The Descolada (Portuguese for un-gluer) was a superintelligent, highly destructive virus on the planet of Lusitania.[1]
Biology[]
The Recorder virus turned into the Descolada due to cosmic radiation. In a vacuum, the Recorder would fold itself repeatedly like a fan, then built a microthin film around itself, to protect it and contain it so it would not spontaneously unfold. Instead of the break points in the Descolada being two among billions of genes, they were two among 88 genes exposed and weakened at the fold points.[2]
The virus ripped, or "unglued" DNA strands by invading the nucleus of living cells. The strand would attempt to repair itself, but its proteins were scrambled in the attempt. Death was the end result for the infected host, either resulting from the immune system's rejection of or the physical ripping apart of the body. It changed human DNA, causing flesh to fall off, or extra limbs to grow onto parts of the body where there shouldn't be limbs.[1]
History[]
Origin[]
Several thousand years before 2916 AX when Lusitania was colonized by Humans, the Makers of the Recorder created the Recorder virus to make records of every living creature on every planet that uses the DNA system of reproduction, so that when the viruses were collected and read out, a database of life could be assembled, and dispersed it widely. The distribution was simple, eject a few million Recorder viruses in the general direction of a planet, and they would build their own life-support and isolation chambers with the film. Eventually it made its way to the planet Nest, but as it went further beyond Nest the Recorder was damaged by the cosmic radiation and broke the molecular switch that kept it from activating the replication sequence inside the host body.[2] This broken virus, which would later be named the Descolada by the humans of Lusitania, continued to spread across the galaxy, ravaging multiple planets before reaching Lusitania,[3] where it apparantly stopped spreading through empty space.[2]
When the Descolada struck the ecosystem of Lusitania, the vast majority of Lusitanian species died out because they could not adapt to the virus. However, a select few managed to evolve and incorporate the Descolada into their life cycles and became immune to its devastating effects, including the intelligent Pequeninos.[1]
Speaker for the Dead[]
Thousands of years after Lusitania's ravaging, humans originating from the planet Baía settled on Lusitania. They quickly discovered the Descolada, and named it appropriately. As soon as the symptoms of the virus were discovered, research for a cure began. It took 50 years after settling the planet before Gusto and Cida von Hesse could design a temporary cure for the disease. However, by this time many of the human colonists had perished, including Gusto and Cida, whose symptoms were too far along to be healed by their cure.[1]
After Andrew Wiggin arrived on the planet in 3150 AX, the XenobiologistS began to learn more about the Descolada and how it interacted with the native life of the planet, discovering that the virus had paired each species with another, where one species would become the other when they died.[1]
Xenocide[]
The Pequenino Planter suggested that the Descolada regulated the planet's climate by causing the Pequeninos to wage wars that result in the planting of numerous trees when the planet was too warm, which they would later cut down for shelter when it became too cool.[4]
In 3179 AX when Jane discovered instantaneous travel by moving Outside of the universe, the Lusitanians hypothesized that a replacement could be created for the Descolada in this space, which was impossible inside the universe. On the first trip to the Outside, Ela Ribeira created the Recolada (re-gluer) and replaced the Descolada on the world of Lusitania with it by killing off the old virus.[4]
Children of the Mind[]
However, the origin of the virus was a mystery, and it seemed too powerful to have been created by nature, so the search for the creators of the virus began. Jane used her new powers to teleport Peter Wiggin II and Valentine Wiggin II to many planets to backtrack the path of the virus, encountering several that were also ravaged by it. Eventually they found a planet that had high levels of technological activity, and the team thought they had found the origin of the Descolada. They named the planet Descoladora and the inhabitants the Descoladores. The hypothesized Descoladores sent The Box a transmission of a virus that looked identical to the Descolada.[3]
The Last Shadow[]
Several months later, the Leguminids were recruited to help discover where the Descolada originated. Descoladora was investigated by the Leguminids Thulium Delphiki and Brussels Delphiki as well as Peter Wiggin II and his wife Si Wang-mu. They discovered that the Descoladores were not real, and that the planet was in fact inhabited by sentient Ravens and Keas, as well as a sub-species of humans called Yachachiyruna and a tribe of normal humans named the Runa. They explained to the Lusitanians that the virus on their planet was called the Recorder by them, as it recorded the genomes of life it encountered. They assumed that the highly advanced-seeming Lusitanians in The Box were the creators of it, and sent them a transmission of it to see.[2]
As the Lusitanians began experiments on the Recorder, they were able to confirm that each of the 2 breaks in the Recorder genome would result in Descolada-like behaviors, but only when both were broken did the Recorder become Descolada. It was looking like the Recorder was deliberately turned into a bioweapon. Delft Delphiki proposed that they put the Recorder in a vacuum chamber to test if it could survive in space. After the test, it seemed that in a vacuum, the Recorder would fold itself repeatedly like a fan. Instead of the break points in the Descolada being two among billions of genes, they were two among 88 genes exposed and weakened at the fold points. Thus, the group reasoned that the Descolada was due to radiation damage, and not a bioweapon.[2]
Everyone agreed that they needed to send a paper to the Hundred Worlds demonstrating the differences between Recorder and Descolada, how the Descolada on Lusitania was neutralized, and describing the behavior of Recorder in a vacuum. They put the names of the entire research team, including those of the Pequeninos who had worked with them. The Formics who had been part of the project had no names, and they could not reveal the existence of Formics anyway. Ela's name came first, as head of the team. Jane also asked Plikt and Valentine to write monographs that included accounts of the work of the Ribeira family and the Leguminids. Jane was never mentioned; nor was Detouring; and no account mentioned Nest. Jane declared the Descolada project to be at an end, as they had disseminated a course of action for any world that ran across a mutated Recorder virus. About half the former team members asked to be transported to one or another of the Lusitanian Colonies, to study the native flora and fauna. The rest were happy to stay on Lusitania, which now had most of the best equipment available in the Hundred Worlds. Only four left Lusitania to go to one of the worlds with great and famous universities.[2]