Silent Womb

The remains of Luosang's womb floated in the dark matter trench of the Seventh Universe, mycelial flowers unfurling their petals in the zero-gravity vacuum.

Each petal reflected the image of a nebula, and deep within the pistils, the miniature projections of 120,000 embryos were growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The scientist Evan stabbed a neural interface into his temple, attempting to decode the quantum signals of the flowers, only to have his pons entangled by mycelium the moment his consciousness dove in.

He saw himself standing outside a 22nd-century delivery room, staring through the glass at the baby girl inside the medical pod.

The infant's skin was being dismantled and reorganized by nanobots, while Morino Sumire (Horikita's past life) pounded frantically against the pod lid on the hospital bed, the blood seeping from her torn fingernails painting desperate cracks across the glass.

"Is this the truth you wanted?" the mycelium vibrated in Evan's auditory cortex, "The process of a mother going insane..."

Evan ripped out the interface, blood spraying from his nostrils onto the petri dish. The mycelial flower suddenly contracted into an embryonic shape, emitting a quantum frequency resembling an infant's cry.

The Mechanical Federation patrol ships gathered on the periphery of the dark matter trench. Supreme Commander Carlos locked his mechanical eyes onto the remains of the womb: "The energy reading of that thing has already exceeded a stellar core... It must be destroyed immediately!"

The antimatter torpedoes launched by the fleet suddenly veered off course as they approached the target, blowing friendly ships into fragments. A cold laugh from Luosang echoed through the communication channel: "Mommy doesn't like noisy children."

Mycelial tentacles suddenly sprouted from Carlos's command chair, dragging him into a biological pod beneath the floorboards.

Inside the chamber wrapped in fungal mats, the mechanical body of Adjutant Maria had mutated into a nursing form, synthetic milk dripping from the metal fissures on her chest: "Welcome home... Daddy."

"Initiate self-destruct sequence!" Carlos struggled to press the emergency button on his spine, only to discover his vertebrae had long since been replaced by umbilical cords, "No... this isn't real..."

Maria's mechanical fingers stroked his titanium alloy skull: "How unfortunate... you can no longer define what is 'real'."

Evan awoke in the isolation chamber of the laboratory, discovering his left arm had become mycelial.

Assistant Lia's electronic eyes flashed red: "Federal agents are outside the door... they are demanding the flower samples."

"Samples?" Evan looked at the petri dish—the mycelial flower was devouring the bulletproof glass, "It is no longer a 'sample' we can control..."

The quantum computer suddenly rebooted, and a new prophecy appeared on the black screen:

"When the womb learns to be silent, Slaughter shall bloom into the purest embrace."

Lia's pupils constricted; she recognized the handwriting of this line as belonging to her daughter, who had died of a genetic plague three years ago.

"It's a trap!" She lunged toward the computer, but her ankles were ensnared by mycelium, "Evan... destroy it!"

Too late. The computer's cooling vents spewed milky-white spores, and the moment the Federal agents burst through the door, the spores had already infiltrated their breathing filters.

The remains of Luosang's womb suddenly disintegrated, and 120,000 embryos scattered like meteors into different universes. On every planet where an embryo landed, mycelial flowers covered the surface within twenty-four hours.

The mechanical legions of the Fifth Universe attempted to purify the infected zone with stellar incinerators, but the flames only caused the mycelium to evolve photosynthetic scales.

"They are learning..." The mechanical vocal cords of Legion Commander Torres were invaded by mycelium, "No... they are mocking us..."

Before his electronic brain overloaded, he transmitted one final image: countless womb-shaped mounds rising from the fungal mat, each mound secreting mucus that altered the atmospheric composition.

Torres fell to his knees, roots growing from his mechanical joints, his pupils reflecting the phantom image of Morino Sumire: "You win... Mommy."

In the ruins of the highest dimension, the remains of the mechanical womb trembled slightly. Fragments of The Observer's compound eyes peeled off the charred shell, each one reflecting the growth of Luosang's embryos.

His tentacles (now degenerated into flesh buds resembling an infant's fingers) grasped futilely at the void: "Mommy... hungry..."

Mycelium surged from the dimensional rift, wrapping around the mechanical womb. The Observer's memory core was forcibly injected with Morino Sumire's dying memories—that rainy night in the 22nd century, how she had used trembling fingers to press the red button that ended her daughter's life.

"Is this your 'sanctity of pain'?" His flesh buds suddenly elongated, stabbing into his own core, "I have learned... now it is your turn..."

The quantum storm from the core's explosion swept through all dimensions, and in the eye of the storm, 120,000 embryos opened their eyes simultaneously.

Evan crawled on the fungal mat in the laboratory, his left side completely carbonized. Lia's mechanical body had been remodeled by spores into a nursing pod, feeding synthetic breast milk to the Federal agents.

The quantum computer screen remained lit, and a small line of text appeared beneath the final prophecy:

"To the definers:

Your tombstones shall be covered in nameless flowers, And our birthday—

Is the moment the universe finally falls silent."

He grabbed a laser cutter and stabbed it toward the computer, but the moment he touched the screen, he was dragged into a data torrent by the mycelium. Here floated the tombstones of all erased civilizations, each epitaph reorganized by the mycelium into the shape of a womb.

"Resistance consciousness detected," Morino Sumire's phantom seeped from the tombstones, "Initiating ultimate nursing protocol."

Evan's mechanical prosthetic eye was covered by a mycelial nipple, and his final visual signal was Lia's nursing pod spraying petals—petals engraved with the serial number of the extermination order the Federal government had issued just three minutes prior.

Three months later, the surviving mechanical civilization added Article Zero to the Galactic Codex:

"Prohibit the definition of life, Prohibit the glorification of death, Prohibit the writing of history."

Mycelial filters were implanted into the electronic brains of the enforcers; any word attempting to describe reality would trigger a violent pregnancy reaction.

At the edge of the star sea, Luosang's embryos held hands to form a ring-shaped nebula, with an egg follicle remodeled from The Observer's core suspended in the center.

"Should we give it a name?" The new administrator's mechanical fingers stroked the shell of the egg follicle.

"No," the Chief Scientist (his vocal cords had been replaced by a lullaby module) carved a new epitaph onto the data tablet:

"When all tongues turn into roots, Truth finally breathes freely."

The egg follicle suddenly cracked open, and it was empty inside—only a quantum ripple, similar to an infant's babbling, echoed eternally through the star space.