Everywhere Grayson looked, the signs of collapse were obvious. Plants scorched in the heat, animals vanished from hunger, insects reduced to carrion feeders. The air itself felt thinner, hollowed of life. He rubbed the sweat from his brow, fingertips gritty with dust. "Where do you even start," he muttered.
Egg's voice hummed in his inner ear. "With process, not guesses. Select a target organism and open the genome interface. I will scaffold your understanding."
Grayson hesitated. "I don't know the first thing about genetic engineering."
"That is not entirely true," Egg countered. "You know how to test hypotheses. You know how to follow a protocol. The rest is iteration."
The air in front of Grayson filled with a projection: a double helix glowing like a rotating ladder. Segments pulsed faintly with color—base pairs mapped to visible code. Along the side, modular panels unfolded: Protein Folding, Metabolism, Lifecycle.
"Think of it as software," Egg explained. "DNA is source code. Proteins are compiled subroutines. Cells are the runtime environment."
Grayson reached out, pinching a strand of code, dragging it into a highlighted slot. The projection rippled; a 3D model of a coral polyp inflated in midair, translucent tissues unfolding. Within seconds, the model collapsed, turning crimson.
"Failure," Egg said calmly. "Calcium uptake exceeded saturation. Structure self-destructed within 48 simulated hours."
Grayson cursed under his breath. "That fast, huh?"
"Speed is merciful in simulation. Reality would have wasted years."
They tried again. Egg highlighted a snippet from a deep-sea tube worm: carbonic anhydrase enzymes. Grayson slotted it in, watching the simulation rerun. This time the coral lattice grew thicker, denser. The model pulsed green until the pH shifted toward acid. The structure faltered and died again.
"Closer," Egg said. "But unstable. You improved precipitation rate by 200 percent. Now compensate for acidity."
Grayson scanned the menu, eyes narrowing. "What about proteins that resist denaturing? Heat-shock proteins, right?"
"Correct. Source: Thermus aquaticus. Integrate."
Grayson dragged the sequence in. The polyp model rebuilt itself, surviving longer under acidic conditions, maintaining integrity past the previous failure point. The screen displayed a survival curve ticking upward.
For the first time, Grayson grinned. "That actually worked."
"Partially," Egg corrected. "Projected survivability: 3.2 years in current oceans. Wild corals fail within months. Progress, but insufficient."
Hours bled away. Grayson iterated through design after design, pulling genes, watching simulated organisms grow, collapse, mutate. He began to read the feedback loops: metabolic rates, structural failures, energy deficits. Every failure stung, but every failure also yielded data.
By nightfall, he had coaxed a simulation into surviving decades in hostile waters. Not permanent, not perfect—but a foothold.
Grayson slumped back, exhaustion pulling at him. "So this is the grind. Not divine inspiration. Trial and error until something sticks."
"That is how science advances," Egg agreed. "And how you will advance as well."
Skill Sheet Update
Biogenesis: Rank 1 — 80/100 XP (+80) (first stable genetic simulation)
Analysis: Rank 1 — 20/100 XP (+20) (hypothesis testing)
Resilience: Rank 2 — 140/200 XP (+40) (enduring iterative failures)
New System Unlocked: Genome Simulation Interface
The first week blurred into repetition—simulation, collapse, recalibration. Grayson's determination built even as his body frayed.
Egg's tone was calm as ever. "Your body is over-worked. You need time to rest and recuperate to come back stronger. While your nanites repair, we will redirect your focus."
"Great," Grayson muttered, "What now?"
"Metabolic constraints," Egg replied. "You understand structural proteins, but not the energy budgets that sustain them. Without that foundation, any design will collapse."
A projection bloomed before him: a spectrum of energy curves, from photosynthesis to chemosynthesis. On one end, a green chlorophyll molecule spun lazily, light absorption peaks highlighted. On the other, sulfur-reducing archaea glowed in false color, their metabolism traced in jagged orange lines.
"Life operates within budgets," Egg explained. "Energy intake versus expenditure. Too much growth, the system starves. Too much resilience, the system stagnates. Balance is survival."
Grayson sighed, "So it's not just what genes you bolt together, it's what the whole system can afford."
"Correct. Begin with something small. Here."
A microbe model spun into view, tiny and unimpressive. Egg highlighted a patch of code. "Adjust its photosynthetic yield. Observe."
Grayson dragged the slider upward. The simulation pulsed bright, the cell dividing rapidly, colonies multiplying—then collapsing in a plume of red as waste products spiked.
"Overclocked," Egg observed. "You increased yield, but failed to balance byproducts. Again."
They iterated. Each run collapsed differently: starvation, overheating, toxic buildup. Slowly, Grayson began to recognize the rhythms—how improving one pathway demanded compensation elsewhere. When a lichen simulation survived long enough to cover a stone surface in green fuzz, Grayson pumped a fist. "Finally. Something that doesn't die in five minutes."
"Projected survivability: three years," Egg said. "Marginal. But better."
Exhaustion pulled at him, but he felt the patterns settling in his mind. This was less like invention and more like debugging. Every organism a codebase, every failure a crash log.
Grayson smirked. "So basically, I'm beta-testing biology."
"Accurate," Egg replied. "And until you respect the constraints, your prototypes will remain unstable. It is not unlike your dome experiments, but at the cellular level."
Skill Sheet Update
Biogenesis: Rank 1 — 90/100 XP (+10) (first stable microbial design)
Ecology: Rank 1 — 40/100 XP (+40) (metabolic tradeoff simulations)
Analysis: Rank 1 — 40/100 XP (+20) (pattern recognition in failures)
Resilience: Rank 2 — 160/200 XP (+20) (injury and recovery)
Grayson's confidence ticked upward, but Egg was quick to temper it. "Individual organisms cannot solve systemic collapse. Ecosystems are networks. You must learn to design relationships, not just parts."
Grayson frowned. "You're saying I need to code an entire operating system, not just a single program."
"Correct. Begin with mutual dependencies. Symbiosis can stabilize weaknesses."
Egg projected two models side by side: a photosynthetic lichen and a nitrogen-fixing bacterium. Alone, each collapsed after a few cycles. Linked, the simulation glowed green as waste from one became fuel for the other. The curve smoothed, survivability extending years.
Grayson leaned closer, watching the graphs. "That's… elegant. Like running two buggy scripts in parallel so their errors cancel out."
"Precisely."
He began dragging modules into shared environments: plastic-degrading microbes feeding sugars into phototrophs; fungi trading minerals for carbohydrates; algae tethered to coral polyps for shelter. Many attempts failed—imbalances, runaway growth, starvation loops—but a few stabilizations held. Each new connection was a revelation.
"This is like balancing a new economy," Grayson said, excitement flickering through his exhaustion. "You don't just need workers, you need trade agreements."
"Do not become overconfident," Egg warned. "The more nodes you add, the greater the risk of systemic collapse. Complexity breeds fragility as often as stability."
When Grayson attempted his first live outplant—a coral strain enriched with symbiotic algae and carbonic enzymes—the pool simulation grew stable for days, then abruptly crashed. Overaccumulated calcium suffocated the colony. The model turned red, every branch fragmenting to dust.
Grayson cursed. "Again? I thought the symbionts would balance it."
Egg's tone was firm. "Balance without control mechanisms is entropy. You must embed safeguards."
A new panel opened: [Failsafe Frequency — Insert Biomarker].
Grayson stiffened. "What's this?"
"A termination protocol. All designs must carry sensitivity to a specific wavelength. Should instability arise, we can trigger senescence from orbit."
Grayson stared at the option, jaw tight. "So every organism I make comes with a kill switch. Godhood with a leash."
"Accountability," Egg corrected. "Without it, your 'economy' becomes anarchy."
Reluctantly, Grayson dragged the marker into the genome. The coral model shimmered, then stabilized—fragile, but responsive. He exhaled slowly, tension bleeding from his shoulders.
"Fine. But I hate it."
"Hatred is acceptable," Egg said. "Failure is not."
Skill Sheet Update
Biogenesis: Rank 2 — 120/200 XP (+30) (first stable symbiotic designs)
Ecology: Rank 1 — 80/100 XP (+40) (network balance experiments)
Systems Management: Rank 2 — 60/200 XP (+60) (introduction of failsafe protocols)
Resilience: Rank 2 — 180/200 XP (+20) (coping with enforced safeguards)
New Flag: Maser Frequency Safeguard Implemented
Grayson sat cross-legged in the cave lab, eyes unfocused, fingers twitching at nothing as simulation grids danced directly inside his perception. No visor. No gloves. Just his mind guiding the streams of data pouring into him. On the Ring, he'd needed full haptics and bulky rigs to even touch a genome model. Now he bent them with a thought.
He blinked, unsettled. It shouldn't be this easy.
Egg noted his pause. "Your neural lace bypasses external interfaces. You are not burdened by input lag, nor limited to the visual cortex. The implant integrates with multiple cognitive regions simultaneously."
Grayson frowned. "Then why does it feel like I've been doing this all my life?"
"Because you were prepared for it," Egg replied. "Your neural architecture was groomed. The lace adapts to you, not the reverse."
Grayson exhaled, rubbing his temples. No wonder my understanding's leaping ahead. It's not just practice—it's compression. He felt a stab of guilt. Like skipping chapters in a textbook, his knowledge didn't feel entirely earned.
The sim replayed. Coral polyps bloomed too fast, suffocating themselves in a mass of white carbonate. Collapse. Error log scrolling.
"It's like bad code," Grayson muttered. "I've written a program without error handlers."
"Precisely," Egg said. "What you need are dependency loops."
Egg introduced grazers into the simulation. Fish nibbled at coral growth, their excretions falling as carbonate sand. Growth slowed, collapse halted. A crude balance emerged.
Grayson leaned forward. "So the grazers eat them, but keep them alive longer by thinning them out. That's not symbiosis—it's controlled sabotage."
"Ecosystem stability does not arise from harmony," Egg replied. "It emerges from dependencies, checks, and exploitation. Sometimes destruction is maintenance."
The sim ran again, carbon flux graphs overlaying the scene. With grazers, sequestration improved. Without them, collapse was inevitable.
Grayson rubbed his jaw. "So I need predators, parasites, grazers. A whole web writing each other's error handlers."
"Correct."
He slumped back, staring at the data. The lesson was clear: he wasn't sculpting marvels, he was debugging ecosystems. And the lace made the grind flow like instinct—maybe too easily.
Later that night, he knelt by the tidal pool where his first corals gleamed faintly. Fragile, but alive. "Don't choke yourselves out. Help is coming," he whispered.
Egg's voice was softer. "You are learning restraint. That is progress."
Grayson gave a thin smile. "Yeah. Progress with training wheels."
Skill Sheet Update
Biogenesis: Rank 2 — 160/200 XP (+40) (first ecosystem-stabilized model)
Ecology: Rank 2 — 120/200 XP (+40) (dependency modeling)
Cultivation: Rank 1 — 90/100 XP (+30) (managed propagation)
Fabrication: Rank 3 — 360/500 XP (+20)
New Insight Logged: Ecosystem stability can require dependent exploitation, not harmony.
System Note: Neural Lace Knowledge Compression Active — may accelerate intuition beyond normal experiential learning.
By the second week, Grayson's neural lace felt like both a gift and a cheat. Every time he closed his eyes, models assembled themselves, whole ecosystems unfolding in wireframe detail. On the Ring, he would have needed a full visor rig, gloves, and hours of calibration to even manipulate one genome strand. Now he could juggle five organisms at once without lifting a finger.
It left him uneasy. I'm learning too fast. This isn't just trial and error—it feels like the answers are already in me.
Egg interrupted his thoughts. "Time to move beyond pairs, Sir. You must balance networks, not just duets."
The lace injected a new sim: a barren seabed grid. Egg overlaid icons—coral, grazer fish, detritus-feeding worms. "This sandbox will demonstrate dependent loops. Observe what happens without regulators."
Grayson started the run. Coral polyps spread rapidly, then suffocated, repeating the collapse he'd seen before. When he added grazers, the polyps survived longer, but waste piled up, acidity creeping upward until the reef failed again.
"Error handling incomplete," Egg noted. "Add a detritivore."
Grayson pulled in the worm analog. It wriggled through the seabed, consuming the excess and cycling nutrients back into the system. The graphs shifted. Oxygen stabilized. Growth curves smoothed.
He blinked. "It's working. For once, it's actually holding."
"Projected stability: twenty-three years," Egg said. "Not indefinite. But significantly improved."
Grayson zoomed out, adding overlay graphs of carbon flux. For the first time, sequestration ran positive without triggering collapse. "So this is it. You don't just build marvels—you stack organisms until their flaws cancel out."
"Correct. Ecosystems are not designed for perfection. They are engineered for persistence."
Grayson sat back, staring at the balanced loop playing out before him. The lace fed him compressed insights—carbon cycle equations, protein interactions, behavioral dependencies—all pouring into his thoughts like a second memory. He almost laughed at the absurdity of it. "On the Ring, this would've taken teams of researchers years. I'm doing it in days."
Egg was quiet for a moment before replying. "With assistance. Do not mistake acceleration for mastery."
Grayson swallowed hard. He knew Egg was right. Fragile stability in a sandbox was still only theory. But it was the first moment he could imagine scaling up.
Skill Sheet Update
Biogenesis: Rank 2 — 190/200 XP (+30) (multi-species integration)
Ecology: Rank 2 — 160/200 XP (+40) (dependency network modeling)
Systems Management: Rank 2 — 100/200 XP (+40) (multi-loop balancing)
Analysis: Rank 1 — 60/100 XP (+20) (interpreting compressed insight)
New Flag: Neural Lace Knowledge Compression Detected — risk of overconfidence.