*A*W*A*K*E*N*I*N*G*
The meteorite's impact and the world's own healing process signaled the next phase of the organism's biological lifecycle.
Receptors within cell membranes detected heat, vibrations, aetheric disturbances and communication, and especially the vibrant quintessence that spilled into the environment. The meteorite warmed; the ice plugs in the micro-tunnels sublimed into water vapor and escaped. Fresh air filtered into the channels the organism had cut when it moved into its vessel.
These changes triggered biochemical reactions that had previously lain dormant. Metabolic activity increased to normal states, cell walls were broken down and reabsorbed for nutrients, cells generated enzymes to denature the antifreeze proteins and metabolites so their components could be reused.
Hibernation broken, the organism as a whole shivered and stirred.
Communion touched all its remaining cells, gathered them into a network of distributed consciousness. Half of itself was scattered about the crater in broken fragments from the original vessel, and others had landed beyond the impact site on virgin ground. It assessed: So little had survived, so little compared to what the One Self had once been before Propagation, but it was enough to maintain integrity. The journey had been long, longer than expected. And the other elements of the One Self? They were now irrelevant, lost among the stars. What they did there didn't matter, but its own consciousness and life on this new world did. Stores of resources had been depleted to near exhaustion.
It hungered and that was all that mattered now.
It extended microscopic filaments, no more than hair-thin tubules of protein, up through all its separate vessels' channels, reaching out into the alien world. It sensed a planet resonating with life, with energy, with food. New hunting grounds to exploit.
Oozing through the passages, it entered its new environment and experienced its new home. The first thing it sensed was the vibrant energy of quintessence. It filled the atmosphere, the earth, the rocks and dirt and air. Quintessence coursed in etheric rivers, gathered in glowing pools, spread and drifted like mist. It seemed infinite.
And life, of a sort: microscopic life wafting down from the sky. Though the meteorite crash had all but sterilized the surrounding crater, the mindless life drifted abundantly in the air. So many microscopic organisms, of so many different types. They floated on the breeze, settled on the ground with the dust, landed upon the chunks of meteorite spread throughout the crash site, and dropped onto all the fragments of the One Self.
The One Self collected its greatest concentration of mass into a single entity upon its vessel. It didn't yet have the energy to recall its smaller portions to itself. Instead, the collective mind had but one drive: to feed and regain strength. The quintessence flowing freely and the tiny life provided energy and nutrients, and all parts of the One Self fed on that bounty.
Throughout its network, it differentiated some of its cytoplasm into special cells designed to absorb the energy of quintessence. It used some of it immediately to power its own life and etheric metabolism. The rest it condensed into a pseudo-liquid and stored in special sacs designed to hold it indefinitely.
Other cells formed into phagocytes which engulfed the tiny lifeforms that landed directly on its own outer membranes. The microscopic forms weren't much, but they provided raw biological materials and samples. Like the quintessence, they were transported to be contained in specialized sacs. These organelles secreted enzymes to break down the tiny life into constituent chemicals to be used as nutrients, directly applied to physical growth. The One Self analyzed the new biochemical forms as it disassembled their structures.
It found two main types of nucleic acids for genetic information with limited variances, utilizing only five different nucleotides depending on the nucleic acid constructed. Efficient, if somewhat restrictive. Proteins of various types for metabolism, formed from only twenty six amino acids in the different organisms sampled. Also limited. An equally small variety of lipids, carbohydrates, and minerals for structure, chemical energy, and metabolic activities.
Bioforms on this new world could not have as much physical adaptability as the One Self did, but it could adjust to the constraints of the biochemistry and molecular biology available. It had the genetic variability to use the limited resources to generate most of the biochemical pathways and structures it needed for its own metabolic processes and physical abilities.
Some of the small organisms it sampled couldn't even be considered alive, as they were little more than nucleic acids and a few enzymes contained in a protein sheath. They had no independent metabolism of their own, though they seemed to be able to reproduce inside other organisms. Some could even integrate their own genetic information into the nucleic structures of the cells they invaded. Interesting. The One Self performed similar operations as part of its own growth phase, though these tiny things were quite unsophisticated by comparison.
Other organisms were single cells, without the ability to combine to form a greater whole. Some nucleic acids were formed into circles and the organisms had different structures. Others had nucleic acids in chains bound up with proteins and isolated in nuclei. Simple chemical processes and bioelectricity allowed rudimentary communications between some organisms of the same types.
The One Self noted and absorbed it all.
So far, it had detected none of the organized and complex bioelectrical activity associated with even the most simplistic thought abilities. Disappointing. Were these insignificant lives the best this world would offer? While they were plentiful and satisfied the greatest hunger pangs, without larger, more sophisticated forms the One Self's own physical growth would be slow. It also could not utilize its most effective hunting techniques on mindless organisms. It needed more advanced forms for that.
At least quintessence was abundant and overflowing.
Time passed, and the One Self continued to devour quintessence and microscopic lifeforms. Its main biological aggregation and its smaller, detached fragments alike developed enough new mass and metabolism to become mobile. It could now recall its planet-bound portions into a single whole again, but instead it chose to keep the detached parts separate, so it could cover more territory in its quest for sustenance.
To its joy, after innumerable planet-days allowed the local environment to cool and settle, different forms of local life began exploring the edges of the crater. Larger life than the microorganisms that had sustained the One Self while it waited. Life that was more sophisticated, more structured, more complex and organized than the tiny organisms it had absorbed for so long.
The One Self captured and absorbed lifeforms with chitinous structures and exteriors, with jointed appendages and bodies, and with multifaceted organs for sensing the electromagnetic spectrum. Some even had organs that allowed them to fly.
Other lifeforms had four appendages for movement and soft outer filaments for protection and insulation, and generated their own body heat. Others had rigid structures on their exteriors and found warmth from sunlight.
As it absorbed energy and nutrients, the One Self regained enough of its metabolism and size to actively hunt. It reached into the stored genetic knowledge of countless worlds and found the aggressive, predatory genotypes and phenotypes it required. All its satellite selves extruded flexible tentacles, tipped with claws and spikes, to capture the new lifeforms and draw them into large sacs where digestion and analysis could take place.
These higher native forms had complex internal organs to maintain their lives, and best of all, they had more sophisticated bioelectric activities taking place throughout pathways in their bodies, controlled by a central organ where thought occurred. Simple thought, but perhaps that meant that even more complex organisms existed on this world. The One Self rejoiced, and grew, and learned.
It believed it could control the more advanced lifeforms, manipulate and direct their simple thoughts and activities, even restructure them to suit its own purposes as it had done on other worlds. The alien life on this new planet provided many opportunities that the One Self could exploit.
And as life returned, the world continued to pour quintessence into the crater. The One Self drank, and drank, and drank some more. It consumed and absorbed every kind of life it could reach. It was voracious and could never get filled. Never. The more quintessence and life it absorbed, the better it could move, communicate with its detached parts, and grow. Eventually, when it consumed all this world had to offer, grown all it could and stored as much energy as possible, it would once again propagate and spread itself among the stars.