The Consumption was a fascinating thing to study. It had the perfect mix of mystery, beauty, and pure terrifying potential. Enough to make it the ideal candidate for testing.

Certainly, this would only be acknowledged after level XCIX security protocols had been established, set into place, and then reinforced with a set of level XIV anti material containment arrays. Just to get into the Facility took a full five rotations, and that was ignoring the fact that the paperwork took an additional two cycles.

The shifts for those who worked in the site, though, were much longer.

It was expected researchers live in house, and remain completely isolated from the outside, in all ways. A dead zone, with no interference, just stable and reliable research. This was a place outside of politics, of games, outside of everything but the universe and it's mysteries. This was a place where the most intelligent and motivated, hammered away at the enigmas of the ages.

There were many of those. Thousands of unanswered questions, all being worked on in an efficient manner with the most advanced technology the Union possessed. It was said that in this installation, over two hundred thousand cycles before, a team of minds had managed to bring life to the inorganic: the very discovery that lead to the S.A.I and the nanotech relied upon by almost all of the Union's citizens. This was a place where the impossible was paved over through progress. Where the mysteries of the universe were unlocked.

And, it was true.

Outside of the Consumption, there were many other projects held in study- from microorganisms, to larger biota, to the research and construction of new nanobots. Based on one's perspective, Wichita Containment was likely the most interesting place you could imagine- or the most horrifying thing someone could come up with.

As he gazed at the gray crystal, swirling with colors and internal motion, seemingly polished to a perfect sphere, Vinzol found himself firmly believing in the first option.

On his free shifts Vinzol often enjoyed staring at the orb that floated [60 Units] behind nonreactive glass, a dense layer of oxygen and nitrogen, and a rapid frequency of sound waves which acted to suspend one tiny glimmering particle of Consumption. The most dangerous thing the universe had ever seen, but to him that danger held beauty; it held magnificence.

They still didn't understand how it worked.

They understood what it did well enough, no mistakes there any longer. This containment was remodeled after a live observation of the fact had cost the lives of thirty researchers and half of their defensive array.

Tiny fusion bursts, combined with a strange reaction that almost seemed to mimic a rapid pulsing of warp-jumping. That, ironically, was also something they didn't quite understand. Hyperspace was a difficult concept to study, considering it didn't exist... a real headache that one, three-hundred thousand years, and no progress beyond being able to aim and shoot.

Addendum: Aim, shoot, and catch the poor souls you fired out of existence as they came back in.

The Consumption didn't seem to mind going out of existence. Or, even staying there for a time, considering could essentially teleport in short sprints during the active stages of the initial and secondary events, breaking the known light speed predictions.

It was this behavior, which first lead Vinzol to his hypothesis, and his multi-cycle studies on something so absolutely terrifying, and completely unpredictable.

Thankfully, between it and him, was the [Fifty Units - spherical] containment of high density, nonreactive glass.

If given the chance to reach the material, the Consumption would still eat through the glass, of course. It would multiply, considering that was what it did to practically any solid, but it was known that the Consumption didn't do so quite as quickly with the glass. The non-reactive elemental structure seemed to hinder it, somewhat. This was recorded as being consumed at an average of [0.53 Units a second] in a sample size of eighty-five installations, only seven of which were presently remain operational.

It was proven though, which was the important detail. And it provided the crucial safety-net to supply ample time required for the activation of a flash nova and the mercury firing protocols.

The Consumption wasn't a big fan of heat, not beyond [5,600 degrees Celsius] ... whatever “it” was.

Vinzol checked through the holo-notes on his tablet as he flicked through the last logs. For some reason they could never get a read on the material. Some of the other researchers had even begun to lovingly refer to the stuff as "Gray Goo." Vinzol thought differently.

The Consumption was more than that.

Beyond all of it's other qualities, the Consumption had arrived from outside of the milky-way, outside of their galaxy entirely. Considering it was the only thing known in existence to even remotely resemble life to have done so, had drawn him to it. He found that he needed to know where it came from, what conditions lead to its formation. Yet, most importantly, was the question that ate at him day and night as he established different experiments:

How did it communicate?

The other Researchers laughed at this, called it irrational, but Vinzol knew he was on to something. It was his gut feeling, and he would find a means to prove it true, or false it it were to be the case, as any good scientific mind. Still, he believed it was more than just a hypothesis. The Consumption was alive, and it was capable of communication. There were too many unexplained factors if this wasn't the case, too many things that wouldn't have been possible.

If it wasn't possible, for instance, how else did the scattered pieces react in such dangerous and unpredictable patterns? How did it know to hold dormant and lie in wait for an unsuspecting vessel, or a planetary sized timebomb? How did it know how to stop short of killing an infected host of organic life, and to wait for the ideal moment to consume in a wildfire of activity?

He'd seen the footage, the data, the records no one without clearance was ever allowed to touch.

No...

The Consumption was too smart to only be a dangerous material. He knew that it acted with intelligence, but not in the way an observer would notice without an overarching trend to back it. It clearly didn't think like a living thing as an intelligent mind could perceive it, but it did think. In the behavior, he could see it had a system, a program, a thought process of some kind- however deceivingly complicated. It was not random.

Vinzol had 200,000 cycles of recorded trends to analyze, study, reanalyze, and decipher. He had reached his conclusion based on this, and now he set out to find proof, some form of substantial and recorded proof that it was more than just a lump of dumb but dangerous "Grey goo"

He no longer treated it as a specimen for study. This was an ancient and intelligent adversary that was more dangerous than death. This was a being with the patience to float for an eternity, and spring to life the instant the chance arose. This was a lifeform that existed purely to make the universe crumble into dust.

This, was entropy incarnated.

It was a beautiful and sickening sight.

As Vinzol set down his holo-pad and left the observation chamber, he considered what experiments he could try next. The usual shipments of supplies were half a cycle late, but he didn't mind. He had never needed to eat much, just stay hydrated and consume the nutrition recycled by his suit's processor. It was a shame that the shifts on this installation were for ten cycles though... no his fellow researchers had not been happy. The defensive protocols were sound though... completely tamper proof. None could enter, and none could leave.

Vinzol laid his synthetic body down on his bunk as he deactivated the scent and odor detection nerves, withdrawing them back into his form. He had been so absorbed in his work recently, that he had barely realized how quiet it had gotten over the last few rotations... how long had it been since he had spoken with the others... the others...

Vinzol took his mind off of such trivial matters, and refocused his thoughts on the next tests he would complete. Perhaps a hyperspace communication line could be used to influence the subject.

In the dark of the Wichita Research facility, Vinzol slept, in a quiet peace, surrounded by the dead.