96 We Live On In Syndication

In the beginning...

...there was murk.

It was dark. It was inert and passive amidst the ultimate entropy. It had spread evenly from the inflationary epic nanoseconds before. It expanded. If foamed smoothly.

The vacuum, both sides of past and future in the looking-glass, equaled zero. Sparking virtually, its like and unlike probabilities popped in and out. Possibles matured probable and values grew beyond zero. Specks fluctuated in dissimilarity but held intact. The murk was both thick and opaque.

Darkness--without ion--lingers for æons.

Dark things coalesced until imploding upon their own weight. Densities became denser, igniting explosive fusion. Dancing implosions and explosions reciprocated in terpsichorean balance and tripped the light fantastic.

A star was born.

It was heat; it was good.

Electrons abdicated. The dark things re-ionized. They became translucent. They attracted and repelled. Energy flowed freely; the future became as visible in the looking-glass as the past that passed through it.

But they were hourglasses.

When their fuel was spent and exhausted, implosions won, then explosions had the final word, cyclotronically welding heavier and heavier bits and pieces that could attract and repel, then coalesce, to make even heavier bits and pieces to be strewn into their futures.

And amino acids.

A new gestalt emerged from the bits and pieces...and amino acids...and heat. Myelin didn't hurt, either.

The evolving had time. Sentients arose in wild genetic experiments that either succeeded or failed. Most failed.

Some prevailed.

Neurotransmitters navigated synapses and lit them up.

It was enlightenment; it was thought; it was good.

The sentients improved their existential flesh-and-blood machines with nutrition via denatured proteins. Then they improved their systematic machines with codification of laws, via Ages of reason. Finally, they perfected their legislative machines with benevolence, via capitalism-fed socialism. Yet, some successful ones failed--squanderng via poisons, ignoring laws, and malevolence.

Beautiful dreams danced with horrific nightmares and tripped the glare tragidramatic. Everything was razed, because all their things and agendas were important, sustaining a hubris until all the fuel was exhausted.

It did not end well.

And so it was that the bits and pieces of the sentients were sent back into the murk to coalesce anew.

Stay tuned.

In the new beginning...

________________

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This is a standalone piece that also serves as Part 1 of my next story-of-the-day, coming Saturday, April 6, 2024, entitled "Unfathomable," story #97. Stay tuned.

Word count (excluding notes): 366

Submitted for Friday, April 5, 2024

2024: A Story-a-Day for the whole year. This one is #96.

All pictures are AI-generated, but the murk is not!