The Perfect Destroyer (Page 165)

~~~(POV: Scott Autumn)~~~

~~~(Location: Inside The Nexus of Knowledge, Primordium Prime)~~~

"Look at all this biological data, Eternal Acuity! The Parasite has the ability to assimilate all sentient life! There is so much to learn here! This organism is probably older than anything in the universe! Even the Primordium themselves!"

The recording plays out as I watch Transcendent Builder Eternal Acuity and Borealis in a lab. There are samples of the initial infection forms of the Parasite. I've learned much, but I know that there is still more to learn.

I've gained knowledge on how to build the suits that the Primordium wear, and they're not suits. They're Mecha's that are around their bodies at all times. The information my mind was able to unravel from looking at the suits tells me they're far more capable than anything today.

And they keep the seem size and shape as just an extra layer of armor. It's the perfect Mecha. Something small but fast, powerful, and unbeatable.

"I know, Borealis... But what worries me are these reading about the potential for a Hivemind to control the Parasite... A central intelligence where all knowledge gathered from the Parasites victims can be utilized..."

What I'm currently watching was before the war with the Parasite and The Primeval Inherent, when the Parasite was first discovered.

This time in The Aeternus Universe was The Golden Age of The Primordium. They were the dominant life in the universe and had a firm hold on what some might consider Godhood. But they couldn't be everywhere and see everything.

The Parasite that I've come to know has apparently been around for as long as The Primordium has. Perhaps even longer. Something Hundreds of Billions of years old. Just like The Primordium.

"If we don't do something about The Parasite, there is a good chance it could run rampant... But the council has decided to run tests and experiments with the organism... Are you sure we should do this, Eternal Acuity?"

Borealis says something that stops all my trains of thought.

The Primordium had the option to destroy the Parasite... But they decided to run tests and experiments on it... This could've all been avoided if they had just done what was sensible...

"We've been unable to find the origins of the Parasite. But the ship they took over to get here has revealed much about their biology and evolutionary process."

The Primordium had a run-in with the Parasite on some distant world by the sounds of it, but wouldn't they know the location if they looked at the logs of the ship?

"The planet the ship came from is completely free of the Parasite. What kind of environment would create such an organism? Wouldn't an organism like this have to be in such a place that nothing other than cellular life could survive?"

I don't know the answers to Borealis's questions, but I'm just as intrigued by the questions as her. The Parasite has an intelligence it shouldn't, even at the cellular level. To become something like that, you'd need some hellish evolutionary circumstances.

"We're looking at a creature that can kill and devour anything with thought and sentience. Anything with biomass. This could destroy all life and potential for life in the universe... But where did it come from? How did it get on the Starship that it came on?"

That's a question I've asked myself too... How can the Parasite suddenly appear on the Starship it came to Primordium Prime on and not have a trace of it on the world the Starship came from?

"I've run multiple simulations on what could've happened, but there are no concrete answers. Even with the data from the Starship's logs... It's like they appeared out of nowhere on the trip back..."

None of this sounds good, and I feel that whatever answers were found led to the creation of the Coda Arrey. While the weapon was made because of the Parasite running rampant in the universe, they must've foreseen an outcome like this.

They had to... I don't see any way they couldn't... Not if they knew about me...

Which begs the question...

Why didn't they know about the Parasite as they knew about me?