An emptiness dominates the space between two giants, drifting across vast backdrop of blues and greens. The calm before the storm is tranquil and a sense of harmony emanates from all around. The giants draw nearer. These rivals have met before, pockmarked and scarred by wounds from their battles past; a feud begun in times immemorial, that had since lasted for an age.
The giants hasten their assault, closing the gap between them at incredible speed. Their charge obliterating all in their path until they meet in a mighty cataclysm; masses of flesh torn from the other in the brutal aftermath of an event anticipated for decades. Each is left with a fresh scar, a reminder of the other's eternal vendetta until the bitter end; thus they drift away to recover for the bout to come.
In the midst of all the chaos made by the planets Hodge and Podge, fragments of rock torn from the two flee from the scene in a marvellous array. As they drag past each other, material is twisted, torn and forced into shapes unimaginable, and in this instance, near impossible. Collisions of materials throughout the universe sometimes out of pure coincidence cause atoms and molecules to align to form unusual structures. In this case an odd formation of phosphorous, argon, palladium, silicon and titanium formed an electronically active cluster of atoms. The lattice structure suggests a network, exchanging electrons to and from each component, lent and borrowed where they are needed from where they are plenty; their behavior and movements inducing additional and unintentional actions elsewhere. The inner workings of what can only be described as a microscopic and basic form of a mind. It attracts like substances to it, increasing the size of the lattice. It forms more complex network terminals with the addition of non-native materials such as niobium, oxygen and nitrogen. In the shade of the warring giants, it grows.
The primitive cluster has grown into the form of a sphere rivalling the size of a small moon. A flurry of electrical currents pass through it, detecting and storing information from the quantum fluctuations it detects in the universe around it. The planet Hodge nears, bringing with it the doom of the sphere. For too long had it been aware of the planet's stampedes toward it's counterpart. But it seems the trajectory did not bode well for it this time. It's time in this world is coming to an end, and this is the way it shall be.
It was then the sphere detected an unusual fluctuation, an unfamiliar anomaly. Unknowingly to the sphere, a small Zoner charting vessel was on approach; moving around the crescent of the planet Podge nearby. The sphere reacted vigorously to this presence, electric currents exploded from it's core at incredible rapidity. A grey aura emanated from the sphere in relation to the magnitude of information being processed in quantum.
"What the hell?"
"What?"
"That! Look at THAT!"
"Jesus..."
The sphere flashed momentarily. It recognised the manipulation of radio waves and shuddered as it struggled to process the information into theories and probabilities.
"It's incredible...."
"Check radiation scans Rogers"
"Already have cap'n, it's clear"
"Jacob?"
"Initial geo-scans classify it as a moon, but, i've never seen one so perfect"
"What do you mean?"
"Well look at it. Not a scratch. It's perfectly spherical. I mean look at this place, this thing should have serious acne"
The captain stared out at the sphere puzzled.
"Hmm..."
"From what I can gather, there are traces of phosphorous and silicon but no evidence of any tectonic fragmentation past or present. We'l need to launch a probe to get anything better than that..."
"Send one out"
"Aye sir"
The ship moved itself into orbit of the sphere. The sphere itself continued to shudder and illuminate in response to the quantity of information it was processing. It couldn't make sense of this disruption in the quantum flow of the universe and continued to struggle to find an understanding. An then an impact, the probe hit the surface of the sphere and it reacted like a mattress, bouncing it along the surface until it came to a stop. Before the probe could initiate the sphere began to cave around it, swallowing it and pulling it beneath the surface. The sphere flashed a bright yellow almost blinding the crew of the vessel above.
"God what was that?"
"We're not getting anything from the probe sir, visuals can't pick it up either"
"Well where the hell has it gone then!?"
"I......."
"Sir! Look!"
An overwhelming flow of data moved throughout the sphere. It began to make sense of the probe's components and sensors, most importantly it's capability of processing light waves into geographical images of the universe. Realising the potential of this ability the sphere began to reform. On it's equator the crust began to shift and change. A metal circle thousands of meters in diameter rose from beneath the surface, it slowly began to fill with a darker reflective material until it met the centre. A blazing blue pupil arose to mark the centre of the now apparent eye.
"My god...."
Six or seven modules began to form around the eye, slowly stretching upward, building in size like some enormous lava lamp stretching out into space around the vessel. They continued to rise at an incredible speed, continuously growing in all directions.
"Peters, get us out of here!"
"Altering course, charging cruise engines!"
The arms stretched beyond reach of the vessel and began to hook around and merge, trapping the ship.
"We're not going to make it!"
"FASTER PETERS!"
"Cruise engines are still charging sir!"
"Auxiliary thrusters! Make for that opening!"
"SIR!"
The enormous arms merged and clamped shut, blocking off the last light of the Baffin sun from the crew. The arms receded back to the surface and the sphere reformed it's terribly perfect shape. It's glow reduced now as it played with the vessel's contents in it's innards, deciphering and discovering it's workings and origins.
Despite it's distraction, the being formed in the war of Hodge and Podge would soon be re-claimed by it. It knew this, and foresaw no other course of events that would end otherwise. But as it began to decipher the language of the humans and their technology; possibilities of an alternate future was brought to light.
These strange carbon based beings had so much knowledge and ability, the sphere yearned for more - to learn more. Thanks to them it had for the first time observed the beauty of the light of the universe in all it's raw splendour. But this magnificence was stunted by the looming image of the nearing planet. After five hundred years of listening and watching, it's end had come.
An alternate future...
In the final minutes of the sphere's existence light began to bellow from the mass; the shadow of the underbelly of Hodge overwhelmed by it's luminosity. The ball burned intense and brief, then dimmed to a murky black husk of itself. The impending collision of Hodge moments away; a spark of dieing light erupted somewhere on the sphere's lower hemisphere. A tiny asteroid sized projectile originating from it was flung out into the depths of space. A momentary silence before the end.
The black sphere cracked upon impact. Hundreds of fragments turned into thousands and millions as the giant ploughed through it unrelentingly. The structure began to crumble and disintegrate, pieces sub fragmented into grains of sand which rained down onto the planet's surface. Little was left in the planet's wake but a trail of debris and dust obscuring any evidence that, at a time, something remarkable existed.