The Martial Unity

When the Big Bang occurred and the universe was created, it was extremely hot, so much so that matter was still energy, and the four fundamental forces were still unified. Rapidly, the universe expanded, growing larger and larger as it cooled down for energy to coalesce in the form of fundamental particles and the four fundamental forces.

It began forming hydrogen and helium nuclei as the universe continued cooling. Most people assumed that the universe was too hot and intense to support life, but the reality was that there was a phase in the universe’s history where the temperature was within hospitable ranges. Where water would not have boiled if it existed. It was known as the Habitable Epoch. It was a phase in the universe’s existence just ten million years long where temperatures were low enough to support chemistry, and the density of the universe was high enough for most matter to be spread across a relatively uniform cloud of hydrogen and helium.

The possibility of life being born in this period of the universe was extremely low. But not impossible.

“And you believe it happened.”

Rui’s voice radiated through the very fabric of space and time as the blood-red suns within the depths of his eyes continued infiltrating the laminar integument’s body as he continued intercepting more and more light, reading the laminar integument’s mind.

The laminar integument shivered as it struggled, using the many countermeasures that its body had prepared against invasion to try and slow down Rui.

Yet, at the same time, it couldn’t hide its thoughts from Rui, responding to him whether it liked it or not.

“According. To. Research. Most. Likely. Candidate. For. Virus. Birth. Habitable. Epoch.”

Rui’s expression grew deep even as he infiltrated the laminar integument’s body, slowly overwhelming the biotechnological countermeasures that its body had prepared. “So the virus was born in the early universe out of momentary conditions that were habitable for life,” Rui realized as he began to fully understand the pieces of the puzzle and what had happened in the history of the universe. “That would explain a lot. It would explain how it seeks to infect the universe. If it divided and spread across the cloud of hydrogen and helium across the early universe in the Habitable Epoch, it would have been able to spread its existence across the entire universe, no matter how large it got and no matter how much it expanded.”

That finally offered an explanation that seemed continuous with everything that he knew about the alien virus. How it spread so far. How it seemed to have infected so many stars and planets. How it could possibly infect an entire universe.

But there were still things he didn’t understand.

The laminar integument quivered as Rui’s Osmotic Interference and his antithesis cells continued to slowly and steadily overcome the defensive measures within the laminar integument’s body.

It had deployed its superfluid defensive measures, its dark energy-fueled ejection systems, and yet it had not been able to overcome the antithesis cells that Rui had poured within it, despite the fact that the antithesis cells were operating with much lower forms of energy.

They applied it much better than the laminar integument did, much more antithetically, allowing for Rui to steadily take over the laminar integument’s body.

And yet, his mind was focused on extracting the truth from within the laminar integument’s thoughts.

“Even if the early universe was cool enough to support chemistry, the chemical diversity didn’t exist to support life,” Rui insisted. “Hydrogen alone can’t create complex chemistry. And helium is chemically inert. How could gases of hydrogen and helium come together to form complex chemical structures?”

His eyes sharpened.

“There must have been more. There must have been something additional that would have allowed for life to emerge in the early universe before the birth of stars and galaxies.”

The jellyfish-like alien shivered even as its body fought back with all of its might.

The nature of its consciousness made it all but resigned to respond.

“Exotic. Matter. Increased. Capacity. For. Complexity.”

It was as Rui suspected, ordinary matter alone would be far too unlikely to lead to a lifeform being created in the crowd of gas in the early universe. “Where did exotic matter come from?”

It was the age-old question, but only now did he have a realistic chance of finding out the answer to that question. If an advanced civilization far technologically greater than their own civilization gained access to the information on where the alien virus came from, then they could feasibly know the answer to that question.

And yet, he was only confronted with disappointment.

“Unknown. Origin. Exotic. Matter. Unknown. Only. Conjecture. Hypotheses.”

Rui sharpened his eyes. “Tell me.”

“Exotic. Matter. Possibly. Come. From. Outside. Universe. From. Before. Universe.”

Rui’s eyes widened at those words. “…Outside the universe?”

The very notion of it exceeded his fathoming. The universe was everything, as far as he had known. The existence of realities beyond the universe was indeed something that he had suspected, but had never been able to prove. There had been a few incidents in the past that increased his certainty that reality did not end at the borders of the universe, if it even had such a thing.

But if exotic matter came from outside the universe, then it begged the question.

“Was… the alien virus seeded in this universe?”

The very notion of it sent chills across his skin. What if, just like exotic matter seeded in planets led to an alien virus mind in the deep biosphere, something similar had happened with the early universe itself? What if exotic matter came from outside the universe and was seeded into reality during the Habitable Epoch, creating a lifeform born from matter that was alien to the entire universe itself?

What kind of mind would a lifeform alien to the entire universe have?

It would be a mind unlike anything they could even fathom.

“Why…” Rui’s voice grew grave with reckoning. “Why does the alien virus want to infect the universe?”

The laminar integument’s light flashed with momentary intensity.

“You. Already. Know. Answer. To. That. Question.”