Entro swiftly brought the vial over to his desk for examination, nearly tripping over discarded papers on the floor.
His eye twitched.
"We should probably clean up first."
"Agreed"
The two of them rushed to clean the office with a newfound fervor, not bothering to properly organize anything.
Like a tornado of energy, they furiously grabbed and stuffed until the floor and countertops were visible again.
Books, papers, and random objects were crammed into spaces, but neither of them cared.
Once the lab was decluttered and ready to be used, Entro looked at Aurelian.
"Let us begin"
Setting aside his dire wolf project, Entro started a new file on his computer to analyze the ooze from scratch.
As he situated his set up and placed the ooze under the microscope, Aurelian got comfortable in a chair next to him.
"What's so important about this? What even is it?"
His confusion was natural, it didn't look ground breaking. Nor did it give off any specific feeling that it was more than something you might've found in a sewage system prior to Entro's breakthroughs in waste regulation.
"I found this a long time ago, but I never got to study it. I suspect it's a sign of intelligent life outside of our solar system, or at least, there once was."
Aurelian's eyes sparkled as he went quiet to observe.
Hours flew, and Entro only became more and more certain of one thing.
"This is what we needed," He resolutely stated.
Aurelian stood, pushing Entro's chair out of the way to see and knocking him to the ground.
"It is? I don't see anything"
Entro stood and dusted himself off.
"Of course not you dolt, you don't know what you're looking for. Look in between each cell, you see the jolt of electricity? They're passing information between each other through electrical currents. Notice the some even respond, each cell is talking."
He could feel his excitement increasing just explaining it. This was revolutionary.
"I'm going to guess that our cells don't do that?"
"Our neurons do, but not to this scale of output, it's like lightning to a spark. Additionally, based on the processes the cells are going through, these are blood cells, not neurons."
Aurelian's face shifted as his understanding grew.
"So whatever this came from, its entire body communicates with itself at speeds the human body cannot replicate. But if the output is stronger, wouldn't that make the already troubling issue we have, even worse?"
Entro smiled at Aurelian; the boy still had a lot to learn.
"Think deeper. Whatever these cells came from, is long gone. But those cells are still alive."
"But... how can this be? If it's alive, then why hasn't it decayed? It's been in the vial for years.
The realization crept onto his face as he swung his head towards the vial, as if spooked, he peaked into the microscope to observe a cell.
"Look closer."
Aurelian did as he was told and increased the magnification on the scope; what he saw almost knocked him from his chair.
"Yes, every cell in that sample has a primitive brain and therefore, is self-sufficient."
Truly, Entro was fearful of whatever species this was no matter how long ago this was.
A cold sweat broke onto his forehead as he turned his gaze toward the test tube they had been using.
'How is my creature going to emerge?'
Shaking the chills off, Entro began experimentation on the blood sample, he needed to have a general understanding of what he was working with before they proceeded any further.
He exposed the blood to plenty of different environmental factors. Whether excruciating heat, piercing cold or a mixture of the two, Entro tried everything.
Split the cells, isolated them, compacted them, and he got creative with it. Eventually spiraling to a point where he was torturing the cells to get a better gauge of their limits.
The more put them through hell, the more excited he got.
These cells were capable of so much.
Their regenerative properties were unmatched by anything he had ever seen, capable of staving off detrimental damage in a matter of hours.
Stalwart cellular stability made them nigh impervious to degradation or mutation.
They showed enviable adaptability as well; once a cell figured out the solution to whatever problem they were collectively facing, it communicated that very same solution to the rest.
The ensuing cellular change you could watch in real time was hypnotic.
Entro had to question; how was any of this possible.
What caused an organism to evolve in this manner?
Everything these cells were capable of was a result of whatever stressful conditions they were put under, which meant Entro had to backtrack and deduce the common point of each ability.
He and Aurelian spent hours, glossing over notes, recording interactions, and pouring over every textbook he had on the nature of cells. He came to one conclusion.
All of the puzzle pieces fell into place with chilling clarity.
Like a fog clearing from a shoreline, he realized why these cells were so hardy and talkative.
"There was no central nervous system," he whispered.
Aurelian looked up from the 4th iteration of cell biology in his hands.
"Huh?"
"There's no central nervous system," Entro jumped up, yelling.
"No central nervous system?"
Entro couldn't believe it himself at first, but it made sense.
"Yes!"
"But that doesn't make any sense, without a central nervous system, how do they get anything done?"
Aurelian scrunched his face in contemplation, trying to make sense of Entro's claim.
"They lack the central nervous system to direct them in battle, they have no commander! So the soldiers developed an incredibly efficient system to get information across the army; instead of one individual leading, they make decisions together! This isn't a multicellular organism, it's a collection of organisms posing as one."
Aurelian's eyes widened, as he quickly rose to his feet.
"The electricity," he exclaimed, "that's why they needed such incredibly fast pulses!
They bounced around the lab, laughing. It felt like they had just made the greatest discovery in human history, together.
Entro stopped leaping to stare at Aurelian.
He wondered if this was what it was like to have a little brother, passionately hanging out, just the two of them; a smile crept onto his face.
Aurelian stopped bouncing.
"What?"
Entro shook his head, "Nothing, I was just wondering, how would these cells react to foreign cells that operate with a central nervous system."
Aurelian's face grew serious.
Sitting down to continue their work, Entro separated two small samples of the ooze, Aether is what they were calling it, into small dishes containing Entro's and Aurelian's blood.
What they observed shook their world.
When the two parties came together, the Aether, perhaps in recognition, tried to send electrical signals toward the blood. This overloaded the cells and immediately caused affected cells to rupture, dying in the process.
The initial Aether then began sending synapses between each other, clearly communicating with each other; it was their next move that left Entro and Aurelian stumped.
They sent another wave of signals that weren't as electrically charged at the remaining human blood.
Unfortunately for the Aether, they received no response, even after several attempts.
Human bodies function, electrically, with a central nervous system, so the responder in question, had no way of receiving the communication intended.
However, the Aether did recognize that human cells release chemicals to communicate with each other, and this caused the Aether to fire off more synapses at each other.
"They're like," Aurelian thought about his comparison, "little curious children trying to make friends, they're so eager to just fit in."
Entro nodded.
"Although there is no intelligence to communicate within these red and white blood cells, nor in the platelets, it seems the Aether is picking up on the language used by them."
As Entro finished speaking, the Aether moved into the midst of the blood cells, stationing themselves among the myriad of cells present and trying to mimic the communication system.
Interestingly enough, they still fired synapses between each for faster discussion, but only "spoke" to human cells chemically.
It was a fascinating turn of events.
The Aether remained to communicate with the human cells while Entro and Aurelian took a nap.
Entro left his computer to automatically monitor changes as he drifted into a well-needed slumber.
It was when he was dreaming about ketchup beating mayonnaise in the World Cup that his alarms started blaring.
Jolting awake, both Entro and Aurelian rushed to the computer. If the alarm was going off, something was happening.
The Aether was starting to learn something new about the human body
Human cells die.
Every single one of the cells died slowly, leaving the Aether alone in their dishes.
This was expected, human cells don't live for very long outside of the body unless given a controlled environment. The question truly begged, was how would the Aether react to the death of those cells, and if it would return to its normalcy.
"Look, sir, their communication slowed down."
Entro watched the Aether sit alone in the dish, if before, it sent quick synapses dozens of times in a few seconds, it took those same seconds to send three to five.
It was as if the dish had gone quiet. No longer talkative zaps, just mournful sparks.
Each cell tried to keep mimicking the chemical release, despite the human cells not being there any longer.
He felt his pulse quicken.
'Are they...'
"Quick, we need to put another sample of blood in the dish."
Entro was already pulling the syringe out without waiting for Aurelian to respond.
"Wait, is there something wrong?"
There was no time to explain, Entro needed an answer now, this very second.
He took the needle and jammed it into his arm, ignoring the pain.
"Woah, what are you doing," Aurelian questioned, "you could've nicked a muscle."
Draining the blood, Entro removed the needle and ignored the blood coming from his arm, and poured all of it into the tray.
Aurelian started fussing over his arm with bandages but Entro ignored him, watching the behavior of the Aether.
He wasn't aware, but this was Entro's final test before he made a decision; one that could make or break their entire project. A hunch hit him, something he picked up from years of studying every behavioral science. He didn't care how drastic it seemed, the more he studied these cells, the more his project failed, the more it felt like this had to happen.
Sure as he thought, the Aether immediately reacted to the new red blood cells, firing off synapses and chemicals faster than ever before.
That wasn't the only thing it did.
It started to directly pass through human cells, causing every cell it entered to mutate incredibly fast.
The human cells were being granted the qualities of Aether cells.
It was trying to keep these cells alive alongside them.
"Well, I'll be damned."
He had seen all he needed to see. Opening the vial, he dumped the contents of the vial and dish into a bigger container.
"Woah," Aurelian exclaimed, "you tainted our only sample."
Entro ignored his comments and filled the syringe with the entire sample, saving none.
Rolling his neck, he did some breathing exercises to steel his heart.
"I'll see you on the other side kid."
Aurelian seemed to realize what he meant and moved to stop him, but it was too late.
The world seemed to move in slow motion as Entro stabbed himself in the arm and injected the contents of the syringe.
Almost instantaneously, white pain made his head spin, the last thing he saw was Aurelian's outstretched hand.
Darkness