How are Zerg made?

Chapter 2: Spores · Chapter 2: Spores · Who am I? · Where is this? · The moment The Organism consciously grasped the concept of ‘self’, these two questions emerged. · The environment was defined by darkness—absolute, total darkness, devoid of a single glimmer of light. · The Organism could feel itself being swept along by various forces, constantly in motion, moving up or down, forward or backward, left or right. Sometimes it would make a sharp turn, or, caught between the clash of two conflicting forces, be cast toward an unpredictable destination, following no discernable pattern. · Where am I going? · The question flickered through the subconscious of The Organism. · In this world of absolute darkness, The Organism was not the only entity; within the void, many things existed. · In a world without light, The Organism could not grasp the concept of ‘seeing’, but this did not prevent it from perceiving the existence of objects within the darkness. · Driven by those chaotic, surging forces, these objects often collided with The Organism, only to be separated again by the shifting currents. · The emergence of a subconscious did not bring any real change to The Organism. It had existed in this dazed, murky state since its inception, and it remained so. · Chaotic and dim, it felt as though there were no future, as if everything now was the entirety of the world. · This state continued until The Organism encountered The Unexpected Visitor. · This contact was different from all previous encounters. The Unexpected Visitor did not separate after the collision; instead, it remained tightly adhered to The Organism, resisting even the ubiquitous forces that sought to tear them apart. · For the first time, The Organism felt a ‘sense of crisis’. This was a warning signal from its subconscious: Run! Escape! · It was not just the subconscious exerting pressure; basic biological instinct also urged it onward: Your life is threatened, act now, or lose your chance forever! · The Organism moved. This time, instead of being swept aimlessly by the currents, it utilized those very forces to change its position, attempting to shake off the entity attached to it. · But alas, the effort was in vain. · The Organism could feel the ‘foreign object’ penetrating from the exterior to the ‘interior’. · In that very instant, instead of feeling a sense of loss, The Organism felt it had gained something more; a shackle it had been carrying all along seemed to have been unlocked. · "No signs of massive replication... that's good... a temperate bacteriophage..." · The Organism thought this, still shaken, but new questions followed immediately. · "...What is 'replication'?" · "...What is a 'temperate bacteriophage'?" · The Organism did not understand why it had expressed these thoughts; the action had been purely subconscious. · Unable to fathom these questions, The Organism abandoned the thought. · Following the incident, the behavioral pattern of The Organism shifted. No longer drifting helplessly at the mercy of the forces, it began to actively ride the flow, moving forward without a destination. · What was the purpose of this? · The Organism did not know. It acted purely on instinct, feeling that this path was correct. As for why, it did not stop to consider. · This change within The Organism was not merely in its mode of movement; its perception was also affected. It found it could see the interior of its own structure clearly, rather than the darkness that had defined its existence until now, where its perception had been limited to a single point centered on itself. · Its spherical form, much like a water-filled balloon, shifted shape under the clash of external forces, only to restore itself once the pressure subsided. · A flexible outer membrane maintained internal stability, ensuring the integrity of the form during collisions. At the core lay a tangled mass, resembling a ball of noodles, positioned at the very center of The Organism. · This was the entirety of The Organism. · "Is this... a cell?" · This realization surfaced instinctively, followed by immediate confusion. · "What is a 'cell'?" · Naturally, there was no answer. It was merely a single-celled organism; for it to possess such cognition was already a biological miracle. · "Survive..." · The Organism established its goal—a target driven by the purest instinct, transcending mere thought. · Under this drive, the tangled core at its center began to loosen. · The Organism could see the spiral double-molecule chains stretching out into straight lines, like a ladder. Then, the ladder split down the middle into two incomplete single chains. Substances drifting between the core and the outer membrane were pulled in, binding to the split chains to form new double strands. · The double helices reformed the core; two cores now existed within the single cell. · The excess core material stimulated the outer membrane, which began to expand, increasing its volume. · How much time passed, it did not know, but eventually, this instinctive behavior reached its final stage—a thin membrane formed between the two cores, and the single cell was fully divided into two individuals. · Thus, the cellular replication was complete. · At the moment of completion, a strange sensation surged through The Organism, much like the encounter with the bacteriophage. A shackle had been undone; it was as if a beast confined to the ground had sprouted wings to soar in the blue sky, or a disabled patient had been made whole, capable of independent movement—how free it felt. · However, this state did not last long. · As The Organism and The Replicant separated under the surging currents, the strange sensation vanished. The wings of the beast were broken, and it fell back to the ground; the disabled were rendered incomplete once more, unable to live independently. · The locks were fastened once again. · "This is terrible..." · The Organism instinctively detested this feeling. No life enjoys being fettered. Having experienced the freedom of being ‘unlocked’, it could no longer be satisfied with its current situation, even though it had lived in this environment since the moment of its birth. · It instinctively began to call out to The Replicant, hoping it would return and restore the previous state of ‘adhesion’. · But it was to no avail. Its call was merely bio-electricity within its own body. Unable to transmit information, The Organism remained an isolated island, incapable of beckoning the separated Replicant to return. · Would The Organism give up? · Of course not. Life is free, and life always finds a way. · The Organism began its new attempt. · [END]