. Tarot gave a half smile, hoping to reassure her that he would be alright. Apparently, she understood him because she smiled back, and he watched her as she glided gracefully across the verdant terrain, towards a wheat field that stretched to the far horizon.

It was like a slice out of time. For example, to the right of the pyramids and symmetrically opposite the wheat field, was what looked like a plain, filled with solar panels! Just a few metres from him, there stood a waist high column, with a life-size statue of a monkey. Standing about two hundred meters away, was a reflective metal sphere with a height of perhaps ten metres. It had no discernible purpose. But unless his eyes had deceived him across that distance, somebody had just emerged from it, although there no sign, at all, of an exit. 

He saw that he was dressed pretty much as those around him were, in a sarong and thin leather sandals. He even had a necklace that appeared to be made out of silver, with a pendant shaped like a cobra’s head.

In the distance, he could make out what looked like a river. He started walking towards it.  On his right, there was a raised wooden square platform. Two very broad shouldered men, with oiled skins, were wrestling, while a small crowd around them, gesticulating excitedly, while making their peculiar clicking noises. As he passed the spectacle, he noticed several things in rapid succession:  First, the men moved with a speed and agility that was irreconcilable with their size and mass; Second, they had identical faces; Third, they were, in fact, synthetics.

As he approached the river, he noticed a few small sail boats, and the water reflected the beautiful turquoise of the planet that dominated most of the Western sky.  Fully one-third of the planet was already out of sight below the horizon, and it was sinking, as the sun was rising.

As he got closer to the river bank, he saw the back of a tall man facing the river. It was only when two people approached the figure, that Tarot could see that the man towered over them. He was perhaps three times taller and, at closer range, Tarot could make out that he held a whip in his right hand.  As though the contrast in their respective sizes were not striking enough, the young man and woman knelt before him, with heads bowed. 

Tarot had just made up his mind to avoid the river, when the figure turned towards him.  Although he had the torso of a giant, he had the head of what looked like a hawk, with a large intimidating beak.  Without warning, Tarot felt a force of some kind stabbing at his temples, which grew in strength, until it felt like his brain was being squeezed between nutcrackers.  An incredible force invaded his mind, burning along his neural pathways, and probing his pre-frontal cortex. It was like being able to stand apart, and watch surgery on his own brain.  Yet it was also a two-way process. In some unfathomable manner, Tarot’s mind, and that of this violator were joined. Tarot could sense the creature’s frustration, having found substantial gaps in Tarot’s recent memories.  It applied more force and precision, and identified, and re-assembled, chunks of data in Tarot’s fragmented memory. He was minded of a leaf , being driven ahead of a hurricane. He was powerless to prevent this powerful but forensic mind from prizing open his most personal memories, and negligently scattering any material, that it did not find of use. 

Now the creature moved closer, and towered above him, with the turquoise planet framing his massive torso, like an ill-fitting halo. Tarot felt as though his brain had turned to ice.  But, with their minds linked, Tarot was also able to see deeply into the mind of the creature and, where Tarot  felt resistance, he rammed through it. He felt the creature’s surprise. The mind he encountered was alien. There was no trace of a human signature. It was calculating, menacing and completely ruthless. It was almost mechanical.  It was so powerful that, no doubt, it would be regarded as a god.

The creature finished his excavation of Tarot’s mind, and walked away. As its foot-falls receded, Tarot was still connected to its mind, and Tarot knew of its plans.

Tarot was to be allowed to live, and serve, and furthermore, the creature had been surprised, even shocked, by Tarot’s highly individual mind.  This worrying discovery required further study. The link was severed abruptly. 

Tarot had no intention to devote himself to a life of servitude to these powerful, but flawed beings. What he had learned in the mind-share was that, for all their raw power, know-how, and ruthlessness, they were not as intelligent as they believed they were.  Their arrogance was their Achilles’ heel. They had underestimated human ingenuity. But the most surprising thing of all to Tarot, was that the surgery on his mind had actually, greatly enhanced his cognitive abilities. It was incontrovertible. Perhaps inadvertently, the invader had super-charged his mind. The abilities that Tarot had long possessed, and that had already set him apart, had been boosted further, by some form of energy with an alien signature.

The young couple that Tarot he had seen earlier, kneeling at the feet of the creature, had made their way to him. Now he heard no clicks, neither did their lips move, yet he could understand them fully. 

‘Your mind has been found of interest and you have been selected to cross the oracular bridge.’  At the same moment, he knew that his DNA was to be harvested. But that was of minor concern relative to the knowledge that the creature had sucked knowledge from Tarot’s mind about his home and family, about the United States and beyond. Tarot had sensed its hunger for dominion.  Whatever plans the creatures would formulate, Tarot was certain that compassion and compromise would play no part. And if a handful of them were that powerful, what could an entire race of them achieve?

Tarot had encountered a paradox. Although he knew this to be a dream, he was certain that these creatures were every bit as real as him, and very much more dangerous. But who would take him and his warnings seriously?  Nobody paid attention to dreams.

He needed to return to consciousness and start preparing for an uncertain future.  He had no doubt that, if an attack were to come, conventional weapons would be useless. These beings relied on the power of the mind and the only defence against defence against them needed to be of a similar character. Unfortunately, human exploration and endeavour had focussed exclusively on other things.  The nature of consciousness, and the innate energy within human minds, were subjects that had hardly been examined. There was so much to do, particularly as Tarot had sensed something else during his contact. As powerful as these alien minds were, there was something far more powerful and significant, masked, in the shadows behind them.

Certainly, he could not do this alone. He needed to identify people who possessed a high p.s.i.   P.s.i was the term for a person’s innate strength of will, while in a dream generated in conjunction with artificial intelligence.  It was clear to Tarot that for eons, this darkness had cast a horrific shadow across human lives, whether awake, or asleep.  Now it was becoming a tangible, material threat. It was stirring, and turning its conscious gaze upon us. It had to be checked. Humanity was laid out before it, unaware, like innocent lambs to the slaughter.  Tarot had to marshal a defence, but without attracting attention.

But then he had a sinking feeling; what if he did not remember any of this?  After all, most dreams are forgotten.

Chapter 2: Stanford University

Karen and Tarot were alone.  Everybody else had gone home.  Karen said ‘So now that you have lured me to your laboratory Professor, what are you going to do with me?’ 

Tarot replied ‘Well, I am not a professor.....’ But she stopped him with a lingering kiss.  Then she said ‘My friends were not really supportive of my going out with you. You do know that physicists have a reputation for being boring?’

Tarot replied ‘That is quite undeserved. Physicists are fun, especially quantum and astrophysicists.’ He went to kiss her again but she pulled back, teasingly. ‘Alright, tell me a quantum physics joke, but you have to make it up on the spot. It has to be original, not something that you have memorized. I want to be the first to hear it.’

Tarot said ‘Alright, what did the electron say to the proton?’

‘OK. What?’

‘Do you think we are the only atom in the universe?’

Karen smiled. Well, that was not extremely funny, but it was pretty good for an improvisation.  And the more I think about it, it was quite clever. Well, perhaps you are the exception to the rule because, really, physics has got to be one of the dullest of subjects.’

‘It is not dull at all. It is full of amazing facts that most people have no idea about.’ ‘Amazing facts!  Really!’ OK, give me some examples. Surprise me.’

Now Tarot paused a second.

‘Alright: One. Think of the Earth covered in Mountains. You think the surface of the earth is rugged and irregular, but if the Earth were the size of a billiard ball, it would be completely smooth to the touch and there would be a very slight