“Thank you all for coming to witness this most momentous occasion,” the head of the Academic board said through the speakers. The biogenesis chamber from which the man was speaking was behind a thick layer of glass. The chamber had initially been a cage for more aggressive and large animals, but had been retrofitted to accommodate the large machinery needed to channel and direct the life-giving Tessaract energy. It had been chosen because it was the most heavily shielded and reinforced from the inside; we knew for sure what we were creating, but we didn’t want to take any chances.
“Today, we fully transcend our status of being merely human,” the board member smirked, “and today, we will create life. Now, let us begin.” He motioned to the technicians behind him, and they opened up the energy conduits. Everyone was furiously beginning to scribble notes; so was I. Power poured into the glass cylindrical tube in the corner farthest from us, and the technicians responded by adjusting the various switches and dials in front of them.
“Increasing energy output to chamber. 30% and rising,” declared one of them.
“Energy flow stable. No fluctuations,” spoke another.
“We have a 0.57% deviation from the genome blueprint. It won’t be exactly as planned, but it will be alright,” exclaimed still another.
The experiment was well underway, when further complications began to arise. “Energy output stable, but we’re not getting the exact resonances we want.”
“3.52% deviation from genome blueprint. I don’t think we should continue sir.”
“Proceed as planned,” idly spoke the Academic board head.
Over the loud speakers I heard a cracking and then a breaking sound, and one of the technicians stood from his chair, “Sir, one of the resonance mirrors just shattered! We won’t be able to adequately control any power disturbances if we continue!”
“We have many backups. Proceed.”
“Sir, we have nano movement: the atoms we’ve created are beginning to form the appropriate DNA chains for life.”
“Board head, we have over 15% deviation from genome blueprint! We must do an emergency purge!”
“Proceed, damn you! We cannot make advances in science without some risk!”
That’s when all hell broke loose. Levers began to go up and down of their own accord, dials began to spin erratically, even the lighting in our chamber above was flickering at sporadic intervals, as if some rambunctious poltergeist were wreaking havoc throughout the room.
“Total mechanical failure! Switchboards are inoperative!”
“The deviation just skyrocketed! 67.83. 93.21! 156.31?! That’s impossible!”
“Power fluctuations off the scale! Everyone evacuate the room!”
The board head pointed to the man who had last spoken and said, “Do that and I’ll revoke your license to work! We’ll see this madness through! We are the masters of our fates, and we will triumph!”
“Deviation at 888.88.”
The power to both rooms went out simultaneously, and we were left in the darkness. The emergency power did eventually kick back on, and with it so did the speakers. Smoke from fried circuitry filled the area, which ventilation would eventually get rid of.
“Did we do it,” I heard the Board head say between coughs, “What’s the status of the chamber?”
The other technicians were recovering, and the one closest to the chamber looked inside. “Sir, we’ve..I don’t know what we’ve done.”
“What the devil do you mean? Have we created life or not?”
There was a crackling red aura within the chamber. Red points of light traced erratic patterns through the tube. First they transformed into oversized multiplying cells, each the size of a softball. The cells were consumed by a ruby colored fire, and replaced with a foreboding cloud of energetic gas, which in turn changed into a disembodied elephant trunk that wailed triumphantly. Reconstituting again, the crimson fog formed a human arm whose palm reached for the glass and gently touched it while a pair of disembodied lips spoke, “Shalom, Guten Tag, Konichiwa, Salutations, Buenos Dias, Bonjour, привет, Ro Crow Snow Joe, Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.”
“What the hell is it,” one of the scientists below asked, voicing the opinion of just about everyone in the room below and the room where I was. The Board head looked at the now swirling formless cloud with wonder and manic glee, “We’ve done it. We’ve not only created life from nothing, we’ve created cognizant life. We’ve become gods, and it is wonderful.” He reached to the glass and touched it, and in response the cloud formed a six fingered hand of energy that touched the glass as well. “What are you,” the Board head whispered.
The six fingered hand regressed into the ruby colored cloud, which in turn transformed into a book. The book exploded into millions of scraps of paper and blew about in a nonexistent windstorm. In the imaginary gusts within the biogenesis chamber, the strips blew into a readable letters, “I am chaos. I am disorder. I am discordant. I am discord. I am Discord.” The gale forces winds instantaneously froze in midair, and then burned away to become the crimson cloud once more.