Chapter 1: Bud of Life
"This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can't see how deep it is."
– Dennis Rodman
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Seraphim Supercluster, Azrael Galaxy;
Eistibus Planetary System, MZ-32 Planet
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There was a deserted dwarf planet hidden in the deepest part of the Eistibus Solar System, standing out like a sore thumb in the empty space. Its moon is missing and the planet only receives a limited amount of rays from the Eistibus system's sun due to its isolated location making the small planet look dark and gloomy with nothing but barren scenery. The pollution was severely affecting the planet's ecosystem; the terrain was dead and cracked, and even the sky had a greyish hue. There were some fragments of what used to be infrastructures, that gives off a sense of antiquity. Some building parts were just littering around the vicinity and the majority were half buried.
The soil has no sign of any moisture except on the patch of area where some foreign trees were huddled together and bearing some kind of weird fruit that gives off, surprisingly, a pleasant scent. It was actually the only vegetation available on the entire planet.
And near that last Eden of this planet, was a tattered and worn down underground research facility. There used to be a building that must have stood atop the facility to hide the existence of the entrance to the underground establishment, but all that's left of them were huge chunks of boulders making the circular metallic door visible to the naked eye.
Inside the remaining intact facility on the planet, was an unlit spacious room seemingly untouched for a long span of time. There were tables with huge devices and foreign technological equipment scattered all around. However, what was peculiar in this certain room was a mucus-like lump that was emitting a beating sound every second like a pulsating heart. It was in the corner-most area of the chamber splattered like a slime.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
By inspecting the soft and viscous mass, one could see a silhouette of what looked like a person in a fetal position. No one would believe if anyone said that this profusion originated just from strands of chromosomes incorporated within the nucleus of a mysterious cell. The cell growth took place even with no external forces that catalyzed its process.
One should know that this specimen was the most confidential research sample of an ancient civilization but left discontinued because of its unresponsive characteristics. Thus the study lacked any progress until they concluded that it was a failure. In spite of that, the engineered cell remained under maximum security. But none would have thought that in the course of time, it would undergo evolution and mutation. Unfortunately, the past researchers can never see such astonishing results.
Back then when it was only a singular cell, if anyone were to look at it using a microscope they will discover the bizarre characteristic of that single cell or more correctly termed as the mother cell. It was as if there's a galaxy inside that contained millions to billions of stars and was all bound by the cell membrane or plasma. No organism has that kind of cell, and if any Cytotechnologist were to see and study this cellular anomaly, they would feel like all the years they have spent researching and studying would just go in the drain. The level of the advanced composition the cell has, was totally unheard of! And if there is a perfect cell, then it must be this cell!
Organisms have developed over time to have different and more complex forms of cell division, but nothing is more intricate than the mitosis the perfect cell underwent. Cosmologists say that the universe started with a small singularity, made up of hot and tiny particles mixed with light and energy, then inflated.
As everything expanded and took up more space, it cooled down. The tiny particles then grouped together and formed atoms. Then those atoms gathered together and over the passage of time, those atoms formed the stars and galaxies.
And just like the Big Bang Theory, the mother cell expanded and stretched. Inside the inflated cell were extremely active molecules, one made up of something similar to shards of blackened glass and the other of colorful cloud-like matter. It clashed with each other before mixing and blending together, looking like a nebula surrounded by dark matter. These phenomena caused the cell membrane to quiver as if anticipating something to happen.
As the cell continued to inflate its plasma could no longer keep up, so it exploded. The massive cell burst into countless smaller cells. Each has the same genetic composition and structure of the mother cell. Mitosis is a fundamental process of life, it is such an unprecedented thing for such phenomena to happen! Such a bizarre process of cell division!
But it did not end there. The thousands of cells gathered together, mutated and re-connected to form a pulsating egg-like object.
Inside the egg, a physical manifestation emerged like a blooming lotus.
It metamorphosed into a larva-like Lifeform before slowly growing, beginning its embryonic development! First, a primitive face took form with large dark circles for eyes. The mouth, lower jaw and throat also developed. Blood cells took shape and a heart tube started to beat, causing the circulation to begin.
As time went by, each ear formed as a little fold of skin at the side of the head. Tiny buds that eventually grew into arms and legs took shape. Fingers, toes, and eyes also manifested. Followed by the formation of the brain, spinal cord and other neural tissue of the central nervous system. And then the digestive tract and sensory organs developed too. While bones replaced the cartilage. The once singular cell is now a fetus.
Although it appears that the configuring organism was a human, it is impossible. Because humans were never born from an egg and there is no known mammal that has such a surreal origin.
The embryo continued to grow until it became a fully matured fetus. One would expect the baby to step finally out of its egg. However, the metamorphosis did not end there.
The speed and extent of cell growth and differentiation was astonishing. It developed from what looks like a newborn babe into a one-year-old baby. Then from a year old it matured into a five-year-old child, it only stopped growing once it arrived in the adolescent stage.
By now, the outer layer of the egg turned into a translucent pupa or a placenta. It would seem like the process only happened for just a few seconds, but in actual life, unknown eons had already passed. The slime-like placenta stretched out all over the place, with glutinous tentacles pasted on the laboratory's wall and sucking in the existing energy in the atmosphere for the creature's nourishment. It was a bizarre sight to see that all the natural and atmospheric energies out and within the planet were converging on where the creature was located. This occurrence could be the only reason why the planet is nearing its end.
What is skeptical was that the humanoid Lifeform inside the placenta, who is unaware of the havoc it caused, was still unresponsive; seemingly lifeless. Even though anyone could hear the echo of its beating heart, the child inside the pupa was still unconscious. No matter how much the body looks healthy and vibrant, it was still just like an empty shell.
That was until a distortion of space suddenly appeared, as if a black hole started to take form. The void created a disturbance in the interplanetary space, in a counter-clockwise flow. Then the huge gaping 'mouth' of the black hole issued a continuous sound akin to a thunder before finally a glowing object, in the form of a will-o'-wisp, came forth. Slowly drifting aimlessly around until descending towards the soulless body and then merged with it.
Miraculously, the boy that looks like a sixteen-year-old finally showed a bud of Life.
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Definition of Terms:
• Dwarf Planet - a spherical celestial body revolving about the sun, similar to a planet but not large enough to gravitationally clear its orbital region of most or all other celestial bodies. (Dictionary.com)
• Cytotechnologist - Cytotechnologists are laboratory professionals who study cells and cellular anomalies. (ExploreHealthCareers.org)
• Cell Membrane or Plasma - the membrane found in all cells that separates the interior of the cell from the outside environment. (Genome.gov)
• Mitosis - the fundamental process of life. It refers to the cellular process where a single cell divides resulting in two identical cells. (Biologyonline.com)
• Cell Division - the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. (wikipedia.com)