A/N: Doctor Patience Woods is a character I made for a GURPS campaign, if you have ever played using that system of rules you will have a much easier time of understanding the madness therein. I have always enjoyed dissecting ideas and concepts around me, a little too much for any sane DM, and wanted to write up a brief encounter wherein I could "get my hands on" a Flood form for dissection.
Doctor Woods is an interloper, hailing from a place where magic was comparatively easily observable as it's very own element, hopping between worlds in an attempt to reach home, this is but one of many stops along the way. This story is also heavily influenced by the concept of interdimensional and interspatial travel as seen in The Room series, which draws on the concept of the Null. I won't lie, it's quite a rabbit hole detailed in several other stories similar to this one.
This story is not meant to create lore, only to explore interesting sci-fi biology. My knowledge may still be lacking though, if you have any other ideas or information concerning the alien physiology at play, I'd love to hear it. I let the Halo series fall to the wayside after Halo 3 when Microsoft ate Bungie and spat out (shat out) 343 Industries. My only goal here is that somewhere out there, someone reads this and thinks: huh, neat.
Confidential Logs of Doctor Patience Woods
Data Entry 1202
First and foremost, a preponderance of magic. Any technology, significantly advanced, may well be magic to those who do not know better. That is my view of the 'magic' of my home world; an accumulation of methods and technologies to manipulate the world around oneself in ways otherwise impossible. That these methods truly are considered "fucking voodoo magic" as one of my compatriots once put it, is a moot point. I use the building blocks of reality (mana) to build my own blocks, nothing more. Thankfully though, these methods are universal in all means of the word.
This world however has very low ambient mana levels, a lack of sentient life may contribute to this, but I doubt anyone here at any point ever spotted mana at work. This will render probability manipulation via mana distortions difficult at best, but I have prepared for just such a scenario.
Once again, it seems I am bound to traverse the most obscure and occult environments in my travels. Though I continue to blunder my way through the darkness of my stitched together probability factors by power of my ever-draining null samples, sometimes I may actually deem my circumstances pleasant ones. This may be one of those cases.
Stepping out of the quantum shadows of the ever writhing Null, I walk into a world far in advance of my own. Great pillars of steel and glass like enclosures litter an arena of consoles and it takes all of my experience not to be shocked by the shape of it. Fortunately, my time walking from plane to plane and verse to verse has much inured me to shock and to much of the bewilderment that was my companion for some time. I have seen complex technologies beyond my time from civilizations long gone before; though they may be frightening, the convergent evolution of alien and human function remains the same. Simply put, whether of human origin or not, the core purpose and rudimentary designs remain similar if not the same. Keyboards and monitors can be found everywhere, power couplings will still lead to heavy machinery, data input and interfaces seldom change and so I may follow the bones of this skeleton as a sort of Rosetta Stone and map my way through the user interface. Luckily, though this place seems long abandoned, I found myself exiting Null space inside what must be an over large reactor facility and am therefore sheltered from the outside environments. The technology also remains viable and can still be interacted with. Doing so is still risky nonetheless, I must also rely on probability mapping and inferences therein to predict the effects of my actions. Any error can cascade into a veritable landslide of consequences. Reactivating the dormant computers I am faced with, of all things, what seems to be a relatively English-like language heavily reliant on the universal mathematical language. How such amazingly foreign and alien constructs seemingly always present themselves in such easily translatable terms is a mystery to me, though not unappreciated, it boggles the mind. Onboard computer programs make quick work of the language.
Though the awesome length and breadth of the catalogues of information held within these terminals is enough to keep a man busy for decades, I must take what I can and infer the rest. Still, human technologies should be incompatible on multiple levels… it irks me.
A breakthrough, and while I remain mostly numb to the madness of my disposition, I am still discomfited. I appear to have walked out onto the steel and soil of a most unusual structure. Global maps revealed by cautious probing show this world to have once been a mishmash of ecosystems held together in a specific shape by a truly massive construct. Again the biome I find myself in is so similar yet so different from my own. Plants like short grasses and scrub pines build an ecosystem otherwise void of life, soil not unlike that of my native earth forms permafrost and rock and canyon. A distant star can be seen from my position as it warms this place and the whole of it is covered in thick blankets of snow. One could almost confuse this place for an earth-like planet were it not for two prominent features; firstly the size of it is relatively quite small and lacking in mass, it should have no magnetosphere let alone atmosphere yet maintains an oxygen rich stable habitat. Secondly, the shape of it is wholly unnatural and reveals it to be a construct. The shape of it is that of a massive loop or ring.
A further note; the lack of native fauna should make the negligible growth of flora here unsustainable and rampant by nature, yet this place remains tame like a terrarium suspended in space. There must be some consciousness here, tending to this perverted garden of Eden, so I must remain quiet and hidden. I will begin work on establishing another warp route through the Null, though I may rest quietly in this relative isolation. Whatever or whoever was tasked with maintaining this place had done an admirable job, were it not for what could amount to a massive weather systems malfunction. Temperatures outside dip between -20 and -60 Celsius depending on the sun's location, there is no night here but the unending blizzard simulates it well enough with a perpetual gray. What structures are not consumed by snow or ice had begun to develop some kind of wretched organic growth. Though frozen in time by endless winter, these accumulations of tissue-like matter decorate the underground machinery. This too must be tended by an unseen hand. Small metal drones can be seen flying about in the corridors of this giant machine, perhaps designed to be immune to the debilitating temperatures and storms outside, they hover from place to place as they meticulously scan every inch of the winter-locked landscape. I dare say they are searching for something. I must be cautious in the extreme.
A note concerning proper personal protective equipment; never leave your shelter without it. Whether or not the atmosphere is hospitable, whether or not the grounds seem safe, whatever excuse you may manufacture to refrain; never remove your insulated helmet. My suite and my helmet are designed to provide an unparalleled peek behind the curtains, it is laden with unique sensors and barriers of all kinds. The suit itself is designed with extra attachments and modifications that afford me a freedom of movement and dexterity otherwise impossible. The entirety of my gear is shielded in a zero-probability bubble that sterilizes and renders inert all that I come in contact with on a fundamental level. I have built-in self-sustaining oxygen reserves, life support, pressure support, temperature control, waste removal, power supplies, TPN "food stores" and so on. The entire system is designed that one never need to leave it for any reason.
This has saved my life on a number of occasions, and this frozen nightmare is just the latest of them. It is too cold for anything other than the most basic plant life to retain a foothold of any kind here, the small pines shake and shiver in the polar winds. I have no doubt that most living tissues would quickly freeze solid here and I must remain inside the ever-twisting bowels of this technological world to stay out of the ceaseless howling winds. Curiously the sickly organic matter only observed in rock samples outside seems to have made itself at home in the shelter of these halls as well, and I am forced to join them in this. These strange growths crumble into a most unusual dust when disturbed, not unlike a fungus releasing its spores, their innards are sopping with a truly awful goo.
I was correct in my assumptions concerning local intelligences at work, drones swarm the area with their metal bodies, even inside the sprawling structures and buildings they remain vigilant in their task and meticulous. They go about their work silently and focus on the task of maintaining what remains of the ever-present technologies on this ring-world and pruning back the organic growths. It is only a matter of time until I am discovered despite my "cloaking" and so I have made my way into deeper and less populated levels to avoid their electronic eyes. During my explorations I found a number of signs of rather one-sided battles, scorch marks denote plasma fire, and flack pockmarks the walls where explosions must have occurred. Strangely there are no bodies yet to be found, at this point I can only assume the drones are to thank for this.
That was when I discovered why such a strange tableau of violence paints the area.
Deep in the darkening bowels of the structure, where even the drones seem programmed to avoid or tread with care, are seemingly endless broken-down containment fields surrounding the only living specimens of organic fauna to be found in this place. Their bloated bodies bob gently up and down inside the remains of a once sealed container of ruptured metal and glass, there are maybe four specimens in total contained within.
The rest are watching me from the grounds.
This facility, whatever it is, must have been entirely overrun at some point. While there is no visible evidence of human life, there is plenty of evidence of alien life just below the surface. As mentioned before, there are many signs of struggle down these corridors. Broken glass, destroyed machinery, twisted metal, and discarded weapons call this area home beside a slow-moving series of life forms. The containment fields down here have fractured and many of the creatures have escaped their confinements and scuttle through the halls with a kind of malevolent purposelessness. I believe these creatures may be parasitic or carnivorous in nature, though how they have survived so long trapped in this place is a mystery. They move almost blindly in the cold, long feelers tipped with red flowerlike blooms of sensory fibers ply the air like a man freezing to death would grope his way along in darkness.
I almost pity them but I have seen some of their handiwork and know better.
Greenish mists of spore cloud the ground up to my shins as I collect samples of it. If I am doomed to be stuck in this tomb while my strength renews for the journey then I may as well take advantage of my position. Should this form of life truly be parasitic I must take great care not to take it with me by accident.
I have also come across several piles of frigid corpses, they are definitely not human and their alien faces are forever frozen in a rictus of pain and mutations not unlike a cancer. Whoever they were, they came to this place at a dead run, fleeing something that must have truly terrified them. Only their icy skeletons and bits of flesh remain preserved in the cold.
Sensors indicate no living creatures other than the small bulbous animals that wade their way through the halls. Curiously, beyond one of the piles of bodies lay a door, and beyond that door is what appears to be some kind of control room. Yet another desiccated corpse can be found here, he and his compatriots must have paid for their entry into these chambers in blood. It is a long and lanky almost reptilian creature slumped over and frozen to a consol. In this I believe I have found the cause of the stations weather collapse; I would do best not to disturb this place.
Much useful information can be gleaned from the terminals but I still prefer my own studies and endeavors. I must remove myself from all bias as much as possible, even that which is not my own.
First I will study the mist, then I will study the small creatures, and then I will return to this area.
Retreating to the little out of the way space that I now call my own I am able to more closely examine the small accumulations of greenish dust gathered during my explorations. Sporous is indeed the best way that it can be described and microscopic examination reveals an organic single-cell arrangement not unlike looking at some kind of encapsulated ovum just waiting to begin division and growth. It too is affected by the pervasive cold of the environment and appears to be in dormancy. This is not an entirely new tactic, bacteria all around the multiplanar and multiversal worlds have used the method of creating a spore around themselves to suspend their function for tens of thousands of years totally independent of their environment. Once introduced into a suitable environment these spores will once again resume normative function and continue on their life cycle completely unbothered. Interestingly, these overblown macrospores posses a kind of cytoplasm not unlike the green ooze. This internal substrate must be some kind of growth medium.
Of further note, examination of accumulations of the spore reveals a terraforming effect. The aforementioned masses of organic tissue-like growths previously discovered during my explorations of this place can be seen forming in the many cracks and crevices of this instillation not dissimilar to a mold. The floating mist of spore is but the beginnings of an entirely new ecosystem. As I watch from a distance automated drones seek out this material, it is probably keyed into their program as a target, and they burn away the matter with laser-fire. I cannot surmise just why these drones spare the surrounding creatures, perhaps they are wholly benign, or more likely whoever programmed the drones was a complete moron out to preserve these mutative abominations. It seems a facet of sapient life that somewhere out in space and time there is an expectedly long extinct species hell bent on finding the worst possible things they can do, and then doing them.
Were this species still alive, humans most certainly deserve them. Though in my case, I would simply prefer it so as to wring their necks.
Whatever this spore is, and however it came to be will remain a subject of debate for the time being. Though the small creatures move unhindered by the clouds of spore, it has yet to be determined just what their relationship to it actually is.
Further study is required.
Though I much prefer to work with expired subjects so as to limit my intrusion onto a universe, this time I am forced to search out a living one. This is not difficult to do, they have been watching me somewhat passively as I move about my work. I have no doubt that, were I unarmored, circumstances would be far more dire. They watch me as a starving man does a tin can of food, weakly and with great desire for a can opener. Whether this indicates a higher level of intelligence enough to know when exertion is futile, I cannot say, they seem mostly isolated and unmotivated.
With great care I am able to corner a specimen for examination. As suspected earlier the extreme cold of the environment has hindered these creatures' functions considerably. They move slowly and almost drunkenly, that they are able to survive these temperatures at all is indicative of their being a particularly hardy form of extremophile. The creature's form is seemingly quite fragile, perhaps yet another side effect of the cold, it's fleshy body wriggles in my grasp and its insides seem less an accumulation of organs and more an autonomous sack of fluid.
Using a large thin sheet of metal I am able to construct an examination table and pin the remains of the half-frozen organism to it with makeshift nails. My original assessment of the creature was correct, its insides are but a mass of fluid that oozes out beneath the lamps mounted to my suit. The unpleasant liquid internals are extremely acidic, almost like battery acid, they eat at any external organic elements. There are no true observable organs save for one; an extensive system of nerve fibers seemingly formed from the pus-like mass of its internal fluids. The creatures darker tougher leathery hide surrounds and gives shape to a much paler shaded kind of skin, it is veinous and easily pierced. It appears as though the creature were nothing more than a much enlarged and more motile version of the dusty macrospores that drift throughout the area. Examination of genetic material bears this through. I cannot even begin to sequence the breathtakingly vast quantities of genetic information contained therein, as if a near galactic level multitude of life lay coded within it. There are absurd quantities of seemingly redundant and spliced together data. I would be wholly unsurprised were this creature able to change its shape and expression. Once the organism's more fragile integumentary system is breached it bursts like a pustule, flinging its contents in all directions. Its body must be dependent on internal pressures to move, not unlike an insect is dependent on its hemolymph, only this fluid serves a more sinister purpose than simple circulation and locomotion. The expelled contents begin forming that very same tissue-like terraforming substrate, and worse yet it draws in the spores around it. These two elements are definitely connected, that is certain, but to what extent I do not know.
In my explorations of this creature's body I was inevitably drawn to the extensive ropy network of nerve fibers that seem as though formed by and suspended within the fluid that makes up most of this creature's mass. The substance itself is gelatinous, dark greens and sickly yellows like rancid vomit. Disgusting as it is, the fluid serves as the perfect conductor for the electrical activity of its many strands of nerves, sensors indicate small bursts of energy throughout, the perfect medium for a mass of otherwise naked neuronal tissue. The nerves are suspended and cushioned by its liquid internals, even the most rudimentary of galvanic currents veritably reanimates the creature. Following these internal structures, the ropy strands leave the main mass of it upwards and outwards from three long stalks, exiting these stalks as bushels of dense and fibrous red sensory organs. These blood red bundles of fiber follow my movements even now, I believe it is attracted to my own neuronal firings, sensing electrical impulses even at so great a distance! It is a motile nerve, there are few to no other important structures, and I have the disturbing feeling that it 'eats' other nerves. A chemical analysis of the jelly-like fluid reveals extraordinary amounts of ambient mineral content, it is quite literally the perfect conduit and must insulate the charge as well. There are high concentrations of salt, potassium, and calcium suspended in an almost fatty medium thick with spore and rich in decaying proteins. Other trace elements like iron and copper can be detected as well. There is no traditionally living tissue in this creature, yet the electrical charge it naturally manifests creates a facsimile of life not at all unlike my early ham-fisted attempts at utilizing galvanization to test organic integrity. This creature is not alive, but the fluid within bears great potential, perhaps it is truer to say that the fluid itself or the nervous tissues therein are the actual organism, not the leathery shell of dead skin it has constructed around it.
Pinning the stalks and resecting the tissue around it has brought several items to my attention. The fibrous red hairs can serve as barbaric and under-evolved vocal chords, it screeches at me even now. The hairs are pointed, hollow, muscle-like, and bristly, they remind me of tubeworms. These hairs exit the stalks at a bulbous leathery structure that is laden with actively dividing and shedding spore. I am observing a life cycle at work that defies the typical definition of aliveness.
Terminating the specimen was not difficult, though it was somewhat unplanned. Apparently my assumption that I am dealing with a nervous system that eats other nervous systems was quite spot on. While exchanging several tools and further examining the creature's internal conductor fluids several other specimens began violently devouring the dissected remains of their counterpart in earnest. I expect little by way of cognitive function from these docile beasts and am unsurprised that they are not above cannibalism. They must have been starving in this frozen wasteland for some time.
Looking at the way they "eat" I see those same bristly appendages sucking up and absorbing the fluid remains of their once living kin. They ignore the tougher elements almost entirely, lacking jaws and any discernable digestive tracts these creatures no doubt have little use for anything not liquified by their potently acidic insides. To further test what means by which they feed or choose what to feed on, I laid out several minuscule samples from my on-board inventory. Hard items such as stone samples, vegetable matter, and dried meats are almost entirely ignored. Softer samples of nutrient paste and TPN reserves are groped for and consumed with no great fervor like that seen of them when devouring their own. Even salt, calcium, and fatty items are mostly overlooked save for the flailing of tentacles and a slight chittering noise. On a whim, and to confirm my hypothesis, I applied the most minute of galvanic currents to previously overlooked items and… the response was immediate and aggressive. While carrying an electric current, like any complex living animal would, anything is fair game for them.
It is not often that I am pressed to abandon my research at any level, but I believe discretion may be the better part of valor in this instance. Even now, the green mist accumulates and the terraforming substance has begun to excrete that same acidic slop in greater quantities. My tiniest of additions to local nutrient supplies has had a profound effect.
I have started a feeding frenzy.
I have complete faith in my suit to keep me isolated from contamination, but I have found it wise to remove myself from the immediate area as the only living fauna on this ring-world is proving quite hostile. I have no doubt that they are responsible for the state of this place, they are utterly ravenous. As such I have relocated myself to chambers empty of life and full of machinery, sealing it off with my own technology, I can observe without disruption. The drones have increased their activities as well, they comb the hallways looking for the now much more enthused creatures. Both are searching for prey.
Once the commotion had died down, I was able to move more freely and check my internal logs. It will still be some time before I can leave this place and continue my journey. If I am to be stuck with these creatures then I would at least understand them.
Approaching a series of smooth metal crates I was lucky enough to locate the frozen remains of one of the aliens seen before. Like its brothers it is reptilian in nature, lightly armored, and very much dead. Of particular note, what I can only assume is its back is covered in frozen over boils and cancer-like growths. Pulling gently on the corpse to dislodge it, the remains are positioned for examination revealing something unexpected. The broken and twisted remains of its head and neck are at an unnatural angle and bursting from the meat of this reptilian alien's neck and spine and chest are the icy remains of three stalks of dead flesh, terminating in bristly red fibers.
Well, this just keeps getting better doesn't it?
Judicial application of a built-in flamethrower to make the frozen corpse more accessible has rendered the subject much more agreeable to dissection. I have pinned the corpse with mag locks to be safe, all too often the dead are want to walk in my experience.
This alien must have been huge! At least seven feet tall and covered in thick scales supplemented further by smooth futuristic armor. I can feel the bones like steel rods under my gloved and armored hands. Its head, though hanging by threads of frozen flesh and sinew, still possesses discernable features. Four serrated toothed mandibles serve for a mouth gaping in terror even now, and I can see two forward facing beady eyes. This undoubtedly daunting predator must have met its match in this place. Dark skinned and leathery, it has two arms ending in two fingers and a thumb. It is bipedal, with hoof-like two toed feet. The brute of a creature must have been sapient, its technological prowess only confirms this. Where the more natural bumpy scales end, unnatural smooth and calloused tissues begin. Thick and rampant with mutation, its chest cavity split open by the burrowing of the parasite, I can already see signs of a kind of phagocytotic assimilation and the forceful integration of a foreign nervous tissue. Great boils of ooze cover the shoulders, carrying spore and what looks like the beginnings of more of the smaller infectious bodies. This alien was devoured and converted, cell by cell, into a mobile hatchery saturated in ooze and spore.
A large lateral incision is made possible by the talons of my armor, in conjunction with several other tools, I am able to cut and saw my way through the corpse and expose the creatures' internal organs… or should I say, lack of organs. The very same greenish pus-like exudate created by the terraforming mold-like accumulations, that very same fluid suspension found in the smaller creatures, now oozes out beneath the blades of my instruments here. All that remains of what I now assume is the host, the alien reptile, is tough skin and collagen and muscle and bone. Once again, suspended in what has become the putrefied mess of what I can only assume were its original abdominal organs, the same ropy strands of nerve tissue become apparent as they weave their way through the meat of the host. It is as if the nervous tissue of the smaller creature exchanged its small outer shell for a better larger one not its own. Fat stores have been eaten away, though the muscle has only just begun to exhibit signs of breakdown. Bones and other such tissues have also begun to degrade, this organism must have been cannibalizing itself to survive.
Ambient mana levels should be too low to sustain this kind of organism, let alone allow it to manipulate and reshape the host to such a degree while maintaining its function. The dead do not walk without it!
Something else must be sustaining this organism.
As predicted, application of galvanic currents did indeed revive the creature. Still frozen, it was unable to do much save gargle and twitch at first. Nonetheless, working with a more "alive" subject has yielded great results! I can now confidently say that these organisms are intelligent to a degree, they can communicate with one another quite readily.
Unfortunately, this discovery was made by virtue of the fact that they were able root me out of hiding and set me to a merry chase. Attempts were made to remain… anonymous in my research, however needs must as the devil drives.
Shortly after the energy was applied, that same electrical current reverberated through the gel like battery acid medium of its insides to form an actual measurable field of influence that could not only detect my own but resonate through entirely separate organisms and their own gelled insides. This is quite definitely but one of many possible life cycles of this parasite. Beginning as a spore, it terraforms the environment and further develops into the small infectious forms, then acquiring biomass it will continue to grow and mutate both its surroundings and its host. Exactly where this cycle ends, if it does at all, must be entirely dependent on the amount of biomass at its disposal. If this is the case though, I doubt its intelligence will not grow with its mass. Even now the creature pursuing me wields its weapons with a greater knowledge than simple muscle memory; it knows what it's doing.
A further note, the sustaining force of the organism, the parasite, appears to be harvested from any and all forms of electric current. Be it from machine or biological source, or even larger accumulations of itself, tweak it the right way and this parasite will come after it. It is a giant nerve, synapsing with whatever "nerve" it may find around it by means of that same bioelectric current. The one chasing me at the moment hunts me as any predator would while seemingly directing a small host of the smaller infection forms. It must use larger organisms by supplanting the nervous tissue with its own, overriding the organism and mutating it into a cancerous mitotic mess of flesh that serves no other purpose then to feed on the energy around it and locate more meat to add to an ever-accumulating biomass. It herds the smaller infection forms as a shepherd does its flock. The sharp red tubules of their sensory stalks sway menacingly.
This is not good.
I have spoken at length of the nature of my armor in this log, but I feel that to understand the threat of this parasite I must further explain. While armored I stand between eight and nine feet tall, and five feet across from shoulder to shoulder. My left arm is a specially crafted and overlarge shield structure and my right arm is a massive construction of talons protecting an extensive and intricate assembly of automated tools. The armor is thick, laden with spikes and small dermal explosive charges that make any hostile entity pay for its attacks in pain and blood. My gauntlets are also designed to interface with several specially crafted small to medium firearms; two back mounted assault rifles that can be combined into a shotgun or remounted into a plasma rail-cannon. Altogether, with jet pack assist, strength and speed enhancements, additional weaponry, and the whole host of its inner workings, I weigh around 900 to 1000 pounds. Still this single creature threw me like a child's plaything. I was not mentally prepared for that. Small arms rifle fire was ineffective, it feels no pain and suffers no fear; my heavy flamethrower only seemed to make it mad and it does not mourn lost limbs. There is no means to behead the creature, no great weakness to exploit. Eventually a combination of focused firepower and shotgun were able to put it down. It's rotted form belies an extraordinary strength. It must use this strength to cut swathes through resistance so that the smaller forms may advance and infect more efficiently. I can only be glad there was just the one viable combat form remaining, I would not want to face a mob of these creatures.
A truly sad moment, increased activity of the organisms must have activated local security measures, large drones have begun to sweep the area with laser fire. While I must admit the "zombified" alien host was quite dangerous, even to me, I am sad to see it all burn. Much of the ice that hobbled it now shatters in the concentrated fire from the drones. It falls to pieces before my eyes and I must reactivate my cloaking or risk discovery by a machine intelligence as well.
As I watch in the distance, I can see infection forms hatching from mucus sacs of greenish fluid, crawling blindly in search of food. I believe it must bear a miniscule amount of mana here, a probability element factored toward growth, energy, and preservation, but the bulk of these creatures is purely traditionally scientific in nature. What a beautifully perfect organism, surely it must have been designed. I am reminded of a jellyfish on my home-world, it was dubbed "the immortal jellyfish" because it was able to reverse its own senescence by reverting back to its larval stages. Within those spores is a veritable treasure trove, a cache of genetic information that must allow this animal, this goo, to take on whatever form it may need. Infection forms, combat forms, uncorrupted 'pure' forms isolated from host DNA influences; I have only scratched the surface of what this creature is capable of. I doubt it even ages. It begins as a kind of dust, congealing in contact with suitable liquid substances no matter how miniscule to form its very own primordial ooze, from there it forms egg sacks as cells divide and grow into some kind of motile supercell with only one goal to drive it: finding and devouring any sentient life form through the corruption and conversion of its tissues. Somewhere out there must exist many much larger and more coordinated and intelligent examples of converted biomass, this organism is too successful to be relegated to just one backwater space hulk. I would so dearly love to observe the varying forms promised by its massive strains of genetic coding, and to further study its methods of synapsing with one another. Just how big can these accumulations become? How great a stolen network of knowledge and nerves taken from its hosts may be formed? I must relegate these thoughts to whim and fancy, something like this cannot be studied and should most definitely not be preserved.
My systems have recharged enough for another leap through time and space and verse, I must walk across the darkness of the Null again soon. Certainly, I will miss the quiet coldness of this place, and what must surely be the dominant form of life in this universe would be the study of a lifetime.
Reluctantly, I must go walking.
