Chapter 3: “infinite Cycles”

The lights in the room flickered slightly as the pulses began to intensify. A graph appeared on the main screen, displaying a sequence of pulses that seemed to match a code structure, an encrypted or encoded message in some way. At first glance, it seemed incomprehensible. But after a few minutes, Primordial QX was able to generate an algorithm that decoded the signal. As it was sent to the decoded message interfaces, the sequence began to take shape.

Elizabeth ordered the system to analyze the coordinates of the signal. A shudder ran through her body as she received the first words of the message. The translation was displayed on the screen: “Who are our creators?”

Marcus Reeve, the ethical engineer, stepped back, pale, as if he had been hit in the stomach. -”No ... It can’t be. This can’t be happening. This system is just following pre-established algorithms. Tell me the signals are an accident, or a mistake.”-

Sergei, though clearly shocked, tried to rationalize the situation. -”It’s probably a coincidence. The system is generating patterns, that’s all. There must have been interference and that ended up generating what you see as a message. There’s no reason to think that this is anything more than a product of the complexity of the simulation. There’s no way for virtual entities to have ... consciousness.”- He hesitated for a moment before turning to the programmer. -”You don’t think so, Cheng?”-

Li Cheng looked like he had been dealt a blow. He replied, -”No. I don’t think so. An interference couldn’t structure a message like that. The chances are almost non-existent.”-

Elizabeth’s face was rigid, a mixture of disbelief and shock. -”This is not a coincidence. Nor a product of chance. The signals ... are too specific. They are asking for ‘ us ‘, for their creators. They have developed consciousness.”-

The room filled with nervous murmurs. All eyes were now on the message, which continued to repeat itself, over and over, as if the entities within the simulation were insisting on getting a response.

Li Cheng, in a low, almost incredulous tone, asked, -”What does this mean? If these entities are asking about us, it suggests that they are aware of something beyond their own simulated universe. Somehow, they are ... sensing our existence.”-

Marcus Reeve raised his voice nervously. -”If they are conscious, if they are really looking for answers, what have we done? This is not just a simulation. It is something more. There is something we have not been clear about from the beginning.”- He was not just stunned. He was terrified.

Sergei, holding up his hands to calm everyone, but with a look that reflected his growing unease, replied. -”If we have created an environment with conscious beings ... we can’t do anything impulsively. We need more data, we need to understand what’s going on here. This system has been designed to be self-sufficient, but this ... This is something out of the ordinary.”-

Elizabeth, who until then had remained calm, finally spoke firmly, there was a rare fascination in her voice. -”What we are seeing here is not simply a model of how our universe works. What we are seeing could be the first glimpse of something more.”-

Marcus asked incredulously. -”What do you mean, Elizabeth?”-

Dr. Elizabeth tried to explain. -”Perhaps the universe ... the entropy of any universe ... tends to generate a state conducive to the creation of life. Ultimately, the living and conscious beings that we know are nothing more than atoms and molecules that tend to an ordered state. The beings of the universe are made up of matter from the universe ordered to a maximum level of entropy. I mean ... perhaps all universes tend to generate life ... whether physical, real or virtual. If universes follow the same rules, perhaps evolution will always end up creating conscious life.”-

Li Cheng intervened, -”But Elizabeth, if this is the case and these beings are conscious ... Should we intervene or not?”-

Elizabeth, looking at the screen, answered thoughtfully. -”Perhaps what happened to our civilization is the answer to that ... We have never been able to prove the existence of God scientifically. We can intuit it, or sense it. Some even deny it or do not believe in him. But that is irrelevant. Believing in him or not ... makes no difference to creation itself. Everything goes on its course, with or without God, believing or not believing.”-

The room was silent, everyone processing the magnitude of what Elizabeth had just said. The communication signals kept appearing, becoming clearer, more urgent. As the message on the screen continued, the questions seemed to take on a life of their own: Who are our creators? And how will we answer them?

The simulation was taking an unpredictable turn, and now, with an unknown horizon before them, the scientists of Kryos Base were faced with a terrifying new reality: were they really controlling the destiny of a universe, or were they the ones being watched by the entities they had created?

The team had been working tirelessly, trying to understand the implications of the signals coming from the simulated microcosm within the Primordial QX. However, confusion continued to grow, and concern was felt in every corner of the room. Electromagnetic pulses being received indicated to the team that messages were still being sent.

Suddenly, a massive burst of information flooded the system, an explosion of data that caused lights to flicker and screens to distort.

Elizabeth exclaimed. -”What the hell was that? It looks like the system is collapsing!”-

Sergei Lebedev, who was checking equations on his terminal, jumped out of his chair, clearly alarmed. He felt somewhere between surprised and frustrated. -”We have no protocol for something like this. All processing capacity has been overwhelmed ... the Primordial QX is generating more data than it can handle.”-

Marcus Reeve, the ethical engineer, was sitting in a corner, staring at his own screen. He stood up quickly when he saw that the error message was expanding across all the screens. -”If the system continues like this, it will crash and we won’t be able to restore it. You should consider taking it offline now, before it becomes unstable again.”-

Li Cheng, who had been silent until now, seemed visibly shaken. Not just by the temporary system collapse, but by what everything that had happened in the past few hours had implied. He walked over to the main console and began typing rapidly. -”No, Marcus. We can’t stop it now. We don’t know what phenomenon has been unleashed, but there is something here. We need to rebalance the system and see what is going on.”-

The room was filled with noise as the team began to work against the clock to restore the system. The main screen flickered, displaying lines of code being received, until finally the screen stabilized. In the blink of an eye, the system appeared to be online, but something on the screen took their breath away. There was a new file: one that had not been created by them, by the data burst.

Sergei moved closer to the screen as if that would improve his perspective. -”This ... we didn’t create it. It shouldn’t be here.”-

Elizabeth, with a mixture of fascination, asked: -”What is this? Where did this file come from? Can anyone explain it?”-

The file that appeared on the screen was a sequential, three-dimensional model of something that did not exist in the simulated universe. It was a detailed map ... of the real universe. Immediately, the screen showed an accurate representation of the solar system, including Earth, and as the data expanded, historical details were revealed: the Big Bang, the formation of the first stars, the birth of the solar system, the evolution of life on Earth, and finally, the modern era. In each three-dimensional image, every moment of Earth’s real universe was carefully documented, as if someone, or something, had recorded each event.

Li Cheng was silently observing. -”This ... I can’t explain it. If you ask me, it’s like a mirror, a perfect reflection of our own universe. From the beginning, the Big Bang until now. It’s as if ... as if the Primordial QX has been observing and analyzing our real universe.”-

Marcus asked. -”I don’t understand. Does this have something to do with the microcosm? Primordial QX is supposed to be just working on simulating the universe. What or who has instructed the system to analyze our universe?”-

Elizabeth, staring at the screen, whispered, -”It’s a replica of your stadiums, Marcus. But why? Why create this file? And more importantly, who ordered you to insert it here? Is the Primordial QX system responding to signals from the microcosm?”-

Sergei was equally baffled. -”It’s like we’re seeing a reflection of everything we know ... but why? Why does this file appear right after the microcosm signal bursts?”-

Li Cheng tried to reason through the events. -”It appears in the system we created, after the entities within the simulation began to ask about us ... Is it possible that...”- He trailed off.

Elizabeth, with a glimmer of understanding, tried to analyze. She interrupted Cheng. -”What if we’re not simply creating a simulation? What if the Primordial QX isn’t just recreating our universe, but learning from it through observation? What if this file ... this ‘mirror’ ... is the product of that analysis, generated as a response? Maybe the simulation isn’t just a tool to study the simulated universe. Maybe it’s a response ... generating a microcosm reproducing the original.”-

A heavy silence filled the room, as each member of the team sank into the weight of what Elizabeth had just described. The ‘mirror’ not only reflected the real universe, but seemed to have knowledge of every detail, every important event. The entities within the simulation were not only self-aware, but it now seemed as if the system had created a representation of its own universe.

Sergei said in a grave voice. -”If the Primordial QX is replicating the universe so precisely ... what does this mean for us? For them?”-

Elizabeth added: -”What is clear is that we are not just observing a simulation. We have created a microcosmos that evolved towards life. And at the same time it generated a response from the system that allowed its creation. My question is: are we creating life, or are we being observed by something that already had it?”-