The Recorder was a virus created by the Makers of the Recorder to create a database of all life in the universe, that eventually was broken and turned into the Descolada.[1]
Biology[]
There were only two genes different within the Recorder when compared to the Descolada, due to a single broken molecule. The Recorder would enter the nucleus and split the entire genome, connecting it to a neutral protein strand that prevented the genes from being active in any way, creating a complete record of that creature's genome. With the captured genome, it leaves the nucleus and the cell and then eventually leaves the body. It did not propagate inside the original host unlike the Descolada, as a switch kept it from activating the replication sequence inside the host body. Thus, the differences between the two viruses was that the Descolada lacked a switch to create the neutral strands and had a broken switch to stop it from replicating.[1]
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. The Recorder has billions of genes, but the two break points in the Descolada were among just 88 genes exposed and weakened at the fold points, making the required mutations many orders of magnitude more likely than would have been suggested by the Recorder's complexity.[1]
History[]
Origin[]
Several thousand years before 3066 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.[1] 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,[2] where it apparantly stopped spreading through empty space.[1]