by Jim Mortimore
It begins in silence.
Not matter, not energy, not time, not feeling or intelligence.
Then in the immeasurably small fraction between what had been and what would be - a change. Something new.
The birth - of everything.
Chaos becomes ordered. Elements are born. Hydrogen changes to helium.
Microwaves burst out, attain a smooth configuration.
The universe is born.
Energy changes into matter. Gravity is born. Matter accretes into lumps. The lumps grow. With matter and energy comes change. Time is born. Time defines the infant universe.
And memory defines time.
We were born five thousand million years ago.
The lumps grow, attain form, helices.
Life is born.v I have lived so long and moved so much
And held so many thoughts
I find it difficult to remember
Whether the universe
Or myself happened first.
Life grows, spreads out among the smooth microwaves, the infant matter and energy.
Still, what's a few particles of Planck-time
Life reaches out to itself, to the infant universe, still perfectly ordered and smooth.
Energy was like a brightly coloured toy to us.
We moved it around. Shaped it.
Played with it.
Energy brightens around Life, darkens in the new spaces between. Energy accretes to Life and forms into dense matter. The universe is no longer a smooth energy state.
Galaxies are born.
And then I got tired.
The galaxies grow and change. Suns form and the planets. The dark spaces between Life are wider now, and lacking in energy. But the galaxies of matter are warm and inviting.
The universe was getting cold in places now
All the energy had been moved around so
I wrapped myself up in something warm,
And waited. Soon I would give birth
And then I would die.
In the meantime I would sleep.
While Life sleeps, life is born.
The Gallifreyan awoke screaming from the first nightmare anyone of his race had experienced.
The first vision.
Not yet master of his own mind or body the Gallifreyan wept, for his vision was unique. He had discovered God.
And God had terrified him.
To overcome his fear, the Gallifreyan would do anything, dare anything. He would learn, he would build. Ultimately he would destroy.
To conquer his own fear, the Gallifreyan would conquer all that was possible. Matter. Energy.
Only afterwards would he wonder if the thoughts, the memories of his vision had been real, or if he had simply imposed his own insecurities upon a simple moment of scientific genius.
Revelation or self-delusion.
The answer had to exist.
Life had to exist.
He would leave his home and look for it.
He would find it took him the rest of his lives.
Source: Doctor Who Magazine #220